Is it wrong to call it download 'speed'? Beginners question.

[grrinc]

I hope this doesn't come across as a daft question.... here goes...

As an example... is a 60mbps download service 'faster' than a 10 mbps download service? Is it about actual speed of data or the amount of date?

I ask, because a neighbour friend of mine has the same 'ping' as me, even though he has the slower ISP package. We both use the same ISP, but I paid for the better service. We both use the same router and both use a wired set up and play the same game together- BlackOps4. I only upgraded my package to get a better gaming experience, but its exactly the same as before.

So I am wondering if we both get our data downloaded to us at the same speed, but I pay for more date to come in one bundle.

An analogy may help make my point - Imagine we both order pizza, he orders one pizza but I order 10 pizzas, all from the same store. Both orders are dispatched by two delivery guys at the same time who take the same route. Me and my neighbour friend both get our pizzas at the same time, but as ordered, I get 10 and he gets 1. Mine pizzas were not delivered faster just because I got 10, I had just more bundled together.

Applying the above analogy to ISP packages, I am curious as to whether the word download 'speed' is a misnomer.

Any clarity would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

 

[Supahos]

Speed has zero to do with gaming experience. Many people make this mistake. As long as the "slower" package has enough bandwidth then in game there will be no difference. You can download new games or updates a lot faster but it doesn't lower ping. My nephew has a 250down 25 up service I have e 15 down 1 up but my ping is actually lower and better in game than his

 

[USAFRet]

Also, "ping".
That is the time for a round trip signal from your PC, to the remote server, and back.

Only a tiny bit of that journey is what you can control.
For instance...
If I were to ping a server 50 miles from me, that might result in a "ping" of 20ms.
Changing nothing except what server I ping to...a server 3,000 miles away might result in a ping of 150ms.

Distance, literally.

The part that you can control is the connection between your PC and your router. That should be <1ms.

 

[bill001g]

The main reason you need more bandwidth/speed is when the stupid game company pushed a 5gbyte patch that you must download before you can continue playing. Would be the difference of downloading the patch in a few minutes rather than close to a hour on a slow connection.

Once you get the patch you are back to ping/latency which as mentioned above is a function of distance and not bandwidth.

 

[USAFRet]

The other reason for more bandwidth is when you're trying to game, and your brother is watching netflix, and your sister is on utube, and dad is VPN into the office.

 

[Supahos]

Are you the VPN in this situation usaf?

 

[USAFRet]

Are you the VPN in this situation usaf?

While I do sometimes VPN into the office, I have no spawn in the house anymore to share bandwidth with.
Just me and the wife, on a 100/100 fiber connection.

Verizon keeps upping my speed for the same basic price.
15/15, then 25/25, 50/50, 75/75, now 100/100. I could get gigabit (for more money) but why?

 

[Supahos]

I hate living in my small town. In 2003 I had 25/5 internet for $25 a month in Fayetteville. In 2018 I couldn't get internet in my house because it was oversold. Finally late December I could... But it's $40 a month and 15/5... 15 years later I'm paying more money for 1/3 the speed...

 

[jsmithepa]

OP, I like the highway analogy better.

U buy better Internet gets you a wider highway, 10 lanes vs 1 lane. But in your scenario interactive gaming you are seeking latency, response time between you and the gaming server. Ongoing game actually takes little data, a small car, can travel 10 lanes or 1 lane highway about the same speed. Your 10 lanes advantage only shows up when other people in your household start to clog the highway, with the 1 lane they start slowing YOU down, but with 10 lanes you are still OK zipping along.

In the book FLASH BOYS is about machine stock trading and some bad guys building machines physically near the wall street trading servers in order gain milliseconds advantage so they can find out who's trading what before anybody else and react at machines speeds. Fascinating account, and something you may do to beat your friend