Check Internet quality on house

MobileSaver

AdrianC said:

4K video is about the most demanding mainstream domestic requirement, and can be reliably streamed over 25meg - probably slower. How many simultaneous 4K streams does any household need?

To be fair, while a 25 Mbps connection may allow streaming of "4K video" from the likes of Netflix and Amazon, the signal is compressed somewhat which to many people rather defeats the object of 4K. My non-techy brother has commented that old-school Blu-rays can often look better than streamed 4K.

For a single genuine uncompressed 4K stream you'd need something between 50 Mbps and 128 Mbps so as bigger screens and 4K become the norm I can see 100+ Meg becoming more prevalent in the not too distant future. Here and now today though it is as you say nothing more than willy waving for most people.

Mardle

Deleted_User said:

This one https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/broadband-coverage        is very reliable. We found before our last move that any standard checkers were showing we could get much higher speeds than were actually possible but the Ofcom one seems to be fairly accurate.

It doesn't seem to include cable. We're on Virgin cable cheapest package and get 200mbps

theartfullodger

These days, test mobile 'phone internet speed sitting outside.  Sometimes faster, sometimes more reliable that landline broadband.  Suspect in a few years prices may get v similar. 

AdrianC

theartfullodger said:

These days, test mobile 'phone internet speed sitting outside.  Sometimes faster, sometimes more reliable that landline broadband.

But not always.

We have FTTP, but have so little mobile signal we cannot even send and receive SMS on any network...

Others in the village use 4G mobile data because they cannot get any landline broadband worth of the name - but require a 5m aerial to do so.

Gavin83

AdrianC said:

Is the demand for 100meg+ realistically there?

4K video is about the most demanding mainstream domestic requirement, and can be reliably streamed over 25meg - probably slower. How many simultaneous 4K streams does any household need?

We've already reached the point of diminishing returns - and the realistic bandwidth cap is now not having full ethernet wiring within homes. Get homes fully Cat6d, come back to me with an actual requirement, and we'll talk about multi-hundred-meg being anything more than a willy-wave.

I agree and I speak as someone who works in IT. Most households won't realistically need anything above about 40-50Mb. This is of course based on current requirements and the need for faster speeds will increase over time but it's easy enough to upgrade your connection in the future.

On your last point I expect Wi-Fi is sufficient for most, again, at the moment. However when I move into my new house in a few weeks I'll be installing Cat6 throughout but this is more for futureproofing than anything else, plus it's easier to do before you do all the renovations. 

TripleH

I have a friend whose job is in networks and use their help when choosing a new Internet provider.

The key focus is not the maximum speed but the reliable average speed or possibly the minimum speed guaranteed. No point having 7,000mps maximum if you get that for 5 mins a year on 30th February.

Also what do you need it for? Again a family of 5 with teenage children and parents working from home will have a higher strain than a single person who only uses the Internet on an evening to watch TV.

AdrianC

TripleH said:

I have a friend whose job is in networks and use their help when choosing a new Internet provider.

The key focus is not the maximum speed but the reliable average speed or possibly the minimum speed guaranteed. No point having 7,000mps maximum if you get that for 5 mins a year on 30th February.

The vast majority of ISPs will give you exactly the same speed, simply because the speed is defined by the cabling from the exchange to your house. In the exchange, BT's kit then routes your traffic to your ISP.

Some "LLU" ISPs will have their own kit in your local exchange instead of BTs, but you will still be using the exact same cabling.

[Deleted User]

MidnightWolf said:

[Deleted User] said:

What you really need to know is if it has fibre to the house. Not fake fibre with the last bit copper.

If it has it then you will get good, reliable speed. Anything else is pot luck. It might say "up to 67mbps" (slow) but in reality you might not even get that.

I wouldn’t call 67mbps “slow”. I was grateful for speeds like that at my old address after years stuck on a ropey ADSL connection at around 5mbps.

It's slow today and getting worse as download sizes increase. The real kicker though is the atrocious upload speeds, which make working from home more difficult. Even OpenReach fibre only goes up to 100mbps on the most expensive tier, not 1000mbps like most other fibre networks. Virgin is little better in that regard.

As OpenReach and Virgin drag their heels it's just going to create even more of a digital divide in the UK. Houses with 1000/1000 fibre are significantly more valuable to me and many others.

Gavin83

[Deleted User] said:

MidnightWolf said:

[Deleted User] said:

What you really need to know is if it has fibre to the house. Not fake fibre with the last bit copper.

If it has it then you will get good, reliable speed. Anything else is pot luck. It might say "up to 67mbps" (slow) but in reality you might not even get that.

I wouldn’t call 67mbps “slow”. I was grateful for speeds like that at my old address after years stuck on a ropey ADSL connection at around 5mbps.

It's slow today and getting worse as download sizes increase. The real kicker though is the atrocious upload speeds, which make working from home more difficult. Even OpenReach fibre only goes up to 100mbps on the most expensive tier, not 1000mbps like most other fibre networks. Virgin is little better in that regard.

As OpenReach and Virgin drag their heels it's just going to create even more of a digital divide in the UK. Houses with 1000/1000 fibre are significantly more valuable to me and many others.

99% of people don't care. The majority of those really won't understand what any of it means, as long as it works they're happy. The rest are knowledgeable and realise it really doesn't make any difference. For example with BT (only one I've bothered checking) you can get 150Mb download, 30Mb upload for £30 a month. That's more than enough for almost every home in the UK. Will it be enough in 10 years time? Probably not but we'll have moved on by then and no one needs their connection to be that futureproof.

I'd love to know what you're doing that requires 1000Mb upload speeds. Have you invented teleportation via ethernet or something?

ccbrowning

I have fttc and real speeds are working out to about 50/17 - fine for both work and streaming. However, faster would be nice for big downloads. 

On the original topic - I was using the ofcom link, although I did see it was missing data. What’s the best place to look? I used to look up a nearby phone number and pop it into Samknows… Looking for a house and want at least what I have now at thr next place.