Nwahs wrote: |
I am reading online that you need 10-15 Mb/s to play effectively online...
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That is wrong. Dead wrong. So wrong it makes me cry that this information has not died yet.
Playing effectively does require less than 100ms.
Speed does NOT, I repeat, does NOT affect ping until you get down to dial-up speeds (which is non-existent unless using an ISP like Ruralcomm). ALWAYS remember that I was using 1.5 MB to play TOR. I NEVER had issues until they started using cheap garbage equipment. When TOR launched, I was playing at 45ms. That lasted for a few years. Until they started screwing things up with their ignorance.
Just so things are clear, here are the definitions of Speed, Bandwidth, and Ping/Latency.
Bandwidth refers to the amount of information that can be transmitted over a network in a given amount of time, usually expressed in bits per second (or bps). It is often confused with speed.
Speed is the bit rate of the circuit, while bandwidth is the amount of "speed" avialable for use. As an example, a 500 Megabit service uses a 1 Gigabit connection to site would have a bandwidth of 500 Mbps and a speed of 1 Gbps.
Latency is delay. Latency is how long it takes data to travel between its source and destination, measured in milliseconds (ms).
Ping is a measure of Latency and commonly referred to as the same thing.
Here's two ways to understand latency and bandwidth.
1: The internet is like a shipping company.
Internet data is sent in packets (packages of data). Your internet provider is UPS. The packets are sent between the server and you. The further away you are from the server, the longer it will take. Your bandwidth is the box that moves the package. A bigger box (more bandwidth) will NOT get to the destination faster than a smaller one. This is why Satellite internet is bad for gaming. The data has to travel from you, to orbit, to the server, back into orbit, then to you. While it can do so at a very fast rate, the data still takes a long time going from the ground to space.
2: Long distance live news video feed.
Have you ever watched a news channel when a reporter is reporting from somewhere half-way across the world? The anchor behind the desk will ask a question, and the reporter will nod, and nod, and finally about five excruciating seconds after the anchor is done, the reporter will start to answer. That's latency.
In short: There is a very high chance nothing wrong with your internet. You will notice trouble if folks are pulling bandwidth for their streaming stuff because it's being divided up. That's when more bandwidth comes into play. If you do a speed test when someone is streaming, the test will register much lower.
One thing you can do to see this yourself and have full control over the variables, is when you are all alone, run a test with nothing but it going (don't worry about disconnecting anything from WI-FI). Then start up something like a show and/or YouTube videos in HD (multiple of something to match your room mates actions) and run the test. You should see a difference.