Do You Know What Speed You Need For Your Internet

S … L …. O ……….. W   I N T E R N E T   S U C K S!

Yes, it had to be written that way because it does suck. Things get worse especially when you are in the middle of your favorite game show or watching your most awaited show’s season or movie’s series. While slow internet sucks, faster speed can be really expensive too. Now you may be pondering over what is the ideal speed you would need for your internet to keep a balance between your cost and web usage.

Needless to say, we all need a reliable, high-bandwidth and a fast yet economical internet connection for our different purposes. But how? Let’s take a sneak peek over how you can maintain equilibrium between your cost and maximum internet use.

Bandwidth Defined For All Novice

All those who do not really understand the technical jargons and still want fast and economical connection should first understand what exactly bandwidth is. It is the maximum rate of the internet at which you are able to download the data given to your computer.

To understand it even better, here is an easy example. Consider bandwidth like the size of the water hose. You need to fill up a 100 gallon tank. If you are only able to fill up 5 gallons of water in a minute, you will have to wait for next 20 minutes to fill the whole tank. On the other hand, if you have a huge hose that puts out a water gallon each second will fill up the tank in just a couple of minutes.

Similarly, bandwidth is the size of the hose which means more data you will be able to pull down in a given time if it is larger in size and vice versa. Normally bandwidth is measured in bits per second. There is a difference between bytes and bits – these two are common measures of the size of the file. 1 megabyte is equals to 8 megabits and 1 byte is equals to 8 bits. A 1 MB file will 8 seconds to download if you have 1 megabit per second internet connection.

The Bandwidth Speed You Need

The bandwidth which is given to you is usually shared among all devices on your internet connection. The need depends on how to use your internet. It means that if multiple people use the internet, you will need plenty of bandwidth. But for this you need to know every activity’s usage such as video streaming eats up most of the bandwidth. All Netflix viewers need to know that it recommends minimum 3 Mbps connection for 1 average quality stream and a 5 Mbps for a high-definition video streaming. If two people want to watch a high quality online video, then you would need around 10 Mbps.

That being said, video game lovers will be glad to know that video games don’t require much bandwidth. But it does take more at the time of downloading the game. Additionally, other huge files download also take more of the data. All those whose internet usage is limited such as only for social media, emailing and web surfing, they would not require more than 1 Mbps.

Here’s a small chart for you all depicting the bandwidth estimates. Please remember that only one user is considered for the below activities. If you’ve multiple users, you will need additional bandwidth.

Potential Activities	Estimated Bandwidth
Frequent downloading of large files	55 Mbps or more
Standard-Definition Video Streaming	4-5 Mbps
High-definition Video Streaming	4-8 Mbps
Video Conferencing	2-5 Mbps
Online Gaming	2-4 Mbps
Frequent Web Surfing, Social Media, Emails	1-2 Mbps

The aforementioned bandwidth speeds are just estimates. Your bandwidth speed can be affected by other users in the house too due to hardware, speed, available bandwidth and your infrastructure quality also.

How to Find the Best Bandwidth Speed?

From understanding what bandwidth actually is to knowing the bandwidth estimates, we have covered it all above. First thing which is crucial to see is the usage of the internet. If you have more users and the activities are hefty, ensure to opt for more speed.

One of the reliable internet service providers, Windstream Lexington KY offers super-fast and reliable internet services. Regardless of your usage, these credible providers ensure about speedy internet connection without any data caps. Featuring the internet best offers for you all, choose the most suitable one with required bandwidth for your respective internet usage.