What is the Playstation 2 Gaming Network?
The Playstation 2 gaming network is a collection of servers run by games publishers that are accessed over the Internet, except it’s reserved for gamers using the Playstation 2. This means you’ll be using exactly the same network, and network protocols, that you would use when accessing the Internet via a computer. But instead of going through laborious dial-up connections, having to configure software all the time and playing ‘guess the URL’, you simply put your network game into your Playstation 2 and go online directly. The difference between the Internet and Playstation 2’s gaming network is that the PS2 network is optimised for gaming, and nothing else goes through the servers except game traffic. As a result you get fast, problem free gaming, and everyone who wants to email their friends can do that elsewhere. Naturally, as you connect to the servers via the Internet the occasional glitch can occur, but those are usually minor and temporary.
