the speeds are fine but the latency issues i have keep me from playing games online with friends was wondering if that can get fixed somehow
Hi, @Stevethepossum19,
Unfortunately, any fast-paced game that involves playing with other people in real time over the internet could have issues on Viasat, or on any satellite internet. That’s because satellite has higher latency, or “ping,” than ground-based internet.
Mobile games, single-player games, or certain multiplayer games that don’t rely on split-second reactions will generally work best.
(Posting my message to this thread as well. I’m posting wherever poor Pings are mentioned. So I apologize if you come across my posting several times!)
I searched for internet providers to help my girlfriend get better service in remote Missouri. The advertising for Viasat sounded good. However, like the OP of this thread, my gf experiences pings of over 600ms. This makes pages w/ many pictures impossible to load (many pings; one for each pic). It makes general browsing a chore. Streaming works once all of the choices have been made. But each choice incurs a lag. She can’t stand using Viasat and usually uses her current dialup DSL that I was trying to get her switched off of. That has 10X less download and upload but still functions better because the ping is 10X better (lower than Viasat).
Viasat does not mention this terrible ping in any of its advertising. It was impossible to find this statistic in any of their literature. I find it somewhat dishonest when coupled with their rule that locks you in for 24 months if you don’t cancel by 24 hours. How are you supposed to know how the service works unless you try it out through all of the days of the week and try it out after your high speed runs out and you are kicked to standard data? If the company had a good product and they were confident in it then they would stand by it and give you the ability to cancel anytime (or at least give you a month to see how it works for your particular location).
It seems like their satellites are just further out than something like StarLink and the ping is really unbearable. Shame on this company for locking folks in knowing this fact and not being forthright and open about this aspect of their product. If they keep up with this dishonesty, likely time will tell with a class action lawsuit. But it may take 10 years for it to happen. But I believe crooks like the top brass of this company are found out in the long run. I just feel for the individuals working for the company like those who have to try to respond to these complaints and find any reasonable excuse to preserve the reputation and keep the money coming in while mollifying dissatisfied customers with redirection and obfuscation tactics. Shame on Viasat!
–Josh
Public note to admins, we are keeping track of @Josh_Stuart’s issue in this thread: Ping causing internet issues