The entire world is making efforts to get back on track, but we’ll always recall 2020 as the school bully who pushed everyone in the corner to steal their lunch. Let’s face it, we all had a list of ‘New Year, New Me’ ready to take off with the year, but sadly the pandemic had other plans for everyone.
Though it seemed like a nightmare unfurling when the pandemic started to take its toll on us, we didn’t mind that much being stuck in home because we’ve been blessed with the best internet provider in your area that we can enjoy from the comfort of our homes.
If it’s not streaming, it’s mild browsing. If it’s not that, then it’s something else. The internet has kept us all occupied when we all longed to be distracted. However, we’re sure that there must’ve been episodes of frustration, where you wished that your internet connection was doing better. Didn’t you?
The internet connection at your home is not meant to provide the same amount of ‘juice’ for every single activity that you do. Gaming, video streaming, DMing – all require a different bandwidth, which begs the question how much internet speed should you have?
How fast should I Surf?
The hunt for the best internet speed doesn’t have to be like an unreachable itch on your back. The trick to finding the best internet speed is to figure out how much you need it, depending on the level of activities you do.
According to the experts at The Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) a typical household should have an internet connection between the speeds 15 to 25 Mbps, to begin with. These speeds are ideal if you aren’t too big on streaming or downloading. However, if you are, then a monthly plan starting from 100 Mbps would suffice for you.
Taking a Look at the “Hyper-speed”
Let us give you an idea of what is up for grabs, out there. The fastest internet speed you can get is a whopping 2000 Mbps offered by Xfinity in selected areas. This speed is enough to juice your Netflix to stream full-length movies as if they were Vines (Remember those?).
What Internet Speeds Do You Need?
For Streaming
One of the hardest pills to swallow in this pandemic was that there wasn’t going to be movie magic at the theatres for a while, which meant you had to rely on a seemingly endless list of streaming services for all the latest entertainment off a screen. Lucky for us, streaming services have almost every old and new title for your binging desires. If you spend most of your weekends lining up one episode after another, then you have to make sure that your internet speed is capable of handling it.
If you’re a person who finds no trouble settling for a lower quality of 480p then a speed of 3 Mbps should be just fine. Nevertheless, everyone knows that it’s 720p and nothing less than that, if you want to enjoy movies and series like how they’re meant to be. For that you will need a steady speed of 5 Mbps and above. The same speed can give you a decent 1080p result as well. However, if you are TOO BIG on video quality and prefer nothing less than crystal-clear 4K displays during your matinee times, then you have to juice up your internet all the way up to 25 Mbps.
However, it’s not always about streaming movies and TV series, is it? There are other things to consider as well, for instance, the ability to live stream shows. You would need an internet speed of around 8 Mbps or more to successfully stream uninterrupted HD live broadcasts.
Let’s talk about another important thing that frankly, none of us can survive without – Music Streaming. Gone are the days when we would spend hours and hours updating playlists because now, we all just want to stream the latest music the moment it arrives. Or, maybe, just like us, you like swerving to the classics every once in a while but have deleted them off your playlist. It’s okay, because if you’re one of the cool kids then you must have an online streaming playlist on Spotify, Pandora, Sound Cloud, or even on YouTube, and for that, you’ll need a speed of 1-3 Mbps to stream music whenever and wherever you want.
For Gaming
Back in the day, the only way to play with a gaming-buddy was to have them over at your place. Now, the whole world has become one big couch for all gamers thanks to online gaming. Online gaming has made it possible to hold gaming events in different countries simultaneously. Let’s not forget that the biggest video games out there are the ones that require your fellow player, glued to their screens just as you are. Relative to streaming, online gaming is far more complicated.
We can’t stress enough on how important it is for all participants to have a high-speed internet connection that offers substantial download as well as upload speeds. Think of it this way: if you land a no-scope headshot in Fortnite, it should be simultaneously visible to your teammate on their system so that you can proceed to do your favorite emote together.
Enter the Ping Dilemma….
Online gaming needs to send data from your console or PC to all other players connected, in the blink of an eye. This ‘blink’ needs to happen faster or a player will end up experiencing the wrath of a ping. Pings are important to consider when you are figuring out the internet speedtest for gaming. If you’re using a reliable connection with speeds starting from 100 Mbps, then ping is the last thing you need to worry about.
As the gaming field advances, in-game environments, effects, and even sound effects consume most of our data. Even Mario isn’t a collection of scrawny pixels anymore. Therefore, if you want to have a top-notch gaming experience that includes better graphics and a just as better game-play then getting a cable internet or a fiber-optic connection would be the best for you.
If you are big on gaming, then avoid satellite connection since they have the highest latency, which would ultimately result in greater ping rates and a whole lot of frustration.
If you reside in a rural area, where fixed wireless internet is easily available, then go with that. Fixed wireless connections experience minimum signal glitches since they don’t travel through the atmosphere to juice up your consoles. Just a wavelength from a local tower to your house and you can enjoy gaming without worrying over added ping rates.
For Work
If it were back in 2019, this section would’ve been only for workplaces, but now everyone has set up a workplace in their homes because of unprecedented times because of which home network, which was initially limited for recreational purposes, is now for work as well. Working from home with a sub-par internet is particularly challenging if you have to frequently download and upload heavy files.
Let’s face it, none of us wants to be on the bad side of their boss just because they faced an error while the file was taking forever to download. For this very reason, we’d recommend you to have a fully assess your internet needs for work. For instance, if you are limited to using the internet for the routine zoom calls every day, emails, sharing images, and spreadsheets, then an internet speed up to 5 to 10 Mbps is good enough. This number obviously doubles if more than one user is working from home in the same house.
All in All
Getting the best speed isn’t just about usage. Unfortunately, your internet connection is very much like a pizza, the more people there are the less there is for you, and we all can agree that one slice just isn’t enough!
So once you deciding the nature of activities for your internet, keep into consideration the number of people using the internet because, at the end of the day, the internet isn’t one of those best things in life that are free and sometimes you have to get locked up in a contract as well. So, before spending your money, thoroughly assess what speeds you need and what packages will suit your budget.
