Choosing between different ISPs and packages can be difficult if you aren’t aware of the various advantages and limitations associated with each product.
This can be an even bigger problem for gamers, who strive to obtain stable pings whilst demanding high data usage.
There are a few internet packages which are supposedly aimed at gamers, and some products which claim to prioritise gaming over other internet traffic.
We asked a few of South Africa’s ISPs to explain some of their products which claim to prioritise gaming traffic, here’s what they had to say:
OpenWeb
We have our Home Uncapped PLUS package that prioritizes Gaming and Streaming 24 / 7.
Our shaping system has identified thousands of popular gaming networks and sites.
We place priority on the Gaming category, which tells the shaping system to deal with Gaming traffic before other traffic for users on the PLUS account.
The same applies for our Uncapped Fibre accounts.
Webafrica
We have services which are optimised to perform well for gaming.
We have a range called Home Pro which prioritises gaming (and other) traffic – this is available over ADSL and the Openserve Fibre backbone.
If you’re a private fibre backbone customer of ours (Vumatel, Fibrehoods, Frogfoot, Octotel), you’re in luck because we don’t shape these accounts at all, and therefore the gaming experience is usually off the charts.
Mweb
Gaming traffic receives the highest priority across our network . Other factors that can affect experience include the type of game being played and the location of the servers.
MWEB has invested in a number of servers that host games locally, which also improves the overall experience.
We offer a range of Uncapped Unshaped Products which will offer the most amount of flexibility in terms of managing bandwidth resources.
Since gaming receives the highest priority on our full product set, these products would be ideal for the advanced bandwidth user.
Cybersmart
There are service providers advertising unshaped services with priority given to gaming, which does not make sense.
You can’t prioritize one protocol over another without shaping it. After the latest IPC price reduction our services are truly unshaped, meaning every protocol has equal priority.
Another point is that you only have to prioritize traffic in overly-contended environments. If there is spare capacity available, prioritizing does not improve performance.
We don’t prioritise any traffic, because we have an excess of IPC capacity at the moment and our services are unshaped.
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Why is Crystal Web never interviewed/mentioned? I have been with all the big players and I have NEVER had anything better than the Crystal Web home premium account. And their live chat support is phenomenal. I never had to be kept on hold and any queries I had was answered within 5 mins. I will always recommend Crystal Web to anyone who asks. No, I do not work for them. I am just grateful that we finally have a company that works as advertised in RSA where substandard has become the accepted norm. Keep it up CW.