How Fast an Internet Connection ...

[Bronxiniowa]

. . . do I need if:

• I have a wireless network in a two-story home with plaster walls
• I stream live sports on MLB.TV on Roku that's Ethernet-connected to my modem
  
• I have a PS4 that's Ethernet-connected to my modem but rarely game over the internet
  
• I stream XM radio wirelessly

I am trying to lower my monthly internet cost so I can absorb the higher price I would have to pay if I abandoned my Mediacom bundle and go back to satellite TV. Thoughts?

 

[Voyager6]

How many users and devices for the wireless? Also, any 4K streaming needed?

 

[Bronxiniowa]

Users are my wife and I, one wirelessly connected desktop, two wirelessly connected laptops, one of which is frequently connected to a company VPN, two mobile phones. No 4K streaming necessary.

 

[Voyager6]

I would say that at a minimum, you would want a 12 - 15 meg connection. 20 - 25 would give you plenty of overhead room.

 

[fred555]

I would think the most bandwidth needed would be if you and the wife would, at the same time and separately, try to watch HD streams. How much BW does an HD stream use these days? 10 Mbps?
Double that, add a padding, 25Mbps? Depends on the bitrate of what you and your wife would watch separately. VPN, web surfing etc are all inconsequential figures compared to streaming.

What is the lowest tier your provider offers?

 

[Ronnie-]

I have more than that going, often time three streams of something or other (netflix, PS Vue, ect), and I have no issues with 18mbps uverse

 

[Bronxiniowa]

The fastest I can get from CenturyLink DSL is up to 12 mbps. Mediacom, my current provider, offers, 3, 15, 50 and 100 via cable. There are no other alternatives in the technological backwater known as Des Moines, IA.

 

[fred555]

If it was me, given the choices, I'd try the 15Mbps tier.

 

[Troch77]

I also have downgraded from 60 to 15, and Have Zero issues.
It actually tests at 17mbps.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active

 

[lparsons21]

15 is fine for HD but might be a bit slim for UHD.

I have 100/10 but that's only because I needed a larger data cap. On the previous 50/5 things were just fine but I was getting charges for overages with the 350Gb cap.


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[lparsons21]

With Mediacom you need to look at your last 3 months useage to see if the 15Mb tier has enough data allowance. I think it is 250Gb.

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[Troch77]

15 is fine for HD but might be a bit slim for UHD.

I have 100/10 but that's only because I needed a larger data cap. On the previous 50/5 things were just fine but I was getting charges for overages with the 350Gb cap.


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Our Data cap is 700GB per month on the 15 plan.
Our entire house has never gone over 400 a month.
We can watch 2 streams of netflix and online game on my PS4 without issues or buffering.

But if you are doing Dish on demand, you can only Stream Netflix on one device.
But a single On demand movie only takes about 20 minutes to fully download anyway.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active

 

[lparsons21]

I do a fair amount of streaming and as many in UHD as I can get. Doesn't take many 4K streamers to eat up some data in a hurry!

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[Bronxiniowa]

We used to have the 50 from Mediacom with 350GB limit. My son was home over the holidays and downloaded movies like mad, getting us real close to going WAY over with 20 days left in our cycle. Mediacom upped us to a 1TB limit with 100 mbps for only five bucks ... but they'll charge us $85 if we unbundle.

When we had 50 mbps, we were buffering like mad on Roku streaming, but that was with a Roku XD off the wireless network. I've since upgraded to Roku 2, which is Ethernet capable, and it's run flawlessly -- but it should on 100 mbps. I'll see if I can test a slower speed for a few days and decide based on that.

Thanks for all your help and insight!

 

[lparsons21]

Are you using the Mediacom provided cable modem/router combo? I got rid of that soon after signing up. Initial killed the router function because I didn't want that as I have a great router. A bit later I bought a used Cisco cable modem on Amazon and the overall performance of my network improved.




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[fred555]

My son was home over the holidays and downloaded movies like mad, getting us real close to going WAY over with 20 days left in our cycle.

On your router, only authorize you and your Wife's MAC addresses to gain access to the network, problem solved.

 

[KE4EST]

On your router, only authorize you and your Wife's MAC addresses to gain access to the network, problem solved.

That is what I do here. I have restictions set on certain MAC addresses. Mine is the only one that has no restrictions.