gamerail.com — If you play a lot of online games, you'll love this ... the new company "GameRail" has just opened the doors on their website and is now is accepting beta sign-ups for testing of the first network ever to be optimized exclusively for online gaming. GameRail claims that they'll give you lower latency and fewer hops to any game server.
Sep 29, 2006 View in Crawl 4
bakajoeSep 29, 2006
Hope this works.
mixmastakoozSep 29, 2006
Sounds cool! I need to apply for the closed beta...
damionfurySep 30, 2006
@Software2Clearly you don't completely understand what Net Neutrality is all about. The core of Net Neutrality is centered around the preventing Tier1 networks (Like AT&T, Sprint, etc) from charging websites for the 'privilege' of being accessible. The essence being that neither you, nor me, nor any other consumer has any say in whether or not we are able to access specific websites on the Internet. GameRail appears to be a Tier2 network (Like MSN, Earthlink, AOL, etc) that provides us, the consumers, access to the Internet.If the difference between Tier1 and Tier2 networks isn't clear, allow me to make this analogy. You could look at Tier1 networks like a car company, we'll use Toyota as an example. Toyota makes the cars (bandwidth) and then they lease the cars to the dealerships (Tier2 Networks) who make them available to the consumers. In this analogy, Net Neutrality would mean that Toyota must make all of it's cars available for lease to all of it's dealerships equally and for the same price worldwide. The dealerships aren't absolutely required to carry all of the vehicles but it may be difficult to compete with the other dealerships if you don't provide the same selection to the consumers.GameRail is choosing to tailor their "selection" to gamers. What remains to be seen is whether they'll be able to compete with all the other "dealerships" out there.*Note: I am not an expert on Net Neutrality and I am well aware that the above analogy is an oversimplification and inadequate. It's the best I could come up with on short notice. If you are curious, check out <a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Neutrality">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Neutrality</a> for more info.
happyscrappySep 30, 2006
Net neutrality is about the last mile. Not should you be allowed to make your own faster backbone to extend your presence around the world with better fidelity, but should your local telco be able to reduce your quality of service for different destinations.Without net neutrality, the telcos could make this gaming network ineffective by downrating all gaming packets unless you paid them an additional screw-you fee to not do so.Net neutrality ensures possiblities by allowing the end user full access to the backbones. It doesn't prevent possibilities like opening up a new backbone for better latency.
gism0Sep 30, 2006
On a kind of related note, you can use Hamachi to virtually network computers over the internet. You can use it to play LAN games with your mates over the net. <a class="user" href="http://www.hamachi.cc/">http://www.hamachi.cc/</a>
Closed AccountSep 30, 2006
I know someone personally who owns a GSP (Game Service Provider). We have discussed this very topic before. I see they want people to pay $15 a month for this service after the beta.I do not see this as working and a GSP I know thinks the same. There are too many variables that cannot be controlled by GameRail, as stated by previous posters above.I will say that this new "service" is an inventive way to score a quick dollar or two from people who do not make informed decisions. Kind of reminds me of that $250 LAN card that suggests that it can lower your ping.I have some beachfront property in Idaho, real cheap. Anyone interested?
driftwood07Oct 1, 2006
this will not work
iotaorionisOct 2, 2006
What is dugg and what is not strike me as odd; anything not supporting a blatantly neo-marxist liberal viewpoint is burried into the ground, while everything else is raised towards the heavens upon a pedastal made of Michael Moore's divine fat. Odd no doubt.
justice7Oct 3, 2006
waste of cash.
rsayersOct 11, 2006
Obviously it does, if you check their details page, you can see that the main internet tube is very clogged, they add a new tube to the internet, thus increasing speed. Genius
karlzimmJan 24, 2007
I would just like to note that GameRail IS different from it's predecessors and can definitely give a better level of service to those using it.1) Using GameRail saves both the ISP and the Content Provider/Game Server company money, thus they have ample incentive to sign-up for the product. The more ISPs and game server providers that participate the better their chances are. Charter Communications, a major cable Internet provider, has already signed up as one of the ISPs and there are dozens of game server companies signed up, and the product hasn't even launched yet.2) Their product really does go around most of the issues you may have with packet loss or latency on the Internet. It isn't about the extra time it takes going from carrier to carrier, it is about the potential problems that exist from going from carrier to carrier. One may not have enough capacity at that peering point, one may redirect your packet in a different direction, etc. This setup bypasses all that, connecting you directly from your ISP to the game server provider, that is it, one direct path. It may not reduce your ping by that much depending on how good your ISP and game server provider's routing were in the first place, though it could be a significant difference, but it should completely eliminate packet loss, jitter, etc. except for that caused very locally with your ISP.Also, this does not have anything to do with net neutrality. They are basically establishing a network strictly for gaming. It is a backbone of their own, not really a part of the Internet, as it only connects users to partner game server providers, it doesn't connect anyone to anything else.