🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <kjrUi.28380$GO5.23165@edtnps90>,
 Gumby <gumbyjd@eastlink.spammersmustdie.ca> wrote:

> ArtDent wrote:
> > When you are in the Join / Create screen, there are advertisements that
> > appear at the top of the screen and one of them is for Direct-TV offering a
> > free year of WoW play with sign-up.
> > Err....  isn't it almost impossible to play WoW over a satellite hook-up
> > because of the inherent lag?
> > Is this just another case of the corporate 'suits' that don't know what the
> > heck they are doing?
> 
> They're not a 'Net company and you're not getting 'Net access when you 
> sign up with them - just television.  Unless something's changed 
> recently and it's not reflected in their Web site, anyways.

You *CAN* get 'Net access though DirecTV - Depending on which month it 
is, which direction you're facing when you dial the phone, and how you 
hold your mouth during the call to start the install process, you'll end 
up connecting through "DirecWay", "DirecPC", or "HughesNet" - three 
names for the same service. 

But, as mentioned, once the install is done, it's almost impossible to 
play any realtime game through them, due to the fact that you're looking 
at an *ABSOLUTE MINIMUM* latency of 1.5 seconds each way. Not that 
they're deliberately slowing you down or anything like that (although 
FAP is another issue that can come into play) but your packets have to 
travel something pretty close to 50K miles total just to get from your 
desk to their op-center in Colorado. Which totally ignores any latency 
on the 'net between there and the machine you're actually trying to talk 
to.

When I tried playing D2 via HughesNet, I had a consistent minimum ping 
of 2.3 seconds to battle.net, and it wasn't at all unusual for me to try 
to toss a Hydra, ferinstance, and not have it "happen" for anywhere from 
4-6 seconds after clicking to fire it. Ditto Frozen Orbs and similar - 
"click... wait... wait... wait... wait some more... Aha! There goes my 
Orb! But it's a little late... Here comes the "you have died" screen"

-- 
Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
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