Get better ping through Game-Rail

Why the Internet sucks for gaming?

The Internet was not really designed with gaming in mind.
In fact, you can compare it to travel by train. Before a train reaches it's final destination, it must stop at several stations always 1 at a time, and on a straight, linear path to it's final destination. The Internet acts in very much the same way except the stations are "servers", and of course, the speed of a Internet connection is much faster than that of a train.

Every-time you request a website, your connection jumps through a variety of server networks before it eventually reaches the website you requested. Unfortunately for gamers, this is a terrible thing. Jumping through multiple servers only increases latency (ping) and the possibility of packet-loss (choke).

What is Game-rail?

Game-rail has a unique solution to prevent unnecessary server hops. By utilizing their own gaming network to connect to game-servers, they take the Internet server hopping problem out of the equation.

Their service is like a super fast bullet train, on a underground railway with zero stops. Powered by a small background program and their own gaming network, Game-rail reduces the number of server hops your connection has to make and the distance between you and the server. This results in lower latency (ping) and a much less chance of packet loss (choke).

In competitive games like Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source, even losing a millisecond can be detrimental at the wrong time. So obviously lower pings and less choke is a very important thing.

Free for now, pay later?

Well as of right now, it's free! They have a open beta running, which i can say I'm gladly taking advantage of. So far I've noticed reductions in my ping times of about 5-10ms which is pretty decent considering i live up north and the fact that Game-rail is still relatively new and working on expanding their network.

According to their website, they will be charging at some point in the future. Take advantage of this. Now would be a great time to give their service a test-drive, especially to see if it's worthy as a pay service when it leaves the beta/free stage.

Keep in mind that everyone's Internet connection is different, so Game-rail may make a huge difference for you, but may provide no visible benefit to your buddy. Either way, you owe it to yourself to get every advantage you can get, and Game-rail may just be that edge you were looking for to help lower your pings.

You can go check it out at www.gamerail.com