Dollarish Advice » Other Subscribe to forum via RSS

  • 5

    Is a faster internet connection worth it?

    When I signed up for cable internet with Comcast, they have two different options. One is 1 mbps down for $24.95 a month and the other is 20 mbps down for $64.95. Is there a good reason to get the expensive package, or is the cheaper one good enough?

5 Answers best answer

  • 3

    If you do not download or upload a lot the cheaper option is better.  If you do a lot of downloading the faster speed makes all the difference and is wonderful.  Try the slower one for a month and if you do not like it upgrade.  Companies are usually more than happy to get more money out of you.

  • 1

    If you watch a lot of streaming video it might be worthwhile to get the more expensive package. Otherwise, you most likely won't notice much of a difference. The 20mbps is just a tease, as you'll most likely never be getting anything where speed is that important.

    Some may say for gaming more bandwidth is important, but really it's not. It's the latency that matters there, and the one won't be any better than the other  for that.

  • 1

    For most purposes you will not notice the difference above 1Mbp/s.  Get that one, unless two or more people will be streaming movies simultaneously or you want to watch HD movies online, and use OpenDNS to reduce address lookup times and access the nearest (IOW fastest) available host for each site that you visit.

  • 1

    It is worth it to replace TV.  My wife and I are happy with Netflix for movies and hulu for free TV.  We have a computer that can hook up to a high definition TV.  You take the extra discount we get on the unlimited long distance phone service, and it sees to be worth it.  I think it would quickly become excessive without the streaming videos though?  If I still had cable TV, I'd likely be on a slower option.

  • 0

    If you listen to Pandora online, or you watch a lot of videos, or you download a lot, you will definitely notice a difference.

    Flash and graphics-heavy pages on the Web can also be noticeably faster with a better connection. With my 6Mbps connection, I'm frequently annoyed with loading time. I'd just use the mobile versions of sites if I had a 1Mbps or slower connection. I couldn't wait for the site to load with such slow connection speeds.

    One thing to be aware of is that it isn't just your end that decides how fast things download. You could have (in theory) a 50Mbps connection and still visit a site that is connected at 1.5Mbps (shared between everyone who is visiting that site at the time) in which case, you won't see any difference. And also, whatever the advertised speed is, you'll never get quite that fast of a connection.

You must log in to post

Tags:

Browse by Category...

Category Topics Posts
Debt 12 33
School 7 17
Savings 9 15
Personal Finance 67 197
Other 48 131
Career 18 46

Today's Reputation Leaders

  • No users match this description

    Please click below to try a different view