What is the minimum speed for YouTube, etc.?

[GA Russell]

I am thinking about reducing the speed of my internet service. I could possibly reduce my monthly bill from $45 to $15.

What would you say is the minimum speed necessary to enjoy YouTube and other videos? I do not stream movies, etc.

Thanks!

[Scott Dolan]

Depends on how patient you are, GA. If you're willing to wait a couple of minutes for the video to load and buffer than you could conceivably drop down to anything from 756 on up.

If you want to reliably stream as soon as you click on it, I wouldn't go any lower than 3GB.

A lot of it has to do with their servers as well. We have 10GB high-speed, and even we experience the odd problem or two with them.

[Dave Garrett]

If you're going to be streaming any full HD (1080p/1080i) videos, I'd be wary of going any slower than 6Mb (megabit, not GB). My dad still has 1.5Mb DSL with AT&T, and trying to watch an HD movie trailer on YouTube streamed via WiFi to his TV resulted in lots of pixelation and buffering.

[GA Russell]

Well, AT&T is offering "up to" 6 megabits for $14.95 a month here, so maybe I will give them a call on Monday.

Thanks, guys!

[JSngry]

I'd be careful..."up to" often means that you'll get that if and when the internet is lonely all over the world all at once.

[Scott Dolan]

If you're going to be streaming any full HD (1080p/1080i) videos, I'd be wary of going any slower than 6Mb (megabit, not GB). My dad still has 1.5Mb DSL with AT&T, and trying to watch an HD movie trailer on YouTube streamed via WiFi to his TV resulted in lots of pixelation and buffering.

Mbps!

What the hell was I thinking? Although a 10 GB download speed would be pretty sweet!

But you're right. Our previous 5 Mbps could handle HD streams, but sometimes it was quite the slog.

GA, that's an excellent deal. I'd jump on it.

I'd be careful..."up to" often means that you'll get that if and when the internet is lonely all over the world all at once.

Perhaps. I find that to be more myth than fact. At least in my experience. The one nice thing about DSL is that you have a dedicated line straight to your house, unlike cable where you're sharing the pipeline with the entire neighborhood. THAT'S the scenario where you tend to see major slow downs at "peak" times.

I run Ookla speed tests on all of my equipment on a pretty regular basis. I have never gotten less than 9 Mbps down, and have occasionally gotten more than 10. So in my experience, when using DSL the "up to" is far less of a concern.

Edited May 18, 2014 by Scott Dolan

[JSngry]

I've got FIOS & can't remember the last tim3 speed was a concern. So I'm sold on that, the fiber-optic thing.

[Scott Dolan]

Last time I checked FIOS still wasn't available here. So we're still using Centurylink DSL. Which is fine. We rarely ever have any issues with it. We had some bad wiring last year which took several service calls to fully diagnose and repair, but our internet almost never goes out. And when it does, it's usually back on inside of a minute.

[Ted O'Reilly]

I've got FIOS & can't remember the last tim3 speed was a concern. So I'm sold on that, the fiber-optic thing.

Me too, with "the fiber-optic thing". I just did a speed test: download was 17.45 MBPS, upload 10.73.

[mjzee]

We had very poor results with FiOS. We would get no more than a third of the Internet speed they advertised (they advertised 30 mbps and we got 10). Finally they said there was nothing more they could do; that was when we switched to Comcast and it's been fine since.

On the cable TV side, note that TiVo will not work with FiOS; TiVo works fine with Comcast.

Edited May 19, 2014 by mjzee

[Scott Dolan]

I've got FIOS & can't remember the last tim3 speed was a concern. So I'm sold on that, the fiber-optic thing.

Me too, with "the fiber-optic thing". I just did a speed test: download was 17.45 MBPS, upload 10.73.

WOW! That upload is smokin fast!

Our upload stays right around 756k to 760k. Not that it matters all that much, since I rarely even need that.

Just ran an Ookla test on my iPad and got 10.00 (first time I've ever gotten such a perfect number) down, and 760k up.

[Dave Garrett]

35Mb down and 12Mb up with Comcast. For all of their well-documented failings when it comes to customer service, I've never really had reason to find fault with the speeds I get from them, and at least in my area the service has been relatively stable with the occasional short-lived outage. Still laughably slow, I'm sure, for those in many other countries where gigabit internet is commonplace.

[Scott Dolan]

Holy moly!

I had Mediacom many years ago and we supposedly had 10 Mb down, but we never got it. And it went out regularly. Sometimes for entire weekends. Got so fed up we cancelled it and went with half the speed through Centurylink, which ended up being much faster.