Internet Speed Questions

Continental_Op

Hey guys,

So I'm getting my own place and that means getting internet. It'll be same company I have, but since I'm on my own I wonder how fast of speed do I need for Xbox One, streaming Netflix and Amazon as my primary means of watching TV and movies? It's Time Warner Cable if that matters. I know they're terrible, but they're what's available.

JaysonFour

Netflix requires at least 0.5 mb/s down to stream, with a recommended speed of 1.5 mb/s down for basic streaming. (Source: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306 )

Amazon requires a speed of at least 900 KB/s down. (Source: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201422810 )

As far as your XBox One, gaming takes 3MB/s down and 0.5 MB/s up for gaming, with 1MB/s down required for video streaming. (Source: http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/networking/slow-performance-solution )

Hope this helps!

TPSou

In my experience having a 20Megabit connection is absolutely fine for all of those, even if two are happening at once. If you want to do any streaming or uploading you want to go higher, if you go any lower you risk having problems when anything slows down (I like to have a buffer between what you 'need' and what you get because speeds are so variable).

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Daenris

If Time Warner's network is anything like my experience with Comcast's, go for at least 20MB, because you'll only actually get 30-50% of that speed most of the time.

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Bowen

It's the norm for TWC up here to overload the nodes at each neighborhood. I say overload, in that they were designed for maybe 1/3 of the load that's on them back in the early naughts.

So when everyone and their mother is using their internet after they get home (between 4-10pm), you'll have a very noticeable slowdown since each node has a max throughput depending on what infrastructure is there. If you live in a high tech area (like... if you have more than just cable and some DSL internet options) you probably are on better equipment that can handle hundreds of people instead of dozens like me.

Daenris

mcdermott wrote: »

Daenris wrote: »

If Time Warner's network is anything like my experience with Comcast's, go for at least 20MB, because you'll only actually get 30-50% of that speed most of the time.

This is a common sentiment, but often wrong. There are a number of issues that go into poor speed, and not all of them are fixed by upping your tier.

For instance if you've followed the Netflix issue at all, that was/is entirely an issue at the interconnect...it's about the route the data is taking to you across the wider Internet, not your speed on comcast's own network. So you'd get 900kbps from Netflix, regardless of whether you paid for a 3mbps connection or a 300mbps connection.

My experience with Comcast is that for data that is well hosted, I can nearly always get 90% or more of my rated speed. Same for speed tests. But for the bulk of data on the Internet at large, including streaming? Not so much. But a speed test, even if you consider it "stacked" by choosing a server with optimal performance for your location, will always tell you what speed you are getting to comcast's local network. And that is the ONLY speed you improve by upping your service tier (if the content you were accessing was coming at less than rated speed).

Maybe there are still neighborhoods with oversubscribed equipment such that they can't get rated speed even on their cable operators own network. I'm pretty sure this isn't he norm anymore though. If YouTube and Netflix are slow, they'll be slow (and equally so) regardless of tier.

Well, as I said if it was like my experience. Speed tests pretty routinely tell me I'm getting 30-50% of my maximum (6-10Mb/s), with Comcast's own speed test being only marginally better. Before I upgraded, I was on a 10Mb tier, and I routinely got 3-6Mb/s on speed tests and other downloads. So yes, there are a variety of issues, but at least in my case, one big issue is specifically with the tier of service I was getting from Comcast.

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Jasconius

i would say 20 down is the minimum for any serious internet user

mostly by virtue of what everyone has already said here

Continental_Op

Thanks everyone!