Tell this geezer why I need gigabit Internet?

[alarmguy]

Originally Posted by csandste
OK-- This was prompted by the "shaving" thread.

I have Spectrum. Spectrum advertises 100MBps speeds here in metro St. Louis, I usually get 60, this morning I was in the twenties.

I do understand that self driving vehicles, and telemedicine may require tons of pipe. What about me on my couch with my Roku? What am I missing?



You dont need gigabit. Your missing nothing. Your 100MBPS speed is better then good for 90% of the population at home. You can stream anything you want with Roku players on multiple TV's.

The ever increasing speeds available are there for one reason, the internet providers keep jacking up the price, they know you cant use the speed anyway. We are paying over 50% more for internet from just 3 years ago, speeds greatly increased but big deal, you do notice you can't down grade speed, why do you think that is so?
Simple, that extra speed is all 50% more profit for the internet providers, you dont need it.

I would be pi**ed if I paid for it but my wifes company pays our internet so whatever. Soon, but so far a year behind our electric company is offering fiber at $20 less per month then Spectrum at 10 times the speed. Dont need it but the price will only be $49

 

[Pew]

Same reason why people think they need anything over 100hp. It's nice to know you have it when you need it but most of the time you don't.

FWIW, I have comcast gigabit fiber and I f'ing LOVE it. I just upped my work's speed to 1Gb/1Gb from 100/100Mb too.

 

[DejaVue]

Originally Posted by csandste
If the pipe is sixty, then why did I pay five times as much money for a router that can dish out thirty times as much as I need vs. one that dishes out twenty times as much as I need (yes I realize with two bands you could half that).

That's the thing with routers. If you need big speed for wifi, you need a fancy router. If you only need big speed for desktops and TV devices etc that are wired, you only need gigabyte LAN ports on the router. And even the old 10/100 is probably fine.

I mainly only notice the difference between 10/100 and gb wired ethernet when transferring files between computers on my home network. I don't even bother turning on the 5GHz wifi anymore since the range is shorter and even when lots of people visit and watch Youtube and things on their phones they're fine with 2.4GHz speeds. People living in crowded areas may want 5GHz for interference reasons.