If it’s one thing gamers will never compromise, it’s their Internet connection. The launch of Diablo III has prompted gamers around the country to scrutinize the quality of their Internet connectivity. As a fan myself, I really take these things seriously and no amount of marketing BS will convince me otherwise. The proof is in the pudding and it seems that not everyone is a chef.
This feedback is based on a number of qualitative feedback from friends and personal experience as well.
So far, it seems that Diablo 3 works fine with the following ISP’s
Wireless:
Smart (tethered) – I tether my MacBook with my iPhone 4s and get to play just fine. Some people prefer a fixed wireless broadband connection though.
Globe (tethered) – I get to play with Rico of Technogra.ph (he tethers using a Samsung Galaxy S II)
Wired
PLDT – Generally good. I hopped into a number of games of friends and we’re rolling seamlessly.
On another note, one ISP stands out to be the provider to avoid for Diablo III:
Sky Broadband – Woes to Sky Broadband. They really dropped the ball on this one. I used to swear by Sky publicly as the best wired connection money can buy in the country. Service has dropped to a really poor rating in the past 2 months.
Brendan outlined it all here in a comment:
Hi there,
Many many emails to Skybroadband support center regarding Blizzard downloader P2P issues and unplayable in game experience with Diablo 3 (may be DNS, but may be that they have restricted Port 1119, which Diablo 3 uses) – to no avail.
Sky simply does not respond to queries and when you call them they tell you to send an email through to support center. Its a vicious circle.
Playing it on my friends PLDT connection works perfectly.
After 2 years with Sky, seems like PLDT really is the way to go.
– Brendan
As my cousin said, ” Pre-term fee for Sky is PHP 2,000.00, Diablo 3 is priceless. If it doesn’t work at 3Mbps, I’m dropping them for (insert ISP here).” Sorry Sky Broadband. I swore by your services. I really did. But sad gamer can’t compromise.
You know what’s most interesting? My wireless tethering is faster than my ethernet connection. Why, Sky, why? Note that I write this not to smear Sky’s reputation but 2 months of your IT support not knowing what the problem is makes for really bad service. Fans have waited for Diablo III for about a decade and we absolutely need to be online to play this (there is no offline mode). So you definitely should understand why gamers feel really bad about this and need to switch. We waited 9 years for Diablo III. We absolutely can’t wait for you.
To the others: how’s your gaming experience? Add me up: LOLMOWER#1648
11 replies on “Diablo 3 Day I Pitstop: How’s your Internet Connection?”
Hi again,
Thanks for featuring my comment in your article – I guess like every other Diablo fanatic, the wait for this game was more than most of us could handle. Now that it is live, us SkyBroadband subscribers are faced with the torture of having a playable version just out of our grasp.
I have an update from SkyBroadband after finally getting through to their tech support team.
They relate that they are aware of the problem (thousands of screaming Diablo III fans made their point I think) and are working on a solution they believe will be available in 12-48 hours.
When I asked exactly what the problem was, their tech support center staff was unable to give specifics, only that they are aware and working to find a solution.
I guess the next 48 hours will decide the fate of a few thousand subscribers – I was genuine when I told them that my business may have to go elsewhere (PLDT would be my first choice) if this can’t get resolved.
Perhaps going a little too far in restricting ports and a complicated DNS environment has led to this, and hopefully changes the thinking over at SkyBroadband, but only time will tell.
All the best,
Brendan
Hi Brendan,
Thanks for this update. The irony: a lot of wireless methods to connect are so much better than wired!
No wonder I had nothing but trouble playing D3. I got an Nvidia GeForce 410m GPU and 1.5mb Sky connection, when the game loads, I can’t see any NPC, or they pop out one by one slowly.
I thought it was a problem with my GPU but after reading everything, it is evident that the issue is with latency.
I’m dropping Sky now.
hey guys on Sky,
How’s it going now? All of a sudden my D3 is working fine. Same with my brother’s net connection in P’que and my other cousin in San Antonio.
Did they finally fix it???
Hmm earlier this morning I can’t play, let me see when I get home later XD
I also complained to sky as early as monday night because I had terrible latency during the beta and wanted to make sure the connection was fine by May 15. On May 15, latency was terrible staying at nearly 3k (understandable considering the amount of people joining in at the same time).
I played D3 last night and early this morning and the latency was ~230ms from sky broadband with occasional jumps to 500+ms. I even got to play co-op with my friends without any hiccup. Hopefully, this kind of good connection from sky will be the case moving forward.
I guess there’s a lot of D3 players among sky broadband’s subscribers for them to correct it this quickly :p
Confirmed it, managed to play on the US Server and level my Demon Hunter from 1 to 14 without a single disconnect.
Kudos to Sky then. I just hope their latency is better.
The “fix” that they made is just temporary they just changed your data path profile to a different one usually fast path. But as time goes by it’ll revert back to interleave and your latency will soar through the roof.
Hi Vince,
Do you have a source that tells you this is temporary?
Sirs,
I don’t have an internet connection at home … would you know if the normal usb internet (smart bro, tatoo, etc) would work fine with D3?
Thanks!
@joseph
sometimes I use my iPhone that’s tethered to my computer (SMART).. so I guess it would if the speeds are consistent