Question Network hardware above 1 gig?

[axlrose]

Hey friends!

My current provider is telling me they are going to an all streaming tv service and I need to update my internet and tv plan. I have a new company that has moved into the area recently to provide service (probably motivating my current provider).

How do I find hardware to go with gig service?

How do I find hardware to go with above gig service? My provider states that anyone that chooses their 2gig or 5gig service needs to provide their own hardware.

For reference, I have two teenagers. Between our family of four, we have four laptops, four smart phones, a desktop for gaming, two tv's (one a 4k projector) and other various devices like amazon echo dots etc. I am worried about our tv moving from coaxial to wireless. I'm not sure what running two tv's (one 4k) over the wifi, along with all of these other devices will do to our speeds, which have all been slow in the past. I also don't want to jump for 2gig service only to have the hardware make 2gig impossible.

Thanks for any info in making this move.

 

[kanewolf]

Hey friends!

My current provider is telling me they are going to an all streaming tv service and I need to update my internet and tv plan. I have a new company that has moved into the area recently to provide service (probably motivating my current provider).

How do I find hardware to go with gig service?

How do I find hardware to go with above gig service? My provider states that anyone that chooses their 2gig or 5gig service needs to provide their own hardware.

For reference, I have two teenagers. Between our family of four, we have four laptops, four smart phones, a desktop for gaming, two tv's (one a 4k projector) and other various devices like amazon echo dots etc. I am worried about our tv moving from coaxial to wireless. I'm not sure what running two tv's (one 4k) over the wifi, along with all of these other devices will do to our speeds, which have all been slow in the past. I also don't want to jump for 2gig service only to have the hardware make 2gig impossible.

Thanks for any info in making this move.

Streaming is 40Mbit or less. Even with an "all streaming" more than gigabit is probably wasted.

 

[palladin9479]

The hardware exists, though it's largely wasted unless you know what are you doing. As Kane pointed out, streaming isn't that big of a bandwidth eater in the grand scheme of things, multi-gig isn't needed to support a bunch of people streaming.

 

[gggplaya]

Streaming service bitrates are very low compared to say a blu-ray disk. Typical 1080P streaming is 6mbps and 4k is typically around 15mbps. Nowhere near gigabit services.

The teenagers can saturate gigabit service with game console and pc game updates. But only during their update, not normally with anything else they do.

For this I use a router I built with an X86 processor to run a traffic shaping algorithm called CAKE. It will equitably shape traffic to make the most use of your internet bandwidth, but keep everyone happy and make slowdowns nearly non-existent. If it slows down, it's only for 2-4 seconds while a new connection is started and the algorithms winds up to allocate bandwidth. People streaming tv or a movie won't notice because they typically have more than a 2-4 second streaming buffer.

 

[axlrose]

Thanks for the great info! Sounds like making the jump to gig and wifi tv is probably on the horizon soon then. Any good threads on hardware for a gig setup? I'm assuming I'll want to upgrade to a new router, check my switch speeds, and look at what my ubiquiti ap's can handle.

 

[bill001g]

You would have to dig though stuff more than 10yrs old to find discussion of upgrading to 1gbit.

Pretty much almost everything you find has gigabit ports. You only find 10/100 ports on very very inexpensive equipment.

 

[Ralston18]

Before purchasing any modems or routers be sure to verify with your ISP and/or competitors that the devices you have in mind are supported by the ISP.

Details matter.

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks for the great info! Sounds like making the jump to gig and wifi tv is probably on the horizon soon then. Any good threads on hardware for a gig setup? I'm assuming I'll want to upgrade to a new router, check my switch speeds, and look at what my ubiquiti ap's can handle.

Bandwidth requirements and streaming via WIFI are very different problems. Having 1Gbit from your ISP gives you plenty of bandwidth. BUT you can still have problems trying to stream multiple devices over WIFI. You should have wired connectivity for as many stationary devices as possible. Save WIFI for portables.

 

[axlrose]

Bandwidth requirements and streaming via WIFI are very different problems. Having 1Gbit from your ISP gives you plenty of bandwidth. BUT you can still have problems trying to stream multiple devices over WIFI. You should have wired connectivity for as many stationary devices as possible. Save WIFI for portables.

Got it. Everything for the 4k projector is all hardwired, and my gaming PC is hardwired. The rest is wireless. I don't think any other devices have an Ethernet port.

 

[axlrose]

To clarify, what should I look at in my router, switch, and ap's to see if we should replace them?

Thanks.

 

[bill001g]

Check the ports to see if they are 1gbit. Unless you have very old equipment or you purchased very cheap stuff it is highly likely it is already 1gbit.