New Zealand Fighting Game Forum

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: CrazyMobius on October 19, 2010, 10:13:05 AM

Title: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: CrazyMobius on October 19, 2010, 10:13:05 AM
Hi all, I'm a real noob when it comes to technical stuff but I was just having a discussion from a guy at Vodafone who mentioned two things which can affect latency or connection speed. The first was "interleaving" and the second was "port redirection".
I think people have discussed port redirection before on the board but I haven't come across any discussions on interleaving. The guy said that if you ask your service provider to turn off interleaving it can improve your connection. He said it may have a small charge of $5 or so but this is a small price to pay TBH.

I'm sure a lot of people here will have experience in this type of stuff so can anyone give any wise words on this interleaving business and if requesting to have it turned off improves your connection? Also are there any down-sides to doing this?

Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: Gino on October 19, 2010, 11:13:00 AM
Turning off interleaving can help with your ping, but may result in an unstable connection. I think interleaving is a form of error correction that is used if you are too far away from your exchange.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: fluxcore on October 19, 2010, 11:32:13 AM
I was going to explain it, but if you actually care, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleaving

Basically, interleaving off = less latency, but worse for error correction. They have it on by default for quality of service.

Personally, I got mine turned off.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: zos'la on October 19, 2010, 11:33:46 AM
Interleaving is an extra level of error correction.

It makes sure that all ATM packets that come from the DSLAM to you and from you to the DSLAM are not corrupted, and if any are, it forces a re-send.

Having Interleaving off may introduce packet loss depending upon how clean your line is. If it is a rather clean line, packet loss may be as low as 3%, but if it is a dirty line, packet loss may be as high as 50%.

Having Interleaving off does have its advantages though. It lowers your ping times for instance, and also makes playing in multiplayer games more enjoyable since multiplayer games don't require that all packets reach the destination.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: geneterror on October 19, 2010, 11:39:47 AM
At my old place though I got it turned off and I kept getting disconnected from games all the time so I got it out back on. For the tiny reduction I got in ping it wasn't worth not being able to get over 5 games without being disconnected >:(.
I might try it at the new place though as all the wiring is new/the lines are better.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: Rorooze on October 19, 2010, 12:24:21 PM
I remember when you had to pay like 100+ dollars for a telecom tech to secretly remove interleaving off your lines, haha.

But yeah, turning it off is fine as long as your connection doesn't have much noise. You should be able to check the quality of your connection on your router by checking the connection status, the less noise (dB) the better. That said I go no idea what values are worthwhile, especially since ADSL2 hit.

I have no idea what ping times are like since ADSL2 came out, but back in the day having it off was a pretty beast improvement (about 40ms off your ping).
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: geneterror on October 19, 2010, 12:28:15 PM
I have actually changed my router back to ADSL instead of ADSL2 once again because of stabilty issues. I was getting faster downloads on ADSL2 but it sucked for gaming.
Not saying this is right or wrong just relaying my experiences and from memory me and Simon are on the same ISP and probably the same exchange as we obnly live a few blocks apart.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: CrazyMobius on October 19, 2010, 02:32:41 PM
Quote from: geneterror on October 19, 2010, 12:28:15 PM
I have actually changed my router back to ADSL instead of ADSL2 once again because of stabilty issues. I was getting faster downloads on ADSL2 but it sucked for gaming.
Not saying this is right or wrong just relaying my experiences and from memory me and Simon are on the same ISP and probably the same exchange as we obnly live a few blocks apart.

What's the difference between ADSL and ADSL2? Is either of them default? The reason I'm asking all this is the last couple of days I have been booted from PSN and have had to reset my modem. Sometimes within the space of 10 minutes.

The reason I bring this up here is because I find it easier to talk to actual people than reading a wiki page. Sorry but I don't have a technical mindset. If people here don't want to answer then don't answer. But restrain yourself from rude redirections to other websites.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: geneterror on October 19, 2010, 03:23:38 PM
ADSL vs ADSL2 is just a speed difference as far as I know, if you are on Vodafone in Centrals Aucks you will have ADSL2.
As for default it depends on your router, mine was set to ADSL2 by default but if you have an old router it may not even support ADSL2 at all. You will need to check your router settings. Like I said I was getting disconnections with ADSL2 on.
I've been having to reset my router a bit lately though so it might just be a Vodafone problem if you're getting a lot of disconnects.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: fluxcore on October 19, 2010, 03:27:58 PM
LOL, you think that was rude? I was ONLY linking it for brevity - I assumed you didn't ACTUALLY want to know the sordid details so I spared you a wall of technobabble.

Then I gave you a summary and what I've done.

Shit, sorry for trying to help, I'll just ignore you if you prefer.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: CrazyMobius on October 19, 2010, 03:56:32 PM
Quote from: fluxcore on October 19, 2010, 03:27:58 PM
LOL, you think that was rude? I was ONLY linking it for brevity - I assumed you didn't ACTUALLY want to know the sordid details so I spared you a wall of technobabble.

Then I gave you a summary and what I've done.

Shit, sorry for trying to help, I'll just ignore you if you prefer.

I'm sorry my mistake I reacted too hastily I should have re-read your post properly.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: CrazyMobius on October 19, 2010, 03:59:39 PM
Quote from: geneterror on October 19, 2010, 03:23:38 PM
ADSL vs ADSL2 is just a speed difference as far as I know, if you are on Vodafone in Centrals Aucks you will have ADSL2.
As for default it depends on your router, mine was set to ADSL2 by default but if you have an old router it may not even support ADSL2 at all. You will need to check your router settings. Like I said I was getting disconnections with ADSL2 on.
I've been having to reset my router a bit lately though so it might just be a Vodafone problem if you're getting a lot of disconnects.

I changed to Orcon because of Vodafone's latency issues. But now I've found it is no better and in some cases worse. I remember ages ago when I used to live in a different flat I almost never had to reset my modem and always got good fast connections on PSN. It's really becoming a big pain as I don't know if it is the provider, PSN, or my modem. Would the cable make a difference? Mine is about 10 years old.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: samurai black on October 19, 2010, 04:06:25 PM
now you two should kiss and make up.

HOOK, GET THE CAMERA
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: Rorooze on October 19, 2010, 04:20:10 PM
It could be your cable, filter, router or isp, there are to many things in the equation to give you a definitive answer :/

Does it disconnect when the phone rings?
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: CaptainHook on October 19, 2010, 04:23:04 PM
Quote from: samurai black on October 19, 2010, 04:06:25 PM
now you two should kiss and make up.

HOOK, GET THE CAMERA

I'd need a better reason to move the camera out of Lenny's shower than that. Like, something
you WOULDN'T expect.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: Lennysaurus on October 19, 2010, 05:00:20 PM
Quote from: [PF]CrazyMobius on October 19, 2010, 03:59:39 PM
I changed to Orcon because of Vodafone's latency issues. But now I've found it is no better and in some cases worse. I remember ages ago when I used to live in a different flat I almost never had to reset my modem and always got good fast connections on PSN. It's really becoming a big pain as I don't know if it is the provider, PSN, or my modem. Would the cable make a difference? Mine is about 10 years old.

Sometimes it can be relative to how far away your house is to the exchange, and how many people share that exchange.  But like Rory said there are soooo many variables that can impact it.

Do you know any of your neighbours?  What internet provider do they use and are any of them good?
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: fluxcore on October 19, 2010, 06:56:48 PM
Yeah, the local exchange definitely makes a difference, but if you're so close to Graeme then you're probably on the same exchange as him, so if he's not having trouble then it's likely not the problem.

Is your modem by any chance a dlink rta1320? They are known to overheat. Also the cheaper modems/routers sometimes can literally get 'clogged' with too much information. If you know someone with a spare modem, maybe you could try that.

As Lenny said, there are SO many places where things can go wrong. It *might* be worth calling the ISP and getting them to do some kind of fault tracing, but more likely than not it'll just be a lengthy aggravating process which proves little :/
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: [NIUE] weazzyefff on October 19, 2010, 06:58:46 PM
Yeah i used to have to do that when it was on Telecom. It had something to do with wireless. So i used the Ethernet cable. Then it started working sweet. I know for sure i haven't had any problems since being on Vodafone, but i haven't tried it without the Ethernet cable.

Might be PSN. I remember ages ago I used to have some weird problems with their network. It was a long time ago and i can't remember if it was Telecom to Vodafone, or the Ethernet cable that made it work. Somewhere around that time i also had trouble with the phone filters and it kept cutting off when the phone rang aswell. I know for sure it was one of those things. I would try the other two before the ISP.

TBH, i'm not sure what your talking about lol. I think that's what you mean by being 'booted' by PSN lol. Either that or you need to stop rage messaging people and fucking them off lol.



Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: stereomonkey on October 19, 2010, 07:02:13 PM
Quote from: [â,,¢Âªv] Phoenix Lenny on October 19, 2010, 05:00:20 PM
Sometimes it can be relative to how far away your house is to the exchange, and how many people share that exchange.  But like Rory said there are soooo many variables that can impact it.

This is correct though it also includes how far away you are from your cabinet (the big grey box your phone line connects to that communicates to the exchange).

Anyone like to share their experiences with their ISP?  It would be good to hear which ISP's to be wary of?



Also has to
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: fluxcore on October 19, 2010, 07:05:20 PM
My experience with slingshot was fucking shocking. Huge packet loss.

Xnet is kinda ok, but youtube is pretty dire in the evenings - although I'm also in student central so the exchange is stupidly oversubscribed...
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: Rorooze on October 19, 2010, 09:50:06 PM
Xnet used to be REALLY good, then it turned really really bad. I got off of it about two years ago now so not sure how it is these days.

Slingshot is fucking terrible.

Vodafone is OK, my main issue with them is the daily data limits (max 20gig monthly but only max 2gig per day). It's terrible.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: electric on October 19, 2010, 09:57:23 PM
Quote from: Rorooze on October 19, 2010, 09:50:06 PM
Vodafone is OK, my main issue with them is the daily data limits (max 20gig monthly but only max 2gig per day). It's terrible.

Fuck is that really how those cunts do it ? No wonder I've felt like every now and then the internet turns to fucking custard even though Im nowhere near my data cap.

FUCK you Vodafone. I'm going to shank everyone in that fucking building.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: Rorooze on October 19, 2010, 10:00:49 PM
It might be 2.5 or 3 gig, but yeah, you have a daily limit on top of your monthly limit. fucking frustrating when you're doing a masters assignment and downloading earthquake records and then your cap kicks in
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: Lennysaurus on October 19, 2010, 10:37:02 PM
When I moved into this place I switched our ISP over to TelstraClear and it is waaaaaaaaaaaay better.  Although it is pretty expensive.  Buy our data in 25gig caps, and it is always really fast.  I usually pull torrents at well over 1meg per second.  Pull whole movies and episodes of crap in between 5 and 8 minutes.

Apparently in my street the TelstraClear box or whatever it is, is seperate from the Telecom one.  So with Telecom we got really shit speed.  Like 10 minutes to watch a 3 minute youtube clip bad.  Now its fucking ka pai as!
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: Rorooze on October 19, 2010, 10:39:41 PM
yeah im swapping to telstra at the end  of the year when we move out of this place. vodafone caps are way to shit.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: originaljulz on October 19, 2010, 10:40:07 PM
Lets just all move to South Korea.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: [NIUE] weazzyefff on October 19, 2010, 11:09:33 PM
Haha South Korea. Fibre through my fucking door pleaz.

Bro I didn't know that about Vodafone ay. Funny how i've never gone over that daily cap.

Vodafones been pretty good to me for the past couple of months. I think they fucked up our cap too, cos last month i only used 9 GBs hahahaha. Is 1Mb faster download than when i was on Telecom but 1MB slower on upload. Not sure where the upload comes into things either lol? Maybe thats actually worse then haha.

10MB Download anyway in Glen Eden.

Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: [NIUE] B1ackstar Ninja on October 19, 2010, 11:25:49 PM
im gunna sing telstra clears praises too

ive been on telecom for like 6 years , just shifted to telstra clear with 25 gig lots , 2 per month normally

speed are way faster and like lenny said they have a seperate exchange from telecoms so come 6pm and everyone gets on the pmnet miones still super fast whereas when i was on telecom it would go pretty slow from 6pm till about 9pm

telstra , faster , cheaper better
and i got interleaving turned off and i get alot more green bars to aussie now .

kai pai geessssssssssssssss
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: CaptainHook on October 20, 2010, 12:32:17 AM
With orcon here. 75gig a month. (got given 10gig a month extra for free) Usually download tv etc from hotfile/rapidshare at
about 1.4meg on average. Every now and then it can be torture but mostly it's solid as.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: CptMunta on October 20, 2010, 07:54:14 AM
Yip I'm with telstra too. If they have cable in your area you should definitely get it, it's bananas fast. Also found out about this www.warpspeed.co.nz and my Internet seems way faster. I'll have to check into it more and try a speed test. Dunno when they are testing it in Auckland though.
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: zos'la on October 20, 2010, 08:45:36 AM
I've been with telecom for many years also, their speed is pretty good compared majority of the ISP's out there and it also depends on which plan you are on which will affect your speed when its peak hour etc, personally I haven't had much problems with telecom  when I was on adventurer plan? 20 Gig cap. Anyways it was like $59.99/ month, pretty expensive.

Last year I heard of Megatel, which is korean owned, buying lines from Telstra I believe as I did a tracert and it lead to them and I proved that when I rang their helpdesk for support and they advise they are awaiting Telstra Clear....
Anyways, I am with them atm and paying 61.25? per month with 90 Gig full speed \full speed as fast as ur line can go.
I don't have much issues with them either.

question about u gusy buying 25Gig from TelstraClear, how much is it?
Title: Re: Latency and connection discussion
Post by: CrazyMobius on October 20, 2010, 02:03:52 PM
Wow so many awesome replies! I'll have to sit down when I get a chance and read through all these.