Us poor 56k bound suckers
Graheim
Join Date: 2002-04-02 Member: 375Members
Join Date: 2002-04-02 Member: 375Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Will i ping or pong?</div>I play several differnt HL mods but on a 56K connection the only place I can consistently get decent pings is DOD. On just about any other mod (especially TFC for some weird reason) I come back from a connection problem to find my gibs festooning the decor.
Obviously, NS is going to raise the bar on just about everything and I'm wondering if we modem users are going to up a creak trying to keep up with it.
Have any play tests been done over modem connections? How do they run?
Obviously, NS is going to raise the bar on just about everything and I'm wondering if we modem users are going to up a creak trying to keep up with it.
Have any play tests been done over modem connections? How do they run?
Comments
it's actually funny, we've got a bigger discussion in the playtester forums about a similiar topic - about 50% of the pts are on dial-up.
Believe me, if there's a way, Flayra will make it possible for you 56ers to play this game.
About NS, in theory it should be playable, not very but still.
It should play quite well over a modem, as well as any other game out there (better then most or all HL mods I've seen too).
First, in most cases people who have connection problems are using a WinModem. Either a HSP, HCF, Motorola SM56, or a PCTel modem. These modems SUCK for gaming, as most of the communication proccesses are done with the CPU insead of the modem which should be doing the work. Needless to say the CPU is usually busy doing things like graphics and sound. Get a good hardware based modem if you are going to be stuck with a 56k connection for a while.
Second, I know from personal experience client side optimisations can help. I've used 56k modems for a while and found that I can't have a satesfactory playing experience on large player servers like a cable or DSL user can, you have to know the limits of your connection. Try connecting to a smaller server to start out and monitor how much bandwidth is being used.
Try this; connect your modem and look at the speed you connect at. Take notice of the speed(ie 48,000k, 52,000k) log into a smaller server (10-12 players) and open your console. Type in "net_graph 1" it will show you some statistics like incomming and outgoing data, etc.
Change your rate. For example, if your internet connection connected at 48k (might be listed as 48,000k) you should change your rate by typing in "rate 4800" or maybe a little less "rate 4500"
Now type in: "cl_cmdrate 22" and "cl_updaterate 22" and then look at the netgraph. The upper-right and lower-right corners of the graph should change to 22. This changes the amount of updates you send to the server as well as updates you receive from the server. I found this works pretty well for most servers.
Hope at least some of that helps <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->
WinModems, or Software modems as they're more commonly called, are usually found in laptops, due to the reduced amount of space that they take up, and the fact that they can be integrated into another peripheral, like an ethernet card. This makes them pretty danm hard to replace, unless you're the sort that wouldn't mind buying an external modem to plug into your serial or usb port. Also, I have a software modem made by Lucent(they own PCTel also) that has absolutely no problem with internet gaming (other than the high-ping problems that occur in all modems during internet games). If your software modem is giving up on you, try using Modem Booster (you can get it from <a href="http://download.cnet.com/" target="_blank">download.com</a>) to stabilize it.
Second, you can do your "modem boosting" for free by downloading EasyMTU from <a href="http://members.tripod.com/EasyMTU/easymtu/index.html" target="_blank">HERE.</a>
Windows 98 and NT are already optimized for modem communications, and really the only OS that would show an improvement would be Windows95 which hardly anyone uses anymore.
Do programs like EasyMTU actually improve your gaming ping?
In other words do they really speed up your connection, or do they do some fancy stuff just to make web browsing faster?
(Sorry, I'm horrible at this stuff..)
I'm not exactly sure what size UDP packets in games are and if they are different in size from normal TCP traffic. I guess the only answer I could offer is to give it a try and see if it helps. If things seem to work fine for you then I wouldn't worry about it. Just remember, before you change anything in the registry, back it up first.
try checking online, but you would need the model #
You sure you're not talking about Packard Bell? ;P
Client base is what most multiplayer games should be
If you are lucky you can go into the control panel, then click the "modems" icon and it should be listed in the first box you see. Once you know the name of the modem (rockwell, connexant, PCtel, Lucent, agere, Telepath, Motorola SM56 and some USRobotics are common winmodems) you can find out if there is any salvation by updating the firmware or drivers. THE BEST site I have ever seen on the subject of software 56k modems can be found at <a href="http://www.808hi.com/56k" target="_blank">http://www.808hi.com/56k</a> (then click the troubleshooting link). It has every software based modem and any aliases it might be operating under listed and what you can do about it.
Another to find out what modem you have is to open the case and find the actual modem card. One of the large chips on the modem will say a manufacturer name and usually a model number. You can then go to the site mentioned above and see if there is anything to ease the pain.
Hope that helps.
If it's an older HP it probably has a Lucent modem, if it's a newer one most likely a Rockwell HCF or HSP modem.
If you still have the box or any documentation (manuals) for the modem you can check for a few tell-tale signs.
1. The box or manual mentions a Pentium 133mhz or higher processor required.
2. Microsoft Windows required.
Most hardware based modems are not operating system dependant and run will on any operating system including Linux or MacOS. In addition the older hardware based modems didn't really care what processor you were running; most 56k hardware modems ran fine on 486's which were well below the winmodem's required 133mhz.