Best ISP for online gaming

NeillB

Whats the best ISP for online gaming (apart from BT as I am moving away from them)? Thanks in advance.

Nilrem

No single ISP will be "best" for online gaming for everyone, everywhere, for all games unfortunately. I used to get a great ping to one online game (13ms) but another one of the same type gave me something like 50-250ms slower pings than some of my friends because the game servers were in Europe and the peering was very unfavourable at time with my ISP (so it took a longer route, several times doing a double transatlantic round trip as it would go from London to the US, to Europe and back).

Some people might find X is great for Game1 in one area, but terrible in another, or that the ping is great but there is packet loss..

If you know anyone in your street who plays games it may be worth asking them what ISP they use and how they find it.

Generally most ADSL and cable ISP's these days should in theory be ok for online gaming, as long as their not over subscribed or having issues, at least for anyone who isn't a massively competitive ("pro" level) gamer.

Personally I've stuck with NTL/VM for the last 15+ years because most of the time it's been good for my uses, which include online gaming, whilst I've seen friends chase the elusive perfect gaming ISP and never find it

One thing I would say when choosing a gaming ISP, don't just go for the cheapest with a good ping.