Would a 56K modem, cable modem, or ISDN line give me better netplay in Quake or GLQuake?
56K modems do not give you any particular benefit for playing Quake, or any other action game, online. 56K modems are unbalanced – they can receive data at 56K (actually 54K), but they only send it at 33.6K. Additionally, US Robotics X2 56K modems have a bug called POD (Ping of Death) that produces high pings and network errors when playing QuakeWorld. There are some workarounds for this, click here for more information… The Ping-of-Death can cause you problems even if you don’t have a USR X2 modem. Beware of Internet Providors that support X2 modems – they’re X2 modems can also cause problems with QuakeWorld. The safest bet in my opinion is to use 33.6K modems (at least until USR fixes this bug) and avoid ISPs that support X2. This is not a problem with 56K Flex modems, or ISPs that support them instead of X2. Some cable modem and satellite dish systems are also unbalanced, receiving data at blazing speeds but using a standard 33.6K modem to send data. Not all of them are unbalanced
