moose0130
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Posts: 155
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Post by moose0130 on Jan 23, 2020 16:42:04 GMT -5
Recently did the whole cord cutting thing. No more cable. Saved $120/month.
Now realizing that I have 300 Mbps internet service and could save another $16 a month if I went down to 100 Mbps service. I've no idea how much I need.
In terms of peak usage, its possible that we could have 2 streaming services running at the same time but that is pretty infrequent. More likely would be one streaming service, one person browsing internet and one person playing an ipad type game.
Very limited use of video chat, file sharing or anything of that nature.
Anyone have any sense of what that type of load should require? My instinct is that we are overpaying for capacity we don't need and could be perfectly happy with 100 Mbps.
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Post by K4 on Jan 23, 2020 19:33:24 GMT -5
I had a 5 Mbit DSL line for years. It allowed 2 tv streaming and a cell phone without any trouble. I now have 30 Mbits and I really don't aee any improvement. Still no issues.
I'd be fine with 100
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Post by Rhino208 on Jan 23, 2020 20:07:32 GMT -5
You can easily have 2 devices streaming at HD with 100. I would save the 16 bucks. You will have plenty left over.
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babsobass
Halfnote
One small step for man
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Post by babsobass on Jan 23, 2020 20:44:55 GMT -5
Anyone have any sense of what that type of load should require? My instinct is that we are overpaying for capacity we don't need and could be perfectly happy with 100 Mbps. I'd say you don't need it. If you aren't streaming to more that 2 or 3 devices, 100Mb is sufficient. |
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Post by K4 on Jan 23, 2020 20:58:47 GMT -5
Like I said, 5 on a DSL line streamed 3 devices easily.
I have 30 on cable now and there is no difference in HD quality. I have a 4K tv that shows it is playing in 4K
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Ragic
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Post by Ragic on Jan 23, 2020 21:58:48 GMT -5
I have 100. 3 smart tv's 4 tablets, 2 computers, 5 Amazon Echo's, and a ton of "Smart home" crap. 100 handles it just fine.
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moose0130
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Post by moose0130 on Jan 24, 2020 13:20:51 GMT -5
Sounds pretty clear cut. 100 it is!
Looks like it is an extra $20. So total cord cutting / internet change will save just about $1,700 a year. Dang, that real coin.
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Post by Chris Greene on Jan 24, 2020 14:38:01 GMT -5
Not that we can get more but we survive just fine with 3-6 devices running, including streaming video on TV for the 18-19 mbps we get at the country house. I suspect if we were streaming 4k, it could be an issue but we aren't so it isn't.
We have over 5 times that speed at the house in town. Don't see a difference.
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Post by K4 on Jan 24, 2020 15:06:47 GMT -5
I was able to stream 4K with 5, just took it a min or so to fully buffer. With two tv's streaming both would work at 1080.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jan 24, 2020 17:16:20 GMT -5
Even when you're paying for a *guaranteed* bit rate the ISP will still throttle your connection speed during times of elevated usage across the network.
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Post by Seldom Seen on Jan 24, 2020 18:30:01 GMT -5
I'm in the go for it and save some money camp. My wife and I did just fine on 100 Mbps and I operated at that speed for quite some time. I do get zero streaming delay with my current faster speed whereas, before, I had some minor streaming buffer delays. From what I can tell internet speeds are an empty promise. Every time I perform a speed check my times are always less than advertised.
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Post by LTB on Jan 24, 2020 18:48:10 GMT -5
We have AT&T Uverse Fiber Optics 1GB service running 2 phones, 2 ipads, 3 TV's, 1 Windows PC direct ethernet, Ring camera, Carrier Thermostat bla bla bla.
Not to bore you but to give as honest opinion as possible.
We waited so long for fiber optics in our area and when It finally came (at that time) they required you taking 1000mbs (1Gbs) for them to run it from the pole, down under ground and all the way to your router in the house.
Before this we had old Pots line (telephone line copper wire) and were 3,000 ft from the end of the Fiber Optics. They had to use 2 pair of telephone wire and some fancy equipment just to get "50mb" (in actuality typically got 19mbs) speed. Is it better than that was now...absolutely. Is it worth it, well here is were the rub comes in everything as you know takes band width. My PC shows 930 mb down, 940+ up speed and Wireless is typically 1/2 that. Yep that is to the AT&T server but what about other internet sites? We'll you are only going to be as fast as the sites you are on and the servers in between.
If we decide to downsize to just Internet and get TV locally and use other services I will probably downsize to somewhere between 100mb and 300mb as bandwidth will not be as big a factor . Oh, and let me say this, my Ring is easier to answer live from phone with at least 3 or 4 bars LTE than in my house where we have to use phones connected to WiFi because phone service in our house is only 2 bars.
Here is an example I just thought of. My son who is in the USAF had 100mb for internet and TV. Was just fine until he started to play games with other on the internet. He went to 300mb and it is much better.
At home my wife and I do not play games so that speed is not necessary
My opinion is upgrade from phone lines is definitely worth it whether it be cable or fiber. After that it is up to the individual's needs as to speed. If working from home on computer then speed might matter.
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Post by guildx700 on Jan 26, 2020 19:54:53 GMT -5
Rectum Spectrum boasts 100, but I never see better than 36.
I'm getting ready to dump my land line phone and cable TV and just get the cheapest internet.
I'm paying $189 a month for cable TV, a land line I don't hardly use and internet.
I already put a digital TV antenna on the bedroom TV, I'm getting 45 channels.
The only one I'd really like and can't get is the Discovery channel.
But I can view shows on the laptop via the net.
So, hell, I'll probably save $150 a month dumping TV/land line.
A no brainer. Should've did it years ago...duh.
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jdawg
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Post by jdawg on Jan 27, 2020 10:21:33 GMT -5
I'm a network engineer and there are a lot of businesses that I work with that run the business on less than 100 Mbps. That is the lowest bandwidth that I would recommend using for a business. A home can run on 100 Mbps and should not see any problems even with a lot of users concurrently on-line. Gaming and high resolution videos are probably the highest users of bandwidth. As long as you have a decent router that can handle the throughput and a minimum of 100 Mbps switches there should not be any problems.
My wife and I can work from home through separate VPNs and still watch or listen to internet radio and TV without slowdown. My current network speed at home is 100Mbps. If you run a VPN that will slow things down a little. In the future there will be more 4K videos and TV that people will stream and I'm sure there are things I have no idea that are coming that will impact home networks. I would recommend keeping the highest speed for the lowest price possible. The coming 5G wireless is going to have a detrimental effect on internet providers and should drive down prices. But we all know how that eventually works out.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jan 27, 2020 11:24:23 GMT -5
^^^ GOOD advice! Thanks!
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moose0130
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Post by moose0130 on Jan 27, 2020 21:02:53 GMT -5
Update:
Made the change. No noticeable effect on performance at all so far - which is not surprising given all the feedback here. Have had multiple TV and music streaming plus ipad gaming all going on at same time without any apparent effect.
Ran a speed check and I seem to be getting 110 mbps so they aren't short changing me. Previously was consistently at 295 mbps so seems like the test application is pretty accurate.
Good feedback, glad I made a change.
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Post by De ville on Jan 27, 2020 21:25:13 GMT -5
When I cut the cord, I also purchased my own modem, so I'm not paying to rent one. Its already paid off by the savings.
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Post by K4 on Jan 28, 2020 8:54:09 GMT -5
I'm supposed to get 30 When I run tests I get 16
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Post by walshb 🦒 on Jan 28, 2020 9:05:14 GMT -5
I'm supposed to get 30 When I run tests I get 16 This is what bothers me about downgrading to a lower level. Lots of the time, I'm not getting what I'm supposed to get, and it varies quite a bit. Streaming to an upstairs TV with a wi-fi extender, we lose some speed also. Sometimes it glitches so much, it's not worth watching. Every so often, I have to unplug the modem and the wireless router, plug them back in and things usually speed back up, but not always. |
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Post by Mike the marksman on Jan 28, 2020 10:37:36 GMT -5
I'm supposed to get 30 When I run tests I get 16 Is that over wifi or ethernet? Most ISPs only guarantee speeds over a wired connection, wifi is a bottleneck. Smart TVs, gaming systems, or any device that needs the best internet performance should always be connected directly to the modem with an ethernet cable. |
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