Many of us are often clueless when it comes to what we actually want and need from our internet provider when it comes to speed, and what is available. Too slow, and you’ll have trouble with streaming video, playing online games or downloading (receiving) or uploading (sending) large files. Too fast, and you’re wasting money on a service you don’t use.
How much internet speed you need depends entirely on your usage. Streaming radio, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls, general web surfing, email and social media can all be handled adequately with bandwidth as low as 1Mbps.
But to stream video off the internet, a connection of at least 4Mbps is needed. In fact, if you’re streaming high-definition (HD) on your computer or device, you’ll need between 15Mbps and 25Mbps of bandwidth to avoid freezing, buffering and video degradation issues. Popular streaming services recommend the following: Netflix, 25Mbps for highest definition (4K) viewing; Hulu, 8Mbps for live TV; Amazon Prime Video, 3.5Mbps for high definition viewing.
For internet gaming, a connection of 8Mbps (4Mbps at a minimum) is required. For the best experience and fastest response, look for between 10Mbps and 25Mbps. (currently the fastest home internet speed in the Cayman Islands). Gaming requires a lot of data transfer, so as well as good upload and download speeds pay attention to ping times (see below).
To help you understand internet speed better, here are some common internet terms. Understanding them will literally help you stay up to speed in the online world:
BANDWIDTH and SPEED:These are the two terms that refer to the performance of an internet connection. They are closely related but not the same. Bandwidth is the amount of data your internet connection can transport at any time (the capacity, usually in Mbps). Speed is how fast that data travels through the connection between you and the destination (the transfer rate). As data can travel through many servers on its way to/from your device, there are many possible sources of a problem. This is where the ‘ping’ command (see below) can help in identifying problems.
Mbps: Megabits per second (Mbps) represents how much data can be transferred over your connection per second. A bit is a single unit of computer information. A megabit is one million times bigger. If the bandwidth of your internet connection is 5Mbps it means that the connection can transfer up to five million bits of information per second.
PING: A ping is a test that records the time taken for a packet of data to reach a destination server and get back again, measured in milliseconds. All common operating systems (Windows, Apple, Macintosh, Android and Linux included) have a ping utility, a simple way to verify that a device is able to communicate over the network with a specific server. Checking your ping time can’t tell you what is wrong with a server that is slow or fails to respond, but can point to where a problem lies.
ROUTER and MODEM: At its simplest, a router connects devices together on a network, while a modem connects a device or network to the internet.Commonly these days the two functions are combined into one device that sits in your home and handles the traffic flowing between devices in your home and between these devices and the internet.
SPEEDCHECK: To find out your Cayman Islands internet speed, use this free test facility from a web browser on youhome network. It will tell you useful information such as your upload and download speed and ping time.
