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How to get the lowest latency?

Giorgio

Regular Member
Hey folks,

Say I wanted the absolute lowest ping/latency I can get.

I know, even for online gaming, anything under 30-40ms isn't going to make a difference unless I'm a top 1% player (and even then). But for the same reason we still want multi-gig speeds: cause why not!
Difference is, for higher speeds it's usually pretty linear: pay more, get more. Latency is not as straightforward.

I have a few questions I would like to ask you folks:
  • Which ISPs usually have the best latency when gaming? I've heard TalkTalk being thrown around, any others?
  • On the flipside, are there any that should be avoided? cough Vodafone cough Virgin
  • Does the underlying "first-mile" network (OR, CityFibre...) make a difference?
  • For FTTP, does the fibre distance to the exchange matter? Or does it travel at near-light speeds anyway?
  • This website shows a table of every ISP and how many "routes" they have to other networks (eg internet backbones). Does more routes usually mean lower latency, since there are more paths to choose from?
  • Finally, if I have money to burn, is a leased line better? Has anyone noticed a difference?
I want to make this a general guide/info dump, not about me specifically. I've spent much time searching through individual messages on various threads for info, I thought it would be useful to have a central place to consolidate some of the info :)
 
Do you actually notice latency differences when gaming? I think its deviation thats likely to be the bigger issue rather than base latency.

However on the subject of base latency I dont think there is a one size fits all answer, its going to depend on where you are in the country and the routing you get from that location, as an example for me any isp using BT wholesale will give me the highest base latency, talk talk lower then that, virgin media also lower, and on on Cityfibre I seem to have crazy good latency, but that might not be the same in a different region.

Some ISPs have multiple hand over points which can lead to inconsistency between login sessions. Vodafone and Zen as examples.
 
  • Does the underlying "first-mile" network (OR, CityFibre...) make a difference?
Not in itself. I don't know how centralised CityFibre or other altnets are, but Openreach only handles the bit between your home and (typically) the nearest large telephone exchange - so that's just a few additional miles if rural but that's at more or less the speed of light anyway. Your ISP (or their chosen wholesale provider) then has to take it the rest of the way and that's where any real differences in latency will arise.

As an anecdote - I have FTTC and FTTP lines in the same town on BT via Openreach. The difference in latency is like 1ms at best.
  • For FTTP, does the fibre distance to the exchange matter? Or does it travel at near-light speeds anyway?
As above, not in any meaningful way.
Finally, if I have money to burn, is a leased line better? Has anyone noticed a difference?
Probably the textbook example of diminishing returns - it might be lower latency in general, you'll certainly benefit from having a point to point fibre connection & not sharing a PON network with others (ie your ONT won't have to wait those precious microseconds to be able to transmit) and of course if you're using it for profitable endeavours then the service level agreement will be superior to any consumer service. I doubt it's worth the money unless you're some professional level esports type. You will at least be able to download games faster at say 10G :)
 
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i can help you with low ping, but depends on how bad you want LOW LATENCY XD @Giorgio
 
A lot of this will depend on your location, the topology of your ISP and you almost certainly won't get a straight-forward answer out of most ISPs without just trying it yourself.

For example, my old IDnet connection via Openreach FTTP would always terminate my PPPoE session down in London because that is the only place they had a presence, so the first-hop latency from NE England was always 12ms RTT and there was nothing I could do to lower it. Many Openreach-based ISPs will work the same way but some might terminate in Manchester instead depending on your location.

My current Netomnia/YouFibre connection is much lower across the board (~3ms RTT to Cloudflare for example) but there's no PPPoE and it looks like the first few hops are genuinely local to here, so it would seem there is less tromboning up and down the country to reach an actual internet exchange/peering point.
 
Hey folks,

Say I wanted the absolute lowest ping/latency I can get.

I know, even for online gaming, anything under 30-40ms isn't going to make a difference unless I'm a top 1% player (and even then). But for the same reason we still want multi-gig speeds: cause why not!
Difference is, for higher speeds it's usually pretty linear: pay more, get more. Latency is not as straightforward.

I have a few questions I would like to ask you folks:
  • Which ISPs usually have the best latency when gaming? I've heard TalkTalk being thrown around, any others?
  • On the flipside, are there any that should be avoided? cough Vodafone cough Virgin
  • Does the underlying "first-mile" network (OR, CityFibre...) make a difference?
  • For FTTP, does the fibre distance to the exchange matter? Or does it travel at near-light speeds anyway?
  • This website shows a table of every ISP and how many "routes" they have to other networks (eg internet backbones). Does more routes usually mean lower latency, since there are more paths to choose from?
  • Finally, if I have money to burn, is a leased line better? Has anyone noticed a difference?
I want to make this a general guide/info dump, not about me specifically. I've spent much time searching through individual messages on various threads for info, I thought it would be useful to have a central place to consolidate some of the info :)

 
The latency I got to some servers in London:

Sky FTTC (poor quality cable) 21-24ms
BT FTTP 15-18ms
Fibrus FTTP 14-16ms
 
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Sky's ADSL here at least (up to 24mb/2down) - never actually see it, ping is roughly 7ms-11ms unless there's activity and then it can jump feasibly, that's mostly down to the fact of old router, as well as it being adsl as well though, even the better standard of adsl at that.

Not directly in london for that either, actually around 70-80 miles from.

Thought I'd contribute anyway (even though it's sort of pointless given the fact adsl is pretty much dead now)
 
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