eBay has proxy bidding. This allows you to bid the maximum you are willing to pay so you don't have to have instantaneous access to the bidding status, eBay will do your up-bidding for you.
IMHO & IME the 'fairest' thing to do as a buyer is to bid your highest price you are willing to pay at the very last instant. If there is someone who's willing to pay more - fine, he gets it. If the next closest bidder is 10 bucks less than my maximum then I get it for less than my maximum - either way it's fair.
If you use proxy bidding there is very little data sent to place a bid so fast Internet connections have only a slight advantage over dial up. If you are a 'bid, watch, bid, watch' kind of bidder then you'll probably lose out either way because you'll always be outbid by the sniper if there is one.
TWS