- B3OWULF
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- Exalted Heroic Member
Freedom of Speech does not equal "Freedom from Consequences when one speaks".
It is a right, and all rights have responsibilities associated with them. Ignore the responsibility, and you tend to lose the right.
Recon Number 54
You don't need a lot of upload/download speed to use XBL. As you noted, your problem is most likely latency. Go here and test your line a few times. (Note you'll most likely have to wait a few seconds before the first test begins while it loads the Java script.) The most important numbers to you are the Round Trip Time and Max Pause. RTT should be below about 80ms, and Max Pause under about 150ms. Anything above that will give you the symptoms you're experiencing, because you're playing on a delayed map.
A bit more of an advanced test you can run is a trace route. It will identify the server hops your signal has to make to a destination, and the ping times between those hops. Open a DOS window, and type in this command: tracert live.xbox.com The last few hops will time out -- don't worry about those. Your pings to the Seattle level 3 router should be between 80 to 120ms.
If these tests come back marginal but "OK", and if you have plans to play Halo 3 in a few days, don't worry. H3 has improved netcode, and is designed to handle poorer connections. If you plan to continue playing Halo 2, your best bet is to shop around for a better IP.
Hope this helps.