can you guys help me with choosing my internet?

[Toho]

so im deciding to move from one service to another. one of them is offering
10mbps with 75g bandwith for 66$
5mbps but unlimited bandwith for 35$

right now i have the 10mbps but when i am downloading from steam or torrents the maximum speed i can reach is like 1000 kilo and at that speed every other computer connected to wireless or myself lose our Internet connection, basically at that point everyone's Internet has been frozen until the download is finished.
so does this mean when companies tell me we have 10 i should expect 1? is this normal? if it is should i really switch to a 5?

thanks

[Djinni]

You need to look a little deeper than this if you actually want to get the package thats right for you.

Firstly, Internet speeds are advertised as "UP TO... " it doesn't mean you'll get the advertised data rate, or even ever achive half of it.
Secondly, You need to know what type of connection you have both inside AND outside the house. Theres no point paying for a package that lets you get UP TO 50MBPS, when your hard line connection can only achive 2MBPS. (A large portion of England has only a top connection speed of 256kbps, I imagine it would be a similar story elsewhere in the world too.)
This means knowing if you're using a Cable connection, or a ADSL connection. It also means needing to know when your phone line was installed.
Thirdly, you need to work out how much bandwidth you use each month, and take your 2nd highest usage as your standard. Most routers will show you how much bandwith you have used since it was last restarted. You may also be able to find this out from your current ISP.

Lastly, if your line can only achive 5MBPS, only pay for a an Up To 5MBPS package, you can always upgrade it later if the line gets upgraded to support a faster connection.

[Toho]

i understand but does changing the speed change what i am getting through the crappy cable? and the company says i do have fiber-optics cables so my speed "should" be 10mbps. so assuming my cables are fine, is it the speed measurement that is the problem? for example the provider is counting in kilometers and i am counting in meters.

[vesseblah]

Yep, 10mbit means about 1 megabyte per second maximum speed (8 bits per byte), and at that speed all other computers will have very crappy connections.

If you're anywhere close to the 75gig monthly cap you should switch to the 5mbit ISP, or if you want to save money. Doesn't really matter for porn downloads or steam if those come at 500k/s or 1000k/s, it's still faster than you can watch. If you want othre computers in the house to not disconnect while downloading torrents, you need to limit your own speed, something like 800k maximum download should do the trick (also need to limit upload to half of the max but you didn't tell how fast that is).

[Havermeyer]

You're freezing your connection because you aren't throttling your uploads. Check number 1: http://www.utorrent.com/help/guides/connection-setup You can also use http://www.speedtest.net/ and manually set your upload limit to ~80% of your maximum.

If you like to seed torrents, 75GB is going to disappear in no time. About two weeks at 60kbps.

[Jaqera]

or:

You could download torrents while you sleep. This way you can go full throttle and no one will be using the wireless.

[Toho]

wow...so if i take the 5mbit then then the max i would be getting is 500 kilobytes per sec?

@Jaqera the problem is not people bieng disconnected but what really is the speed and what is the price.
for example if i am watching a movie on netflix(HD) and my bro is playing WoW and my dad is checking some emails will this 500mbps be enough or not?

[Jaqera]

wow...so if i take the 5mbit then then the max i would be getting is 500 kilobytes per sec?

No...You get up to 5mbit, it will vary throughout the day. If you download torrents just do that at night, it makes the most logical sense

[Toho]

so will 5mbps be enough for what i just said above?

"for example if i am watching a movie on netflix(HD) and my bro is playing WoW and my dad is checking some emails will this 5mbps be enough or not?"

---------- Post added 2011-05-30 at 02:31 PM ----------

is my question that hard to answer? all i am asking is 5mbps enough? because i don't want to get an Internet where everyone has to wait for the other guy to finish what he was doing before they can use the Internet too. for example if my parents want to watch netflix and i want to play wow and my brother wants to play xbox live will the 5mbps be enough or not? i am not necessarily saying thats how it is going to be everyday but i just want to know the limit that a 5mbps can actually sustain.

[Djinni]

so will 5mbps be enough for what i just said above?

"for example if i am watching a movie on netflix(HD) and my bro is playing WoW and my dad is checking some emails will this 5mbps be enough or not?"

---------- Post added 2011-05-30 at 02:31 PM ----------

is my question that hard to answer? all i am asking is 5mbps enough? because i don't want to get an Internet where everyone has to wait for the other guy to finish what he was doing before they can use the Internet too. for example if my parents want to watch netflix and i want to play wow and my brother wants to play xbox live will the 5mbps be enough or not? i am not necessarily saying thats how it is going to be everyday but i just want to know the limit that a 5mbps can actually sustain.

IF 5mbps is the ACTUAL speed you're getting, then yes.
Also I would limit seeding/upload speed to about 10-15kbps, otherwise you will kill any online gaming.

[Asera]

right now i have the 10mbps but when i am downloading from steam or torrents the maximum speed i can reach is like 1000 kilo and at that speed every other computer connected to wireless or myself lose our Internet connection, basically at that point everyone's Internet has been frozen until the download is finished.

That's the result of your gateway not being able to handle the traffic of hundres of concurrent connections with a torrent running plus anyone trying to do anything else on your network.

As for 5mbps being enough, I would say no.

[Ratboy]

Do you have to sign a contract and what are they charging you to sign up? If it's a short contract and not to much for signing up I would go with the cheaper one to start and see if it works for you. I'm on a 5mbps DSL, which I usually get between 2-3mbps according to speedtest.net. It's normally fine when playing WoW while streaming from Netflix on 1 or 2 devices. Torrents eat up your bandwidth like crazy, which ever client you are using limit the upload speed, Netflix doesn't seem to bad but I've been only using it for about 2 weeks..

[haxartus]

I'd never take a connection with a bandwidth cap.