O Canada! > Canadian > Canadian Broadband > How much download speed do I need

How much download speed do I need

12 should be enough but the rest of the world will suck all the bandwidth out of everything with gigabit plus connections. So if they want something and you're there they get it all and you get nothing. It's like the gravity of Jupiter compared to the gravity of the Earth when two bodies fight for a common element. Hopefully Bell will stop throttling and youtube will finally work. Also their DPI boxes result in nothing but dropped packets and packet loss for subscribers. People are paying overuse fees for dropped packets all caused by Bell's DPI boxes.

reply to psycho_gamer
When you say slow speeds; what are you getting on speed tests?

You sound like a light to average user, based on what you're listing... 12 megs should be tons (I have two VoIP lines, a VPN connection to work, stream scanner/radio feeds, watch videos, and do a lot of iTunes/YouTube stuff on a 15 meg line, and rarely to never have an issue...)

Run a few speed-tests using the links on the site here; and post the results...

reply to Chuck sTruck
Out of the list of activities that OP listed, they are all from commercial sites so they would have the big bucks to have fast enough connections.

If they do get heavy traffics, then the higher speed users would more likely to notice that their 3-4 digits gigahurts link slows down to double digits before OP. OP would only notice it after the speed drops below 12Mbps.

More likely is Bell not getting good transit links to where OP want to go. :P

reply to psycho_gamer
it sounds like you may not be getting the speeds you are paying for, one way or another.

Try some speedtest.net speed tests, and if you are using wireless, run a 2nd test while plugged into the router too see if its a wireless problem.

If you're getting 10-12mbps, is should be fast enough for most purposes.

If you're running torrents at the same time, you need to set appropriate limits on those it will slow down the whole connection.

I assume something else IS going on here, since "downloading from itunes" sounds made up.

reply to psycho_gamer
If you are a gamer, you want low and stable ping more than speed.

you can try www.pingtest.net to get a good idea of how good is your connection.

They will give you a rate you can understand.
--
Connection: Teksavvy 10000/1600 in mlppp
Globaltuners.com Remotely controlled Radio scanner

reply to psycho_gamer
Its possible bell is shaping your traffic if you are talking about your gaming being slow and laggy.
You may want to look into other ISPs in your area that are offering comparable cable connections that do not shape your traffic if that is the case. But 12mbit is usually enough to do most everything, I personally have 50mbit Rogers but unless I am downloading something that is like time sensitive I usually am fine with 20mbit or so, but rogers regularly seems to categorize my xbox live gaming in the same area as torrents and messes with my connection

reply to psycho_gamer
Thats such a vague question I'm going to say "All of it"