Tech Help Optimal Internet speeds

[Samurai_TwoSeven]

My family is acquiring a new ISP by mid-September as our current ISP has been bought out and is being shut down. I play Battlefield, World of Tanks, and World of Warships. At any given time up to three devices are online, at most nine devices (4 computers, 1 tablet, 2 smart phones, 2 printers). We're leaning towards the 5 Mbps plan, but I'd like some input from other people. (note: with my previous ISP we had a 1 Mbps plan)

Our plan options are:

1 Mbps down/1 Mbps up
3 Mbps down/1.5 Mbps up
5 Mbps down/1.5 Mbps up
10 Mbps down/3 Mbps up
300 Mbps down/20 Mbps up (this is a commercial plan that they implemented for residential)

 

[Snipeye]

5 is gonna suck. 10 will suck if three devices are on at once. I would personally recommend at least 20, but I err on the side of "more is better, less is tough luck."

 

[FireHazard772]

I agree with Snipeye.

I currently have 12-15 down, with little upload. (I say 2 numbers because the account details shows 12 but a relative of mine who works for the ISP we use says we have 15)

Also having several other devices connected to the same network has caused issues, but lately not so much..usually just when people are downloading something it is an issue. I'm usually gaming while 1-2 people are on netflix and don't have much grief.

Anyways, just some 'food for thought'.

 

[Ezekiel]

If you had a 1 Mbps plan before and it was "ok" for you, 5 is going to feel awesome. It really depends on what those devices are doing. I game with 2 other people streaming non-stop with a 4.5 Mbps connection with little to no problems.

 

[3vlNomad]

10 down / 3 up is the best option of those listed

For the most part gaming has to do with latency(ms) not download speeds as most games clients just send actions(up) and then the server sends what everyone else is doing back for the client to update(down). This information is usually not very heavy, it just needs to be transported quickly.

The only problem you might have is if you are trying to game on pc1 while the three other pc's are streaming 1080p video or if one of them is torrenting. That could potentially cause latency spikes. As far as smartphones/tablets/printers I wouldn't worry about it, they use minimal bandwidth and the printer uses none until it's told to print something.

 

[reflex99]

I lived with 5/1.5 (DSL) for the majority of my time that i played in eGO servers. It worked just as well as my current 180/10 (cable) connection for playing games.

The real issue was streaming video or downloading software (games). Once we got netflix, we decided to get cable, since DSL wasn't enough to stream anything greater than 480p

Depending on your patience/desire to stream media, the 5mbps plan might be fine.

 

[Letsgomental]

i would go for the 10mbit since u have a lot of devices connected i myself have 250mbit but i stream a lot and download around 100gig movies per week

 

[Samurai_TwoSeven]

Yeah, I'm not giving rural ISPs much appraisal, but I do live in a 4 person household. I try to get on when everyone else is offline (late nights) and I do my best to make sure we have the least number of devices online at any given time. Downloading BF4 for me (with my current ISP) took three days, four hours, and seventeen minutes. That's not including DLCs which I just downloaded at a friends house when we were having a LAN party.

Also my mother isn't a fan of paying more than $60 for internet. My sister and I have tried to explain to her that our internet is slow due to the extreme number of devices we have to put up with.

[EDIT]: I finally wised up and took both of our printers and hooked them up to a router to allow us to not have to be connected to the wifi to print wirelessly. Also both desktops are now wired directly to the printers

 

[Letsgomental]

Tbh the amount of stuff u can connect to the internet/wifi is a lot but it all depends how many of it is online working at the same time by the way what are the prices on internet in the USA ?

 

[Samurai_TwoSeven]

The plan my family is purchasing is a 5 mbps down and 1.5 mbps up. This is going to cost us $79.99 per month plus installation fee

 

[3vlNomad]

That price is bogus, I'm getting 15down/3up for about $60 and I could get even more for still less than that monthly.. Do you live in the middle of nowhere or something?

 

[Samurai_TwoSeven]

As I stated in a previous post, I do not live in town, I live on a ranch. Thus I require a rural ISP and I'm going off a friends recommendation for a local company who has a good reputation for good internet. Also, direct lines are not available to me once again due to my location. Getting AT&T or Comcast would be nice, but not an option for me unfornately

 

[FireHazard772]

What options are available for you, if I may ask?

(You can PM me if you prefer/want to..was just curious as I wanted to look into the issue at different angles)

 

[Trippey]

As a side note for rural applications, do not consider a satellite internet plan, they have reasonable download speeds, but they fail in latency and uploads due to uplink provided by a dial up or dsl line.

 

[Samurai_TwoSeven]

Here are my options

Softcom OFDM/WiMAX http://www.softcom.net/services/highspeed.html

CalDSL http://www.caldsl.net/

if I had a better option that wouldn't cost my family a fortune per month I would take it, but sadly, I don't

 

[Diseased_Carcass]

I guess I should feel lucky then. I'm way outside town and my cable/internet bill is $185 a month which is fine since I get HBO and HD everything. My internet speed is on average 96Down/12Up.