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Diablo 3 Day I Pitstop: How’s your Internet Connection?

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

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Mostly Everything

The Internet you CAN’T have

Skeptical? 112MBPS from Sky Broadband is a connection available for residential areas. The catch? You can’t have it unless you own a unit in Rockwell. Also, it costs roughly PHP 20,000.00 a month to keep this line. Yesterday, the Sky Broadband team didn’t have anything exciting to download as torrents were not permitted. Typical.

So I went ahead and downloaded (and updated) Steam, which took as long as downloading a photo and then proceeded to download Portal which was a 5GB file. Based on the actual speed test that day, I was able to download the entire game in 20 minutes. In perspective, it usually takes me an entire day or two to download a typical 5-8GB game digitally and my connection, which is also a Sky Boradband line never hits 1MBPS.

Another perspective, the 112MBPS may not be true. I’m only getting 8.1MBPS (which is still fast — teehee!)

Here are screen shots I took while having lunch with Freya Santos and Jec Cunanan from the Bayan Telecommunications team:

TIME STAMP: 12:46:27

TIME STAMP: 12:54:41

TIME STAMP: 13:04:46

TIME STAMP: 13:06:01

I think this is bad ass marketing. It’s FAST INTERNET and YOU can’t have it. If you want one you’ll have to buy a loft or live at the Hidalgo Bldg in Rockwell. Oh and if that’s not enough you still have to shell out 20k. Bad. Ass. None of that “hey this is the fastest Internet and it’s only this cheap BLAH BLAH BLAH.”

Fast Internet costs money folks.

Footnote: This actually makes Powerplant Mall the best “tambayan” for free WiFi.