How Fast is Your High Speed Internet?

If there's one thing that can be confusing when it comes to shopping for home services, it's high speed Internet. With the increasing packages that providers are offering via fiber optic, cable and DSL connections, it's getting harder and harder to figure out which speed is the right one for you. On top of that, there's no real standard across the industry for broadband speeds, so there are lots of options out there that can be difficult to sift through.

It really all boils down to what your needs are. If you are simply a fan of browsing the Web casually and checking e-mail, then you don't need anything more than the basic 768 kbps (kilobytes per second) package that most providers offer. However, if you are into downloading music and watching the occasional YouTube or other small streaming video, you might need to kick it up another notch.

For the more serious Web fiends, the options continue. If you are into higher quality video streaming, like the services found on Netflix, 6 Mbps (Megabits per second) is probably necessary to yield better results. In addition, online gamers will need a faster connection, but download speed isn't quite as important as upload speed there. Online gaming relies on how fast your connection is uploading your information back to the server you're playing on.  Many providers try to sell higher download speeds (like 12 Mbit/s) as the "gaming" package, but if it doesn't have a higher upload speed, you might not be getting what you need. 

Right now, I'm sporting a 6 Mbps connection at home, and so far it's proven great for video streaming and even online gaming. What about you guys? What do you have at home? Vote and tell us in the comments!

Comments

[Amanda]

I disagree with the 768Kbps comment. Nearly all of us know how fast the internet "should" be from daily use at the office or our phones; I think having less than a 1Mbps would drive most of us crazy if we're doing anything except reading email. Even casual web browsing, which is what I typically do, would become an annoyance with a connection that slow. (Also funny to note that 10 years ago 768Kbps was considered a great speed. Oh how the world changes!)