My Sad And Terrible Story

[SwiftSpear]

This is a story of terrible terror and horror, uncomparable to any horror any person has ever seen in thier life before.

So I come to my new university, everything is peachy and nice, sure the internet is a little slow, but its workable, so I sit back and chill for a while, absolutly unaware of the terrors that aproache me.  Day by day, things get worse and worse, the internet starts freezing up now and then, but it still works most of the time, I figure they are just changing network setting around and that things will be back to normal soon.  Well they didn't go back to normal, they didn't go back to normal at all, and one day I join LM and I find that my ping is jumping wildly between 300-600.  Dispite my best attempts to play, it really wasn't fair to any one, my character would teleport around and I really couldn't get a good idea of what the heck I was doing, expecially as marine, I would be dead 80% of the time before I even saw the skulk, and when I did see him, lets just say that lag compensation wasn't exactly king to me.  So I begin my quest to find out WTHBBQ is going on.  On talking to some of the tech guys, I come to the understanding that my entire universtity is aparently running on 3 DSL lines split by a series of 8-10 switches to provide internet access for roughtly 300 computers (all the lab computers and residence computer combined, NOES) and basicly they are running so bandwidth heavy that after the first two weeks they were forced to put several (and I mean SEVERAL) bandwith filters in place.  So, right now, my internet loads at about 1/8th full speed, steam doesn't really like opening at all (and when it does, online games are out of the question), P2P downloads crawl at about the same speed that early dial up lines averaged, but somehow, HTML downloads run fine at about 50KBps.  Basicly, I am screwed, and I won't be able to play NS really at all until christmas break (unless we set up a lan party at some point, which is acctually quite likely) and after that I have to wait until summer to play again.  I hate my life  :angry:

[Satiagraha]

That is sad.

What school do you go to?

[SwiftSpear]

The Kings University Collage in Edmonton Alberta, Canada.

[GrayDuck]

OH THE HORROR!

Back in my day... our choice was dial up or no internet at all.

Kids these days, SPOILED  <_<

[SwiftSpear]

OH THE HORROR!

Back in my day... our choice was dial up or no internet at all.

Kids these days, SPOILED  <_<

[snapback]29617[/snapback]

It would be a hassle, but I could still game online with dialup, as it stands I can't do that at all ATM

[Malevolent]

Yeah that sucks compared to dial-up. I get between a 250-300 ping usually (mostly less than 300).

[Magmatron]

Welcome to my world, Swift.

[SwiftSpear]

Welcome to my world, Swift.

[snapback]29622[/snapback]

I was in your world about half a week ago, since then my uni has added even more filters.  I can't really even play any more at all, my ping will jump, compleatly at random anywhere between 300-1000, and that is assuming that steam will even load, as 90% of the time my latancy is too iffy for it to validate so it just crashes.  Right now my world thoroughly sucks.  I'm gonna be doing my best to see what can be done, but chances are they aren't going to change a precident of terrible service over the protests of one first year student.  No one else here can really be classified a gamer, the best of them are just hobbyists.

[Ulatoh]

oooooooooooooooooooooklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plaiiins, and the wind smells sweet, something waving wheat, something something something soooooooooooooooooooooooomething


at the good ol' U of O, i get 8mbps

[BobTheJanitor]

Yeah, OU's on a major backbone, we're quite lucky compared to some places. I'd suggest just getting a good 56k modem and plugging into ye olde phone plug, swifty. Sounds like your university doesn't have any idea how to handle internet for a school. You might find out what they're charging you for it on your bursar statements. Then see if you can get a class action lawsuit against them.  :p

[SwiftSpear]

Yeah, OU's on a major backbone, we're quite lucky compared to some places. I'd suggest just getting a good 56k modem and plugging into ye olde phone plug, swifty. Sounds like your university doesn't have any idea how to handle internet for a school. You might find out what they're charging you for it on your bursar statements. Then see if you can get a class action lawsuit against them.  :p

[snapback]29638[/snapback]

$100 a year, and you sign agreements for them to activate...  I could cancel but I don't know if I'd even be able to run dialup, they run the phone system through thier own dealieo and you need verification numbers to even call outside lines, so it might not even be possible.  We have a cable line in here, and I could look into that, but I don't really know if I can go that way either.

[BobTheJanitor]

Blah cable if you can get it. See how many people around you want to share it and then run a stealth wireless encrypted network. You could probably split the cost several ways and end up paying only a few bucks a month, and getting a much faster cable line.

[SwiftSpear]

Blah cable if you can get it. See how many people around you want to share it and then run a stealth wireless encrypted network. You could probably split the cost several ways and end up paying only a few bucks a month, and getting a much faster cable line.

[snapback]29662[/snapback]

Interesting indeed, I will explore the concept in further depth...

BTW, how does one arrange said 'wireless network'?

[devicenull]

You go out, get a wireless access point, set it up to use WEP and NOT BROADCAST THE SSID, also set it up to use Mac address filtering to only the people paying for it

[BobTheJanitor]

They tend to have about 300 ft of range, depending on the walls around them. Experiment and find what works. You may even be able to share it with people on higher or lower floors.  

[Dark]

here is a little help for boosting you wireless range that i stole from another forum i belong too

I used a Linksys WAP54G as the wireless access point. This wireless access point was available at the local Best Buy. I followed the instruction manual and set it up as they said. Then, I went a little further in order to get the most out of my access point. You see, the Linksys factory default transmission power setting is very low, but through hacking, it can be increased significantly, resulting in a stronger signal which covers a greater distance.

There are several ways to do this. And before I proceed, let me tell you that tampering with your access point is risky; even though your access point may be a WAP54G model, it may not necessarily be the same as another WAP54G because Linksys constantly releases newer editions (For an analogy, think of it as the difference between a 2001 Toyota Camry and a 1993 Camry. They are the same model, but different editions). There may be small differences such as different firmware version or a small difference in hardware. Also, please note that I am using the Linksys Wireless-G WAP54G model Wireless Access Point (WAP). I am not using the WRT54G Wireless Router. In case you don't know, using a Wireless Access Point means that you already have a router and network; a WAP simply bridges your existing wired network to your new wireless network. Proceed at your own risk.

I started by getting the MustDie firmware hack for my version 2 WAP54G. On this forum page there are two versions available: a version 1 hack for WAPs which come with version 1.x firmware installed and a version 2 hack for WAPs with version 2 installed by default. wireless range help

After following the directions in the thread, I went to the Advanced Wireless settings page in Linksys WebAdmin (Can't use the setup CD for this), and set the Transmission Power to 48mW (The max is 84, but going that high may cause your WAP to overheat. 48 is the most recommended). I saved the settings, and I immedietely noticed a difference. Before, my  wireless signal used to die as soon as I left the room with the access point, but now I get good signal everywhere in my house.