Upgrading Cable Internet

[makare]

I think I can afford to go up a level on my cable internet service. I am not sure what I have right now but before I call them I had a question.

For someone like me who uses the net mostly for school, chatting, web surfing, and watching netflix on my wii what would be the minimum best speed for that? I realize the fastest would be best but I aint made a money.

Does this question make sense? If not I might be able to explain... maybe not. I don't know bits and bytes.

 

[strawman]

For HD netflix, I found anything less than 6mb/s down is not going to give you the best quality. Hit 10 and you should be just fine. Anything above that is gravy for 90% of internet users.

 

[makare]

I just checked and im at 16...
man wtf is going on. my netflix always fades out on me.

 

[Dave]

Netflix is the ONLY thing you'd need to upgrade for. Basically it's a matter of cost balance. If it's worth it then upgrade all you want. I'm not truly enamored by the quality of items you get from streaming Netflix so it wouldn't be worth it to me. Your mileage may vary.

 

[strawman]

You need to figure out if it's your ISP, your router, or your computer.
Added at: 14:47
I like http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ for testing. It'll give you an idea of your what your whole chain - ISP, router, and computer - can do.

Fades can often be due to programs running on the computer - I found, for instance, that leaving words with friends (facebook) open on my wife's computer made netflix annoying.

 

[makare]

this is what it said

Last Result:
Download Speed: 7828 kbps (978.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 4837 kbps (604.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

 

[GasBandit]

You've got the same down speed as I do (8mbit) and I have no trouble streaming 1080 video. It's possible your ISP just sucks, but it's not beyond possible that your computer itself has a problem.

 

[makare]

i will now delete system 32

 

[strawman]

Well, if they're selling you 15mb/s, you're only getting half of it. You should be able to get good quality on netflix with that speed, but the question is whether there's something on the computer that's slowing things down, or if your cable service is flaky. If you are using wireless I'd plug directly to the router using an ethernet cable and see if the problem goes away. If so, you need to get a better wireless router or card. Make sure your using 802.11G at a minimum, although an 802.11N router would be better. Could also be interference with neighbors also using wireless. The ethernet cable trick will help you figure out if it's a wireless problem, at least.

Don't know what to tell you at this point. You already aren't getting the full speed, so I doubt that upgrading your service is going to do any better. Perhaps call the cable company up and ask why you're only getting 8megabits per second download when you're paying for 15. They might have some suggestions.
Added at: 15:03

i will now delete system 32

Well, that's certainly one way to clean up your pc. Brick it, then reload everything.

I don't recommend it generally, but hey...

 

[makare]

my router is a router/modem provided by the company. ill have to give them a call to see what is up.

 

[PatrThom]

It's also possible your router just can't handle that much traffic. I had to finally upgrade my router just because it couldn't handle sustained high-speed traffic for longer than 2omin or so at a time. The core chip would overheat (or something) and drop back to dialup speeds until it could recover. My Linux and FreeBSD torrent history would look like a sawtooth wave.

--Patrick

 

[Bones]

my friend just had a similar problem, he is getting 0.3 Mbps and should be getting 15, it droves us bonkers until we saw the heat waves coming off of his modem.