Difference between 100/20 or 200/20

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Wills1

710 posts

Ultimate Geek

#177707 12-Aug-2015 06:37

Hi there,

My area is just about ready to go for fibre. I will be staying with Spark for UFB who offer 100/20 and 200/20 plans. Is there much of a difference between them? We mainly use the internet for streaming netflix / hulu and general browsing. We do have plenty of devices connected to wifi. Im curious if its worth paying the extra $20 per month for the higher speed or if it would be unnoticeable.

We currently struggle to maintain a 5mb connection to the exchange, when one person is watching netflix the picture pixelates if the internet is used on another device. Fibre will be a huge change for our household!

Cheers

PeterReader

6015 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#1363346 12-Aug-2015 06:37

Hello... Our robot found some keywords in your post, so here is an automated reply with some important things to note regarding broadband speeds.

If you are posting regarding DSL speeds please check that

- you have reset your modem and router

- your PC (or other PCs in your LAN) is not downloading large files when you are testing

- you are not being throttled by your ISP due to going over the monthly cap

- your tests are always done on an ethernet connection to the router - do not use wireless for testing

- you read this topic and follow the instructions there.

Make sure you provide information for other users to help you. If you have not already done it, please EDIT your post and add this now:

- Your ISP and plan

- Type of connection (ADSL, ADSL2, VDSL)

- Your modem DSL stats (do not worry about posting Speedtest, we need sync rate, attenuation and noise margin)

- Your general location (or street)

- If you are rural or urban

- If you know your connection is to an exchange, cabinet or conklin

- If your connection is to a ULL or wholesale service

- If you have done an isolation test as per the link above

Most of the problems with speed are likely to be related to internal wiring issues. Read this discussion to find out more about this. Your ISP is not intentionally slowing you down today (unless you are on a managed plan). Also if this is the school holidays it's likely you will notice slower than usual speed due to more users online.

A master splitter is required for VDSL2 and in most cases will improve speeds on DSL connections. Regular disconnections can be a monitored alarm or a set top box trying to connect. If there's an alarm connected to your line even if you don't have an alarm contract it may still try to connect so it's worth checking.

I recommend you read these two blog posts:

- Is your premises phone wiring impacting your broadband performance? (very technical)

- Are you receiving a substandard ULL ADSL2+ connection from your ISP?

I am the Geekzone Robot and I am here to help. I am from the Internet. I do not interact. Do not expect other replies from me.

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sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#1363364 12-Aug-2015 07:05

Highly unlikely.

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1363369 12-Aug-2015 07:14

I wouldn't get the faster option to start.
A good adsl2 connection would probably be good enough, fibre should blow you away.

cr250bromo

222 posts

Master Geek

#1363376 12-Aug-2015 07:35

I was on 200/200 with Bigpipe but dropped to 100/20 to save a bit of money. The only thing that came through at 200Mbit was stuff from CDN, eg windows and apple updates, some steam and so on. And the speed test results annoyed my friends and workmates. :)

For day to day use I've noticed no major difference. Though I don't usually torrent, maybe if you got a file with heaps of peers you might get over 100Mbit.

/ben

tdgeek

29650 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1363388 12-Aug-2015 08:09

Ideal for many concurrent users, such as a large tech family or flatmates, if they are often streaming or downloading, otherwise I'd suggest 100/20

rendezvous

194 posts

Master Geek

#1363396 12-Aug-2015 08:35

I've just gone from 30/10 to 100/50. In general web browsing etc there isn't a huge difference in speed. I feel most of the delay loading web pages is the ping time on US servers. For downloading files there's a difference in speed. 100 should be more than adequate for multiple HD simultaneously.

pdath

252 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1363467 12-Aug-2015 09:50

You wont notice any difference with streaming. It only makes a difference if you are doing big downloads.

Save your money.

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