Day: April 20, 2018

How to Choose Internet Access for Your Family

 

 

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Connectivity offers the conveniences of instant support when we need it. Ever since the internet emerged in the 1990s, it has become our go-to tool over the years. But now, the internet has grown so rapidly that is supports nearly 83 Exabyte’s of data and traffic, which is nearly 95% of the total population of North America that uses the internet on a daily basis. So nowadays, high-speed connectivity like CenturyLink home internet services have become a necessity for many households rather than a luxury, which only a few can still afford. In this post, we will share with you a guideline for choosing the right internet services for your family, so let’s find out which internet service will suit your home internet needs the best:

Internet Types

While there are several internet types and services you can acquire, however it does matter what kind of internet would be most suitable for your family. A quick resolution to this requires a look at the number of users and how you want to use the services. Here is a quick synopsis of the different types of internet services you can obtain and what kind of usage they are most suitable for to give you an idea:

 

 

• Dial-Up: The slowest connection, with speeds of 28 Kbps to 56 Kbps, but very cheap to acquire. This may be the most primitive type of internet service and shouldn’t even be on our list, but dial-up internet is for the occasional and less frequent users who just want to use the internet for checking emails and some casual browsing.

 

 

 

• Satellite: Less expensive and typically slower than other services with speeds of 512 Kbps to 2 Mbps. Many improvements have been made to this type of internet when compared to dial-up, satellite internet offers better web surfing and browsing capabilities for users ranging from light to moderate usage.

 

 

 

• DSL: A relatively inexpensive connectivity type with speeds ranging from 128 Kbps to 8 Mbps.  A faster internet than the previous two, DSL can accommodate moderate users and their needs, such as video chats, audio and visual streaming, and online gaming.

 

 

 

• Cable: A reasonably priced internet service with much faster speeds on average. Recommended internet type for moderate to heavy users, great for streaming music and videos, and online gaming as well.

 

 

 

• Fiber: The most expensive type of internet with speeds up to 1 Gigabyte per second, or 1,000 Mbps. The fastest internet connection available suggested for heavy usage due to it being the most expensive. Great for all internet activities, like Ultra-HD movie streaming and so much more.

 

 

Number of Users and Usage

Selecting the right internet service for your family depends on the size of your family and their ages. The more family members and the older they are will allow for a better understanding of your internet speeds requirements. The following is a brief summary of typical internet speed required to perform certain activities:

 

 

• Video Calling: requires 0.5 Mbps in standard definition while HD video calling may require 1.5 Mbps

 

 

 

• Video Streaming: lower definition video streaming requires around 1.5 Mbps, whereas 3 Mbps is required for SD. For HD video streaming, at least 5 Mbps is required. Ultra HD video streaming of 4K quality requires 25 Mbps of internet download speeds.   

 

 

 

• HD Music: a minimum of 2 Mbps of internet downloading speeds will be sufficient.

 

 

 

• Email, Web Browsing/Surfing, and Social Media: 0.5 Mbps to 5 Mbps of downloading speeds.

 

 

 

• PC & Console gaming: a minimum of 10 Mbps for download and 1 Mbps of upload speed, with a ping rate of fewer than 20 milliseconds is considered ideal for such activities.   

 

 

We hope that this post offered you some insights regarding the right selection of internet services for your entire family. Questions? Feel free to post your comments in the section below.