The other night I was downloading The Typing of The Dead to my laptop, playing Diablo 3 online with a friend on PlayStation 3, and my wife was streaming The Vampire Diaries on Hulu through her Nexus 7. I have a 12 Mbps connection from Time Warner Cable. It’s not the fastest, but it’s above average (more on that later). Still, nothing worked right.
Diablo 3 stuttered, and my voice chat with my friend kept dropping out. My wife’s tablet was buffering every other minute just to show her what might be the worst video quality ever made, and my game download on Steam was set to be done in about 10 days.
And so I began the “How can I make all this run better?” dance. I paused the game download on Steam and turned off WiFi on the laptop. I also turned off WiFi on my desktop, my smartphone, my wife’s smartphone, and finally — after double checking to make sure my toddler was sleeping safe and sound — I turned off the baby monitor (which can sometimes destroy our wireless signal). That left just my game and my wife’s show.
Things were marginally better. But after 20 minutes of the not-great connection, and annoying my friend by asking him to repeat himself for the hundredth time, I gave up on my game. I switched the baby monitor back on, and played Diablo 3 offline. And then I thought — not for the first time — how am I supposed to do all that awesome stuff with the new PS4 and Xbox One consoles on this network?
It seems odd that Microsoft and Sony haven’t mentioned the strain the new features of their consoles could have on our networks in America. Streaming a game to a PS Vita with the PS4, or playing a game of Call of Duty online while also Skyping on the Xbox One sound super cool. I want to do those things. And I probably won’t be able to.
According to a Pando Networks study, America ranks 26th in the world in Internet speed out 224 countries. That’s above average globally, but it’s not great. Google even uses our slow Internet speeds (they claim the average American experiences between 5 Mbps and 10 Mbps speeds) to sell you on their hyper-speed fiber service.
If you’re one of the 15 million people that can get Verizon’s FiOS, or you live in a Google Fiber city (lucky you), or you have a local provider offering fiber in your area, get it. Congrats, you now have the speed to do everything you can imagine with your new systems, maybe even travel through time.
The rest of us are stuck with less-than-ideal speeds. At least Sony has kinda, sorta addressed the issue. In a huge PlayStation 4 FAQ released last week, they had this to say about the bandwidth-heavy PS4 to Vita remote play:
Remote Play will work best when the PS Vita system is located within the same WiFi network where PS4 is connected. We also recommend that PS4 be connected to the local area network via an Ethernet cable, that a router suitable for gaming be used and that the PS Vita system be within close proximity of the WiFi access point so that the connection is free of interference.
They recommend plugging your wireless game system into your router, with a wire. Hooray for the next generation! Still, it’s at least an acknowledgement that some of that cool stuff they show at press conferences and in commercials might not actually work that way at home.
What can you do about it?
Move to South Korea (they’re at the top of that Pando Networks Global Internet Speed list, and it doesn’t seem like that will change soon). If that’s not an option, make sure to check the availability of fiber in your area. If Verizon and Google aren’t there, sometimes local providers offer it. AT&T does too, but the coverage areas is so small they don’t even advertise it.
If you can’t do any of that, you can upgrade your existing connection. I’d recommend bumping up to at least 15 Mbps. You’ll be in the same range as me, which means you’ll still experience some occasional wireless woes, but at least you won’t be breaking your budget (I pay around $55 a month).
If you can’t do any of that, you can upgrade your existing connection. I’d recommend bumping up to at least 15 Mbps. You’ll be in the same range as me, which means you’ll still experience some occasional wireless woes, but at least you won’t be breaking your budget (I pay around $55 a month).
Finally you can upgrade your router to a wireless N dual band router; this is the one I use. Having two frequencies should help lighten the load and keep things running smoothly. Of course if you don’t have many devices that use wireless N, an upgrade wouldn’t make much difference
Don’t wanna spend any money? You can do as Sony suggests and plug your system directly into the router. Or just remember to shut off all wireless devices that could cause interference when you don’t need them on. It’s best to get your network ready now. The new consoles are on their way — the PS4 just two days away, and the Xbox One nine days away. You don’t need that Day One patch taking any longer than it needs to.
— Austin Light
