Cellular internet and Dreampi (PIng's not an issue with cellular)

[tripletopper]

I was looking into Sprint Cellular internet. I've had them before, between 2008-2014, and trust me, it beat the only 2 other choices for gaming I had access to: dial up, and satellite internet. The only problem is my Dreampi is a Wired DfreamPi. So there's DMZ issues.

These things are advertised as wireless bridges: https://www.ebay.com/itm/VAP11G-Wireless-Bridge-Cable-Convert-RJ45-Ethernet-Port-to-WiFi-Dongle-AP-Vonets/351903580172?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20180816085401%26meid%3Dd5654aaa723a449183af8e5d2b7f5886%26pid%3D100970%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D3%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D351903580172%26itm%3D351903580172&_trksid=p2481888.c100970.m5481&_trkparms=pageci%3A6033eb20-176d-11e9-a54d-74dbd180c791%7Cparentrq%3A48c9d8f11680ab4cafae2b73fff47540%7Ciid%3A1

I understand it's not the best router because it doesn't have ac, but when your weakest link is your network raw speed, at 1.5 Mb/s inbound, 400k outbound, you don't need to be the fastest wifi signal to survive. You need a faster internet

Some people has a misconception about cellular internet. Most people think it's satellite. Those are 2 totally different beasts. Cellular run along the ground from 100m-1km above the surface of the earth. Satellite travels 30,000 km into space and then back down to earth for our outbound message, and your inbound message has the same built in ping, even if sent to a next door neighbor. I don't care if satellite internet is 1 Tb/s that delay makes satellite not good for gaming at any speed. Cell phone is redeemable by adding less than a millisecond of delay. (in the days where 3G was prime it could add 10 ms of delay, simply because not every tower was connected to the internet, so it added a slightly longer first and last leg. I live near Cleveland and the main tower pinged from Kansas City back in 2008. 4G and LTE corrected that error and has internet linkups on every tower.)

Some people say cellular won't work with Dreamcast. It's faster than Dial Up, and if I get 4G LTE, my ping times are less than 1 ms beyond a traditional hard-wired network. If there is some other reason why Cellular won't work, like maybe you can't DMZ these bridges from a wifi device that runs off cellular, I'd like to hear it. But if the only reason is ping, rest assured that it will not effect it. Even Xbox and Nintendo say the only reason wired connections are more preferred are because they are more stable. If you can't consistently meet the minimums of 3 Mb/s in 1 Mb/s out with land-based internet, both say pick the faster cellular easily.

I've had very minor outages with Satellite TV, it was so slight that it wouldn't paying more for hard wire for just TV. i assume cellular outages are around the same order of outage frequency as Satellite outages. If that's the case, cellular outages are like 1 out of 1000 online seconds or less.

If Sprint's deal is to be believed, I'll pony up $20 and pay for the difference and get 4G LTE internet. I just want to make sure I'm not shooting myself in the foot when it comes to Dreamcast. Modern Game benefits outshine the retro benefit of DC, but it's a bonus I want to be informed about before I make a decision.

[tripletopper]

Sorry to bump, but I got no response. Is the only reason why cellular is said to not work is because of ping time, or is there another reason?

If it’s another reason, I’d like to hear it, but if it’s a ping issue, I don’t buy it.

Even in 3G times, most ping times were under 150 ms, acceptable for Xbox live.

[Wombat]

My guess is that pretty much everyone has a broadband connection nowadays and therefor have not put in the effort of experimenting with a 3G/4G connection with a DreamPi. Most likely you already have a cellular subscription with data for your phone, why not tether that to experiment if you get it up and running before getting a mobile data subscription for home.

[Aleron Ives]

It's possible, but some games do not generate enough traffic for cellular service to maintain the connection, so you'll get frequent disconnects, e.g. with PSO.

[tripletopper]

My guess is that pretty much everyone has a broadband connection nowadays and therefor have not put in the effort of experimenting with a 3G/4G connection with a DreamPi. Most likely you already have a cellular subscription with data for your phone, why not tether that to experiment if you get it up and running before getting a mobile data subscription for home.

Just barely. My maximum land based speed is 1.6 Mb/s in 400 k out. First of all I’m having a tough time finding separate modems and routers (different forum) for DSL. So i STILL can’t get it working on DSL. I’m just wondering if switching to cellular with 40 Mb/s in 20 Mb/s out would make the Dreamcast work better, or just the Xbox and Nintendo?

And I’m using it with a home device so I can hook up Xbox and Nintendo. The Dreamcast would be a bonus, but considering the community is under 1000 users, It’s not that big of a loss. But it would be nice to use it.

[tripletopper]

It's possible, but some games do not generate enough traffic for cellular service to maintain the connection, so you'll get frequent disconnects, e.g. with PSO.

What does that exactly mean? Does that mean if a lot of time goes by and there’s no network activity, you get thrown off?

Or is it that 33 kb/s in and out is too small a quantity to register as constantly connected?

My voip on Sprint 3G was fine and that required 60-90 kb/s in and out.

Is Phantasy Star Online the only game that has that issue? Are there other games with that issue?

If that’s an issue, can the Dreampi be reprogrammed to "burn more internet than necessary", just to keep the cell phone internet running and not risk a shutdown for lack of actiivity?

[Sega1Dream]

When I am out of town and bring my travel Dreamcast, I use my phones hotspot. I have only had a handful of connection issues with it, but that is usually because of poor cell service. I have don't it two ways. One is actually have the DreamPi connect to my hotspot (did this at the house prior to travel) and the other is having a router with a wireless WAN, allowing the Dreamcast to physically connect to the Ethernet port.

[tripletopper]

When I am out of town and bring my travel Dreamcast, I use my phones hotspot. I have only had a handful of connection issues with it, but that is usually because of poor cell service. I have don't it two ways. One is actually have the DreamPi connect to my hotspot (did this at the house prior to travel) and the other is having a router with a wireless WAN, allowing the Dreamcast to physically connect to the Ethernet port.

Hey @Sega1Dream, you’re saying Iif I astay at home, and home shows very strong data coverage, and the speed has to be 33k in and out only, I should get it, even on 2G?

Is your Dream Pi a wired DreamPi, or a WIFiPi? If it’s wired, I’m not connecting to a phone. instead I’m connecting to a WiFi hot spot. Will a Vonets Bridge work fine that I find on Ebay to hook my wired DreamPi to the wireless network?

Also, are there settings you have to adjust on your WiFi device to get it working with your DreamPi. It sounds like Cellular is easier than a Frontier DSL with a Netgear 7550 Gateway.

[Aleron Ives]

Or is it that 33 kb/s in and out is too small a quantity to register as constantly connected?

That's the maximum speed of the modem. In reality, you're only transferring a few hundred bytes per second most of the time. As a result, the connection gets dropped for "inactivty".

Is Phantasy Star Online the only game that has that issue?

Since all Dreamcast games were made for dialup, I doubt PSO is the only game that would experience the problem.

can the Dreampi be reprogrammed to "burn more internet than necessary", just to keep the cell phone internet running and not risk a shutdown for lack of actiivity?

As I understand it, DreamPi consists of software modifications to a Linux distro to make Dreamcast connections automatic, so surely an extra script could be added to generate extra traffic: the question is, what would the script do, and which domain would it target, to generate that extra traffic and not be detected as spam or other malicious activity by the carrier, since it would probably be some kind of repetitive action, e.g. constantly pinging a specific address.

[tripletopper]

@AleronIves is this from personal experience with cellular internet? @Sega1Dream says he uses his Dremacast in transit while someone else drives and the only disconnects he gets are in "hard to receive" areas.

So both of you. Does tis mean that if you’re parked, and using cellular network as a home network, and the charts say you get good to excellent data coverage, then are there unexpectecd dropouts that are inactivity on the DreamPi that cellular phones lose a connection where a DSL or Cable does not? Or if you receive an excellent signal, then should there be no reason, (other than a Microwave disrupting Wireless N) that you should lose connection?

As for that constant ping, maybe have an "always on" microphone and speaker, so you can add voice chat to the Dreamcast. As an added feature for those with DreamPis. It would run simultaneously with the Dreamcast Dial Up/Broadband Converter. if you’re going to burn network, do something good with it, like voice chat with it. if it’s going to benefit cellular users only, it wouldn’t be as important as it was usable by all 1000+ DC users.