This is the question DSLregional.de asks in the current blog parade "Blogger about their Internet providers and Internet use," in which I participate with pleasure with this article. I think a great idea is that satisfaction with Internet speed, actually preserved and used performance, is sometimes illuminated from the point of view of our bloggers. Because presumably we are going to be bloggers who possibly. Still run a Youtube channel or podcast, stream Filme/series and download games to report on, among the power users of the internet. The other blogs that have already participated in the blog parade have already been able to provide a very good insight into their perspective and share your experiences with us. I can only recommend the blog posts. Read, they are linked to the blog parade.
Of course, if you have a blog yourself, you can also take part in the blog parade. It still runs until 20.12.2018. The terms and conditions and rewards can be found in the contribution of DSLregional.com.au. I wish you every success.
Internet provider: What about my experience?
I must confess that I have rarely thought about whether I am happy with my internet provider. Which is probably just a hint that rarely went wrong here. I have been a member of Unitymedia (formerly the Kabel-BW) for more than 10 years and in the first few years I have received everything from their offer: Internet, telephone, TV. A little more than 2 years ago I moved and here I also use the Internet and telephone from Unitymedia, but I refer to the TV signal via the satellite system, which is hardly a difference in quality, but saves costs. I also have to confess that I have hardly seen TV in the classical sense anyway since I have been a customer of various streaming services.
Of course, not everything is always 100% round. In the 10 years I have already been annoyed one or the other time – times more and sometimes less, if nothing went any more for days, because something was changed or there was a disturbance. Right now, when I wanted to write this article, there was again a massive disruption to the internet and telephone, which unfortunately lasted a whole week and is probably due to a large-scale failure of the respective services. But looking at time, that really wasn't often the case. And outages and disruptions are just normal, happening every now and then at every telecom provider. No one can prevent this and should not expect any customer. That would simply be unrealistic. Because what is it called so beautiful? Where it is uprouded, there are shavings falling.
How do I use the Internet and what fare did I book?
I share the internet line with my brother, who lives in the apartment above me. He like me are probably classic power users. We both stream movies in HD (not yet 4K) and also gamble a lot, which also means that these games need to be downloaded. From time to time, multiplayer is also drawn, but this is rather less often the case from my side. But it may well happen that both my brother and I download a game (simultaneously) and, on the other hand, watch a movie or series on one of our streaming services (also at the same time). Because we knew this from the outset, we chose Unitymedia's "2play JUMP 150" tariff with 150 Mbit/s to avoid any bottlenecks. Before I moved to this apartment I had a 20 Mbit/s line, which had been completely enough for me at that time, but there I didn't have so excessive about streaming services movies etc. Viewed.
As a blogger, I also use the network for my research and for the maintenance of my website, which I do not entrust to an external webmaster, but actually manage and maintain myself. Since I have just started a long move from one domain to another with a new layout (Template/Theme) and a new concept, there is still a lot of work to be done here. A fast internet line really proves to be a comfortable helper.
I often do the research with my smartphone on the go on the way to work or home. There I have an LTE fare available from Vodafone with 25 Mbit/s. The question from DSLregional.de "How would you describe the percentage distribution of your device usage at home? Are you more likely to use your smartphone or laptop/PC to surf? "I honestly can't answer so accurately. Film/Series I watch over my Xbox One, also I do go over it. My brother is zocking and watching movies about the PS4. I manage my blog via my laptop and occasionally watch Youtube videos or parts of Filmen/series, to which I am currently writing a review. With my smartphone I actually surf a lot – on the go, but also occasionally at home, to quickly check something as far as the film is concerned during a movie.
However, the brunt of the burden of the Internet is on the Xbox One (in my household) and the PS4 (in my brother's household).
Would I say I'm satisfied?
In order to be able to "measure" my current satisfaction, I started a small experiment. I measured my internet speed with DSLregional.com.au's DSL speed test for over 14 days every night between 8pm and midnight. The result surprised me quite a bit. Basically, in the majority of days (9 out of 14 days), I get more power than I pay (at least as far as the download rate is concerned). Who would have thought so?
Of course, this viewing is just a more expansive snapshot and of course there were fluctuations here too, but at no point would I have described myself as dissatisfied, because everything I wanted to do – whether it was a film I wanted to see or a game I was Zoking – everything went smoothly. So I would answer the question of satisfaction quite clearly for this period with a fat YES. For the measurement period I would also give the internet provider Unitymedia a smooth 5 star, but since everything can never run 100% round permanently, I can also see for the entire time and especially with regard to the almost past and long-lasting disturbances, Fair wise only 3.5 stars, with potential awarded to 4 stars. Nevertheless, I would recommend my provider unreservedly!
My DSL speed test results in detail
First of all, the current framework conditions for the booked tariff "2play JUMP 150" from Unitymedia
Download (Mbit/s)
- Maximum: 150
- Norm/Average: 142.5
- Minimum: 105
Upload (Mbit/s)
- Maximum: 10
- Norm/Average: 9
- Minimal: 5
Booth 30.11.2018, Source: https://www.unitymedia.de/content/dam/dcomm-unitymedia-de/Privatkunden/PIB/PIB_2playJump150.pdf
I did the DSL speed test with my Xbox One, which is connected to my TP-LINK router "TD-W8970B" (450 Mbps Wireless-N-Gigabit ADSL2+ Modemrouter) via an Ethernet LAN connection. I called the speed test of DSL Regional via the Xbox browser "Microsoft Edge." This configuration or configuration I chose this device for measurement because I go with the Xbox and stream movies, that is, I need the main performance of the Internet there. I am only connected to my laptop via Wi-Fi, which is quite sufficient for just writing in my blog. Although I can download games or watch movies in HD without any problems, I rarely do so because it just makes more sense on the larger screen of the TV. But another reason I didn't choose the laptop is that connecting over Wi-Fi would have immensely distorted the test result and a connection via LAN seemed unnecessarily elaborate to me.
Now to the first result: The download rate
Looks pretty wild at first, doesn't it? But in fact I'm only lying on 3 out of 14 days (21.4%) Under the minimum performance of the download rate set in the tariff. On 2 of these 3 days, the download rate was only 6 or not. 13 Mbit/s below the contractually guaranteed minimum of 105 Mbit/s. On 9 out of 14 days (64.3%) I was even almost constant 20 Mbit/s above the booked maximum of 150 Mbit/s. The average download rate is 143.75 Mbit/s, which is quite exactly the same as the average value guaranteed in the tariff details. So who am I complaining about this? By the way, the highest is 171.7 Mbit/s and the lowest is 43.9 Mbit/s.
All very technical, right? To illustrate it, here is an example with the lowest measured value here, which, mind you, was measured only once within the 14-day measurement period: With the 43.9 Mbit/s, either 8 devices could be via Netflix or 12 devices via Amazon Stream HD quality movies at the same time.
This is clear from a recent juxtaposition of chip.de, which listed the minimum requirements of 7 of the best-known streaming services [1].
Since I only own one Full HD TV, that's enough for me. But even if I used 4K, I still wouldn't have any problems with the download rate of 43.9 Mbit/s and could stream liquid and without any loss of quality at least on one device.
Probably more important for bloggers than download rates: What about uploading?
As I said, I also need the fast internet when I have to build/remodel my blog and the website behind it. CMS (Content Management System). Data often needs to be uploaded to the FTP server and updates of modules or the system have to be carried out, etc. It can be very annoying if the net has hiccups. Therefore, as a blogger, one should probably not only be referring to the download rate, but also keep an eye on the upload rate.
What that looks like in my case is shown by the following account:
As you can see, everything was actually in the green area here and only on 1 out of 14 days did the upload rate drop below the minimum limit of 5 Mbit/s. On average, I achieved an upload rate of 8.83 Mbit/s. The maximum is 10.53 Mbit/s and the lowest is 3.22 Mbit/s. This is a really good way to work. Of course, that, too, depends on what you need to upload. If they are HD videos have the length of the film, then the upload could take several hours. In my case, however, this is not envisaged. I am usually PHP (Twig), CSS, JS files or pictures. So file size is very limited. But should the amount of files increase to several hundred, such as it If updates are the case, then you are thankful if the line gives a few Mbit/s. And here I am completely satisfied.
Much more important for nerds who want to gamble multiplayer or online games: The ping
The package circulation time (also called round trip delay (RTD), round-trip time (RTT) or simply called "ping") is of course also important when just browsing or streaming movies, but in games it is essential. It indicates the speed in milliseconds (ms) of how fast a data packet gets from A to B and back again. The rule of thumb is that the smaller the ping value, the better the line is and the better it is suitable for multiplayer or online games.
Of course, the DSLregional.de Speedtest also evaluates the ping and separately evaluates the latency. The difference between the two parameters, which are often used interchangeably, was unclear to me at first. Unfortunately, my research on this also took me little further. So I asked us directly at DSLregional.de (thanks again to Anna Matern). Then finally the penny fell: The ping denotes the entire time from sending the package from A to B, processing the package and returning from B to A, while the latency represents the time lag of the individual stages of the data shipment. In other words, shipping, processing and return shipping. Therefore, the latency value should always be lower than half the ping time. This is strange during the measurement period on 4 out of 14 days (28.6%) Not the case. There may have been a timeout on these 4 days at one of the stages, which caused the average latency value to rise unusually.
In my measurement experiment, however, it came out that the ping settles around and at 25 ms (average of 26.75 ms) and there was only once a bigger outlier beyond the 40 ms (44 ms). But is that good or bad? Is it enough to gamck?
According to the website "beste-vpn-anbieter.com" and also the email from DSLregional.de, a ping between 20 and 25 ms would be considered very good in my case (cable internet) [2]. For online games values under 50 ms are acceptable, under 30 ms very good and under 15 ms excellent. According to Gamestar.de, it also depends (logically) on the genre of online gaming how fast the ping should be in order to be able to gamble frustless and jerk-free [3]. Thus (also logically) a value below 50 ms would be very important for selshooters, whereas other genres are likely to be easily playable even with a ping of between 60 and 100 ms (e.g. Building strategy such as Anno or Settler Online). Only the ping of 100 ms should not exceed your line, which, according to Gamestar.de, would in any case be perceived as disturbing.
So, I'm quite well parked with my on average 26.75 ms. Personally, even in terms of online gaming, I have not found anything that I would object to during this time. I pulled Star Wars battlefront 1 & 2, with no problems.
By the way, in addition to the ping, you should also keep an eye on the loss of data packets (packet loss). Whether you lose data with the current connection can be easily checked on Windows in the command line (prompt) itself. To view the command line, simply enter the Cortana search line on Windows 10 "cmd" and select prompt. After that, a window with a black background and white writing goes up. The cursor would have to flash behind the name of your user account. There you simply type "ping google.de." After that, 4 data packets are automatically sent to Google and the respective transfer is evaluated. The milliseconds (ping) are measured and the data loss is counted. Once all 4 packages have arrived, everything is in the green area. By the way, this measurement tool from Windows is among other things. Responsible for naming "ping." Relying on reliable servers in this test should always be the case, which is why "google.de" is often suggested as a test candidate.
I admit that within the 14 days of testing, I did not do this variant of the ping & package loss test. This is mainly due to the fact that I could only do this on my laptop and this is powered by Wi-Fi.
But a short test found that over Wi-Fi, with 5 test runs 30 seconds apart (i.e. shipping a total of 20 packages within 2.5 minutes) was lost at the 30.11.2018 only one package. I think that should be ok and is not yet a cause for complaint.
Conclusion: So what can be said in conclusion?
I can say that I am broadly satisfied with my internet provider, albeit vllt. With "smears," but they are quite to be blurred. Smear because, of course, over the time of 10 years, there were disruptions and breakdowns from time to time and I only recently had an internet & phone for a whole week. However, I am also aware that these ' smears ' would not go away with any other internet provider. There is no trouble-free and fail-free service. There can be no. For this reason, I would probably realistically and objectively give each Internet provider a rating of 3.5 maximum 4 stars. What Unitymedia vllt. Different from other providers is the fair price for really good performance. I have never regretted my decision to stay at Unitymedia and I think that will continue to be the case for now.
As far as my tariff is concerned, I am also absolutely satisfied and do not think that I currently need more power. So a fibre-optic access of 1,000 Mbit/s (1 Gbit/s) to me would probably simply be wasted, at least at least. Asks me vllt. In 10 or 15 years again. Who knows? Vllt. We then stream everything with VR technology and need a line with 20 Gbit/s, so that the holodeck does not have to buffer:-D
What do you mean? How fast should the Internet be for you? Are you happy with your provider? Writes it to me in the comments.
Sources:
- Chip.de, booth 10.11.2018, https://www.chip.de/news/Video-Streaming-So-schnell-muss-DSL-fuer-Netflix-und-Co.-sein_107188459.html
- Best vpn-anbieter.com, Stand 13.09.2017, https://beste-vpn-anbieter.com/welche-ping-zeit-ist-gut/
- Gamestar.de, Stand 21.07.2017, https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/ping-latenz-und-packet-loss-erklaert-tipps-zu-problemen-mit-online-spielen,3317227.html
Further links:
- Blog parade by DSLregional.de
- Speed test by DSLregional.de
- Tariff details "2play JUMP 150" by Unitymedia
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