I am an online gamer myself and I love playing Call of Duty with my friends every Friday night. I cannot think of anything worse than the internet cutting off when I’ve spotted the enemy, got my rifle aimed, and am ready to pull the trigger. A few seconds of disconnection means that instead of you killing the enemy, the enemy killed you….a couple of times, and the round is over.
Your friends sit there ridiculing you and your internet connection. You keep saying that there is nothing you can do about it but that’s not true, because you can. You do not have to put up with a crappy internet connection nor with your friends’ threats to kick you off the team. There are several broadband internet providers like CenturyLink, Windstream, Optimum, etc. that provide amazing DSL, Cable, and Fiber-Optic speeds so that you never miss another second of your game.
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Which Games Do You Play?
When we say gaming, we mean all sorts of games including, driving, fighting, first-person shooter, role-playing, etc. You may be using your PlayStation, Xbox, or the trusty old PC, playing bought or downloaded games with friends while you all argue, tease each other and just have fun together.
You must understand that the kind of games you play dictates the kind of internet connection, speed, and latency/ ping you require. First Person Shooter games require a much faster internet connection to keep up with the pace of the game, whereas a strategy based game, something like a puzzle would work fine on moderate speed and ping. Therefore, you need to choose an internet connection that suits your gaming type.
Recommendations for Gaming
Any connection besides dial-up is okay for gaming. What you need to look out for is a speed higher than 1 Mbps and ping rate or latency lower than 100 ms. Also, if you’re signing up for a limited data plan it is better to subscribe to at least a 1 GB data plan.
Let us discuss these points in detail now.
Internet Connections
The dial-up connection should be avoided if you are interested in gaming because it is just too slow and the ping rate is too high.
The same goes for satellite internet that has a several times higher ping rate than what is required for gaming.
A wireless connection as well as your mobile data are fine for gaming but can be affected by weather conditions leading to distorted or lost signals.
So that leaves us with DSL, cable, and fiber-optic internet connections as the most reliable networks for your gaming needs. They are not easily affected by weather conditions, provide high download and upload speeds along with a low ping rate. The perfect combination!
Ping Rate/ Latency
Latency, commonly known as ping is the rate at which information is transmitted between your computer and the game server. The lower the rate the lower the lag in your game. An ideal ping rate would be anything less than 30 ms but anything under 100 ms is fine for most games. However, this is entirely dependent on the game you are playing. In fact, some game servers will automatically kick you off if your ping is too high for the game.
The problem is that there is no way of finding out about your internet’s latency before signing up. You need to have your connection installed to test it for the ping. So one way is to subscribe to a high-speed connection with a money-back guarantee, test it for a few days to see if it works for you, and return it if the ping turns out to be too high.
Another way is to get recommendations from your neighbors and online communities for your area. You will receive a similar latency to what your neighbors receive, so this will save you from the hassle of getting internet connections installed and canceled just to see what the latency is like.
Internet Speeds
As I said earlier, any downloading speed higher than 1 Mbps is more than enough for gaming as latency is the key player in the game of internet connections. Although, you need to remember that we are talking about a single user here. If you have several users in the house and there will be multiple devices connected to the internet simultaneously, then you will need a little more speed. Most ISPs offer much higher speeds than 1 Mbps even for their lowest plans, but it’s still important that you gauge your usage and choose a speed accordingly.
Data Plans
A data plan of 1 GB should be more than enough for your gaming but just like speeds, this is for a single user too. On average, you will only use up to 50 Mbps per hour when gaming online, depending on the game. If you are living alone you can buy a 2 GB plan and use your mobile data for gaming as well as other online activities, without worrying about huge bills at the month-end.
However, if you are a household of multiple users who would be working from home over the internet, streaming videos or music, downloading heavy files, etc. then you will need a much bigger data plan. Anything over 10 GB should do, depending on your usage.
Find the Perfect Internet Connection
I cannot stress it enough that everything from your internet connection’s speed, latency to the data limit is dependent upon your usage. The heavier the usage the higher the speed and data limit need to be along with lower latency. Now that you know this, I believe you will find out the perfect internet connection match for yourself to have the ultimate gaming experiences.
Will Jordan has been a passionate writer for years. He has a keen interest in technology, the internet, and gaming. Amongst other platforms, he is a regular contributor at localcabledeals.com.
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