[Omny]

Hello all, im mainly a lurker on these forums, having posted only a couple of times before. Ive recently run into abit of a problem finding an answer to a question, and so i ask the masses of this fine forum for help.

My life was reasonably simple, working.. playing starcraft.. sleeping. But its all come under enemy fire now with the advent of a new job. Ill be taking a job in rural Australia (near Karratha, in WA incase it matters) where ill be living in a cabin and basically working 10 hour days, for 4 weeks at a time. If i cant play Starcraft during this time ill surely kill myself, even just trying to get through the first 4 weeks.

So ive been using my phones mobile internet to play SC2 anyway, because i just moved houses a couple of times and having my phone able to give my PC the internet 100% of the time has been a massively handy thing. Im with Telstra, and the speed has been quite good. Ive heard that mobile broadbands speed drops off in rural areas though, so im quite scared of the potential situation. Im just wondering:

Has anybody used their phones mobile internet (telstra preferably) to play in these kinds of rural areas, or has anybody investigated different mobile options such as a satellite connection.

I really need a form of mobile internet that will be able to provide speeds enough to play Sc2 on SEA (NA + KR if possible too) from anywhere in Aus. If anybody has any help itd be greatly appreciated.

[|Erasmus|]

try asking on the whirlpool forums if you want good advice for this sort of thing...

[Omny]

Originally Posted by |Erasmus|

try asking on the whirlpool forums if you want good advice for this sort of thing...

Advice taken, thanks Erasmus, just posted the question there also.

Any other help is still welcome.

[Uglymutt]

Hey, as I myself live in WA I've had a couple of friends go up north and use their phones as a tether for internet.
One friend (who I've asked) said that while in Kalgoorlie the net speed was okay from the phone (he was also with telstra). He was able to use the phone to host a google chat call with video between 4 people without much trouble.

Now I haven't tried it myself but it seemed to work okay.

You're best bet would probably to contact your employer and or/telstra and ask what speeds could be expected out there.

Hope I've helped you out a bit.

[Paroxysm]

I was in Mount Isa (north west QLD, still rural) and using a telstra wireless USB modem with almosst no problems at all. I was able to use it and play starcraft 2 with minimal lag, although slight problems occurred on rare occasion.

[pXAero]

Really depends on the specific area. I live in Chinchilla QLD and the mobile coverage out here is shit. Landline connection isn't much better, but it's okay. Best bet is to ask someone in the area what its like if you can.

[ToRDjvillian]

From my opinion: If you have reception you'll be fine.
I currently and have been for the past year streaming Internet via my iPhone to a laptop at work where I get 1-2 bars of reception. Sure it may not be rural but I'm on the edge of Canberra with the cheapest and possibly worst Internet (3 3G) and I can play fine.

[Omny]

Thanks for all your guys posts, i was really looking for the "blanket information" effect of having a few different people post their experiences. This gives me a pretty broad picture of the situation. It seems like most rural area's in australia should be fine as long as you are with Telstra (decent coverage), either from a mobile phone or the dongle system that they use. Im pretty sure, as Karratha is a pretty large place, that Telstra should have good reception there. I think ill buy one of the pre paid dongles to take up there as well as my mobile phone internet plan. At least this gives me two different options. My only follow up question was: Is telstra mobile broadband and the Telstra Turbo (dongle) Basically the same service? I can ring telstra to find that out.

Thanks for all your help guys, the bit of information from you lot who have endured the pains of rural internet has helped me drop some of the anxiety i was feeling about making this move. I think i should be fine. Now i can make good money and still play SC2 in basically all of my free time.

[ToRDjvillian]

Be careful with the dongles. I originally had a dongle and I know a couple of people who did as well.

What happened was although it is broadband your computer will most likely treat it as dial up when you connect to the ISP. You will get the broadband speeds BUT if your computer registers it as dial up then Starcraft wont work since broadband is a requirement.
Essentially yes it is broadband but your computer most likely will register it as dial up.

This may only take effect in 3G networks and may not apply to nextG (telstra) but it is Just a little gotchya to look out for.