Help figuring out bandwith speeds

[Easy Mac]

So me and my lady are getting married in a couple of months, but since she graduates grad school soon, she's moving to our future apartment out on Dan's Isle in a couple weeks.

Anyway, we're trying to figure out the whole cable/internet thing. We think we've got the cable down ($7 extra a month and I get Fox Soccer, ESPN U and CSTV... score!). However, we're trying to decide which internet speed to get, and we can't figure it out.

Quick background: The company that runs the internet there had until recently two speeds, their high speed and their 256k speed. That has now changed.

The company now offers:
1 mb internet
3 mb internet (+5 dollars)
5 mb internet (+10)

My question is, what are the real world speeds here? I do a good bit of streaming (mls package, download podcasts... umm... yeah, thats all *whistles*), so it is a bit important for me in that regard. Obviously, I'd prefer speed, but in order to conserve a little money (TV+1mb=$90), it would be smarter to do 1 mb if its good enough.

Obviously, I can just wait until she moves in and we can tell the real world speed, but if anyone knows what the real world speeds may actually be beforehand, that could help us having to deal with the company (although they've been very good for with promptly answering my questions).


aside: I'm also stoked that I'll be just 1.1 miles from the Charleston Battery soccer stadium... season ticket time! And about .5 miles away from the Family Circle tennis stadium. Although, we're paying about $1 per square foot a month, so that's definitely a negative.

[yabanci]

3 mb is the one you want. 1 mb is third world broadband speed.

[gstelmack]

Keep in mind that that number is download speed. Upload is usually significantly less (128K or 256K), which often throws people trying to host real-time action games with what they think is a 3Mb line.

Divide by 10 for rough peak transfer speeds (3Mb / 10 = 300KB/sec file transfers). You normally won't get quite that due to overhead, but it's a quick rough estimate. For example, I get 650KB/sec transfers regularly on my 8Mb RoadRunner connection.

[dacman]

I usually peak at about 315KB/sec on my 3 mb DSL. Cable overhead is usually slightly higher, IIRC (=slower speed for you), so Greg's estimate is pretty close to what you can expect.

[14ers]

Originally Posted by yabanci

3 mb is the one you want. 1 mb is third world broadband speed.

Agree; 3mb would be a minimum speed if you want to watch live video feeds.

[jbergey22]

I would encourage 5mb, 1mb is soon going to be gone and 3mb will soon be over priced in regards to the higher speeds. You cant go wrong with 5mb. I recently upped from 3mb to 8.5mb and it is a huge difference in everything I do.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

I would encourage 5mb, 1mb is soon going to be gone and 3mb will soon be over priced in regards to the higher speeds. You cant go wrong with 5mb. I recently upped from 3mb to 8.5mb and it is a huge difference in everything I do.

Webcams?

[BrianD]

To think of things in a slightly different way, a 5Mb connection will allow you to download a full CD of data in about 20 minutes. You could also download a full DVD of data in about 2.5- 3 hours.

A 1Mb connection would get the same CD in about 1:40 and the DVD in around 12 hours.

It really depends on how much you are going to download at any one time and how impatient you are.