Upload/download speeds

OK, I admit I AM A COMPUTER "SEMI" ILLITERATE.
That being said, I retired 21 years ago..basically before computers, internet (Al GORE), etc
So everything I do I have learned by myself...no courses or aid from 12 year olds.
My question is what are considered "good" upload, and download speed, or Ping...whatever the f that is?

 

"Good speeds" is really relative. You need enough bandwidth to support what you do on the internet. If you are just surfing, emailing, YouTubing etc, you'll probably be happy with around 3 Mb/s (megabits per second). If you want to stream Netflix to your TV and/or do some online gaming you'll probably be more comfortable with 10-15 Mb/s. If you are really into "twitch" gaming and high res graphics, you might want 30 Mb/s or so. Our local cable company just started offering 100 Mb/s to your house. That is overkill in all but the narrowest applications.

Keep in mind that these are all download speeds. Upload speeds are kept closer to 1 - 5 Mb/s no matter what your down stream is. They use that to keep you from running sites out of your house. Which would be problematic without a static IP anyway. Have to get a commercial agreement for that.

 

Checked again with the site Baraka_Guru listed - 95% certain I have used that same site several times before but they have a whole new interface in that event then.
download - 18.13 Mbps
upload - 0.94 Mbps
works quite well for everything I do

 

OK, now what..download is 1.89 Mbps
upload 1.48 Mbps
Ping is 35
BUT, if I try to downoad some "stuff" that I've been sent it says 5 minutes....It seems to me that this is a new condition, the same "stuff" used to open in 45 seconds or so...I guess it's time to call Uverse..

 

Firstly, these three values mean something down speed is measuring how big your "incoming" pipe is (i.e. you can download 1.89 Mega bits per second. Similarly, you can upload 1.48 Mega bits per second. Ping is basically a measure of your "distance" from the server you are connecting to, so this is only relevant for the specific server queried. If you are in Australia downloading from the US (like I am), then your ping number will be higher (e.g. my ping to the tfp server is 222, my ping to MY isps server is 10). This is measured by sending a little message to the server and seeing how long it takes to respond.

When downloading, ping is really not that relevant, though it probably measures how many 'jumps' the data will take and therefore how many other 'pipes' you will be passing through. I have a 100Mbps download pipe (and 0.5Mbps up), but I rarely achieve this in real use as the source affects the speed that things are returned. Ping is much more relevant from gaming - the response from whatever server you are playing on can make a huge difference. Smaller numbers are closer to you and therefore provide a better gaming experience.

There are other limiting factors - e.g. I'm on cable, this is a shared 'pipe' with my neighbours (or at least people in my locality). I notice a slow down at 3.30 when the local kids get home from school. It is still useable, but I rarely get anywhere near the 100Mbps at that time.

 

Pixel's right in that right right amount of bandwidth (how fast your connection is) really depends on what you're doing with it... but those numbers are a bit... inflated. The vast overwhelming majority of games will rarely if ever use even a whole megabit of download to themselves and hardly more than a few hundred Kbps in upload. For streaming video though you will definitely want to be in the 10 megabits per second range, minimum.

Ping, aka latency, is just how long it takes a signal to get to somewhere and back. Lower is better but for non-interactive things, really anything other than videogames, you're not even going to feel anything under 250ms (milliseconds). Unacceptably high for a first person shooter, or most games, but streaming a movie won't be affected. Making a skype call or using a webcam might be a bit laggy though.

Most confusion comes from internet speeds being measured in megaBITS per second whereas files are in megaBYTES. It's all marketing, they chose bits because there are 8 bits in a single byte... so it lets them advertise a number that sounds 8 times larger than it is for practical purposes. Take my connection for example, 10 megabits per second. that works out to exactly 1.25 megabytes every second if I'm getting full speed. Getting a high download speed for a tolerable price in the US, at least if you live somewhere with a little competition, isn't impossible.

Upload is what gets you though. When you have a webcam conversation with someone you need a fast upload connection as well, because you're sending them as much as you're receiving. That sort of thing costs a lot more though which is why you see connections like mine that give you 10mbps download but only about 3 upload.

If I was to give some minimum standards though I would say 1.5/anything for more than $15 a month is unacceptable, 3mb/768kb is acceptable up to $30, and you should really consider 5m/1m to be the minimum. Once you get 1mbit upload and above 3mbits download you're in the range of "decent" and once you get to 10mbits down you're at "good". All of this is also assuming an average ping of 100 milliseconds or less to a local test server, any more and you should start calling tech support asking them to check for a bad signal or something.

 

We recently got fibre optic through Bell Aliant in Atlantic Canada. To say we have phenomenal speed would be an understatement.

 

I get 9.7 down and 0.87up, which is about what I need presently.

 

Mine's pretty good today, but is often much lower (and I don't even notice).

For most use, this kind of speed is irrelevant ..

 

True, but when you are downloading movies, good speed makes the difference between minutes and days