Bandwidth is a snake oil and jive at best!

[redgtxdi]

So someone at work finally bit the bullet and downgraded their Internet speed to save some money at home. I urged them to do so rather than upgrade. They were at 6mb down and 1 up and the cable co wanted them to either downgrade to 3/512 or 10/1. I told them to tell their cable co to pound it up their @$$.

Here's my prob. I've got 20/1 with time Warner and it really doesn't matter because nothing on the Internet wants to feed enough to make anything more than 3 or 4 mb down worthwhile. YouTube buffers, downloads within my own roadrunner or gmail don't come down at 20mb or anything even close. I was just trying to watch the espn app on my ipad2 and that buffers, stutters, stalls. I think the closest thing to true utilization of bandwidth comes a
From Apple but still not gospel.

So what's the point? The Internet is very, very far from truly utilizing any of these speeds and whether I'm at home, work, friends, etc. Bandwidth is snake oil.

I'm over it. It's time to downgrade and lower expectations until we catch up with reality.

 

[SP33Demon]

So someone at work finally bit the bullet and downgraded their Internet speed to save some money at home. I urged them to do so rather than upgrade. They were at 6mb down and 1 up and the cable co wanted them to either downgrade to 3/512 or 10/1. I told them to tell their cable co to pound it up their @$$.

Here's my prob. I've got 20/1 with time Warner and it really doesn't matter because nothing on the Internet wants to feed enough to make anything more than 3 or 4 mb down worthwhile. YouTube buffers, downloads within my own roadrunner or gmail don't come down at 20mb or anything even close. I was just trying to watch the espn app on my ipad2 and that buffers, stutters, stalls. I think the closest thing to true utilization of bandwidth comes a
From Apple but still not gospel.

So what's the point? The Internet is very, very far from truly utilizing any of these speeds and whether I'm at home, work, friends, etc. Bandwidth is snake oil.

I'm over it. It's time to downgrade and lower expectations until we catch up with reality.

Not sure if serious? Streaming, duh. And you will need at least 20mbps in an urban environment with cable to not be interrupted. Otherwise, get FIOS 15/5.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I have 35/35 FIOS and a Steam download can max my bandwidth.

 

[redgtxdi]

Not sure if serious? Streaming, duh. And you will need at least 20mbps in an urban environment with cable to not be interrupted. Otherwise, get FIOS 15/5.

If I were any more serious, I'd be in your medial lobe.


Good luck with both your 20 cable and your 15 fios (got both in my neighborhood, with fail at streaming download rates)

Latency is a whole 'nother Oprah.

 

[blackangst1]

Ive got 30 down and often max it from usenet.

 

[Vic Vega]

...

 

[blackangst1]

I had 3 down, 512 up for a few years (DSL) and it sucked ass. I jumped back on 10/2 cable as soon as I was able and will never go back. I'm on 30/5 now and love it.

Two people in the house trying to use the net on the 3/512 and it slowed to a crawl... the faster packages aren't about specific speed but the number of people able to use it.

Correct. People incorrectly equate speed with bandwidth. As I explain to poeple, a 1 meg circuit is just as fast as a 30 meg circuit. How many people that can use it is another story.

 

[sixone]

Cox tried to tell me that their least expensive plan might not be enough bandwidth for "normal use". I promised to call them back if I found it lacking.

 

[Lean L]

Correct. People incorrectly equate speed with bandwidth. As I explain to poeple, a 1 meg circuit is just as fast as a 30 meg circuit. How many people that can use it is another story.

wtf are you talking about? You're confusing propagation delay with transmission delay.

This whole thread smells funny. Op seriously doesn't have use for more than 5mbps? Me multitasking will suck the living life out of any decent broadband. Comparison invalid.

Hell downloading software takes forever on a slow line. I guess some people don't use steam or buy digital distribution software.

 

[Childs]

Ive got 30 down and often max it from usenet.

Usenet and Steam is the only way I max my connection, its in the 20Mbps range.

 

[mmntech]

Fast internet is good, and I'm okay with my 15mbps connections. Just wish I had an unlimited cap so I could cut back on cable and phone and replace them with streaming services. But the cable company that provides my connection is never going to do that.

 

[Baked]

We have 20/1 thru time warner. no issues.

 

[Lean L]

If I were any more serious, I'd be in your medial lobe.


Good luck with both your 20 cable and your 15 fios (got both in my neighborhood, with fail at streaming download rates)

Latency is a whole 'nother Oprah.

It may be true that bandwidth and latency are independent but the internet is a datagram network that mostly uses TCP. This means a higher transmission delay will lead to higher latencies which will in turn lead to even slower transfers across long distances as TCP waits for ACKs.

http://bradhedlund.com/2008/12/19/how-to-calculate-tcp-throughput-for-long-distance-links/

^ You are not going to be able to define the TCP RWIN so the only choice is to pay for more bandwidth which reduces your latency.

 

[destrekor]

Usenet and Steam is the only way I max my connection, its in the 20Mbps range.

first rule sir, first rule!


that said, I've never even partaken in such




As for my bandwidth, I've have no problems utilizing it (on average), though at times I've both wished I had more, and begged the source/provider to actually saturate what capability I do have.

I was at 10/1, now I'm at 15/? (might be 1Mbps, might be 1.5Mbps - rarely pay attention to upload capability) thanks to an auto upgrade from our local ISP.
Apple.com/trailers (only Apple downloads I've ever touched ), Steam/Origin, and just about any large file I've downloaded from major servers (non-P2P, mind you), like any official app or whatnot, has basically saturated or nearly-saturated the line.

I rarely am frustrated by downloads coming nowhere close to max download limit. It happens, but usually I am able to hit 1-1.7MB/s quite frequently, and have it remain stable until complete.

Though sometimes, major providers like Netflix cannot even maintain an HD stream, but those instances are due to a shitty service being unable to maintain stable connections because they are so shitty (I have no idea why I have no canceled Netflix yet - it was great for TV episode streams of old shows when I needed it last summer, but I'd rather Blu-ray quality)

 

[coldmeat]

I wish I had faster than 5/512. With a roommate it can get painfully slow at times.

 

[clamum]

I get about 15/2 from Charter and it's plenty fast for me; I don't think I'd pay more for higher speeds.

 

[Phoenix86]

I get about 15/2 from Charter and it's plenty fast for me; I don't think I'd pay more for higher speeds.

I'm pretty close with 12/1.5 and I think it's a tad high vs. what I'm provided from the average site. I could probably downgrade to like 8/1 and not even notice.

Sure the occasional download that maxes it out is nice but another $5-10/month for that. Hmmm...

 

[zanejohnson]

13-14mbps from decent servers..

10ms of latency to the isp, 40-50ms to the metroplex

 

[nsafreak]

You see there are such things as decent ISPs. For all of the crap that Comcast typically seems to get, there are areas where they're good such as mine:

Believe me I use that bandwidth for downloads of steam games, streaming, etc. and I don't see so much as a hiccup when I'm streaming video even HD video (at least I think Vudu's is close enough to be called pretty darn close to actual HD).

 

[Childs]

first rule sir, first rule!


that said, I've never even partaken in such

I use usenet for the interaction. When the topics get stale here, I go to usenet to discuss a wide range of topics not found on AT, with much more depth. People post pictures of their pets and videos from their vacation. You can even post a swap file to test your upload and download speeds, which is what I was referring to.

 

[zCypher]

The only time my 8mbps connection has felt inadequate is when downloading on steam, some games just take a while to download. Otherwise it's pretty much flawless.

 

[Wreckem]

This is my 30/2 connection... Well its actually supposed to be 30/6 but I have never gotten more than 2 up.


http://www.speedtest.net/result/1872124250.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1872127984.png

Then outside the state

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1872129256.png

I get a constant 5MB on Steam. Microsoft is 3-4MB and Apple is 3.5-5MB

 

[Lithium381]

I went from ATT's 6/768k to Comcasts 25/4

Honestly ATT's DSL was plenty fast when it was performing, but during peak hours i was lucky to get 1mb down. Their infrastructure around here is just woefully saturated. 3am I'd get my full 6mb but otherwise it was slow-ville for me.

 

[Kadarin]

Comcast business class here, pay for 22/5, getting this right now:

 

[sdifox]

Fast internet is good, and I'm okay with my 15mbps connections. Just wish I had an unlimited cap so I could cut back on cable and phone and replace them with streaming services. But the cable company that provides my connection is never going to do that.

no unlimited cable option there?