Internet Question for the Techies

GringoRubio

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Oct 15, 2015
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I'm using a shared internet, and I suspect we have enough bandwidth except the video streams are imposing long delays on the rest of us. An HTTP request/response can take a solid 20 seconds or so. Although my girlfriend watching a novela has no complaints as she seems to be buffered for a good 90 seconds or so. Of course, I could kick my girlfriend off the internet, but I have no chance with the numerous neighbors that are around. Mondays are the pits as the neighborhood catches up with their novelas.

I need the internet for work and using a degraded line is definitely counterproductive. Yesterday, I spent an hour doing 5 minutes of work.

I'm thinking my best bet is just my own internet connection. Any other twiques you can think of?

(I have the above argument with net neutrality folks. Not all data is equal because they don't have the same latency constraints.)
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
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Sounds like the limited bandwidth is spread around so thin that no one has decent speeds...

When you think of the innerweb as a pipe, and your connection bandwidth as the diameter of a pipe, how many smaller pipes can be fed and all still get decent pressure?
 

Jaime809

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Aug 23, 2012
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I'm using a shared internet, and I suspect we have enough bandwidth except the video streams are imposing long delays on the rest of us. An HTTP request/response can take a solid 20 seconds or so. Although my girlfriend watching a novela has no complaints as she seems to be buffered for a good 90 seconds or so. Of course, I could kick my girlfriend off the internet, but I have no chance with the numerous neighbors that are around. Mondays are the pits as the neighborhood catches up with their novelas.

I need the internet for work and using a degraded line is definitely counterproductive. Yesterday, I spent an hour doing 5 minutes of work.

I'm thinking my best bet is just my own internet connection. Any other twiques you can think of?

(I have the above argument with net neutrality folks. Not all data is equal because they don't have the same latency constraints.)

If you have a good router, you can throttle the streaming to x% of bandwidth. If you have a really good router, you can allocate a higher priority to your traffic vs hers. Expect to spend upwards of $200 for the really good routers. Search on "bandwidth prioritization" for more info.
 

cbmitch9

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Nov 3, 2010
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For the amount of bandwith available to your home, it's not worth getting a router that's upwards of $200. You have several options, kick the GF off and prevent her from watching her novelas, schedule the usage, or (God forbid) get a second line. Slow is slow and only a faster pipe can alleviate your pain.
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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If the account has, say, a 10+mb plan, allocating bandwidth may work.

But if the plan is 2mb (or some other low, inexpensive plan), allocating bandwidth would make no difference.

He didn't mention how many are sharing the connection or what the plan is. Both are relevant to suggesting a solution.
 

GringoRubio

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Oct 15, 2015
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All true, but I think it means getting my hands on the bottleneck which is the Claro router and controlling it.

Last time that I checked I couldn't get a claro phone & internet at my house. I'll check again.

It looks like I could buy a claro phone with 10Gb of data for 1000 pesos which has very decent internet for my chatty, low data usage.
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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All true, but I think it means getting my hands on the bottleneck which is the Claro router and controlling it.

Last time that I checked I couldn't get a claro phone & internet at my house. I'll check again.

It looks like I could buy a claro phone with 10Gb of data for 1000 pesos which has very decent internet for my chatty, low data usage.
How do you receive internet? DSL? 3/4G? Banda Ancha? Flybox? What kind of plan/bandwidth do you have? What's the max bandwidth?

One thought would be to download the novelas at a time when no one is online, like at night, to be played later instead of streaming.

When I download movies, even numerous at one time, it's when we're sleeping.
 

Jaime809

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Aug 23, 2012
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10gb of data/month is more than enough for work purposes. At 4g speeds, it'll do nicely. Don't think you'll find a 4g phone for $1k, but even 3g is ~3 mb/second, and that's fast enough for VoIP.
 

DRDreamer72

Member
Nov 17, 2014
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I had a similar problem and used a $80 router from amazon to solve it. Netflix and other streaming sites take all the bandwidth that they can grab so you need to setup the router to control the amount of bandwidth.
What I did was to create 2 wireless networks on the router. One for the streaming, one for other stuff. Then allocate limits on bandwidth.
Worked well.
 

zoomzx11

Gold
Jan 21, 2006
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Why not just video tape the novellas for her so you time switch her shows. She may even like watching then commercial free. The last may not work. I video the horrible child like novellas for my wife and she is equally happy commercials or no sitting transfixed with a silly look impervious to her sourroundings. Novella wise I have given up all hope of any changes.*
 

GringoRubio

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Oct 15, 2015
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Re: novelas - It's a neighbor's shared internet and I can't control the neighbors. It's working better today, but still fairly weak.

I figured out that I could get my own. The problem is that claro only services properties that are connected to a street. I'm in an interior lot (safer and quieter).
 
Feb 7, 2007
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Re: novelas - It's a neighbor's shared internet and I can't control the neighbors. It's working better today, but still fairly weak.

I figured out that I could get my own. The problem is that claro only services properties that are connected to a street. I'm in an interior lot (safer and quieter).

You need to find someone in Claro. If you can get a director of local Claro customer service branch, better. If not, try with the techs. If all else fails, are you in SD/ST? Then try Wind Wimax.
 

Bred

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Aug 13, 2006
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On the Gargoyle page: " but don't buy a bare minimum router"

DIR-601 also isn't on the compatibility list.

It IS. I am using it. You need to do a bit of more search - Google is your friend. 32MB RAM and 4 MB flash - is not a minimum at all.
 

Jaime809

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Aug 23, 2012
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It IS. I am using it. You need to do a bit of more search - Google is your friend. 32MB RAM and 4 MB flash - is not a minimum at all.

Never said it wasn't compatible, but there's only 1 DLink router on the compatibility page, the 825. Clearly people have gotten it to work, which is is intriguing. I think I have one stuffed in a box somewhere, with upgraded antennae.

But taking a look at the DIR-825, that has some serious potential. I can plug my 3g backup internet into it when DSL goes down and all my household devices have connectivity again. *That* might be worth googling...