Bigfoot Networks Interview

[earthworm48]

Shacknews (http://www.shacknews.com) have posted an interview with Bigfoot CEO Harlan Beverly (http://www.shacknews.com/extras/2006/033106_bigfoot_1.x).

Bigfoot makes use of a variety of technologies collectively referred to as LLR, or Lag and Latency Reduction. The company makes a couple disclaimers about what its technology can and cannot do. It obviously cannot actually increase bandwidth, since that is dependent on your ISP. Additionally, the technology will affect each game differently.
I'm going to say that I can't see this thing doing much at all, I haven't had any problems with lag in online games since I got Broadband connection, going on 5 years now. I don't think I've ever seen people complaining about lag in online games over the last few years either.

Have you experienced lag in online games due to network connection since getting broadband?

[Liquidize105]

There's the obvious lag spikes in online games, but is that worth the money of another piece of hardware? Maybe for server farms.

[Dabombpizza]

The only lag I experience is server side. Maybe this tech can help out with the massive amount of lag WoW has been getting lately, but like Liquidize said, it would require the purchase of yet another piece of hardware. Maybe it will be integrated into upcoming ethernet cards?

[Draft]

Retarded. Unless this is tech that gets built into games (ala Punkbuster) it is destined to fail and fail hard. If this man thinks people are going to buy anti-lag cards he is out of his goddamn mind.

[Dr Quincy]

I don't think Harlan has taken into account that in the next few years we're likely to see more and more games being beamed directly into our minds on beams of light.

[mkelehan]

What's important here is that this is a guy who's making claims with literally nothing to back them up. Every time someone asks how it works, he says, "Can't say." I mean, I don't want technical documents or anything... just some sort of something to explain what's going on.

[The Continental]

I haven't had a problem with lag since I signed up for PowerPlay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPlay_%28technology%29). This Bigfoot premise looks to be equally promising and should give PowerPlay a run for its money.

[gawaintheblind]

If only they had bundled this with the Phantom, it would never have died!

[kisc]

I've had lag problems ever since moving to Winnemucca NV - small town ISP ... which I work for.

The problem is that our internet business has grown way faster than we anticipated - and that we've been paying SBC for 4 T1s, and only getting 3. On top of that, our DSL customers are coming in on the same pipe as ALL of our internet customers are going out. Feel free to do the math there, eh?

This month we've gotten all the hardware and cabling in place for a major upgrade. We'll have a DS3 in place, though only paying for 9MB. This means we'll have 9MB from DSL to the CO, 9MB from the CO to us, and another 9MB from us to the internet. Thus, my lag will go bye-bye.

Now, that fun story aside, I recommend that you don't pay for this thing. SBC/AT&T at the least, and I'm pretty sure the other big one are rolling out a new type of internet. Right now SBC/ATT are sort of beta testing it in the Austin TX area. I wish I rememberd what Mike (the guy managing our DS3 install, his wife runs the Tshirt shop next door - small town) called it, because it sounds awesome. Basically, the copper from the local switches to your house is enough to carry whatever they want it to carry, and they are in the process of upgrading the local switches, which will allow them to put 1gb to your door through your phone line, if they want. This is going to be one of those long drawn out deals, especially, I would assume, in rural areas like mine.

But I just don't see this Bigfoot thing being worth the money, even if it works the way they claim it will.

[kisc]

Oh, and has anyone used that Dlink MIMO stuff for gaming yet? I'm told it does wonders for VOIP on a shared connection, and that it SHOULD do the same thing for gaming - that is, if I'm browsing and you're playing, your stream is supposed to be prioritized over my random packets.

[Bubby]

Two words: Snake Oil.

[Cronan]

The lag problems I get are from being located in the UK, an ocean away from most of the people I play online with. For anyone who's ever played Halo2, it makes the shotgun and sword completely ineffective.

Part of this is that the UK's idea of broadband is 2Mb down and 256Kb up ... :mad: