17 meg Broadband

Author
Discussion

MX51ROD

Original Poster:

2,749 posts

147 months

Monday 2nd May 2016
quotequote all
My daughter has just moved out to her own rental , and needs BB internet, to keep costs down we are looking at suppliers(Plusnet, BT, etc ) using basic phone line connection giving 17meg
She mainly will be doing online banking and basic Googling , she is happy with Freeview but wants to use Netflix , research suggests Netflix needs 5meg minimum .
Any of you surviving on 17meg , is it enough for streaming Netflix

bitchstewie

51,207 posts

210 months

Monday 2nd May 2016
quotequote all
You don't need 5mbps but for HD they recommend it:

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306

Keep in mind with lower cost ISPs the sync speed isn't the only thing that can limit your speed, for example Plusnet had (not sure if they still do) a very bad reputation for traffic shaping on some of their cheap "unlimited" tariffs at one point.

paulrockliffe

15,702 posts

227 months

Monday 2nd May 2016
quotequote all
I have 17mb/s, but consistently hit 19 and have few issues with streaming in HD.

MX51ROD

Original Poster:

2,749 posts

147 months

Monday 2nd May 2016
quotequote all
paulrockliffe said:
I have 17mb/s, but consistently hit 19 and have few issues with streaming in HD.
Thanks for that, trouble is I am spoilt with 50+meg ,so had no idea of how slower connections perform

Troubleatmill

10,210 posts

159 months

Monday 2nd May 2016
quotequote all
She can change Netflix settings to use standard definition. ( Log onto Netflix on your PC... Your Account... Change the definition settings )
Standard definition uses very little bandwidth.

DS197

992 posts

106 months

Monday 2nd May 2016
quotequote all
You should have no problem with 5 Mbps internet. That's what I had before and it was fine when streaming in HD.

Troubleatmill

10,210 posts

159 months

Monday 2nd May 2016
quotequote all
https://help.netflix.com/en/node/87

Adjust your data usage settings

Adjusting the data usage settings for your account is the easiest way to reduce the amount of bandwidth used while watching Netflix. There are four data usage settings to choose from. Each estimate below is per stream:

Low (0.3 GB per hour)
Medium (SD: 0.7 GB per hour)
High (Best video quality, up to 3 GB per hour for HD and 7 GB per hour for Ultra HD)
Auto (Adjusts automatically to deliver the highest possible quality, based on your current Internet connection speed)


Quality on low - is like watching normal telly to most folks.

Silverage

2,034 posts

130 months

Monday 2nd May 2016
quotequote all
My broadband tops out at about 16mb. The only time I have trouble with Netflix is when my daugter is trying to watch something else at the same time on her iPad. Even then it's only the odd drop to SD quality.

MX51ROD

Original Poster:

2,749 posts

147 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
quotequote all
Thanks for input
Daughter has now signed with BT on 17 meg broadband , they are forcasting 4-8 meg so should be ok , could always upgrade to fibre if it proves to be too slow
One additional benefit is being able to use BT hot spots whilst out and about .

paulrockliffe

15,702 posts

227 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
quotequote all
MX51ROD said:
Thanks for input
Daughter has now signed with BT on 17 meg broadband , they are forcasting 4-8 meg so should be ok , could always upgrade to fibre if it proves to be too slow
One additional benefit is being able to use BT hot spots whilst out and about .
I should have said, I also lived somewhere where the same 17mb/s failed to hit 3 most of the time, it depends how many people are on your connection and what they're doing. You should be OK and you can always upgrade if necessary.

Has anyone managed to get BT hotspots to work in any useful way? Whenever I connect it seems to give internet that is so slow that whatever I'm doing times out. It has the added disadvantage that if you're driving around town it'll try to connect to a BT hotspot, but need the password after the WiFi is connected. So you lose your phone data connection before the WiFi kicks in with a working connection. And you miss your turn and have to stop to turn the WiFi off.

Dodsy

7,172 posts

227 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
quotequote all
I use BT and FON hotspots all the time speed seens good. Anytime im in range my phone just logs on , no interaction required. Its so good i never notice it switching over.

I do have the BT hotspot app on my phone although i dont have it open maybe thats what you need ?

paulrockliffe

15,702 posts

227 months

Wednesday 4th May 2016
quotequote all
Maybe, it's a bit late now though as I'm moving to plusnet in a weeks time.

Troubleatmill

10,210 posts

159 months

Wednesday 4th May 2016
quotequote all
MX51ROD said:
Thanks for input
Daughter has now signed with BT on 17 meg broadband , they are forcasting 4-8 meg so should be ok , could always upgrade to fibre if it proves to be too slow
One additional benefit is being able to use BT hot spots whilst out and about .
It will be fine. Adjust play settings as above and all will be good.

skeeterm5

3,348 posts

188 months

Wednesday 4th May 2016
quotequote all
LOL! 17mb........ anybody (like me) who doesn't live in a town can only dream of that sort of speed. We get between 2mb and 4mb out in the sticks.

And this is fine for netflix, iplayer, PS games such as Destiny, SKYPE etc. The only thing that is a real pain is downloading films so we don't bother.

I would have thought 17mb is more than adequate.

S

ecsrobin

17,118 posts

165 months

Wednesday 4th May 2016
quotequote all
skeeterm5 said:
LOL! 17mb........ anybody (like me) who doesn't live in a town can only dream of that sort of speed. We get between 2mb and 4mb out in the sticks.

And this is fine for netflix, iplayer, PS games such as Destiny, SKYPE etc. The only thing that is a real pain is downloading films so we don't bother.

I would have thought 17mb is more than adequate.

S
And I'm getting angry that I'm only getting 100mb from my wifi upstairs rolleyes

Dodsy

7,172 posts

227 months

Thursday 5th May 2016
quotequote all
ecsrobin said:
And I'm getting angry that I'm only getting 100mb from my wifi upstairs rolleyes
And Im considering having a second phone line put in with another 76Meg Broadband so I can spread the load - current 76Meg just isnt enough !

MX51ROD

Original Poster:

2,749 posts

147 months

Tuesday 24th May 2016
quotequote all
Well , that went well, NOT !
In 3 days my daughter exceeded her 17meg ( missed that gem when we signed up )download limit , then in 3 hrs she ( or the system )added another 10 meg , they want to charge £1.5 per meg over the limit
considering she was told she would have a connection speed of less than 8 meg . these data quantities would mean she was on the net 24/7 and watching films all the time , with work 8-1530 and a small child , when would she have the chance Well
She has not watched any films , downloaded any large data packets , taken part in any on line games .
It looks like the key for the hub may have been cracked , so it has been re passworded
BTs response YOU MUST have done it our equipment never lies
Cancellation in the post / email


Edited by MX51ROD on Tuesday 24th May 16:51

Rutter

2,070 posts

206 months

Tuesday 24th May 2016
quotequote all
MX51ROD said:
Well , that went well, NOT !
In 3 days my daughter exceeded her 17meg ( missed that gem when we signed up )download limit , then in 3 hrs she ( or the system )added another 10 meg , they want to charge £1.5 per meg over the limit
considering she was told she would have a connection speed of less that 8 meg . these data quantities would mean she was on the net 24/7 and watching films all the time , with work 8-1530 and a small child , when would she have the chance
She has not watched any films , downloaded any large data packets , taken part in any on line games .
It looks like the key for the hub may have been cracked , so it has been re passworded
BTs responce YOU MUST have done it our equipment never lies
Cancellarion in the post / email
What was the limit? If it was the standard 12GB then that could easily be over that limit if she was bingeing on netflix.

INWB

896 posts

107 months

Tuesday 24th May 2016
quotequote all
Dodsy said:
And Im considering having a second phone line put in with another 76Meg Broadband so I can spread the load - current 76Meg just isnt enough !
Misconception time.

Anyway back to Op.

17Mb broadband speed will likely be fine as in most cases the issue is how many people are connected at anyone time (in my case 5 of us). If she want to do gaming then that is a different ball game. You then get into issues such as latency and contention. But I wouldn't worry. 17mb will be fine for general use by 1-2 people.

You may want to buy a decent wifi router as that is often the cause of issues - Asus do a decent one (RT66 I think) that I used for some time before upgrading

MX51ROD

Original Poster:

2,749 posts

147 months

Tuesday 24th May 2016
quotequote all
Rutter said:
MX51ROD said:
Well , that went well, NOT !
In 3 days my daughter exceeded her 17meg ( missed that gem when we signed up )download limit , then in 3 hrs she ( or the system )added another 10 meg , they want to charge £1.5 per meg over the limit
considering she was told she would have a connection speed of less that 8 meg . these data quantities would mean she was on the net 24/7 and watching films all the time , with work 8-1530 and a small child , when would she have the chance
She has not watched any films , downloaded any large data packets , taken part in any on line games .
It looks like the key for the hub may have been cracked , so it has been re passworded
BTs responce YOU MUST have done it our equipment never lies
Cancellarion in the post / email
What was the limit? If it was the standard 12GB then that could easily be over that limit if she was bingeing on netflix.
Damm should have run it through spell check before posting

Either 12 or 17meg cant remember , but She had only just moved into her new house so had no time to watch a lot of TV .only net usage was setting up banking etc , and a few emails