So my friend just got Gigapower from AT&T and he's currently only getting speeds of 180 down. But my question, can the servers of the sites he visits really deliver content at speeds that fast? So, if one person is getting 75 down and another is getting 180, will the latter's computer load websites faster, or will there be no difference?

It depends on how the content is being served and what kind of content it is.

The best way to check speed is to use speedtest.net. The second best way is to download a large game from Steam (http://www.steampowered.com ... Team Fortress 2 is free).

Typically content delivered from a CDN (Content Delivery Network) such as Steam's games will be fast enough to push most of a Gigabit connection. HOWEVER ... the ISP you mentioned, AT&T, actually deliberately throttles CDN traffic unless those CDNs are willing to PAY AT&T to reach the AT&T customers at full speed. Insert the net neutrality argument here.

So even if they are paying for gigabit ... *most* of the web cannot actually send stuff that fast. The ISP they are using deliberately throttles most of the things that actually can send stuff that fast (P2P file sharing traffic, traffic from bitlockers, traffic from CDNs).

Lastly, AT&T has a bandwidth cap even for Gigabit customers. That cap is 1 TB/mo. So even if you are downloading at the full gigabit, in just 2 hours and 13 minutes you'll exhaust your data cap, and AT&T can demand you pay them more money or they can summarily disconnect and deny you service at their whim.

In other words ... it is AT&T being AT&T (evil pricks).

(08-11-2015 06:04 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  It depends on how the content is being served and what kind of content it is.

The best way to check speed is to use speedtest.net. The second best way is to download a large game from Steam (http://www.steampowered.com ... Team Fortress 2 is free).

Typically content delivered from a CDN (Content Delivery Network) such as Steam's games will be fast enough to push most of a Gigabit connection. HOWEVER ... the ISP you mentioned, AT&T, actually deliberately throttles CDN traffic unless those CDNs are willing to PAY AT&T to reach the AT&T customers at full speed. Insert the net neutrality argument here.

So even if they are paying for gigabit ... *most* of the web cannot actually send stuff that fast. The ISP they are using deliberately throttles most of the things that actually can send stuff that fast (P2P file sharing traffic, traffic from bitlockers, traffic from CDNs).

Lastly, AT&T has a bandwidth cap even for Gigabit customers. That cap is 1 TB/mo. So even if you are downloading at the full gigabit, in just 2 hours and 13 minutes you'll exhaust your data cap, and AT&T can demand you pay them more money or they can summarily disconnect and deny you service at their whim.

In other words ... it is AT&T being AT&T (evil pricks).

Not quite sure you're answering my question or not. I guess what I'm trying to say is, will a page like ESPN.com load faster on a 200 mbps connection than a 50 mbps connection, or can a page only load so fast to the point that anything over a certain download speed won't matter?

(08-11-2015 06:30 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Not quite sure you're answering my question or not. I guess what I'm trying to say is, will a page like ESPN.com load faster on a 200 mbps connection than a 50 mbps connection, or can a page only load so fast to the point that anything over a certain download speed won't matter?

In the specific case of websites ... no, they will not load faster, unless there is already a lot of existing traffic going on over your connection WHILE you load the site. If you have somebody downloading a game for PS4 and the server can send to you at up to 100 mbps, your load of ESPN would be slowed substantially on the 50 mbps connection but not the 200 mbps connection.

(08-11-2015 07:49 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(08-11-2015 06:30 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Not quite sure you're answering my question or not. I guess what I'm trying to say is, will a page like ESPN.com load faster on a 200 mbps connection than a 50 mbps connection, or can a page only load so fast to the point that anything over a certain download speed won't matter?

In the specific case of websites ... no, they will not load faster, unless there is already a lot of existing traffic going on over your connection WHILE you load the site. If you have somebody downloading a game for PS4 and the server can send to you at up to 100 mbps, your load of ESPN would be slowed substantially on the 50 mbps connection but not the 200 mbps connection.

ok cool that makes sense. So that said, at what speed can most servers send data?

(08-11-2015 08:22 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  

(08-11-2015 07:49 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(08-11-2015 06:30 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Not quite sure you're answering my question or not. I guess what I'm trying to say is, will a page like ESPN.com load faster on a 200 mbps connection than a 50 mbps connection, or can a page only load so fast to the point that anything over a certain download speed won't matter?

In the specific case of websites ... no, they will not load faster, unless there is already a lot of existing traffic going on over your connection WHILE you load the site. If you have somebody downloading a game for PS4 and the server can send to you at up to 100 mbps, your load of ESPN would be slowed substantially on the 50 mbps connection but not the 200 mbps connection.

ok cool that makes sense. So that said, at what speed can most servers send data?

Most websites are under 5 MB per page. That means anything over 40 mbps and it takes one second or less for the transit of the data for the webpage. Your computer actually takes longer to render and display the page than that. Their server takes longer to process, query, parse, and prepare the page than that. The biggest overhead in that instance may actually be your browser rendering the page.

Speaking abstractly ... server speeds are all over the map just like home connections are all over the map. If you have serious server space these days you pay by the megabit of guaranteed upload (we have 10 mbps up guaranteed) but you can burst to 100 or 1000 megabits as needed. You just pay hefty surcharges if at the end of the month your 90th or 95th percentile use is higher than what you paid for guaranteed.

(08-11-2015 09:01 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(08-11-2015 08:22 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  

(08-11-2015 07:49 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(08-11-2015 06:30 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Not quite sure you're answering my question or not. I guess what I'm trying to say is, will a page like ESPN.com load faster on a 200 mbps connection than a 50 mbps connection, or can a page only load so fast to the point that anything over a certain download speed won't matter?

In the specific case of websites ... no, they will not load faster, unless there is already a lot of existing traffic going on over your connection WHILE you load the site. If you have somebody downloading a game for PS4 and the server can send to you at up to 100 mbps, your load of ESPN would be slowed substantially on the 50 mbps connection but not the 200 mbps connection.

ok cool that makes sense. So that said, at what speed can most servers send data?

Most websites are under 5 MB per page. That means anything over 40 mbps and it takes one second or less for the transit of the data for the webpage. Your computer actually takes longer to render and display the page than that. Their server takes longer to process, query, parse, and prepare the page than that. The biggest overhead in that instance may actually be your browser rendering the page.

Speaking abstractly ... server speeds are all over the map just like home connections are all over the map. If you have serious server space these days you pay by the megabit of guaranteed upload (we have 10 mbps up guaranteed) but you can burst to 100 or 1000 megabits as needed. You just pay hefty surcharges if at the end of the month your 90th or 95th percentile use is higher than what you paid for guaranteed.

Ok so does that mean that if you're just doing basic internet things like streaming content and general web surfing, you're a chump if you pay for anything over like 50 or 100 mbps?

(08-11-2015 09:29 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Ok so does that mean that if you're just doing basic internet things like streaming content and general web surfing, you're a chump if you pay for anything over like 50 or 100 mbps?

Depends on how many people are using that connection at the same time and their usage habits.

A son streaming YouTube music while playing a video game ... a daughter streaming Netflix ... the wife streaming Netflix ... you're on ESPN3 watching a game. Got a couple of Windows PCs in the house downloading updates. Suddenly you're easily knocking on 50 megabits.

If you're granny and only use email and surf and have no more than one person doing a HD video stream at a time ...... 10 megabits would hold you fine.

This all assumes you have optimal equipment to deliver that connection throughout the house. Even bad wired is pretty fast. But if you're still rocking that Linksys WRT54g from 2006 and/or you're in a wifi-congested apartment complex .... you probably can't even deliver your full connection speed throughout your house.

(08-11-2015 09:57 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(08-11-2015 09:29 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Ok so does that mean that if you're just doing basic internet things like streaming content and general web surfing, you're a chump if you pay for anything over like 50 or 100 mbps?

Depends on how many people are using that connection at the same time and their usage habits.

A son streaming YouTube music while playing a video game ... a daughter streaming Netflix ... the wife streaming Netflix ... you're on ESPN3 watching a game. Got a couple of Windows PCs in the house downloading updates. Suddenly you're easily knocking on 50 megabits.

If you're granny and only use email and surf and have no more than one person doing a HD video stream at a time ...... 10 megabits would hold you fine.

This all assumes you have optimal equipment to deliver that connection throughout the house. Even bad wired is pretty fast. But if you're still rocking that Linksys WRT54g from 2006 and/or you're in a wifi-congested apartment complex .... you probably can't even deliver your full connection speed throughout your house.

sorry, just meant a single guy in his own place rocking a good quality modem and router

(08-11-2015 10:59 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  

(08-11-2015 09:57 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(08-11-2015 09:29 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Ok so does that mean that if you're just doing basic internet things like streaming content and general web surfing, you're a chump if you pay for anything over like 50 or 100 mbps?

Depends on how many people are using that connection at the same time and their usage habits.

A son streaming YouTube music while playing a video game ... a daughter streaming Netflix ... the wife streaming Netflix ... you're on ESPN3 watching a game. Got a couple of Windows PCs in the house downloading updates. Suddenly you're easily knocking on 50 megabits.

If you're granny and only use email and surf and have no more than one person doing a HD video stream at a time ...... 10 megabits would hold you fine.

This all assumes you have optimal equipment to deliver that connection throughout the house. Even bad wired is pretty fast. But if you're still rocking that Linksys WRT54g from 2006 and/or you're in a wifi-congested apartment complex .... you probably can't even deliver your full connection speed throughout your house.

sorry, just meant a single guy in his own place rocking a good quality modem and router

Then the only reason he should consider upgrading is if his ISP has a bandwidth cap (AT&T does) and he wants to get a bigger cap per month than he gets with lower speeds. Some AT&T DSL caps are as low as 150 GB/mo. The gigabit plan is 1,000 GB/mo I believe.

Unless his cable is Time Warner or Comcast, I'd urge him to consider cable instead. If he has line of sight to major metro skyscraper rooftops and/or mountain tops, he should also investigate getting broadband from a WISP.