A few years back I tried to play Half-life online. I couldn't make that work. The other day I tried with MoHAA. I downloaded the Gamespy stuff from their site. Next I go to programs>MoHAA>play online at Gamespy. A list of servers comes up in order of lowest ping rate to highest. I tried to join say half a dozen or so games. Each time I get the message back 'server timed out'. If I want to play online will I have to suscribe to a DSL service?

it is best to have DSL, cable, or other type of broadband internet service when playing multiplayer online games such as MoHAA.

if you play on a 56k modem, you get a bunch of lag issues, packet drop, server connection timeouts, and other annoyances that make you tear your hair out.

when playing FPS like MoHAA, your internet connection can make the difference between getting a frag or lagging like hell and wondering how you died.

tx

I agree you are better off with cable etc..., but the problem you are having is not to do with your connection speed, Have you got any firewall, internet security programs running? Have you got the latest drivers and firmware for your modem, is the line quality good?

Just a few suggestions to try out. Good luck

does distance make a difference when using dial up? I'm pretty far away from most servers

What GameSpy progam are you using?
Arcade or 3d?

In GameSpy3d (dunno 'bout arcade as I haven't used it), you can also add another filter which counts the "hops" you have to go through to get to the server...

To enable it:
tools-> options
refresh-> check "Use automatic hop count when refreshing" and set when to use it to around 250 (at least, that works ok for me)
-> Ok

You can now add a filter (either in standard filtering or custom tab) which hides any server with more hops than X (I use less than 25 (but only play less than 15)), or just sort by hops...

The less hops the faster respons time you'll get, even if you have a higher ping...

I had one nightmare experience where I had a ping of 20 but had 30 hops between me and the server... It took forever to do anything, and I came out on last place... Found a server with 3 hops, but 100 ping, came out on top...

Hope this helps..

Oh, and to everyone who says that you need cable/dsl to play online... WTF?!?!?!?! I've played online since the days of 28.8 and it worked like a charm...
Yes, you get some lagg, but nothing that'll destroy the game... At least not as long as the game is properly coded for multiplayer gaming....

Very very useful repost. Thanks

Agreed Mr.G, but... why not give yourself the best chance in life? ;] I wouldnt consider online gaming with my cable now

not the same but similar, i set up my xbox account on a friends xbox so he could download maps. he goes home and tried to play on xbox live with his 56k he thought every thing was fine untill i played him logged into another account. he says it all looked great but he kept dying. on my screen he barely moved i could dance circles around him and never get shot while he moved in slow jerks. he says he never saw the slow jerks and i never seemed to move fast on his screen. he thought he was just not able to shoot me because he sucks.
my point is just because you can connect doesnt mean you should.

Well, I'm not saying I'd drop my lovely 2mbit/640k adsl line for a 56k to play online, but rather trying to get across the fact that anything above 28.8k is playable depending on the network code in the game...

But you'll also need a certain amount of "knowledge" to play on a modem... By this I mean that you'll have to find how far ahead of the person you're trying to kill you have to shoot, to account for the lagg...

Once this has become second nature, beware cable /xDSL players, as that laggy guy could very well be the one to take over the lead unless you're careful...

Also, having played with slow modems before imo usually helps in situations when the entire server is lagging for one reason or other... Suddenly you surge ahead with an extreme kill ratio

I dealt with dial-up for much too long, waiting for Cable and DSL to become available in my area - now that I have both, I can't even fathom gaming on dial-up - although, the above posts are correct - it CAN be done and you can actually get very good at it. I just don't have the patience for it...