Desktop Gaming Precision
SOHOware Plug-n-Switch(TM) and Fast Ethernet gaming desktop PC chosen by leading web site for ease of installation, speed, and dependability. The officials at Battle Command, the group that manages the internationally recognized Planet Quake Web site for players of the game Quake, recently conducted in-house testing to determine the leading Fast Ethernet LAN (local area network) solution to network multiple PCs.
NDC's SOHOware Fast Ethernet system, which consists of a SOHOware Plug-n-Switch 10/100Mbps autosensing switch and SOHOware Fast Ethernet LAN adapter card, was selected over several other competitive products. According to the president of Battle Command, “NDC's SOHOware Fast Ethernet system was the easiest to install, the fastest, and the most dependable of all the products that we tested.”
When playing an interactive game that requires a tremendous level of skill and exact timing, every millisecond literally counts. Computer users who are serious about the games that they play are always searching for newer and better ways to play, and in virtually every case that means finding computer and networking systems that are faster and more responsive. For Battle Command, the SOHOware Fast Ethernet system delivered the fastest game play and the least lag time due to network traffic.
“We are very pleased to be chosen by a leading PC gaming entity such as Planet Quake as its official network product provider,” said vice president of business development for NDC. “Their selection validates the superior performance, usability, and reliability of our SOHOware product line for PC gaming applications.” For many skilled PC gamers, playing intricate games such as Quake over the Internet is becoming a difficult proposition due to the variation in the pinging that occurs during an Internet connection. This pinging checks to ensure that the line is still active. Two opposing players can experience as much as a 100-millisecond difference between pings, meaning that the faster-pinging gamer may see and react to a game event up to a tenth of a second faster than the slower-pinging gamer. While this variation in pinging may seem inconsequential to a layperson, for a skilled player who is acting on instinct and reflex, it can be the difference between winning and losing. “It can be extremely frustrating when two evenly skilled players are on an uneven playing field because of the difference in pinging. Superior players can easily lose to less-experienced ones just due to their inability to react as quickly,” Ratcliff noted. To eliminate this ping-variation issue and other Internet-related problems (e.g., data packet loss), Planet Quake highly recommends playing Quake over a LAN. According to Ratcliff, “Once you start playing on a LAN, the game is completely different. Your game is taken to a whole new level.” In considering which LAN network solution to recommend to Quake users, Planet Quake assessed several retail Fast Ethernet network packages for their ease of installation, documentation, performance, data integrity, and technical support.
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