Is gigabit broadband worth it?

FL630

FL630

FL630

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Edit: spelling mistake, worth it

So I live in a Hyperoptic enabled flat and I need to renew my broadband. I can get 100mb for £29 a month or 1Gb for £40.

Right now, and potentially in the near future, is there any advantage of 1Gb broadband?

I'll have to upgrade my power line adaptors as they're only 500mb but otherwise in good to use it.

In reality I used to be fine with 50mb but the tech junkie inside me tells me 1Gb is the way forward.

Opinions?
 
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I've rarely seen speeds much in excess of 100Mbit from any one source - though there are exceptions - but it is nice to be able to say download from Steam at the max speed it will give you while doing something else like streaming high bitrate video without any slow down of either.
 
Rroff said:
I've rarely seen speeds much in excess of 100Mbit from any one source - though there are exceptions - but it is nice to be able to say download from Steam at the max speed it will give you while doing something else like streaming high bitrate video without any slow down of either.
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Interesting, I found even with 50mb steam would grind my other internet requiring uses to a halt. Are you saying that no single download will be considerably faster, but if both of my flatmates are streaming some Netflix or something, I can still download/game with no real losses?

That certainly makes it a compelling idea
 
FL630 said:
So I live in a Hyperoptic enabled flat and I need to renew my broadband. I can get 100mb for £29 a month or 1Gb for £40.

Right now, and potentially in the near future, is there any advantage of 1Gb broadband?

I'll have to upgrade my power line adaptors as they're only 500mb but otherwise in good to use it.

In reality I used to be fine with 50mb but the tech junkie inside me tells me 1Gb is the way forward.

Opinions?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bother wasting money on a 1Gb connection since you won't find a powerline adapter to carry it.

If you're not aware: https://nerdtechy.com/best-powerline-adapter-reviews-2016

So a 2Gb powerline adapter (which is given a 1Gb port because they know this next bit) is reaching 400-odd-mb right next to the other adapter.

Then taken across the house a bit it's 100-odd-mb.

You will waste money on the connection and the powerline adapters if that's how you do it.
 
Hotwired said:
I wouldn't bother wasting money on a 1Gb connection since you won't find a powerline adapter to carry it.

If you're not aware: https://nerdtechy.com/best-powerline-adapter-reviews-2016

So a 2Gb powerline adapter (which is given a 1Gb port because they know this next bit) is reaching 400-odd-mb right next to the other adapter.

Then taken across the house a bit it's 100-odd-mb.

You will waste money on the connection and the powerline adapters if that's how you do it.
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So the only real way of getting faster than 500+mb is to have it hard wired to the router?

Shame. I'm still sorely tempted if it is true as Rroff says that multiple heavy users won't affect me.
 
Powerline is likely to be around 250Mbps max. (if you measure the throughput)

Just do it properly and cable the place up.
 
bledd said:
Powerline is likely to be around 250Mbps max. (if you measure the throughput)

Just do it properly and cable the place up.
Click to expand...

I'd love to do this but I live in a rented flat and there is no way I could really do it. Sadly I even have blank outlets on the wall I could convert to an Cat6 outlet, but I wouldn't be able to justify the wiring required to my landlord.

I assume even powerline at it's best is considerably better than wifi?
 
WiFi might actually do better on 5GHz but only in ideal conditions and standing right next to the transmitter. Powerline adapters technically transmit data the same way as wireless which is why they suffer from the same drop out problems and huge variation is speeds. I have to agree with everyone else that this is only worth while if you can actually run a physically cable.

Saying that, £40 is pretty good price if you actually do get those speeds with no data caps so if you don't mind not maxing it out then just go for it.
 
Renamed the thread for you :)

Also, based on what you've stated would be beneficial to you, for the price it's probably worth it. Even if you get at best 250mbit each it sounds like having your internet not grind to a halt the moment one person streams something or downloads a large file would be a good thing. So for an extra £11 a month (between 3 I assume?) you're going to have a much more reliable internet connection.

edit: I forgot that powerline may share that 250mbit. In that case I'd consider getting 5g wifi for your flatmates and hog the powerline for yourself ;)
 
I'd save the money and get 100Mbps. It's still more than enough, and it's synchronous. I think gigabit's the sort of thing that you get, go "heh this is cool", run a few speed tests or do a few rounds of Windows Update and then forget you have.

Even if using Wi-Fi dropped it to 70Mbps each way, that's not going to realistically be a barrier to any type of online activity.
 
Well, as any self confessed techie I decided to go for it. What's £11 a month?!

Wired directly from the hyperoptic plug to the back of my PC, 800 both up and down, 0-1ms ping according to speedtest....wow!!

Throw my powerline adaptors in, it doesn't even function.

So the choices I have are either to buy a really long cable for a temp solution, or buy some posher powrline adaptors, or embrace the slower WiFi option.

Landlord is around next few weeks so I'll have to ask if we can do some serious wiring!
 
Hotwired said:
Your powerline adapters should still be working, just with reduced bandwidth.
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You'd think so, right? But direct wired (up/down) 800/800, wireless 45/55 and wired 0/0.

I wonder if it's perhaps unsuitable wiring in the house for powerline to work correctly?
 
FL630 said:
Well, as any self confessed techie I decided to go for it. What's £11 a month?!

Wired directly from the hyperoptic plug to the back of my PC, 800 both up and down, 0-1ms ping according to speedtest....wow!!

Throw my powerline adaptors in, it doesn't even function.

So the choices I have are either to buy a really long cable for a temp solution, or buy some posher powrline adaptors, or embrace the slower WiFi option.

Landlord is around next few weeks so I'll have to ask if we can do some serious wiring!
Click to expand...

Personally I'd run a flat ethernet cable under the carpet in this instance imo.
 
FL630 said:
You'd think so, right? But direct wired (up/down) 800/800, wireless 45/55 and wired 0/0.

I wonder if it's perhaps unsuitable wiring in the house for powerline to work correctly?
Click to expand...

Lots of things including each plug on a different circuit can cause a problem.

If the adapters work literally plugged in next to each other you'll know if they work. I'd also reset anything resettable on them.
 
If you're at all handy there are plenty of ways to get a cable where it needs to be.

Your landlord would never know and it wouldn't look untidy. I'd opt for DLine trunking round the skirts or ceiling, or pop a hole and chase it through and paint over with a colour match. Or negotiate with the landlord by either a) saying you want to repaint in magnolia, is that ok? Or b) hardline would add to rentability and you'd be happy to cover the cost.

It's criminal to have 1gb internet and not use a hard wired connection.
 
FYI... Hyperoptic are an "up to" 1Gbps service... not a dedicated 1GBps service.

IE, you get 1Gbps when it's available, when sharing the connection with others in your building - you won't see that speed.

But £40 for an "up to" 1Gbps service is still damn good value for money.

I have 1Gbps FTTP with Gigaclear... also a contended offer, although not as heavily contended as Hyperoptic's offer... and I regularly see in excess of 800Mbps, even in peak times.

For me, it's worth it... I regularly see 200-500mbit+ from various sources... somewhere in that range being the average... as services improve, so will that. The bonus for me is that I can use multiple stream simultaneously without losing any performance elsewhere.

I'm paying nearly £80 for it and still consider it a bargain... especially when you think any decent FTTC 80/20 service is in the £45-50 range already.


As for powerline... even with the best adapters... you will struggle to see more than 100-200mbit
 
Rroff said:
I've rarely seen speeds much in excess of 100Mbit from any one source - though there are exceptions - but it is nice to be able to say download from Steam at the max speed it will give you while doing something else like streaming high bitrate video without any slow down of either.
Click to expand...
Something wrong with your connection then... I regularly exceed 100mbit without even trying.
 
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