| Has it improved? Thank you for this review. I am moving to Newcastle in the next few days and have been looking into Pioneer's services... I rely very heavily on high speed internet, it's basically my life. I also play WoW. I was actually trying to find a number to call to order internet and cable through Pioneer and came across this review. I wish I'd read this before I decided to move to Newcastle. I am very disappointed and worried to read of these problems and bad quality, especially the latency issue. However I see you have posted this about 2 1/2 months ago... has it improved any since then? Please tell me I am not going to without reliable high speed internet!  |
Faell
join:2009-06-16
Blanchard, OK | No it has not improved, unfortunately.
I use the 3k download/525 upload speed and it seems fine if you are just wanted to browse the web or watch streaming videos. If you are not an online gamer you will probably be fine.
The issue lies with the latency, which is different from DL/UL speeds. Online gamers are probably the only ones who are really going to notice how poor the latency is. In fact, you can call Pioneer and request a tier 2 tech adjust your port to 'fast'. This brought my latency on their first 2 hops from 60ish to 20ish. They only do it upon request I guess because as I said before, only online gamers are really going to tell a major difference based on latency.
The next thing you have to consider is where the WoW server you are connecting to is physically located. The further away you are from it, the higher your latency will be. I play on a LA server and my latency is very poor during 'prime time'. During the day I'll stay under 200ms but from about 6-12p.m. I've seen it go all the way up to 600ms and become very spiky. You will not be able to PvP or Raid effectively and it will keep you permanently frustrated.
You can check where your WoW server is physically located at here:
»www.wowwiki.com/US_realm_list_by_datacenter
The issue isn't necessarily on Pioneer's part, but the issue lies in who they route their traffic through.. As I said, the latency on their 2 hops is 20ish, pretty good. However, they route their traffic through very poor upstream providers. I've tried to discuss with them about getting in contact with their upstream providers or either changing completely, but they are unwilling. In fact, 95% of the technical support people working there don't understand anything about how data packets are transferred.
If you are on a Boston or Dallas server your latency will be slightly better then mine, but still very poor. Unfortunately we have no other choices. Sorry, I know it isn't what you wanted to hear.
SmoothPing is a paid service that uses SSH Tunneling that will help your WoW latency a bit if you are willing to pay for it.
»www.smoothping.com/
Some people found that making a few registry edits help as well.
»www.arenajunkies.com/showthread.php?t=112513
I use both of these and it does help, but it's still very bad. Good luck to you! After you get all set up please post back with what server you play on and if you are having latency issues as well. Thanks! |
Faell
join:2009-06-16
Blanchard, OK | 9/21 - The latency issue seemed to have gotten resolved on this date. I did nothing on my part to resolve this issue. Pioneer OR one of their upstream providers fixed it. The issue was beyond my control.
On 9/21, the latency was extremely bad all evening. The internet was basically unusable. 800+ms to almost any website. This went on all evening and then the internet went completely offline for about 5 minutes. When it came back up, no problems at all and since.
I've been running a smooth 80-120ms to CA on any given date or time. I'm glad they finally fixed the issue, but it is the second time this has happened and it took absolutely forever to get resolved. |
