# Help me choose an ISP speed package!



## magnetic2 (Aug 13, 2020)

I forgot to add, we will also have 4 ring cameras with the security system (flood, smoke and door sensors) and various smart devices connected with a few Alexa devices throughout the house.

I also like to stream music via Spotify while working as well.


----------



## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Are these intarweb only, no TV bundle?


----------



## magnetic2 (Aug 13, 2020)

Correct... we don't watch cable or have a need for a landline.

We just use streaming services.


----------



## Colbyt (Jan 27, 2014)

What do you have now? That is the best starting point for discussion.


----------



## magnetic2 (Aug 13, 2020)

I have 200 but as of now my wife goes into the office full time and the kids have been off from school. My concern is when they are all home full time.


----------



## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

If there are no contracts involved, why not start small and see. If it bogs down they should be able to bump you up in a heartbeat.
Our S-i-L is an IT manager and has been working from home. He's constantly online with his team, has a small IT side gig, they are both mild gamers, have a couple of streaming tv services plus their phone service, all on ~10m dsl since that's all they can get. Granted, if he has a big download he will tether his company-provided phone for better speed.


----------



## 3onthetree (Dec 7, 2018)

I'm averaging about 240/12, so equivalent to your Tier 2 I guess (same price too). It's been fine so far working simultaneously with 4 school Zooms/Meets/Class, 1 heavy video and files, and 1 regular internet use and some phone/printer/tv peripherals. I've disconnected the peripherals to test if better during lagging moments, but no change, can't figure if it's the servers that are bogged from heavy use (school and work both have delays at their point of use sometimes). Ready to jump to next tier if needed but so far so good. My biggest improvement was switching wifi to mesh and putting the beacons closest to the heavy usage. 

With the connected house and constant streaming, I'd probably jump up to 600/15 from the get-go


----------



## diyorpay (Sep 21, 2010)

Any laptops or streaming devices with an ethernet jack would best be plugged into network directly, like your computers. If there are convenient wall jacks.
Many higher end Roku and Apple TV devices have them. That leaves wifi for the rest, phones, your security system etc.

Some providers like FIOS have high download and upload service. With internet only, you only need their ONT and your own equipment.


----------



## Colbyt (Jan 27, 2014)

Quoted speeds are in my experience just to the first jump. Thereafter general traffic and web congestion enters into it. On average my experience is about 25-35% of the theoretical speed is real world experience for actual web traffic. 



I would as the someone else posted verify how difficult it is to upgrade and if not then start with the 200. In most cases the difference is just in the priority rating of the service the physical parts are the same.



The 300 looks like a skip to me so for me it would be 200 or 600.


----------



## PuffsRuffsNStuf (Jul 24, 2020)

I currently have 80 Mbps.

I'm doing similar - VPN and RDP into a desktop computer at a remote location to work and Teams video calls. Kid has her own Teams video call going, husband is VPN'd into his work network and running Teams while streaming YouTube videos. 

What speed issues we do see are caused by older devices on the wi-fi with slower connections. These slower connections mean they take more airtime, and so block other devices from communicating when they're communicating. We're slowly replacing these older devices (goodbye 7 year old Roku and Chromecast).

What I would be concerned about is the upload speeds. You say you are pushing large files to servers. 5Mbps could be extremely painful for these data pushes.

Another thing to consider - are you running a forced tunnel VPN to your work location? This is where all traffic is first routed to the office, THEN back to your location (the alternative is split tunnel - where the traffic routes to the most efficient path directly - the office or say, Google). If you are running forced tunnel, then any traffic to your box while you were connected would be... painful.


----------



## magnetic2 (Aug 13, 2020)

Hi - thank you.

Yes, I’m running through a split-tunnel VPN.

I was concerned about the upload speed as well but I don’t get much room in that area. I wish we had Fios so I could get the same up and down speeds..

Moving a few 1gb files is definitely painful.


----------



## u3b3rg33k (Jul 17, 2018)

I usually ignore the down speeds and look at up. some of your up is used just to request the next bit of your movie/webpage/zoom chat, so not enough upload and the download becomes irrelevant. 

you'll never find a package with not enough down with the right amount of up. connections SHOULD be symmetrical.

also watch out for data caps.


----------

