Pyong Kawaguchi
February 4th, 2008, 06:55 PM
Originally posted on Bungie.net by TVI Mr Smith http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=17088009&postRepeater1-p=1
So lately quite a few people have been banned from matchmaking. Some of them for cheating, and some because they had a crappy connection.
But at least some of the people who complained and insisted that they didn't cheat must be telling the truth? Stands to reason? So why were they banned? Especially as nearly every one said "But I have High Speed Internet from xxxx provider ! "
Well, as crazy as it may seem, 'High Speed' doesn't actually mean much when it comes to gaming. To understand why you need to know a few important facts. So here goes-
1)
Halo3 doesn't actually use that much 'speed' ,or bandwidth, as it's more correctly known. Truth is, even if you are hosting a BTB with all 16 players you will not use more than about 512k up or down at any given time. So even a 1Mbs connection could easily host a BTB.
2)
Halo, and indeed most Xbox Live games, do not use the same type of connection as your web browser. If you are reading this on a computer then the information that makes up this page was sent to your computer using small packets of data via a 'mailing system' called TCP. Just like a regular mail system, if a packet gets lost the receiver can tell the sender "oops, I missed that one, can you send another one ?", and it does, so the page you get is complete and without gaps.
But Halo doesn't work like that. The packets of data are sent out just the same way.. but if the receiver doesn't get one there is no way to replace it ! This is because it uses a different 'mail system' called UDP. And it doesn't allow for re-sending stuff. So if the information gets lost.. it stays lost ! This, somewhat unsurprisingly, is known as 'packet loss', which is the proper technical definition of the phrase 'lag'.
So what does this have to do with the banhammer?
Well, because Halo doesn't use the same type of connection as your web browser any assumptions you make about it's performance whilst browsing the web will be based on the wrong thing.
How many packets you can send isn't really important (see 1), it's how many of the ones you do send that actually get to the other end thats the crucial factor. Because you cant re-send them !
In other words, it's the quality of delivery that matters more than the quantity or 'speed'.
It also means it's entirely possible to have a 'high speed' connection with loads of packet loss. Something the unfortunate people who got banned have now found out...because loads of packet loss is exactly the same as standby !
Recon Number 54 summed it up quite nicely the other day-
And getting high-bandwidth reports can lead to a false sense of security that the quality of the connection is good.
In some cases, having more bandwidth can somewhat hide the fact that there are problems with latency and dropped packets. By "overcoming" those problems with just more traffic. Which while it can make some applications like web-surfing seem reliable and better, it doesn't fix anything when using a time-dependant network application (like gaming).
So don't assume that just because your internet connection is labled 'high speed' or that it actually seems to be good for browsing that it's ok for Halo. Because 'high speed' and high quality are not always the same thing !
Told you it was crazy :-)
Further reading-
http://www.myspeed.com/whitepapers/qos_matters.html (http://www.myspeed.com/whitepapers/qos_matters.html)
So lately quite a few people have been banned from matchmaking. Some of them for cheating, and some because they had a crappy connection.
But at least some of the people who complained and insisted that they didn't cheat must be telling the truth? Stands to reason? So why were they banned? Especially as nearly every one said "But I have High Speed Internet from xxxx provider ! "
Well, as crazy as it may seem, 'High Speed' doesn't actually mean much when it comes to gaming. To understand why you need to know a few important facts. So here goes-
1)
Halo3 doesn't actually use that much 'speed' ,or bandwidth, as it's more correctly known. Truth is, even if you are hosting a BTB with all 16 players you will not use more than about 512k up or down at any given time. So even a 1Mbs connection could easily host a BTB.
2)
Halo, and indeed most Xbox Live games, do not use the same type of connection as your web browser. If you are reading this on a computer then the information that makes up this page was sent to your computer using small packets of data via a 'mailing system' called TCP. Just like a regular mail system, if a packet gets lost the receiver can tell the sender "oops, I missed that one, can you send another one ?", and it does, so the page you get is complete and without gaps.
But Halo doesn't work like that. The packets of data are sent out just the same way.. but if the receiver doesn't get one there is no way to replace it ! This is because it uses a different 'mail system' called UDP. And it doesn't allow for re-sending stuff. So if the information gets lost.. it stays lost ! This, somewhat unsurprisingly, is known as 'packet loss', which is the proper technical definition of the phrase 'lag'.
So what does this have to do with the banhammer?
Well, because Halo doesn't use the same type of connection as your web browser any assumptions you make about it's performance whilst browsing the web will be based on the wrong thing.
How many packets you can send isn't really important (see 1), it's how many of the ones you do send that actually get to the other end thats the crucial factor. Because you cant re-send them !
In other words, it's the quality of delivery that matters more than the quantity or 'speed'.
It also means it's entirely possible to have a 'high speed' connection with loads of packet loss. Something the unfortunate people who got banned have now found out...because loads of packet loss is exactly the same as standby !
Recon Number 54 summed it up quite nicely the other day-
And getting high-bandwidth reports can lead to a false sense of security that the quality of the connection is good.
In some cases, having more bandwidth can somewhat hide the fact that there are problems with latency and dropped packets. By "overcoming" those problems with just more traffic. Which while it can make some applications like web-surfing seem reliable and better, it doesn't fix anything when using a time-dependant network application (like gaming).
So don't assume that just because your internet connection is labled 'high speed' or that it actually seems to be good for browsing that it's ok for Halo. Because 'high speed' and high quality are not always the same thing !
Told you it was crazy :-)
Further reading-
http://www.myspeed.com/whitepapers/qos_matters.html (http://www.myspeed.com/whitepapers/qos_matters.html)