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It begins: COX internet now has a "gamer" tier of internet that lowers latency

J-Wood

J-Wood

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,749
We all kept saying net neutrality was very important. Our idiots in government kept saying it was fine we didn't need it. Now, here we are. Cox just announced an "elite gamer" service where you can pay $19.99 a month for a "priority fast lane" that gives you lower latency for your games. This is complete bullshit, and is proof of very bad things that could start happening to the internet.

Fortunately I don't have COX available where I live, but does anyone else here? Are you getting this marketed to you?

If you try to go to their site for info, it won't show if the service isn't available, but someone on reddit posted the screen caps of all the info.

V2FPDNH.jpg
 
Dest

Dest

Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
14,038
Work
Oh man, now Cox is tryna get on the WTFast bullshit train? bwuahah
Even if it does work you need a reliable connection to begin with. When I had Cox I had INTERNET like 60-70% of the time it was awful.
 
Lump

Lump

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,959
I'm surprised the upload is still capped relatively low for a gamer tier - I figure they would want to appeal to "stream your game at higher bitrate" crowd to underscore the value.
 
Qwark

Qwark

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,017
Gross, lol at "compatible with top PC games"... like it's internet, of course it's compatible.

$19.99/month actually sounds pretty cheap for good internet though, is that the actual cost or is it another fee on top of the monthly?
 
oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,014
UK
Wow

Being asked to pay for online play on consoles pretty much pushed me into SP offline games only, but things like this will only make online play even less appealing to me

I wonder how this will impact Stadia and their competitors
 
Sheepinator

Sheepinator

Member
Jul 25, 2018
27,941
Who couldn't foresee things like this happening? Including that clown Ajit Pai and his boss Trump.

ajit_pai_baauer_harlem_shake.0.gif
 

Deleted member 36578

Dec 21, 2017
26,561
Oh come the hell on. Much like the faster tier internet providers try to pass off I'm betting you don't even always get the speeds they promise.
 

Deleted member 45765

Banned
Jul 10, 2018
1,050
network engineer here, this is particularly annoying knowing that the gear they have on the back end is far and away more than enough bandwidth to give everyone these speeds, multiple times over, at no additional cost to them since the gear is already in place.
 
1-D_FE

1-D_FE

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,252
Dest said:
Oh man, now Cox is tryna get on the WTFast bullshit train? bwuahah
Even if it does work you need a reliable connection to begin with. When I had Cox I had INTERNET like 60-70% of the time it was awful.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It ain't gonna work so much as if you don't pay the 19.99, they're gonna fuck with you. Don't want your connection fucked with, pay us money.
 
Nemesis Warlock

Nemesis Warlock

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,205
uhh.. not quite. this is just an ISP doing what WTFast, Pingzapper, haste.net and Outfox do. it just reduces the number of bounces your connection has to take to get to a server.

Mind you, this needs a reliable connection to start with, and performance is... Variable. for some it's amazing, for others it's useless.

not a fastlane, this has existed for a while.

it'll happen though....
 

Deleted member 8860

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,525
Qwark said:
Gross, lol at "compatible with top PC games"... like it's internet, of course it's compatible.

$19.99/month actually sounds pretty cheap for good internet though, is that the actual cost or is it another fee on top of the monthly?
Click to expand...
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It's on top of the regular bandwidth-based monthly subscription fee.
 
Phawx

Phawx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
365
For those that aren't aware, paying to go onto an express lane provided by a CDN or other carrier is a legit business and offering it can be worthwhile.

I don't know what implementation that they are using, I am presuming they are piggy-backing on other networks to reduce the amount of hops you take.

There is a cost. It's not an artificial charge. And for businesses it can be quite expensive.
 
LumberPanda

LumberPanda

Member
Feb 3, 2019
6,325
So, this is $15 a month (on top of your already existing COX bill) just to not be throttled?

Amazing.
 
Dest

Dest

Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
14,038
Work
Phawx said:
For those that aren't aware, paying to go onto an express lane provided by a CDN or other carrier is a legit business and offering it can be worthwhile.

I don't know what implementation that they are using, I am presuming they are piggy-backing on other networks to reduce the amount of hops you take.

There is a cost. It's not an artificial charge. And for businesses it can be quite expensive.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is true, and if it were anyone other than Cox I'd take this to have some form of credibility, but having had Cox at home once and having Cox at work I can verify that their network is shit regardless of any premium addons you can have for their network. It's stunning seeing as Verizon for both home and business was cheaper and the fact that there was next to 0 need for any package bumps to get a far superior experience to anything Cox offers.
 
Sheepinator

Sheepinator

Member
Jul 25, 2018
27,941
brokeastronaut said:
Oh come the hell on. Much like the faster tier internet providers try to pass off I'm betting you don't even always get the speeds they promise.
Click to expand...
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The ad states "Compared to standard Cox internet up to 34% less lag and up to 55% fewer ping spikes". Of course "up to" doesn't really mean anything, but they're still selling a fast lane and a slow lane.
 
Evildeadhead

Evildeadhead

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,667
That's a pretty shitty internet connection you've got there, would be a shame if something happens to it.
 
_ifigured

_ifigured

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,301
the problem with this nation is the gamers. they aren't patriotic enough. if they all pay more and get that competitive advantage, then america will be great.
 
ShapeDePapa

ShapeDePapa

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,936
I still can't believe that it's cheaper to get Gigabit internet in Canada then in some place in the US. I mean I could get Bell Fibe for 80$/month.
 

Deleted member 3010

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,974
This will be interesting once gaming via streaming will become mainstream, the loss of net neutrality will come at a high price.
 

Deleted member 36578

Dec 21, 2017
26,561
Sheepinator said:
The ad states "Compared to standard Cox internet up to 34% less lag and up to 55% fewer ping spikes". Of course "up to" doesn't really mean anything, but they're still selling a fast lane and a slow lane.
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This to not the future I want to live in or the things I want to deal with.
 
MJnR

MJnR

Member
Mar 13, 2019
667
Another gamer product were folks have to pay premium for it? Society keeps going on I see.
 
Doctoglethorpe

Doctoglethorpe

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,214
I already have a 1ms ping on their internet what does this even do lmao

Oh wait I know, my ping will mysteriously get shittier soon.
 
Phawx

Phawx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
365
Dest said:
This is true, and if it were anyone other than Cox I'd take this to have some form of credibility, but having had Cox at home once and having Cox at work I can verify that their network is shit regardless of any premium addons you can have for their network. It's stunning seeing as Verizon for both home and business was cheaper and the fact that there was next to 0 need for any package bumps to get a far superior experience to anything Cox offers.
Click to expand...
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Sure this is absolutely fair. I have thankfully never had to deal with Cox but I have heard horror stories.

Just as an addendum, for people who may not fully grasp what's involved, Akamai (a CDN) offers this type of service to businesses and should help clarify how it would actually work:

https://developer.akamai.com/legacy/learn/Optimization/SureRoute.html
 
Demacabre

Demacabre

Member
Nov 20, 2017
2,058
And this is why government oversight on corporations isn't needed cause they work in the best interest of the consumer. Thanks republicans. Thanks everyone who supported this.

Surely they won't start throttling other internet plans.

Here's the funny. There will still be some asshole on here that will defend this or spin this where poor Cox has to do this or how this is good for all of us, we just don't know it.
 
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M.J.

M.J.

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,059
Taking advantage of ignorant people with disposable income. Pretty solid business strat.

The cable/internet monopoly situation in the USA sucks buttholes.
 
SapientWolf

SapientWolf

Member
Nov 6, 2017
6,565
Yeah, I saw an offer for this. The supported games are going up on www.coxgamer.com, which doesn't exist yet. First thing I thought of was how the lack of net neutrality laws might be making it all possible.

edit: It just went live today, wow.
 
Stop It

Stop It

Bad Cat
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,349
Am I reading this wrong or does it actually involve things *outside* of their network?

Peering and routing protocols often goes through the cheapest route possible through Peers like Level 3. This is a tier that essentially that's for better routing after the traffic leaves their network.

Essentially, you're paying for what should be standard but isn't any more.
 

Deleted member 18379

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,165
Looks like I will continue to avoid online gaming. As if the "playful banter" of being called slurs and general harassment wasn't enough to deter me already.
 
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