Using T-Mobile for Internet

[PZ]

You guys already know I have slow Internet in my area, and these days I am paying $99.95/month for 20 mbps. I recently discovered a T-Mobile free trial of their Internet so I signed up, not expecting too much. I was delighted when I received it and immediately jumped up to about 80 mbps for $30/month.

In the morning I tried watching Netflix and experienced buffering, so being suspicious I did a speed test on http://speed.cloudflare.com, which reported excellent speed but awful latency and jitter, which explained the buffering issue I had. Turns out that will make gaming, video chatting, and things like that problematic even though download speed is excellent. Too bad for me ... as I write I am downloading a game at 274 mbps.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah you don't notice if a download stalls for a second and then picks back up but while streaming video that would be very noticeable. A slower but more solid connection is better than a fast one that stutters all the time.

[PZ]

Exactly what I was thinking. However, I'm going to lament not having T-Mobile Internet when I do game downloads. Yesterday I downloaded ACIII and it only took about 15 minutes or so.

[PZ]

UPDATE:

My main Internet provider costs me $99.99/month for 20 mbps. The T-Mobile costs $30/month and delivers regularly 60 to nearly 300 mbps depending on the time of day. Unfortunately T-Mobile's latency is so bad, streaming video results in lots of buffering. Although I really do not need two Internet providers, it sure is nice to have that high speed download of T-Mobile, and the stable low latency of the main system.

Using the T-Mobile router I have enjoyed downloading games so fast it is stunning. As example, yesterday I downloaded a trial of Mafia III which was about 30 gb, so I started the download and expected to spend quite a bit of time downloading so I got on my other computer so I would not slow down the download.

I was shocked that as soon as I got the other laptop plugged in, set up, booted, and started browsing, I heard a ding and looked at the gaming rig - the download had already completed!

So the dilemma is, which one do I keep? This morning the answer appeared - keep both of them at the same price of the 20 mbps main service: $99.99.

How can I get both for the same price you ask? The answer is that the 12 mbps service with my first provider is $69.99 and it did streaming perfectly well. I only spent the extra $30.month to get an additional 8 mbps to help the download speed a bit.  Now I have the best of both worlds: streaming on a perfectly reliable service, and amazing speed for downloads (games), all at the same price.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Nice you have the options to get a service that works for you. We had a storm move through this week that cut the power for two days, which for me is no big deal as I have a generator, so I just carry on, but the thing is, once the amplifiers and whatnot on the cable lines go out because their backup batteries have died because the power is out, the cable goes out for me, meaning no phone, no internet, no TV, no streaming, etc. All I have is the antenna TV local channels and whatever games I can play that don't require an internet connection which is a few but becoming less and less it seems.

[PZ]

I'm kind of the same when it comes to the utilities. We have a Honda generator ready at a moment's notice so power is never an issue. Other utilities are not the same - when those go out, it is quite a while until they return.  It is -10F at 10am, and we're looking out at a frigid landscape, bright and sunny. I'm going to keep the T=mobile thing after all even though my wife said it is not needed (I need to download new games) 

I put  a NAS together containing four 14gb drives. With the NAS came bundled software, one of which is called Plex which I use to deliver all my ripped movies and TV series on a platform that looks and behaves much like Netflix. I think I have enough to watch for at least a couple of years, as long as nothing happens to my generator  ;Das my generator keeps running.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Oh yeah I've heard of people using Plex for a personal video server. Of course, you have to acquire the video files, and for some people that means buying DVDs and Blurays and ripping them. For others, it means "other" sources for the video files. Having stuff available when the internet is down is a nice thing though.

[PZ]

Fortunately for me, I already had a couple hundred DVDs in my collection so the source for the mp4s was not too limited.