There’s no greater annoyance than your internet cutting out in the middle of a game, particularly a competitive game like Counter-Strike where other team members count on you.
I used to live in an apartment with an awful internet connection. When it worked, it was fine, but it was plagued by two huge problems: completely sporadic dropouts once or twice a week and even worse, prolonged outages for absolutely no reason. Sometimes for a single day, sometimes a whole week.
Internet connections can be a total lottery in Sydney, with so many different factors playing into the performance. Are you in an area with NBN? Is it fibre to the node? Are you stuck with an ADSL connection? Is it made worse because your closest exchange is far away? Hell, does your house just have old wiring? All of these things play a part in the speed and reliability of a connection.
[referenced url=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/07/the-difference-between-nbn-connections-and-why-youre-stuck-with-the-one-youve-got/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/07/09/nbn-connection-ethernet-732×412.jpg” title=”The Difference Between NBN Connections and Why You’re Stuck With the One You’ve Got” excerpt=”There are seven different types of NBN connection in Australia. Knowing the differences between them all can be confusing. Many of us don’t even know which one we have at home.”]
My current place has the best connection I’ve ever had, but even that’s prone to the odd network outage from time to time. Luckily, my experience in the Internet from Hell apartment taught me how to be agile in the heat of the moment. During one particularly close competitive game of CS:GO, I was hit by one of these classic internet outages. The game froze and no one was responding to me on Discord, so I knew what was going on immediately.
For those not familiar with ranked games in CS:GO, if you drop out, you’re replaced with a bot and have just a couple of minutes to rejoin. If you don’t make it in time, you cop a competitive cooldown, meaning you won’t be able to play another competitive game for a certain amount of time, which really sucks if your pals have settled in for a big night of Counter-Strike and you’re locked out.
With only a couple of minutes to get back into the game, I had to act fast and I sure as hell didn’t trust my connection to come back in that time, so I quickly connected my smartphone to the computer and tethered it, subbing the wired connection for a mobile one. I knew CS:GO only used about 250MB per hour of online play, which wouldn’t send me over my cap, so I was good to go.
With about 20 seconds to spare, I made it back and we ended up winning. I even ranked up to Gold Nova 4, which was a nice little cherry on top at the time. I’m nowhere near that good these days, but still love a good game of CS every now and then.
I hadn’t used mobile data for gaming before and was pleasantly surprised by its speed and consistency. My ping hovered around 25ms, which is well below the acceptable 40ms – 60ms mark. Armed with this new safety net, I’ve never had to miss out on a game with my mates since. It even came in handy during prolonged outages, granted I kept an eye on my mobile usage.
Luckily, I haven’t had to utilise the old tether for a little while now, but it’s still good to know I have it just in case. Because my mobile plan is with Optus, if I do happen to cop a prolonged outage, I can get an Unlimited Data Day* add-on to my mobile plan for an additional $5, which, as the name suggests, allows me to go ham for 24 hours, which is better than paying the $10 fee for going over my cap or running out of data.
If you’re plagued by an unfortunate internet connection, look to your mobile, friends. It could save you big time.
*For use on mobile phone devices in Australia only. Fair Go Policy applies. Not for commercial use. Add on may be withdrawn from sale without notice. Full terms and conditions here.
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