Is 2mbs fast enough for home connection if you don't use internet for anything demanding?

user225688

I'm debating whether to go with the cheapest vodaphone unlimited deal with fonehouse sim only offer and their laborious cashback scheme. That puts the monthly cost at only 8 quid per month (have to remember those redemtion dates!) I looked on ebay and it seems a second hand mobile broadband dongle can go for just £3-7 quite often.

Internet feels all the more satisfying to use when you got yourself a real bargain

I am thinking back to the early naughties and I only had 512k back then and had no problems doing everything I wanted. I know that a lot of technology has changed and multimedia has become much more demanding however not for the mostly text sites I browse.

Didn't have streaming videos in those days but I used to download and watch once downloaded and don't remember problems with download speeds.

I imagine that will still be fast enough for the odd stream - though I could do with less of that anyway as I can waste a lot of time watching random videos.

80% of my time is spend looking up text mainly doing research and stuff so I think it will be fine for that seeing as the 512k in the old days I recall being no problem and 5mbs I currently have seems more than adequate.

bill888

Do you use a Windows 10 laptop?

If yes, the monthly windows updates are likely to saturate a slow 2mb broadband connection.

seatbeltnoob

bill888 wrote: »

Do you use a Windows 10 laptop?

If yes, the monthly windows updates are likely to saturate a slow 2mb broadband connection.

windows updates work in a non-intrusive way, when the internet is being used they download very very slowly.


2mb is plenty fast enough for someone who uses the internet just for web pages, and non-video content.


You will need a bit of patience though, for downloads it will take a while.



512kb might have been good in the 90s, but it wont be any good now. All the mainstream websites uses a lot more data. Go on the wayback machine website and review the bbc website in 1995 and look at it now. It uses far more graphics.


Just to be comfortable I would say go 8mb. You will find that costs go up in very small increments for data 4x the speed.

user225688

bill888 wrote: »

Do you use a Windows 10 laptop?

If yes, the monthly windows updates are likely to saturate a slow 2mb broadband connection.

Goodness no. Been #windowsfree for several years now and I urge everyone else to do the same .

Linux is the ultimate MSEr's choice.

bat999

user225688 wrote: »

Internet feels all the more satisfying to use when you got yourself a real bargain

Amen to that.:cool:

Hi
I'm not sure what this "2mbs" is all about though.

Probably more like ~10 Mbps.

I use an old 3G dongle with my (linux) desktop PC.
It's a Three ZTE MF730M (but it was never locked to a network).
I've used it with EE and Three SIMs.

Here are examples of some speedtests I've done over the years...

EE


Three

seatbeltnoob

user225688 wrote: »

Goodness no. Been #windowsfree for several years now and I urge everyone else to do the same .

Linux is the ultimate MSEr's choice.

how? why?


You can use windows 10 for free if you're OK accepting a black wallpaper and a bit of text on the bottom right of your desktop asking to update.

mnbvcxz

You would think there should be a way to artificially limit your computers network speed and simulate a 2mb connection? Then you could try it out.

I'm afraid I'm not going to research it for you though, certainly not on linux...

I trust you never plan to have visitors who want to share the internet or you may run into congestion... Any large files could also get rather boring.

user225688

mnbvcxz wrote: »

You would think there should be a way to artificially limit your computers network speed and simulate a 2mb connection? Then you could try it out.

I'm afraid I'm not going to research it for you though, certainly not on linux...

I trust you never plan to have visitors who want to share the internet or you may run into congestion... Any large files could also get rather boring.

I actually have used one before and had already thought of doing that but it slipped my mind so thanks for reminding me . Just gotta recall what the program was called now.

PasturesNew

I have had a 2MB (on a good day) connection for the last 5 years.

It's fine. I used my Windows XP machine for everything. Any video etc did buffer, so couldn't watch catchup TV without it stopping/buffering - but when I got a cheap optical drive PC with Windows 10 I could watch telly all right 99.99% of the time.

user225688

PasturesNew wrote: »

I have had a 2MB (on a good day) connection for the last 5 years.

It's fine. I used my Windows XP machine for everything. Any video etc did buffer, so couldn't watch catchup TV without it stopping/buffering - but when I got a cheap optical drive PC with Windows 10 I could watch telly all right 99.99% of the time.

That's great. Hmm did non HD youtube videos work out of interest?

D_M_E

A tip - whatever browser you use, go into settings and find the autoplay setting and tell it not to autoplay video content - this should save you some data.

Also, if you can, set your email program to read all mail in plain text only - again this will save you a lot of data and also has the added benefit of easily spotting the scam emails, or most of them anyway.

If you managed on 512k with no or not much problem then 2meg will seem a bit quick by comparison, that is until you allow someone else to share your connection......................