1MB v 2MB - much of a difference for home user? - Completed!

justagirl

I'm considering making the 'switch' from Eircom to BT... and was wondering for a homer user - is there a huge difference between 1MB and 2MB....?...

An old friend of mine (sets up networks and the like).... said just because you have say 2MB broadband doesn't actually mean that you will get 2MB (depending on the usage in the area etc)... and you might in fact actually get 1MB anyway which he reckoned was quite sufficient for surfing etc..... Apologies if this is completely wrong but this is the jist of what I got!!!:)

Ciaran500

1mb is more than enough for any general browsing and light downloading.

justagirl

Ciaran500 - txs, appreciated...

you will not notice any difference in speed of loading web pages, the only difference will be when you're downloading from a good source. In this case, the 2mb broadband has the potential to be twice as fast in downloading the file than the 1mb.

Zapho

Yeah, my isp upgraded me to 1mb up from 512k about 2 months ago, and there wasn't a huge improvement but it was good enough. I got about an extra 20k a second on downloads and my CSS pings went from about 30ms to 20ms. I can imagine that going to 2mb would have some improvement, but don't expect speeds to double!

justagirl

Txs for replys... I currently have 2MB so will switch to 1MB and if its no good for me - I can always upgrad for 9€ extra per month which is fine...

Can't believe I'm actually going to start 'saving' some money!!!!!

justagirl

Txs for replys... I currently have 2MB so will switch to 1MB and if its no good for me - I can always upgrad for 9€ extra per month which is fine...

Can't believe I'm actually going to start 'saving' some money!!!!!

dublinhead

So good you said it twice!!
After hearing that I am going to switch down to 1MB from 2MB with my ntl cable broadband. I only use the net at home for surfing and v little downloading.

justagirl

......!!! Eddie Hobbs will be so proud of us!!

SoldierForce

As you read my transfer thread I'm in the same boat as you! Don't forget its not only the speed that your paying the extra for! They usage is also 100% more 20GB compared to 10GB! What I'm doing is I've started with 2MB and will be checking my usage over the month then maybe downgrade! because its more expensive if you go over the cap! if you want to do the same just check out http://broadband.iol.ie/usage
Oh yea another thing is check your first bill if you have been billed for connection or a modem! Sometimes they make this mistake of billing for a modem when we have our own! Not much of a problem, i know someone who had been billed but that was adjusted with just a single call!
Cheerz

justagirl

So Soldier - in laymans speak please!!! you say if you go over the 'cap' ... what is this - I dont really download much ...just surf/research/emails...but hope (soonish..) to put a website on the web - so my question is - what would make you go over the cap... lots of downloading?.. how do you check.... (sorry if I'm being dim.....ish!)

jor el

For general web surfing and emails 10G will be plenty. It only becomes an issue if you're downloading lots of mp3s (2000-3000 a month!) or some large files like movies. BT don't strictly enforce the cap anyway, unless you go way over. Use the link soldierforce posted to check your usage anyway. You get 10G up and 10G down on the 1M package from BT.

justagirl

jor el wrote:

Use the link soldierforce posted to check your usage anyway. You get 10G up and 10G down on the 1M package from BT.

Txs Jor El... I'm currently with Eircom (but made the switching call to BT this morning)....so I can't use this IOL link to check my usage...:(

Cuddlesworth

Zapho wrote:

Yeah, my isp upgraded me to 1mb up from 512k about 2 months ago, and there wasn't a huge improvement but it was good enough. I got about an extra 20k a second on downloads and my CSS pings went from about 30ms to 20ms. I can imagine that going to 2mb would have some improvement, but don't expect speeds to double!

That would be your increased upload coming into play, 2 meg would have little or no effect on pings after.

SoldierForce

Cap means if you have a 10GB allowance,10Gb is your cap then, Going over it is excess which BT may or may not charge you for! Also if you have a ROUTER and have many computers connected to it or have wireless on then if doesn't depend on how much you use... just being left ON will use up your allowance! i don't mean it will go over the limit but a router/modem/wireless will use more of your bandwith then a simple modem! It's like everytime the DSL link light blinks it uses a few Kbs. Complicated yea but many people don't worry about this!

justagirl

SoldierForce wrote:

Cap means if you have a 10GB allowance,10Gb is your cap then, Going over it is excess which BT may or may not charge you for! Also if you have a ROUTER and have many computers connected to it or have wireless on then if doesn't depend on how much you use... just being left ON will use up your allowance! i don't mean it will go over the limit but a router/modem/wireless will use more of your bandwith then a simple modem! It's like everytime the DSL link light blinks it uses a few Kbs. Complicated yea but many people don't worry about this!

Totally understand... Txs for explanation.... Last Question (promise!)... How do u check ur usage with Eircon/BT please.... Txs! (again!):D

SoldierForce

For BT wait till you get your username and password and then use the link I gave before http://broadband.iol.ie/usage and for eircom use http://broadbandsupport.eircom.net and there look out for 'Your Broadband Stats' and enter your Phone and Account number! thats it! I can tell you alot more but then I doubt thsi will be the last question! If you got any more questions fire away! I'll answer when I'm on!
Cheerz

justagirl

SoldierForce wrote:

For BT wait till you get your username and password and then use the link I gave before http://broadband.iol.ie/usage and for eircom use http://broadbandsupport.eircom.net and there look out for 'Your Broadband Stats' and enter your Phone and Account number! thats it! I can tell you alot more but then I doubt thsi will be the last question! If you got any more questions fire away! I'll answer when I'm on!
Cheerz

Thanks - looks like my current usage with Eircon is between 1% to 13% so I'm in the all clear!... Txs for the link to the BT one as well.

No more questions.....:cool: .... yet...:D

SoldierForce

Sample allowance usage

10 GB Allowance
Surfing the net 24 hours a day
Downloading music 100 tracks a week
Downloading video clips 100 x 2 minute clips a week
Listening to online radio 40 hours a week
Receiving e-mails
(no attachments) 2,000 e-mails a week

20 GB Allowance
Surfing the net 24 hours a day
Downloading music 150 tracks a week
Downloading video clips 150 x 2 minute clips a week
Listening to online radio 60 hours a week
Receiving e-mails (no attachments) 3,000 e-mails a week



30 GB Allowance
Surfing the net 24 hours a day
Downloading music 200 tracks a week
Downloading video clips 200 x 2 minute clips a week
Listening to online radio 80 hours a week
Receiving e-mails (no attachments) 4,000 e-mails a week

SoldierForce

If you keep posting questions for me to answer theres a chance that you'll go above the limit willing to take the risk? Btw BT will take at least 3 weeks to do the transfer so relax a bit! Also recently they have been sending out letters for a €125 deposit! Very few are lucky to excape this! Students are the worst hit! :rolleyes:

justagirl

LOL...No more questions ... promise... thanks for all of your help..yes, BT did mention today that I might have to pay a security deposit that I get back after a year..:rolleyes: I had to pay it with Bord Gais also when I came back from overseas, but I was renting then so maybe its different now....but that's another question for another board:D .......

blorg

I went from 512k to 3mb (same price upgrade) and I honestly didn't notice for a few weeks. Web browsing is completely the same; downloads _are_ generally significantly faster (how I noticed.) The other thing which made a big difference was 128k upload going to 384k - this makes remote desktop back to my home computer much easier.

But for web browsing, no difference.

SoldierForce

I did make out a slight difference after an upgrade but that was because I use TV over broadband so watching 2-4 channels at the same time was a bit of a problem but after the upgrade to 2 MB it looks better very few cuts and I doubt those cuts are due to my connection! rather the ones who are hosting the live feeds!

Do-more

A while back Eircon gave me the "free" upgrade from 1meg to 2 megs, but as I'm not a big downloader I hardly noticed any difference so I moved back down to the 1 meg to save the tenner a month. Only time I could use a quicker connection is when the wife is on the VoIP (Zoom X5v ATA) and while in theory it should only use 56K up (I think) I sometimes find it impossible to surf as it is robbing all the 109K upload I have... Thinking about a move to the €40 a month BT Line & 2 meg BB which will still save money over my current Eircon cost.

shoegirl

In my experience there was a big jump going from 512 to 1mb, but from 1 to 2mb I only noticed it when downloading large files from good sources (I download athe odd linux iso so noticed it when downloading from heanet etc).

ergo

just wondering

how does number of users affect the speed of surfing etc?

am about to order Eircom broaband and this house has had it before and we still have the old modem so was thinking it could happen maybe quicker than going with a new provider

had planned going with the 1MB option and seeing how it goes

but lets say there were 4 people using it in the evening, unlikely all at once but say 2 or 3 on a wireless network and maybe one of these using skype or whatever

would that significantly slow down everyon else's? would 1MB be enough (let's presume no-one is downloading movies or anything)? I know every case is different and may be hard to be specific but in general?

MunsterCycling

The wireless is what will be holding you up there seeing as its half-duplex (can only transmit or receive one at a time), factor in multiple machines then you will have a lot of collisions further reducing your bandwidth, best to take as many machines as you can off wifi and onto ethernet if you want a stable connection.

hallelujah

justagirl wrote:

I'm considering making the 'switch' from Eircom to BT... and was wondering for a homer user - is there a huge difference between 1MB and 2MB....?...

An old friend of mine (sets up networks and the like).... said just because you have say 2MB broadband doesn't actually mean that you will get 2MB (depending on the usage in the area etc)... and you might in fact actually get 1MB anyway which he reckoned was quite sufficient for surfing etc..... Apologies if this is completely wrong but this is the jist of what I got!!!:)

Dont care.

Do-more

ergo wrote:

just wondering

how does number of users affect the speed of surfing etc?

am about to order Eircom broaband and this house has had it before and we still have the old modem so was thinking it could happen maybe quicker than going with a new provider

had planned going with the 1MB option and seeing how it goes

but lets say there were 4 people using it in the evening, unlikely all at once but say 2 or 3 on a wireless network and maybe one of these using skype or whatever

would that significantly slow down everyon else's? would 1MB be enough (let's presume no-one is downloading movies or anything)? I know every case is different and may be hard to be specific but in general?

The Skype could be a problem also, whilst in theory it should use only 56K up, I find that when my voip connection is in use it sometime robs all of my 109K upload. I'm also on Eircom 1meg BTW.

blorg

MunsterCycling wrote:

The wireless is what will be holding you up there seeing as its half-duplex (can only transmit or receive one at a time), factor in multiple machines then you will have a lot of collisions further reducing your bandwidth, best to take as many machines as you can off wifi and onto ethernet if you want a stable connection.

This is not really the case, your 1mb broadband will be far more of a bottleneck than your 11/54mb wireless (realistically 5/24mb or so after protocol overhead.) 4 people simultaneously will not be a problem for WiFi, no way.

4 people normal web surfing I doubt anyone would notice the difference.

As Do-More says, Skype is a different matter and has the potential to cause problems. P2P will be the same. The issue here is _not_ actually so much the downloading but the uploading; Skype and P2P can tend to grab all of it and the connection goes to hell. Best use clients such as Azureus that have bandwidth limiting options built in, or alternatively use a third party limiter. I am very happy with NetLimiter myself; you can install this on each computer and limit the up rate to something less than the total for your connection.

ergo

thanks for the replies

will go ahead with it and see how it goes, am sure will be back on these boards struggling to set up a wireless network but I managed it once before so we'll see

another quick query (and don't necessarily expect an answer): what happened the thread that was on here a few months ago comparing all the different providers' various packages, upload and download speeds and types of contracts etc....?

I've had a good look around right to the end of all the threads and can't find it (and it wasn't a sticky before as far as I can remember)

probe

The more users you have in your house, the more you will benefit from a faster download speed. With a 20 Mbits/sec connection you won't notice two or three others at the same location downloading large files and/or watching video or IP intensive gaming while you are browsing.

If you want faster browsing go for the ISP offering the lowest contention ratio.

If you connect to your home machine via a VPN (eg to help keep your laptop secure while using Wifi in a hotel or other public location) pick an ISP with at least 1 Mbits/sec up and downstream.

probe

MunsterCycling

blorg wrote:

This is not really the case, your 1mb broadband will be far more of a bottleneck than your 11/54mb wireless (realistically 5/24mb or so after protocol overhead.) 4 people simultaneously will not be a problem for WiFi, no way.

4 people normal web surfing I doubt anyone would notice the difference.

As Do-More says, Skype is a different matter and has the potential to cause problems. P2P will be the same. The issue here is _not_ actually so much the downloading but the uploading; Skype and P2P can tend to grab all of it and the connection goes to hell. Best use clients such as Azureus that have bandwidth limiting options built in, or alternatively use a third party limiter. I am very happy with NetLimiter myself; you can install this on each computer and limit the up rate to something less than the total for your connection.

Exactly, the problem here is Skype and its bandwidth eating tendencies. Four users just surfing would be no problem at all but throw a torrent, skype and browsing into the mix and it will be a different matter and seeing as the OP was asking about this thats why it'll be a problem.

Maybe move to Wireless, as the points here need more wireless centred anwers / experts?

MC

blorg

MunsterCycling wrote:

Exactly, the problem here is Skype and its bandwidth eating tendencies. Four users just surfing would be no problem at all but throw a torrent, skype and browsing into the mix and it will be a different matter and seeing as the OP was asking about this thats why it'll be a problem.

Maybe move to Wireless, as the points here need more wireless centred anwers / experts?

MC

I should have clarified - the problems caused by Skype will have _nothing_ to do with the wireless connection (around 5mbs even if you are using the old 802.11b) and everything to do with the fact that you have only 128k up on your broadband connection. The wireless is going to be between 40 times faster (if using b) and 192 times faster (if using g) than your broadband upload speed. The wireless will NOT be the bottleneck, there really is no wireless issue here.

EDIT: I have around seven devices on a (802.11b) wireless network and have used wireless networks with far more, and I can assure you, the network is faster than my 3mb broadband and there is _no_ difference with regard to internet access between the devices on the wireless and the devices on the wired ethernet. There _is_ a pronounced difference when it comes to transferring files _between_ the computers however (as you would expect.)

blorg

probe wrote:

If you connect to your home machine via a VPN (eg to help keep your laptop secure while using Wifi in a hotel or other public location) pick an ISP with at least 1 Mbits/sec up and downstream.

I have 384k up and find it more than fast enough for RDP/VNC in to my home server; 384 is a lot nicer than the 128k I had before though (in particular, RDP is still usable while running P2P apps, which it wasn't really before.) 1Mbit synchronous is quite difficult to find unless you are going for the likes of Irish Broadband, which I don't think anyone would recommend over DSL.