How fast does my internet speed need to be?

[Zomp]

Moving into a new place soon...wife and I will probably not have cable and just rely on a few streaming devices.

We'll probably have 2 iPads, 2 smart phones, a Roku, a PS4, and a fire stick (running Kodi).

Will 100 MBps be enough?

 

[IdiotKicker]

Should be. I run 100 with a similar setup and have had no problems.

 

[canderson]

That's more than enough. I'd guess anything more than 20mb is enough.

 

[JimBoSox9]

That's more than enough. I'd guess anything more than 20mb is enough.

Agreed, most likely. Zomp's asking the wrong questions. Who is your ISP and what is your neighborhood population density? My guess is in almost all scenarios, the constraint on your connection speed will be in the router.

 

[Zomp]

Well I could go with Verizon or Cox. No idea on population density. Any websites to plug in my address and see what I need?

 

[johnmd20]

20mbps isn't enough. 100 is more than enough. But Jimbo is right. The density is a good question.

I live in an apartment building and I'm always fighting interference and have to reset my router weekly because everything somehow gets frozen. Not a big deal and it takes 3 minutes to reboot, but it is an issue. But when it's good, it's 180-190Mbps good, (wired is much faster, over 300) which means I can stream to 4 different devices, use laptops, and play Halo on 2 Xboxes and there isn't a lag. This level of use happens when I have my niece's and nephews over. It is never a problem.

 

[SumnerH]

20mbps is plenty for streaming full 1080p to one device and doing some other surfing/whatever at the same time, but can get hairy with 2+ HD streams going at a time. 100 is more than enough.

 

[JimBoSox9]

Well, why are we doing a 20/100 split anyways? It's more likely there's a mid/standard tier in the 40-60 range that will end up his best choice. 80-120 is always premium tier and probably not needed for his usage.

If your Verizon option is FiOS, get it and don't think twice. If it's DSL, then you probably want to do some research/googling into how the two ISPs fare in your local area. For density, you just need to ballpark it; deep suburb, lower Allston apartments, midtown Chicago, etc.

When you do get set up, a thing to do is plug something wired directly into the modem (altho it sounds like you'll need to use the PS4 for this) and go to any number of browser websites (speedtest.net) to set a benchmark ceiling for your top speed. Do it at peak time, like Thursday 8PM. That will both give you a sense of how close the ISP comes to meeting the advertised speed, and be a useful point of comparison for any downstream troubleshooting you have to do later on.

Edit: Also, doesn't Cox have pretty shitty data cap policies? That could be a dealbreaker; make sure you check out that part of the package.

 

[Scott Cooper's Grand Slam]

I have 50 mbps Fios (I'd honestly prefer Comcast, but they don't service my building). It's fine for heavy loads, like multiple HD streams + websurfing, or one HD stream + surfing + downloading/uploading something. The weird thing, though: the Fios 50/50 "double play" (with local TV + HBO or Showtime) ended up being cheaper than just getting high speed internet. So after years of being a cord cutter, I'm back paying a cable bill.

Edited to add: even after the promotional period expired, I still pay about $70/month for what I have -- including equipment rental. That's why I prefer Comcast -- I own a compatible modem that was good enough for my needs.

 

[Zomp]

Well, why are we doing a 20/100 split anyways? It's more likely there's a mid/standard tier in the 40-60 range that will end up his best choice. 80-120 is always premium tier and probably not needed for his usage.

If your Verizon option is FiOS, get it and don't think twice. If it's DSL, then you probably want to do some research/googling into how the two ISPs fare in your local area. For density, you just need to ballpark it; deep suburb, lower Allston apartments, midtown Chicago, etc.

When you do get set up, a thing to do is plug something wired directly into the modem (altho it sounds like you'll need to use the PS4 for this) and go to any number of browser websites (speedtest.net) to set a benchmark ceiling for your top speed. Do it at peak time, like Thursday 8PM. That will both give you a sense of how close the ISP comes to meeting the advertised speed, and be a useful point of comparison for any downstream troubleshooting you have to do later on.

Edit: Also, doesn't Cox have pretty shitty data cap policies? That could be a dealbreaker; make sure you check out that part of the package.

The Verizon is Fios. For density its a suburb of Providence. Nothing too crazy. With Fios around here its 50/50 for $45 a month or 100/100 for $55 a month. Also I either have to rent their modem for $10 a month or buy one outright for $199...can I just buy my own or does it need to be theirs?

 

[Red Sox Physicist]

The Verizon is Fios. For density its a suburb of Providence. Nothing too crazy. With Fios around here its 50/50 for $45 a month or 100/100 for $55 a month. Also I either have to rent their modem for $10 a month or buy one outright for $199...can I just buy my own or does it need to be theirs?

Despite what they tell you, you don't need to use their router unless you're using their cable boxes (even then, it's not required, you can use a MoCA adapter with a different router for the cable boxes). If you're doing just internet, have them turn on the Ethernet port on the ONT (optical network terminal, this is the box they install that the fiber goes into). You can then just plug a router directly into the Ethernet port on the ONT. I asked them to activate the Ethernet port when I had it installed recently. Of course, they ignored the instruction, so you'll probably have to call them to activate the Ethernet port instead of coax.

I've had both Cox and Verizon FIOS in Providence. I switched between the two a few times to get better prices. Play them off of each other to get a better deal. Beware, both of them screwed up my bill on a regular basis so watch to make sure they're not overcharging you.

 

[Bongorific]

You can usually negotiate with Verizon for them to knock off the modem rental charge.

 

[crystalline]

go to any number of browser websites (speedtest.net) to set a benchmark ceiling for your top speed

Speed tests are inaccurate because ISPs cheat on them by prioritizing speedtest traffic.

Choose a random web site and download a 10-50 MB file instead, and look at what rate you get. That will be in MBytes per second, so multiply by 8 to get MBits per second, the number ISPs use.

If you're going to use a speedtest, I've found testmy.net's threaded test to be reasonable, but I haven't done substantial testing with that site. On the other hand, I write code that depends on and logs network bandwidth, so I can tell you that speedtest.net is regularly too high (measured on several ISPs) as if it was being prioritized.

 

[HriniakPosterChild]

What is the magnitude of the cheating? 10%? 30%? Worse?

 

[garlan5]

I just stopped in to show my envy. I'm in the sticks of Virginia with only 4g hot spot or cell phone tether with data limits. Just recently bumped up to 30g a month and we struggle to stay under. Every time we have bumped up we magically increase usage even doing the same similar stud m stuff each month. We can't even stream live sports or movies

 

[NJ_Sox_Fan]

I can get optimum online 75/35 or their 101mps package. The 101 would cost me like 115/month. The 75/35mps package would be more like 80/month. Would the 101 be worth the extra $$$? I've got 2 smart TVs, a ps4, xbone, iPad, nexus tablet, and kids iPods along with phones, etc. If both kids are here with friends, sometimes I've got the better part of all those things using the internet at once.

 

[crystalline]

What is the magnitude of the cheating? 10%? 30%? Worse?

I have seen 50% (Comcast cable, and a mid-sized isp doing a whole building via fiber). It can be big.
My guess is that it's mostly related to congestion, but that may not be the whole story.