Playstation Network Workaround...?

[dreighver]

Like Carnage said, something like a MiFi from verizon would do it just fine (provided you have 4G coverage in the dorms). A 5GB limit might be a little tight though, depending on what games you're playing and how long you play them for.

My service provider is nTelos, which is company based in Virginia.

I believe I only have 3G, although I'm not entirely familiar with my plan and capabilities.

As for games, I would be playing an occasional online FPS, but the majority of my gaming would consist of head-to-head games of NCAA Football 14, and head-to-head games of Madden.

You know what they say about assumptions...

Color me cynical, but I struggle to see any other reason the university would do this. I understand that online gaming eats a lot of bandwidth, but many large universities don't restrict their students in such a way, and they don't seem to be melting to the ground.

 

[Yevrag35]

If you have a smart phone, you could run a speed test on it to determine your 3G (as it varies in speed depending on signal strength). I would say it would be pretty useless to play FPS shooters on a download signal less than 5mbps (way too much lag). 3G typically peaks at 2mbps download.

 

[dreighver]

Sounds good. I'll have to test my 3G speed when I get there, but I'll see where I'm at then, and decide which method is preferable.

 

[carnageX]

Color me cynical, but I struggle to see any other reason the university would do this. I understand that online gaming eats a lot of bandwidth, but many large universities don't restrict their students in such a way, and they don't seem to be melting to the ground.

Large universities can also afford more pipes in. Smaller to midsize universities can only afford a few pipes for internet, or slower bandwidth. They have to take those 1 or 2 pipes in, and distribute it to multiple buildings, all with hundreds of systems. The more they have to split that bandwidth, the slower it is for everyone on campus.

The university doesn't have to accommodate for these needs. They are extras that are not specifically necessary for students to do university related functions (homework, email, etc.).

 

[dreighver]

Large universities can also afford more pipes in. Smaller to midsize universities can only afford a few pipes for internet, or slower bandwidth. They have to take those 1 or 2 pipes in, and distribute it to multiple buildings, all with hundreds of systems. The more they have to split that bandwidth, the slower it is for everyone on campus.

The university doesn't have to accommodate for these needs. They are extras that are not specifically necessary for students to do university related functions (homework, email, etc.).

The university I'm attending is fairly large, with 18k+ students, I believe. May be well over 20k.

 

[carnageX]

The university I'm attending is fairly large, with 18k+ students, I believe. May be well over 20k.

That's not really that large. That's midsize, IMO.

I am going (almost done with) a university with around 12-13k students on campus, and more taking online courses. The network was horrible in the dorms in the evenings because everybody was in their rooms playing videogames, streaming Netflix/Youtube, and everything else like that on top of trying to do homework related things.

I'm just telling you from my experience of working IT in a university setting, what the background is like. You can ***** to them all you want, and they will just get annoyed with you on their end. We all sure did when users did stuff like that when things were out of our control.

 

[Lexluethar]

dreighver - in order to afford better switches, routers and core network components they need money. Not sure if you pay for college yourself, your parents are paying or if you have grants but with the raising costs of tuition how do you think the university board is going to feel about your IT department asking for 4 millions dollars to upgrade core network components as well as ISP bandwidth so people can play games? With that said, how much tuition does cost i agree they can afford some of these aspects but everything costs money, and how much tuition is i doubt they will allow a raise of say 15 bucks a credit hour to accommodate this. I agree with your principle though - but its more complicated then just 'saving money.' That stuff costs millions of dollars and i seriously doubt they can increase budgetary items just for PS network. The saying I love is "speed costs, how fast do you want to go?"


With a 3 or 4 G hotspot you could do this - but those costs around $50 a month and they ARE NOT unlimited data. Usually they cap you around 1.5 to 2gb data, and depending on what you play you'll blow through that in a weekend.