11 replies to this topic

[1Exitar1]

Hi everyone,

My area just got fiber optic internet connection, or rather the ability to have it. I currently use cable. I was wondering if there would be a noticeable difference in my ping in game? With my cable setup, I get a 99 ping on USA servers or about 110 on Europe servers. Would the fiber optic give me better connection speed?

Thanks!

[LordNothing]

there are two things that cause ping. the speed of light and the propagation delay at each network device. the former is a law of physics and no getting around it. i for example live in alaska and no matter what server i use my ping is a hundred minimum (but, oddly, seldom over 250). our internet is incredibly reliable though, at least in the south east, given our proximity to a major trunk line. but being a couple thousand miles away from civilization in any direction has its cost. speed of light is slower in fiber than in free space, so starlink users might have a ping advantage (and id guess a reliability disadvantage, like any other wireless protocol). the latter is a measure of the speed of the semiconductors in all the network kit between you and the server. this usually improves with technology.

even if your connection comes in over coax, this is usually a very short run, with the other end connected to fiber.

Edited by LordNothing, 20 December 2024 - 10:46 PM.

[RockmachinE]

Roughly where are you located if I may ask? That will be the easiest way to tell you.

If you have an option definitely go fiber not just because of MWO. Usually fiber improves latency and bandwidth by quite a bit. However if you live far away from the servers it might not make a very big difference. Also the setup at your house might affect latency a lot.

This is how it looks on my end in the EU.

Optic ~10 ms EU ~100ms US.
Cable ~25 ms EU ~110ms US.
Cable via Wireless ~60ms EU (wireless depends on the setup/hardware a lot).

In my case fiber optic did little to lower the latency to the US servers since I live on another continent. It can vary quite a bit depending on your provider and your home setup.

Edited by RockmachinE, 21 December 2024 - 11:14 AM.

[LordNothing]

i was reading that the speed of light in fiber is something like 40-60% of the speed of light in vacuum. partly due to refraction and partly due to the light bouncing around inside the fiber. throughput is its advantage because the individual fibers are tiny compered to the undersea cables they use, so you can cram in a lot of them. then on top of that you can use wavelength division multiplexing so you can run a number of signals over the same fiber at no performance penalty. its great for backbones. the fiber they run to your house isn't so high end as those wdm transceivers are not cheap.

[1Exitar1]

And cable is even slower than that. Thanks for the input, but I will go with the fiber connection because it is cheaper and faster than my current cable plan. I'm currently paying almost twice the fiber plan for about half the speed of fiber. Now I just need to get ahold of the company...

[RockmachinE]

1Exitar1, on 22 December 2024 - 06:30 PM, said:

And cable is even slower than that. Thanks for the input, but I will go with the fiber connection because it is cheaper and faster than my current cable plan. I'm currently paying almost twice the fiber plan for about half the speed of fiber. Now I just need to get ahold of the company...

Let us know if there's any improvement!

[1Exitar1]

Got on the companies website and checked the availability map and it shows I am well within the service area. I get on their website and go through the availability starting page and it says I am not in area. I call them, wait on hold (of course), give them all my info twice and they say they are getting conflicting info on their system and that they will have to call me back.

If this is as smooth as their service, I dunno if I want it or not!! LOL

[RockmachinE]

1Exitar1, on 27 December 2024 - 11:35 AM, said:

Got on the companies website and checked the availability map and it shows I am well within the service area. I get on their website and go through the availability starting page and it says I am not in area. I call them, wait on hold (of course), give them all my info twice and they say they are getting conflicting info on their system and that they will have to call me back.

If this is as smooth as their service, I dunno if I want it or not!! LOL

Well maybe the connection will be good, you should go for it anyways. You can always go back to the old provider.

[1Exitar1]

RockmachinE, on 27 December 2024 - 01:33 PM, said:

Well maybe the connection will be good, you should go for it anyways. You can always go back to the old provider.

If they ever get back to me, I will.

[1Exitar1]

They finally got back to me. The landlord has signed an exclusive contract with the cable company for 25 YEARS!! As slow as Spectrum is to adopt new things, it will take that long for them to even consider using fiber. I would move to another apartment complex, but they are hundreds of dollars per month more expensive and there is no guarantee that they will be able to get fiber either. With the housing market the way it is right now, I can't even consider that either.

*SIGH*

[w4ldO]

1Exitar1, on 30 January 2025 - 09:38 PM, said:

As slow as Spectrum is to adopt new things, it will take that long for them to even consider using fiber.

dont expect an ISP to put more infrastructure into the ground when there is no competetion


for reference my ping went down by about 20 ms when i switched from FTTC to FTTB

[RockmachinE]

1Exitar1, on 30 January 2025 - 09:38 PM, said:

They finally got back to me. The landlord has signed an exclusive contract with the cable company for 25 YEARS!! As slow as Spectrum is to adopt new things, it will take that long for them to even consider using fiber. I would move to another apartment complex, but they are hundreds of dollars per month more expensive and there is no guarantee that they will be able to get fiber either. With the housing market the way it is right now, I can't even consider that either.

*SIGH*

25 years is insane, never heard of that before. Well that sucks. You really don't have luck with fiber. I hope you'll be able to get it at some point.