Broadband speed query

Mods hope this is ok to post here as didn't know where to post

Would anyone be able to offer me some advice about broadband speed please I live in a rural area so was looking for the best available service in my budget which is a download of up to 2mb and upload 1mb - can anyone translate what this means for me please? will I be able to watch Netflix and YouTube with these speeds?

Thanks everyone in advance

ED E

You need 3Mb down to stream standard def content, and 4-6Mb for HD.

ItHurtsWhenIP

Deleted User wrote: »

Mods hope this is ok to post here as didn't know where to post

Would anyone be able to offer me some advice about broadband speed please I live in a rural area so was looking for the best available service in my budget which is a download of up to 2mb and upload 1mb - can anyone translate what this means for me please? will I be able to watch Netflix and YouTube with these speeds?

Thanks everyone in advance

If it is only you and only one device connected then it should be OK-ish.

At 2Mbps, you will probably be able to watch Netflix and YouTubes at a lower quality setting. HD viewing may push it too far and buffering will ensue.

If it is a wireless operator providing the service, then do a search on this Broadband forum to see if they have service "issues" (like it slowing down to 10% if advertised speed between 6:00pm and midnight). If that happens you're goosed for streaming. :eek::(

ItHurtsWhenIP

ED E wrote: »

You need 3Mb down to stream standard def content, and 4-6Mb for HD.

I've a 3Mbps/1Mbps (which is generally 2.6/0.6) and share it with the missus (and our phones & skybox) and SD is generally fine.

I don't do Netfix, but if I watched a HD movie trailer on IMDB or similar I have to let the stream nearly completely download before watching it without interruption. A 1:30 trailer can take 2+ minutes to download.

ED E

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

I've a 3Mbps/1Mbps (which is generally 2.6/0.6) and share it with the missus (and our phones & skybox) and SD is generally fine.

I don't do Netfix, but if I watched a HD movie trailer on IMDB or similar I have to let the stream nearly completely download before watching it without interruption. A 1:30 trailer can take 2+ minutes to download.

Essentially you arent really streaming then. Try watching a 1hr piece on youtube and see how much fun you'll have.

ItHurtsWhenIP

ED E wrote: »

Essentially you arent really streaming then. Try watching a 1hr piece on youtube and see how much fun you'll have.

But only if I wanted HD (which would only be for the occasional trailer). I normally watch everything as SD and it does actually stream fine.

Thanks everyone for your answers so far think I'm going to get the 2mb as its in my budget and if it's unbearable will upgrade to the 4mb.
I will be the only one using the Internet in my house, it's satellite based, I'm hoping it will load Netflix - don't mind it being in stand.def or some minor buffering as long as it doesn't take 1hr to load a 30min show? apart from that the 2mb should be ok for just general website viewing? At the moment I've a 3 wifi modem and I can just about load boards, Twitter etc

Thanks again

ItHurtsWhenIP

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your answers so far think I'm going to get the 2mb as its in my budget and if it's unbearable will upgrade to the 4mb.
I will be the only one using the Internet in my house, it's satellite based, I'm hoping it will load Netflix - don't mind it being in stand.def or some minor buffering as long as it doesn't take 1hr to load a 30min show? apart from that the 2mb should be ok for just general website viewing? At the moment I've a 3 wifi modem and I can just about load boards, Twitter etc

Thanks again

Oooh ... Satellite ... not good ... worse than Mobile in most people's opinion. :eek:

Check if the package has any data limits (I'd be very surprised if a budget plan didn't have some ridiculous limit).

You might find that a few hours of Netflix blows your monthly allowance.

MMFITWGDV

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

Oooh ... Satellite ... not good ... worse than Mobile in most people's opinion. :eek:

Check if the package has any data limits (I'd be very surprised if a budget plan didn't have some ridiculous limit).

You might find that a few hours of Netflix blows your monthly allowance.

Ooo bad news so apparently they have a mast in our village and many people are with the company in the village, I've heard there decent but again they live in different areas where I'd get 3G reception at their location so I don't know. Unfortunately for now it's the only option or a different phone company modem, I cannot wait for the day we get fibre :L only probably 2/3 years to wait if we're lucky :P

One good thing is its unlimited

ItHurtsWhenIP

Deleted User wrote: »

Ooo bad news so apparently they have a mast in our village and many people are with the company in the village, I've heard there decent but again they live in different areas where I'd get 3G reception at their location so I don't know. Unfortunately for now it's the only option or a different phone company modem, I cannot wait for the day we get fibre :L only probably 2/3 years to wait if we're lucky :P

One good thing is its unlimited

If they are delivering the last bit by mast from your village, then that'd be a wireless service. How that mast get's it's feed then is a different matter altogether. It's strange that it is fully unlimited, if it was getting a satellite backhaul.

As others have found out in the past (to their cost) some company's say their package is unlimited, only to look at the small print and find a Fair Usage Policy (FUP) that is something ludicrous like 10GB a month and they will happily charge you anything over that amount (you see it is unlimited, but after a certain fair usage, we need to charge you :mad:). So check the small print first.

Can you tell us the company name?

mass_debater

I've never heard of a fixed wireless provider with satellite backhaul

ItHurtsWhenIP

mass_debater wrote: »

I've never heard of a fixed wireless provider with satellite backhaul

I was thinking the same thing, but I have a niggling thing in the back of my brain pan that there used to be a UK company that provided this kind of service to a community. They would also sell an individual a satellite broadband package, but it was steeeeep. I can't remember their name, but I do remember they were advertised on the original DCENR (or whatever the hell it was called 10 years ago) website/broadband checker thingy. I used it to find that when I moved to the sticks I was sh1t out of luck except for these types.

I can't remember where I came across them, but I ended up with a cheap deal (€9pm) from SkyDSL for a 1Mbs one-way satellite service. I of course had to be dialed up on 56Kbps for the upstream bit, but it was better than nothing. I got the dish and all the bits and pieces for free and self-installed.

I wouldn't go back to them though. Satellite ... Yuck!

Sorry I'm totally clueless with tech matters I must find out about the fair usage policy first too thanks for that

The company is called Atlantek

ItHurtsWhenIP

Deleted User wrote: »

Sorry I'm totally clueless with tech matters I must find out about the fair usage policy first too thanks for that

The company is called Atlantek

I see you'd been on another thread here recently where somebody else was asking about their service. If you search the whole forum you will see this other thread from 2013, the second post in it is from some guy who seems to have been very happy with them. It may not hurt to PM him and see if he still has them and feels the same way.