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Question

New Internet Service

Jun 14, 2013 4:45AM PDT

Hello,

I am moving into a new apartment in August, and will be setting up services with CincinnatiBell FiOptics. They currently offer 10, 20, 30, and 50 mbps internet speeds (they also offer 100, but that's a tad expensive).

I will be with 3 other roommates. We all play online video games on a regular basis, frequently at the same time. We also are constantly on Youtube and streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, HBOGo, Twitch.tv, etc.).

Where we currently are, we use 20 mbps. This works great, however I am looking at the possibility of the other speeds. My question is would it be noticable switching to 10 mbps? Or would it be of any worth to jump up to 30 mbps? How would these different speeds affect lag while playing video games?

Thanks in advance guys.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
But wait, don't tell me.
Jun 14, 2013 5:11AM PDT

For gaming it's never been about the megabits but the lag. You could have a gigabit connection but if something in the pipe from you to their has lag, then gamers scream.

It's not the megabits.
Bob

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A little confusion
Jun 14, 2013 6:01AM PDT

What do you mean by "something in the pipe?" What about the video streaming? And does the fact that there are four of us factor into this decision at all?

Thanks for your answer.

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About video streaming. Lag not much a factor.
Jun 15, 2013 3:07AM PDT

In the case of video streaming, even if there is a half second delay from a request to when the data begins to flow (lag) then the video plays nicely.

If you wanted to stream 4 video streams you would have to know the bandwidth required and then only a beginner would state "four times that." I have found I want double the minimum. So if Netflix for example writes 12 megabits for 3D (https://support.netflix.com/en/node/306 ) then you need about 96 megabits to be sure that no one is upset about interrupted play.
Bob

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Answer
New Internet Service
Jun 16, 2013 7:13AM PDT

How expensive is 100 mbps service in Cincinnati?? Given your level of streaming and gaming I would just go for the 100 mbps service.

We are the most expensive county in the area and our fiber service is $47.95......a couple counties over it is $39.95. Both are much cheaper with phone and cable tv bundles.

I don't remember the latency results with the slower rates, but with the 100 mbps the ping with speedtest.net is 3ms.

If your splitting the bill four ways it would seem the additional cost is minor.

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alexbusinessdirectory
Jun 16, 2013 11:47AM PDT

we have 100mbps here in the uk and were like 25 a month for it,if you had tv and this it comes to like 60.00 a month,this is brittish pounds of course.were all getting 4g soon,this will run at 10 mbps,so not to bad