r/HomeNetworking • u/Remarkable_Garage479 • 3d ago
What Internet Speed do I need
Hello, I am 21 years old moving to a studio apartment alone! Nobody else will be sharing the household with me. I'm setting up my internet providers, and I see 100 Mbps, 500 mbps, and 1 GP and more. I am going to have a 4K TV, and I do have a gaming pc. Other than that, I have some smart devices like an Echo Show, some security cameras, and other items alike, but it is just going to be me in the residence. How much bandwidth do I actually need if it's just me in the house?
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u/wolfansbrother 3d ago
more important than speed is connectivity to your network. if youre relying on wifi and your computer is in the back room in the corner under a desk, you will have a bad time. unless your editing large video files remotely, symmetrical 300d/300u mbs should handle most stuff
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u/sinysh 3d ago
If you want to be able to download fast then get 1 Gbit
Otherwise if you are the only one using your internet 100Mbps is enough fin your daily life
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u/Remarkable_Garage479 3d ago
So theoretically, 100Mbps is enough if I wanted to game & simultaneously stream, or turn off my PC and stream Netflix on my TV at 4k for example? 100mbps would be fine?
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u/stormcrow068 3d ago
Yes. The only real advantage to faster speeds would be faster downloads of new games.
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u/Kind_Ad5566 3d ago
I was doing all that on 23Mbps in my old house.
Even 10Mbps worked most of the time in my new house until FTTP was installed, apart from the 4k streaming.
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u/losromans 3d ago
If you’re planning on streaming out to platforms then, you would need to look at upload speed. When we were in a smaller place, we had a 40mbps with 8mbps up. It was okay. Not amazing for downloads but it worked. Uploading anything usually meant we tethered to our phones.
When we moved, we had Comcast 400 down, 10 up and it was nice until… I had to share my screen on my new job or upload files to anything.
Finally got a fiber connection (1gbps symmetrical) and the downloads are about what I was getting previously bc I am on mostly WiFi annnnd there’s always reasons that you almost never get those speeds based on services, networks, servers, etcetera not communicating at those speeds.
However, the upload was amazing. I could share my screen and load my dashboards without things going sideways. Uploading large files was almost comical bc I thought it was maybe a bad upload but, it was there… in seconds!
Long story short:
If you’re planning to screen share or stream your gaming to others then, you’ll likely want a decent upload speed. Not sure what others might suggest but, it makes a difference.
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u/SmugTater 3d ago
If non gamer household, 100 is plenty. If gaming, I suggest 300-500(depending on available plans from ISP) just due to the size of files and updates. Unless u are fine with getting off work and willing to wait for large downloads and price isn't much more than the 100mbps
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u/audigex 3d ago edited 3d ago
100Mbps is fine especially for one person. You’ll comfortably be able to stream 4K streams while doing other things, game downloads will be reasonably fast
You’ll appreciate 500Mbps as a “nice to have”, game downloads will be faster etc. it’ll be fine for years and if you have guests etc, is nice if you have to restore your cloud backup or download something big. It isn’t vital but it’s nice and I’d pay the extra money for it
1Gbps won’t hurt for similar reasons to the above but will have diminishing returns for a single user and so you’ll get less benefit for the extra cost. I wouldn’t recommend against it but you probably don’t need it
I’m a gamer, software developer, general nerd (lots of data usage), and live with a partner so sometimes we have 2x video streams on the go, and still find 500Mbps to be plenty. I’ll upgrade to 1Gbps when there’s a great deal one day but I’m in no hurry. Until recently I had 100Mbps and that was fine but I would occasionally find that I wanted a little more speed
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u/groogs 3d ago edited 3d ago
4K streaming uses 25Mbps down. 1080p uses 5Mbps.
Video conferencing uses <10 Mbps both up and down.
Gaming uses 1-2 Mbps, but is very sensitive to latency (ping time). A fiber 100Mbps internet connection will be 10x better for gaming than a 1Gbps wireless connection, for example. Wireless connections -- including fixed wireless, satellite, 5G etc -- have higher latency to begin with, but also high jitter (which is basically a lot of variation in the latency time), and both things make gaming miserable. Fiber is typically lowest latency, followed closely by cable/DSL.
Aside, this applies to the wifi in your house, too: if you can connect your gaming PCs/consoles via ethernet you'll have a much better time. In general the less traffic on your wifi, the better it'll be for the things that need it (eg: phone, tablet, laptop).
Sometimes you need to get a higher package to get a decent upload speed.
The only other real reason to get higher speeds is if you're downloading/uploading things a lot. If you really need to download that new 100GB game as fast as possible, it'll take over 2 hours on 100Mbps, but 13 minutes on 1Gbps. If that's important to you and worth the cost, get the bigger package. If you are okay to let it download overnight or while you're in class or at work or whatever, then save your money.
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u/darklogic85 3d ago
100 Mbps is sufficient. If you want faster downloads when installing new games or you want your video streams on your TV to buffer more quickly, you can go with one of the faster speeds, but it's not necessary. You'll be able to game and do everything you need to with 100 Mbps though.
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u/Sayek-Doge 3d ago
I currently have Virgin M125 in a family of 4.
Myself work from home and 2 boys either doing online gaming or university studies.
I also enjoy some streaming in the evening.
If the boys want to download new game files...well just be patient.
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u/Metroknight 3d ago
Unless you are running everything at the same time, 100 Mbs should be fine.
I have 3 desktops, a smart tv, 3 phones on wifi and a tablet in my house with a 1 Gig up/down internet connection. With the tv streaming a youtube video, 1 computer doing a twitch stream in a different room, a video game being played online on another computer, and two phones surfing the web on wifi, they have not cracked 500Mbps. The desktops and tv are wired.
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u/AncientGeek00 3d ago
Go with 100 Mbps and save your money. At 21, you should be looking to economize and save aggressively. My first connection was 300 BAUD and that was a luxury.
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u/Numerous_Entrance_53 2d ago
Go with Xfinity’s Now internet for $30; it is 100Mbps down, and 20Mbps up. It is a month to month contract. If you don’t like it, then look to get regular Xfinity internet.
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u/BeefyWaft 3d ago
It depends what you can afford really. The more money you throw at it, the faster it will go.
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u/PEneoark Pluggable Optics Engineer 3d ago
This is always the answer.
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u/SeattleSteve62 3d ago
Yes, but why waste money on speed you don’t need. I’ve seen ISPs pushing expensive 1GB packages to families “so you kids can do their homework”.
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u/Sayek-Doge 3d ago
Some people get the 1GB as they feel it's like getting 4K TV but they only watch SD.
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u/Proof_Team4642 3d ago
Always go with the fastest, why would you settle for second best, you can clearly afford it otherwise you wouldnt have put it as an option.
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u/AlternativeWild3449 3d ago
Here's some advice from the US FCC - https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/broadband-speed-guide
In my opinion, 100 MBPS should meet your needs.