Many internet services boast their speeds or talk about reliability, but how does that translate into a truly good experience? What is is about certain services that can be considered good or bad when everything seems to be a numbers game at face value? To understand what matters beyond advertising speed, here are a few internet service provider details and technical support concepts.
It's About Consistency
No matter how fast your internet may be, it doesn't matter if the service can't hit the target. Your information has to go from the servers, across the internet, and into your computer with accuracy to matter.
You can think of internet as water from a garden hose. The garden hose material, nozzle type, and water intensity all matter when it comes to getting all of the water into a potted plant without splashing.
When the water pressure is too high without a nozzle that can control it, water sprays everywhere. You'll get some water into the pot, but everything in general area will get wet. Internet connections can get just as erratic, but with much bigger consequences.
An internet connection with a lot of errors will manifest as a slow connection. No matter how fast the advertised plan may be, if information is lost in transit, that information has to be sent again. Sending information again is represented as taking longer.
Many websites and internet connections get around this by loading smaller assets first. Assets are your internet content, such as the text of a website or small pictures. A good website will be designed to show a basic information first to accommodate slower connections, but why worry about that? Getting consistent service is more important.
Unfortunately, there is no listing for which companies have consistent connections. It's all up to customers to report issues in a public place, and the differences are based on region more than the company. Companies may have different policies and major settings, but problems such as bad wiring or heavy congestion from serving too many users depends on what area you live in.
What's Do Your Internet Activities Need?
Many problems that lead to slower internet speeds are on a gradual scale, and some users may not notice problems unless the connection becomes so unacceptable that basic like Google.com websites won't load.
Outside of those critical failures, it all depends on what you need to do on the internet. Many issues with errors and delays won't be seen if you're just visiting Facebook, CNN, or checking your email.
If you watch videos on services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, or Hulu, errors manifest as buffering. This means that the videos stops or stutters as you're watching it and must load before continuing.
Videos use a technology called streaming, allowing you to watch videos while downloading small bits at a time instead of downloading one big file to watch when it's done. Constant errors would make a big download slower, but errors during streaming will make those failures noticeable and jarring, since the point of streaming is to create a seamless or real-time experience.
Streaming errors are even more noticeable with live streaming. Video calls, live streaming yourself on Twitch.tv, or playing online games all rely on data to make it to and from a server without interruption.
Contact an internet service provider (ISP), like Solarus, to discuss your internet needs and to find both a good plan and a good maintenance team to keep your connection healthy.
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