Using gaming PC off of cellular hotspot?

[stealthyghost56]

We have probably the worst internet service provider, and we only have access to them (Windstream). There are other providers but they're satellite internet which are an absolute no go for gaming. We overpay them up the ass for like 4 or 5 Mbps and don't even get 1. My peak download speed in Steam is 100 Kbps and it hardly reaches that ever. The reason we have such horrible service is because they are one of the few ISPs in the area so they oversubscribe and have no bandwidth. And since they are one of the few ISPs available everyone is stuck with their service and they get to ignore any complaints and issues. They have god awful customer service if it wasn't obvious. I'm a gamer and I enjoy playing multiplayer games, but it's very hard to if my ping is constantly around 100-300, and often spiking up to about 1000. I can live with the trash download speed, but the latency is not okay. I mean I might as well just sell my gaming PC and consoles, I bought them solely for the purpose of playing online.

If you've listened to me rant this far, that's awesome ! What I was really wondering is if there's any sense in gaming off an "unlimited" data plan. I would use it only for gaming. I would set up a hotspot and run my PC off of it. I would need an unlimited data plan because I would be gaming quite a bit, so that data would go by very quickly, although the unlimited data plans are never truly unlimited, they always throttle. Couldn't be much worse than the throttling my ISP so graciously provides me though.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[S8ANisF8AL]

Given your current internet situation, it's a difficult call. I personally couldn't see it doing much worse than you are now. And, even if it did I doubt it would be noticeable. On the other hand, I wouldn't expect any true increase in the quality you get. Just make sure that the phone you're using has stable signal and a solid 3g or (preferably) 4g LTE connection.

My personal opinion..since they're probably going to be neck and neck in terms of performance, go with the option that saves you money.

 

[bill001g]

If you can get LTE based system it work ok for gaming most the time. Like anything wireless you will still get random strangeness. LTE has very low and much more consistent latency that other technology.

As you have found out there is no such thing as unlimited. Even the plans that a cell phone only have restrictions. When you run a computer...ie tethered...the plans are even more restrictive. Many of the plans allow some amount of tethered traffic. The problem will be when you hit the limit they many times degrade it so much it will not even load simple web pages. It will not run a game at the rates they limit it to.

Now if money was not a option there are vendors that sell large plans fairly cheap...ie $10/gigabyte.