I've been seeing posts about HE.net not performing well for gaming and I was curious as to why that is so.

HE.net sells bandwidth for as low as $20-25/Mbps on Gig-E commits (depending on the promo deal), and they offload almost all, if not all, of their traffic to Williams. Williams is not the greatest to begin with, but HE loves to overload their peering points with Williams, causing some latency. I'm sure someone who's more network savvy will be able to point out all of the specific details here, though.

-Josh

Personally I like williams as far as the not to pricy networks go (nice interconnects with canadian ISPs) so the fact that HE offloads a lot onto williams I dont see as a bad thing.
I'm not aware, although it could deffintetly be the case, that HE is overloading their connections to williams.

From what I know of HE (not a whole lot) perfomance of there network really depends on the location your at, as some points dont have a lot in the way of peering youre traffic ends up getting backhauled a pretty far distance.

Of course I could be 100% wrong (I have never been a direct HE.net customer, although I have been thinking about it and have done a bit of looking (not much as you can see), so take what I say with a touch more than a grain of salt (perhaps a box or two).

I'm not aware, although it could deffintetly be the case, that HE is overloading their connections to williams. When I used HE.net from Texas, peering points were often overloaded. Not sure how their NY or CA peering points are, though.

HE.net peering points in Texas weren't overloaded then, they simply didn't exist. HE.net has been making a great effort to improve their peering here in Dallas, but since they're basically new to the area it will take time for that to develop properly, specially as their business grows locally.

We are extremely pleased with HE, and have seen the latency improve in the 10 months we've been using them. From what I hear there are still many good things to come that will continue to improve their service in Texas.

JoseQ

Originally posted by TMS - JoseQ
We are extremely pleased with HE

So we are. :)

Originally posted by TMS - JoseQ
HE.net peering points in Texas weren't overloaded then, they simply didn't exist. HE.net has been making a great effort to improve their peering here in Dallas, but since they're basically new to the area it will take time for that to develop properly, specially as their business grows locally.

We are extremely pleased with HE, and have seen the latency improve in the 10 months we've been using them. From what I hear there are still many good things to come that will continue to improve their service in Texas.

JoseQ Sorry about that Jose, I forgot that you were one of their first (or simply, their first) customer in Dallas, setup on a rushed basis. Haven't used your HE.net line myself in a number of months. There are still some odd routes around though: 1 57.67-18-145.reverse.theplanet.com (67.18.145.57) 0.644 ms 0.765 ms 0.630 ms
2 18.67-18-144.reverse.theplanet.com (67.18.144.18) 0.993 ms 0.707 ms 0.695 ms
3 ibr1-ge-1-0-0-v2.dllstx3.theplanet.com (12.96.160.33) 1.026 ms 0.853 ms 0.838 ms
4 gw-cr2.dfw2.us.above.net (216.200.6.233) 1.114 ms 0.790 ms 0.952 ms
5 so-3-0-0.cr2.dfw2.us.above.net (64.125.28.217) 0.965 ms 0.947 ms 0.997 ms
6 so-4-2-0.cr2.ord2.us.above.net (64.125.29.6) 27.110 ms 27.219 ms 26.874 ms
7 so-3-0-0.mpr1.ord7.us.above.net (64.125.30.141) 27.029 ms 26.987 ms 27.059 ms
8 chi-ix.he.net (206.223.119.37) 32.144 ms 32.203 ms 32.012 ms
9 pos6-0.br1.nyc.he.net (64.71.157.61) 44.062 ms 44.234 ms 43.867 ms
10 pos6-0.gsr12012.ash.he.net (65.19.129.5) 44.422 ms 44.329 ms 43.779 ms
11 pos2-0.gsr12012.dal.he.net (64.71.157.58) 45.432 ms 45.468 ms 45.235 ms
12 216.66.24.154 (216.66.24.154) 46.190 ms 46.653 ms 46.325 ms
13 tailoredservers.com (216.66.18.30) 45.906 ms 46.162 ms 45.701 ms
That goes from ThePlanet, to Chicago, to NYC, to Virginia, and back to Dallas. Yipes has better peering with Williams in Dallas, as you can see below:1 57.67-18-145.reverse.theplanet.com (67.18.145.57) 0.645 ms 0.600 ms 0.577 ms
2 18.67-18-144.reverse.theplanet.com (67.18.144.18) 1.005 ms 0.616 ms 0.470 ms
3 ibr2-ae0-v1.dllstx2.theplanet.com (12.96.160.2) 3.498 ms 3.256 ms 3.457 ms
4 ge-4-0-159.ipcolo1.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.78.220.9) 3.502 ms 3.926 ms 3.378 ms
5 so-5-1-0.bbr1.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.68.112.177) 3.548 ms 3.338 ms 3.005 ms
6 so-6-0-0.edge1.Dallas1.Level3.net (209.244.15.162) 2.550 ms 2.713 ms 3.171 ms
7 williams-level3-oc48.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.68.127.22) 3.617 ms 3.262 ms 3.402 ms
8 dllstx9lcx1-pos6-0.wcg.net (64.200.232.14) 3.831 ms 3.737 ms 3.894 ms
9 dllstx9lce1-yipes.wcg.net (64.200.226.118) 3.964 ms 3.883 ms 3.911 ms
10 66.7.164.66 (66.7.164.66) 4.972 ms 4.806 ms 4.244 ms
11 209.120.238.*** (209.120.238.***) 4.670 ms 4.943 ms 5.531 ms

So I take it that most of the problems lie within Texas (even thought there arent really too many problems) and not California?

There's problem in California as well. ATT being the majority of the issue. Latency flutuates and jumps to 200ms when they get overload.

Originally posted by NH-Eric
So I take it that most of the problems lie within Texas (even thought there arent really too many problems) and not California?

Our servers are at their Fremont (CA) facility and they run pretty good.

In any case, its a definate steal for $2500 / FE ;).

Originally posted by DeathNova
In any case, its a definate steal for $2500 / FE ;).

I think there a bunch of providers now who will offer similar pricing, especially when delivered over a FE as opposed to GE.

[ note: I am not a customer of HE, although we do peer with
them here in NYC ]

actually current he.net promotion is $2k for 100mps, with NO restrictions. the old power restrictions and cross-connect restrictions are all gone. now i'd call THAT a steal. =P

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=305641