Road Runner..."New for Gamers" 6.0 Mbps

[PaleFace]

Saw in December Issue of PC Gamer on Ad page 43. Roadrunner - Six. Up to 6 Megs down. I'm a RR customer with Residential account with a limit of 3 Megs down. Called them and waiting for rep to call back. Sounds like it's really a Commercial account?? - Pale

[bigdaddyTank]

Saw in December Issue of PC Gamer on Ad page 43. Roadrunner - Six. Up to 6 Megs down. I'm a RR customer with Residential account with a limit of 3 Megs down. Called them and waiting for rep to call back. Sounds like it's really a Commercial account?? - Pale
Yea and it cost's $40 more a month. I called on it, they list it as $98 a month by itself. If you have cable and RR now then they add the extra 40 for the 6 meg download. Its 512k upload. If you have an older cable modem from them they give you a new one if you go to the 6meg service. I would like to hear from someone who has it.

[ColtIce]

I have it and I have to say it's ok.Now I don't play alot of online games but it does seem to help as my kids have internet in their rooms aswell.as far as downloads go I'm still limited to what the source puts out.if I download from say ATI the average speed is around 700-800 KB/s.it was only $35 more than what I was paying for the 3MB

[PaleFace]

If you know do you get a Static IP with RR-6?

[L337 M33P]

Saw in December Issue of PC Gamer on Ad page 43. Roadrunner - Six. Up to 6 Megs down. I'm a RR customer with Residential account with a limit of 3 Megs down. Called them and waiting for rep to call back. Sounds like it's really a Commercial account?? - Pale

Why on earth would you want 6mbit for games? Most use a max of 256kbit both ways. What you really want is low-latency links to major backbones.

Of course, it could be a disguised leech-friendly service :p

[ColtIce]

If you know do you get a Static IP with RR-6?
to be honest I really don't know but give me a few and I'll find out for you.


*edit I shot them an email.whenever they get back to me I'll let you know but I don't believe it is.

[ColtIce]

here is what they sent me back

All Road Runner residential customers get dynamic IP address. The
premium service is merely a faster version of the same service.

[drenader]

Yeah its $70 a month total around here, looked into it for awhile, they also offer like $10 off the first 3 or so months.

Dre

[UlicBelouve]

"Why on earth would you want 6mbit for games? Most use a max of 256kbit both ways. What you really want is low-latency links to major backbones."

I agree. I've seen many gamers with a 3M service that hit a bad latency link, and they're kinda screwed. It all has to do with the links to major backbones. I think also many companies are limiting their upload speed for now so that they do not have the RIAA on them for aiding in speeds for file-sharing. You need to keep in mind that many companies are being sued by the RIAA to hand over their customer lists, so the last thing these companies want to do is increase the speed of file sharing. And that means that gamers suffer low upload speeds. For now.

[chittnp]

Im a RR customer too, and although this service looks pretty good, but I dont usually get anywhere near the 3 Mbps down, so Id hate to pay between $70-$100 a month, NOT including cable tv, and only maybe get like 3-4 Mbps down. but I live in a pretty residential area,a dn you can definately tell when everyone comes home from work/school, my parents on the other hand, who live out in the sticks, and are 2 block away from a major backbone, rarely drop below 2.8 (from my random observations). But then again, I think all broadband service providers are basically price gouging rip-off artists.

[Chong420]

I have the 6mb package. I pay $70 a month for it, usually the more packages youo get through the cable company the cheaper the proce gets. I havent really had any problems with it except when I test the speed i usually average ony 5.4mb dl and 475 up to where it is suppose to be 6mb dl 512kb up

[deathman20]

You gotta factor overhead and such into the total for the download/upload speeds too.

As for services though standard should be getting an increase with certian companines like RR. 3MB service gets up to 4Mb and 384kb up if not mistaken. Other companies are doing the same and for the same price too. Sucks that my company hasn't jumped on the boat yet, I'd love a faster upload speed.

[theMonster]

I'm getting 1024K+ down from standard RoadRunner and I'm happy with that. My latency isn't so good though and that gives me disconnects every now and then, but I quit gaming online because of the cheaters and cheesers. I'll just connect for downloadable content now.

[matrixzen]

At the office at work, we have 6Mbps down/608Kbps up, and it comes with 3 static ip addresses. It's lightning fast. Redshift, Verizon, and DSL Extreme are offering it. I'm thinking about getting it at the house. Right now broadband prices are inflated which makes them super low. It seems like slow speeds are a thing of the past except for 56kers respectfully.

[deathman20]

I'm getting 1024K+ down from standard RoadRunner and I'm happy with that. My latency isn't so good though and that gives me disconnects every now and then, but I quit gaming online because of the cheaters and cheesers. I'll just connect for downloadable content now.

I hear you on that there. I hate when everything is going fine then you hit a cheater taht wreaks the servers population because hes cheating. I just try to find a server where you get to know admins and regular players on it so if something goes bad on it, you know they will come back, or the admin will kick them.

[hkgonra]

My regular priced service from RR just went up to 5.0 mbps.
I was dowloading some stuff the other day and it seemd awful fast so i did a bandwidth test and was pleasantly surprised.

[diehrd]

I just dropped Road Runner...For a 3MB/s DSL connection..And my last down load from file planet across there free servers was averaging 1.26 MB/s.

I saved at least $10.00 a month and honestly never ever had roadrunner DL anything beyond 500KB/s ..So for me I can honestly say this DSL is in my neighborhood WAY faster then Roadrunner..

Additionally when a rep ws going door to door for Road runner I asked him why my DSL was so much faster then what I use to have from them and he said well with cable ya should be faster but there are variables one of the biggest is ya share a network of sorts with others in your neighborhood..He also said he sorta doubted the speed I said I was getting.So i took him to my computer room and downloaded a file and what was funny was the average was going from 1.16 to 1.86 MB/S, , he had a look on his face that to me said he was gonna order DSL.....And muttered "well looks like you are all set" LMAO....I am still in stitches from that experence..

[deathman20]

I just dropped Road Runner...For a 3MB/s DSL connection..And my last down load from file planet across there free servers was averaging 1.26 MB/s.

I saved at least $10.00 a month and honestly never ever had roadrunner DL anything beyond 500KB/s ..So for me I can honestly say this DSL is in my neighborhood WAY faster then Roadrunner..

Additionally when a rep ws going door to door for Road runner I asked him why my DSL was so much faster then what I use to have from them and he said well with cable ya should be faster but there are variables one of the biggest is ya share a network of sorts with others in your neighborhood..He also said he sorta doubted the speed I said I was getting.So i took him to my computer room and downloaded a file and what was funny was the average was going from 1.16 to 1.86 MB/S, , he had a look on his face that to me said he was gonna order DSL.....And muttered "well looks like you are all set" LMAO....I am still in stitches from that experence..

Ya but was the file that you where downloading compressable?? I downloaded at nearly 3-4Megs a sec from Fileplanet a couple months ago. It was a considerably compressable file though thats why I was recieveing the throughput I had.

Besides DSL is fixed based. You either have to be supper close to the station for good speeds, or just had some luck that they havn't capped your DSL line yet.

[diehrd]

Ya but was the file that you where downloading compressable?? I downloaded at nearly 3-4Megs a sec from Fileplanet a couple months ago. It was a considerably compressable file though thats why I was recieveing the throughput I had.

Besides DSL is fixed based. You either have to be supper close to the station for good speeds, or just had some luck that they havn't capped your DSL line yet.


Cap my line ? They advertise here there fastest package for 2 full years only 29.95 If they cap my line I will crap on there service desk...A crap for cap issue ...lol..

So 3mb/s 29.95 and I dare them to cap me he he he ..the argument will be smelly ... :) :)

I just tested it at pc pitstop..1514 kbs..not to bad..

[deathman20]

Well now im confused here your talking in bits right? If its bytes then your getting one heck of a speed boost off the line from what you ordered.

[eatmyshorts7569]

I've gt COX and i get 5 megs. i run a CS:S server, and share it with 3 other comps not counting the server. and its good enogh for me. and i pay like $50 for it. or it could be less. i never check the bill. :bday:

[diehrd]

Well now im confused here your talking in bits right? If its bytes then your getting one heck of a speed boost off the line from what you ordered.


lol..ya I just did it again

Download speed: 1437 kilobits per second
Test details: 1204 kilobytes downloaded in 6.703 seconds.
Receive buffer size: Not available

Upload Bandwidth Test Results
Upload speed: 329 kilobits per second

DNS Location Average Ping1 Ping2 Ping3
pcpitstop.com Dallas, TX, USA 81 84 80 80
mheller.com Andover, MA, USA 79 79 80 78
www.cern.ch Geneva, Switzerland 197 178 189 211
yahoo.com (various) 51 54 50 49
google.com (various) 49 48 48 49
www.unisa.edu.au Adelaide, Australia 288 288 288 288


Your results will appear below: (Please be patient - it may take a minute for the results to start appearing.)


Tracing route to pcpitstop.com (64.29.201.21):
Hop
# Avg
ms Loss
% Graph Address
1 33 67.50.136.1 (67-50-136-1.nrp2feld.roc.ny.frontiernet.net)
2 33 209.210.104.249 (a6-1-0--12.gw02.roch.eli.net)
3 33 207.173.115.17 (ge3-1.cr01.roch.eli.net)
4 34 207.173.114.205 (ge-1-1-0--0.cr03.roch.eli.net)
5 41 207.173.114.233 (so-0-0-0--0.cr01.nwrk.eli.net)
6 41 207.173.114.202 (so-3-0-0--0.cr02.nwrk.eli.net)
7 48 207.173.114.253 (so-0-0-0--0.cr02.mcln.eli.net)
8 48 207.173.115.110 (so-3-0-0--0.er01.asbn.eli.net)
9 48 207.173.144.30 (eli-ibx-ashburn-peering-LEVEL3-NET.asbn.eli.net)
10 48 4.68.121.129 (ae-1-55.bbr1.Washington1.Level3.net)
11 81 64.159.1.109 (ge-0-1-0.bbr1.Dallas1.Level3.net)
12 80 4.68.113.22 (so-7-0.ipcolo1.Dallas1.Level3.net)
13 80 209.246.152.194 (unknown.Level3.net)
14 81 64.29.192.230 (daa.g921.disa.datareturn.com)
15 80 64.29.192.213 (daa.g906.p40a.datareturn.com)
16 81 64.29.201.21 (pcpitstop.com)

[deathman20]

NM thought you where saying that in bytes. Thats the correct speed, abit slower then it should be (by half) but all depends how close you are to the station. If your close I'd start complaining :) (Think its within 8000 feet or something like that)

[diehrd]

I aint gonna complain..Reasn why is there is also a speed restricton from the source,and seeing as it is almost 3 times what i had from roadrunner and 10.00 cheaper i am gonna stay hush hush LOL

[theELVISCERATOR]

thats half the speed of a 3 meg connection....another person who got fooled by the selection in DL manager on fileplanet.

[diehrd]

thats half the speed of a 3 meg connection....another person who got fooled by the selection in DL manager on fileplanet.


Wait , explain what ya mean by fooled ?

[ou_phidelt]

i used to do installs for time warner so i will give a lttle insight.

you do not neccissarlly have to pay for the new serivce to get it. it all depends on your luck. where i workerd we used about five different modems, no rhyme or reason to which one, just whatever we had. two of these are used for the new service. if you are lucky you may get one of these. also if you have the option of earthlink, get it. it is the sxact same thing, just cheaper. hell even time warner installs it here.

i have the normal "3mb" road runner and tested it just now.

Download speed: 4730 kilobits per second

Test details: 3354 kilobytes downloaded in 5.672 seconds.
Receive buffer size: Not available

[hkgonra]

Wait , explain what ya mean by fooled ?

If you were truly downloading a file at 1.26mb you would have a 10mb connection , not a 3mb connection.

check your bandwidth at

wdc.speakeasy.net

Let me know what it shows you.

[Roofles]

Which modems are used for the new service, like say.. model numbers... cause mine might just happen to have a little accident :D

Also where are you finding that road runner is 3mb down? I thought it was 2.. or does it vary from area to area?

[ou_phidelt]

i think its 3 accross the board. but im not sure if the modems they use are accross the board. they use two versions of toshiba's and one of them works. the other im not sure of. even if you modem has an accident its still going to be a crapshoot on what you get. for you to be able to request a particular modem you are going to have to make a REALLY big deal out of it.

[buckbadly]

ou_phidelt...I have one of the "surfboard" modems they used when they started getting cable around here..I live in Bucyrus, Ohio. Is there any way I might be able to get a newer model modem they are using now? Theres nothing really wrong with mine, I would just like to stay with the newer equipment if I could?

[diehrd]

If you were truly downloading a file at 1.26mb you would have a 10mb connection , not a 3mb connection.

check your bandwidth at

wdc.speakeasy.net

Let me know what it shows you.

I am not able to view what ever shows up in that box..Weird maybe windows security center is blocking it ?

[ou_phidelt]

ou_phidelt...I have one of the "surfboard" modems they used when they started getting cable around here..I live in Bucyrus, Ohio. Is there any way I might be able to get a newer model modem they are using now? Theres nothing really wrong with mine, I would just like to stay with the newer equipment if I could?


its worth a shot. if your not having problems it might be a little hard to get them to send someone out. the easiest way to get you want from them is to threaten to switch to DSL. they are making a ton of money off this service and will almost anything to keep people.it just goes back the old equation of it costs 1/6 to keep a customer than to get a new one. i didnt actually work for time warner just a contractor that did installations for them, a very bad point in my life. but i know more than most of there installers.

if any of you guys really want to know the model numbers i think i still have my training manual around here somewhere.

[Mr.Guvernment]

"Why on earth would you want 6mbit for games? Most use a max of 256kbit both ways. What you really want is low-latency links to major backbones."

I agree. I've seen many gamers with a 3M service that hit a bad latency link, and they're kinda screwed. It all has to do with the links to major backbones. I think also many companies are limiting their upload speed for now so that they do not have the RIAA on them for aiding in speeds for file-sharing. You need to keep in mind that many companies are being sued by the RIAA to hand over their customer lists, so the last thing these companies want to do is increase the speed of file sharing. And that means that gamers suffer low upload speeds. For now.


i dont think that is the case at all - what about all of those universities with access to T1 /T3 / Oc3 /OC12's and such? Most of the music which makes it onto these P2P aret from joe blow uploading from their low speed cable... it comes from much higher in the "food chain".

people will upload on their crappy cable @ 50KB all day long if they can, as long as it doesnt affect their download speed.

ISP's see no reason for people to have fast upload speeds for anything - so they keep cranking up the download speed and keeping the upload low.

[deathman20]

If you were truly downloading a file at 1.26mb you would have a 10mb connection , not a 3mb connection.

check your bandwidth at

wdc.speakeasy.net

Let me know what it shows you.

Hes saying that in kilobits a second, look at the speed to which he downloaded the file at.

Download speed: 1437 kilobits per second
Test details: 1204 kilobytes downloaded in 6.703 seconds.
Receive buffer size: Not available

Thats 1.437 Megabits a second or 179.62 Kilobytes or .17962 Megabytes, well you get the point. Hes getting roughly half the connection of a normal 3mb line which is roughly a 375 Kilobyte connection. DSL is capped so going above that is rare unless the company doesn't do that sort of thing. Cable lines getting above that speed can very due to loading of networks and loads on the network in the area since it shares 1 line, it can be possible to reach higher speeds.

I once was downloading at 1.0-1.5 MegaBytes a second on my cable line for just a day. Downloaded a 2Gig ish file in under 42min on a 3megabit connection which was a compressed file. You do the math it started slow but kept gaining speed. Never seen those DL speeds again though :(

I'd love to have a faster upload speed then my supposid 32KB. Really get around 25KB after overhead :( When I send video's of my work to people it really sucks sending a 200-300meg file to them with everything they want. Or even more so a load of Tif files that make up the video stacking in around 600Meg-4Gig for a project. And why mail a disk, takes just as long to send it over the web as it does to get it in the mail half the time, unless your outta the country your sending stuff to then it takes longer.

[hkgonra]

I am not able to view what ever shows up in that box..Weird maybe windows security center is blocking it ?

You must not have java, or not have it enabled.

[buckbadly]

Thanx ou_phidelt.

[bandit390]

I have the 6mb service with rr and im paying $90 a month, from the old $45 a month for 3mb service. Im paying double the price, but not getting double the speed, with all this upgrade stuff. They should be giving me 8-10 mb service for this price. bah :bang head

[ColtIce]

Which modems are used for the new service, like say.. model numbers
mines a Motorola SB5100

[PaleFace]

I got a notice in the mail from RR they have increased residential up to 5 mbps download speed at no extra charge in Indiana. Claiming it's 66% faster.

Today on PC Pit Stop bandwith tests:
Upload speed: 469 kilobits per second
Download speed: 4021 kilobits per second

[fUzZ bUnNy]

I'm curious is the the 6Mbit down the burst speed or the actual speed?

The reason is because we have Charter Business Cable here and it is advertised as 5Mbit down 512 Mbit up. But it is really 3Mbit down with 512 Mbit up due to the 2Mbit burst the Cisco modem can do.

Actually I need to edit my post because Charter Business Cable assigns us a static ip address vs. residential that has dynamic ip addressing.

[buckbadly]

I'm not sure about the 6MB service, I have the 3 err...5 now :D and I have constant d/l's in the 450-500 range. As long as they can send them that fast it stays constant. I havent been doing any online gaming since the upgrade but I'm curious how my pings are now

[fUzZ bUnNy]

actually i am curious, do residential modems have a burst speed? and is that how they advertise their rates?

[Mr.Guvernment]

Any services is ideally BS - u are not "garunteed" 6mb down all the time - that is just the maximum you can ever hit - good luck getting it off most places u go on the web.

I doubt most of you gamers would EVER come close to using 6mb down off a gaming server.

[ColtIce]

Any services is ideally BS - u are not "garunteed" 6mb down all the time - that is just the maximum you can ever hit - good luck getting it off most places u go on the web.

I doubt most of you gamers would EVER come close to using 6mb down off a gaming server.

we got the speed bump here in Ohio as well.I already had the 6 meg connection so we got bumped to 8.I also couldn't agree with you more.most of the time when I check a few of the bandwidth test sites it's mostly around 5.5 to 6.depends on what time of day.

[Mr.Guvernment]

^^^ 8mb i wish..lol - i would be happy with 1mb down here (have 512kb)

It is just more and more marketing ply - yes it is great to havea 6mb line if u got 3 or 4 people all gaming at once on the same thing - but for 1 or even 2 people a 1mb line is more then enough.

anything to make some more money.

[Chong420]

RR just opened there bandwith to their customers, to try and compete with dsl's low prices. If u have the standard 3mb package u should be up to 5mb nows, and if you have the 6mb package you should be up to 8mb.

I have the 8mb package and pay $70 a month for it. If u get it through your cable company then then more packages you get from them the cheaper the price will get. For instance, I have digital cable, all the hbos, and all the cinemaxs. So my price droped from what it normally is, at $84.95. Also I could get it for like $5-10 cheaper if I got their digital phone.

[Xenocide]

now all we need is an UPLOAD increase, say 60kbps!!!, or more....

[PaleFace]

I understand in Indiana that Comcast did a recent speedbump also from 3M to 4M. Gotta love RR they went 5M unlike Comcast. Speed wars :attn:

[Mr.Guvernment]

now all we need is an UPLOAD increase, say 60kbps!!!, or more....


exactly - i would say@ least 100KB MIN!!! alof of online games now need a decent upload speed - i think crap upload speed is now becoming a factor for alot of laggers.

My uncle got Rogers cable, got the 3mb server, and he has an upload speed of 123KB max i can hit by downloading off him from a T1 - usually rogers has their uploadds capped @ 50KB now, but it could be becuase he was one of their first customers when they came out.

But hwne i game @ his place man it is sweet! sub 50 pings almost any online game i play.

[Chong420]

i do deffently agree they should increase the upload. For the amount u pay for the 6mb package 512kb isnt enough. Especially when I cant even hit past 480. They shoudl raise it to 786kb or 1mb would be sweet

[deathman20]

Downloads isn't the issue anymore these days with cable. Heck I'm happy with a 3MB line, yes it can be faster but I'd rather have a higher upload then my to maybe 500KB-1MB instead. Currently getting 256KB which really turns out to be 200KB because of overhead.

If they even had like a 5:1 ratio for down/up that would be excellent with most of the cable companies have to offer. For a 5MB connection you'd get about 1MB upload. Heck even a typical 3MB line would get 600KB upload.

Guess the companies gotta get through their thick heads that we really don't need faster downloads but faster uploads. Heres an example with a 256KB upload does to the line.

This was playing Half-Life DM, and CS. Was done a while ago but those results really sucked badly.

1 Person (ping = 30-45)
2 People (ping = 80-125)
3 People (ping = 180-240)

All I had to test with but as the results show decrease in preformance. Yet you could say that it was the persons server also but there was 12 people max limit and it was filled. With or without the people on my line the lag sucked after the 3rd joined. Don't know why companies consider a 6MB line for gamers, unless they are premoting piracey.

[~(o)-(0)~]

Well I was just browsing and I thought well what the hell I'll test it, and this is what I got

2005-03-29 01:38:49 EST: 2856 / 756
Your download speed : 2925481 bps, or 2856 kbps.
A 357.1 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 774293 bps, or 756 kbps.

I'm supposed to have a 5.1Mbit connection, what gives?

[firebat45]

wow, im up here in canada, and for $45 canadian, we get a 5mbps connection, with 768kbps upload. I guess this is a good deal.

[Mr.Guvernment]

it all depends on internet traffic and how many people are in your area

youe "5.1" conneciton is not garunteed 5.1 always, but a MAXIMUM of 5.1mbps down speeds.

so it cavary from dial up speeds upto 5.1mbps.

[~(o)-(0)~]

Ok, so I tested the Mtl. DSL speeds in here's what I got.

2005-03-30 18:40:16 EST: 2491 / 652
Your download speed : 2551389 bps, or 2491 kbps.
A 311.4 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 667928 bps, or 652 kbps.