Dad who needs help

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Listy

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Wannabe Geek

#37522 14-Jul-2009 15:57

Hi,

My son has asked for a pc in his room so he can download music and play online games.
We live in Paeroa and i need help deciding on the best broadband provider and which data cap
to get,he thinks about 10gb/mnth. Another problem i have is he hasn't got a phoneline in his
room, would it be better for me to purchase a wireless modem as i have a p.c in my study
or get someone to put a line into his room.He is particulary interested in something called world of warcraft.

Any help or advice you can offer would be great

cheers

xpd

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#235215 14-Jul-2009 16:07

Gaming + wireless = pontential issues with lag/dropouts. Best to stick to wired cables on the machine the gaming is occuring. Lag with World Of Warcraft isnt the best from NZ no matter which provider you go with really.

If you get a "full" install done, Telecom/whoever will put the socket where ever you like (within reason). However they charge for this approx $250 IIRC.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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insane

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#235285 14-Jul-2009 18:24

Well at the same time you might want to go with an ISP that offers some kind of P0rn filter too like Watchdog or Maxnet as there are others things that boys like doing in their room with a PC besides WoW...

xpd

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#235326 14-Jul-2009 20:02

Nah, WoW players dont have time for anything else except WoW :)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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Ragnor

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#235424 14-Jul-2009 23:25

In my opinion the best 3 ISP's currently for peak time internet performance are Telecom (regular plans not Big Time), Telstra and Maxnet.

I don't believe Telecom lets you get interleaving turned off on most of their lower usage plans (only on Pro or Big Time). Interleaving is basically a form of legacy error correction for ADSL connections, it adds a lot of overhead. Having interleaving off has a positive effect on latency and ping times in games.

So that leaves Telstra or Maxnet, I'll leave researching which is going to better value for phone+internet upto you, there sites are:

http://www.telstraclear.co.nz/residential/
http://www.maxnet.co.nz/connectivity/home_dsl/broadband_plans.php

Regarding World of Warcraft...

On the pro side it's incredible entertainment value, it works out ~$7-9 per week for untold hours of entertainment. Much better value than say Sky TV, going to the movies etc.

On the downside I'm going to warn you it's a very immersive and addictive game. I would advise you set some strong rules (depending on how old your son is) on play times and make sure socialising, schooling, sleep and so on doesn't suffer adversely.

xpd

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#235453 15-Jul-2009 07:48

Ragnor:
On the pro side it's incredible entertainment value, it works out ~$7-9 per week for untold hours of entertainment. Much better value than say Sky TV, going to the movies etc.

On the downside I'm going to warn you it's a very immersive and addictive game. I would advise you set some strong rules (depending on how old your son is) on play times and make sure socialising, schooling, sleep and so on doesn't suffer adversely.

Agreed.

I started playing a few years ago and got hooked.... its very addictive. And Im in my 30's.
One of my friends who started playing it a few months after me dosent socialise much at all anymore, seems to goto work, come home, nuke dinner, plays the game till midnight, sleeps, back to work and so on.

One thing about it is that you feel compelled to play becuase youre paying a monthly fee for it.

Which is one reason I no longer pay to play........

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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#235548 15-Jul-2009 10:57

Like anything in life there's an element of personal responsiblity and self control involved in my opinion.

Just like drinking, gambiling or eating too much junk food and getting fat...
http://www.wikihow.com/Break-a-World-of-Warcraft-Addiction
http://wowdetox.com/about.php

If your son is fairly young I would recommend enabling parental controls:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/faq/parentalcontrols.xml
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=20484

Jughead

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#236186 16-Jul-2009 16:45

I'll make this short and sweet.

A wireless modem will do fine. I use wow and all sorts of other games using wireless and its fine. If the game runs slow its more likely to be a PC issue like video card than broadband.

Wow has a very cool parental lock feature in the account settings where you can specifiy the number of hours or the times of day you want wow to be accessible. its very easy to spend 80 hours a week on wow if you dont have a girl friend, job or wife to get in the way.

Any of the providers will work for you fine and 15yr old son is right right about 10gb, internet in room=lots of useage. But if you want the most support IMHO then Telecom is the way to go.

Finnally if you are installing a PC in your sons room you either need to install a porn free firewall or be ok with your son looking at girly pictures. In my experince there is no in between.

Any views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer Telecom NZ

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tardtasticx

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#236196 16-Jul-2009 17:16

xpd: Nah, WoW players dont have time for anything else except WoW :)

Exactly.

and on another note, my friend used to play WoW and he said the patches and updates were huge, (about 1-2GB + each) and then the constant downloading because it is a real time game. A big data allowance would be a good idea I think.

kiwiscoota

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#236275 16-Jul-2009 21:19

Jughead: I'll make this short and sweet.

A wireless modem will do fine. ........

Sure a wireless modem will work, BUT they are in different rooms and we do not know how far apart those rooms are..

tardtasticx

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#236288 16-Jul-2009 22:13

kiwiscoota:
Jughead: I'll make this short and sweet.

A wireless modem will do fine. ........

Sure a wireless modem will work, BUT they are in different rooms and we do not know how far apart those rooms are..

And we dont know what the structure of the house is made of, because differant materials make it harder for the router to penetrate (lol, penetrate) through the walls and the connection may not reach in some rare cases.