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Is there a way to check internet speed actual usage?
We've got a 400 Mbps Xfinity Internet plan, which is overkill for our usage. It's part of a bundle, so downgrading to 200 Mbps would cost us more. But 75 Mbps would save $20 per month. I see plenty of advice out there that talks about Internet usage and speeds needed, but they're all a bit vague and 75 Mbps could be on the edge of "good enough".
Is there a way to get a sample of actual Internet speed while running a few things? I would stream a Netflix show on our Roku TV and maybe run a couple YouTube videos to get to a "maximum" usage. We don't do gaming, so it's mostly one streaming show plus a couple things on a phone and Chromebook. If it helps, we've got an XFinity xFi gateway doing the wifi/modem functions.
flatlander3
Problem Solver
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1.5K Messages
2 years ago
75Mbs is 9.375MB/s (mega bytes per second).
It can be pretty slow. Netflix uses H.264 for encoding. A 4K UHD stream will pull 26MB/s, but I have the ability to throttle devices. After playing with throttling, I found I can generally cut down a RoKu TV to around 6-8MB/s and still have it the resolution look fine, but it's not a high quality TV. I can set lower too, and sacrifice resolution for bandwidth -- an HD 1080p stream at 4MB/s as an example.
This can be problematic with services like Hulu with commercials. They pop in at much higher bandwidth (content carved up into fewer possible resolution stream choices), so that can still the app when a commercial splices in. Bare minimum there is going to be around 6-7MB/s.
If you then have more stuff going on, or two people streaming at the same time, you are at max bandwidth pretty fast, and the content will shift to a lower resolution stream by itself -- or just stall if it's not available.
Up to you.
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MNtundraRET
Gold Problem Solver
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5.9K Messages
2 years ago
Duplicate post being closed.
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