1mb vs 512k connections

Is the upgrade really worth it?

[Maynard]

Sorry if this is a little off-topic: I have 512 ADSL broadband at home and loved it for a while. Now I download alot of music files (non-copyrighted of course!) on P2P networks and watch alot of BBC and CNN video footage and Flash films online and feel I may need to upgrade to 1mb. Is 1mb (that's the only upgrade option I have where I live) worth it? Will it really make a difference to me?

Thanks,
Maynard.

[wonderboy]

Sorry to state the obvious, but it is twice as fast. End of!
W.

[longen]

I upgraded to 1M last month. It's made a difference but its isn't like going to 512K from dial-up. For general surfing you may not notice increased speed simply because your fast cable will have to wait for data from slow web-sites, like yahoo/ebay. It great for downloading big files – like 4 mins for 27MB. Ideal for XP service packs.
I considered getting internet TV from Homechoice but i suspect that for full screen video you might need 2M or 4M broadband. Otherwise I'm happy with it, a little luxury from Adsense.

[Maynard]

Of course! The reason I asked is because I've heard people say that for normal web browsing you'll notice no difference, but if you start downloading lots of files or viewing lots of video online you will notice a stark difference. I wanted personal confirmation of this from people here, before I part with my cash.

[encyclo]

It's twice as fast, obviously, but whether it's worth it depends on the price. It's not neccessarily twice as good, and you're not guaranteed to get the full speed on downloads. I've got 1.5mb ADSL here, which is good stuff, but I rarely get that effective speed.

If the price differential is reasonable, go for it. If it costs twice as much as 512k, I'd pass unless you are really that much in need of a greater download speed.

[Dudermont]

It also depends on were you are downloading from. When I am downloading things it very rarly uses all my bandwidth. As was said, microsoft at most times can use all my bandwidth but most other places can't.

[Maynard]

For example, downloading mp3s using KazaaLite or Soulseek; watching streaming news footage at CNN.com: will file downloads be faster; will streaming be visually smoother?

[wonderboy]

Yup, twice as fast ;)

Hehe, kazaa is going downhill fast, but for all the others you should get a nice 120kb/s - this is basically clear TV and audio pictures, music downloading quite a bit faster than you can play it...

If I had the chance to upgrade, I would, but I don't.
w

[isitreal]

Yes, definitely, no question, I have 3+M per second cable, and it's very fast, many downloads are done before I have finished locating the save to location.

With high speeds you can download things like Linux distros (1-3 Gigabytes) in an hour or two, 10M files only take a few seconds.

The main limitation is how fast the servers will upload to your machine, many of them throttle the output, with P2P stuff like audiognome the speed limit comes from the other party's upload limits.

512, 1M, or 3M all have serious restrictions on upload speeds, usually run about 128 K, only SDSL as far as I know have equal up and download speeds.

[Dudermont]

Yeah you will notice a big difference I think if that is the speed your at. I never used adsl much. Most dowloading for me doesn't get past 300kb/s, but on fast sites like microsoft and valve I get up to 700kb/s or a little more. But for you it would most likely double almost everything.

[AprilS]

I think another thing to consider is your upload speed. Many places will give you a faster upload when you upgrade. I'm just going to take a gues this may be important as this is on webmaster world - with a faster upload speed you can upload files faster to servers.

Also, another aspect of a faster download is better multitasking. For instance - with your 512k - if you were downloading quite a few songs in your P2P programs - your browsing may be slower and you probably won't be viewing too many high quality streaming videos while you download your music. But, if you upgrade to a 1M connection (assuming you DO get the extra speed) you'll be able to download your music PLUS watch your streaming videos at the same time.

[Maynard]

Thanks everyone. For file transfers (uploads and downloads) it looks like 1 mb is definitely the way to go for me!

Maynard.