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Looking into getting my own internet connection as the place I'm thinking of moving to doesn't cover internet, what metrics should I be looking out for when looking for good service? Like mbps, bandwith, hertz, ping, G, etc, what does that mean? I game about an hour a day, don't download a

whole lot, and spend way too much time on the internet if that helps.

You should ask that grocery store clerk her opinion, and see where it goes from there.

Seriously, it doesn't sound like you need anything amazing, just got with the local providers basic service, and you should be able to upgrade from there if its not pulling its weight. Most providers won't complain about you altering the contract if it means you'll pay them more.

As long as you're not into online gaming, then any basic cable or DSL internet service should do for you. Just be careful about anything that puts a cap on your downloads and charges you for going over. You'd be surprised how much data you can hoover up just by watching por...I mean Youtube videos.

ISPs generally have country specific quirks about them. I couldn't say much about Canadian ones. You should ask someone local about which ones are good. Someone like that grocery store clerk.

At least in the US, it would be very hard to answer this question because it varies enormously by locality - our markets are broken up by providers which have little monopolies on service, so there is very little actual choice; you usually have one good option and a few crappy ones. I am going to give you some very general information but the questions you are asking are very, very local and you need to ask someone who lives close to you.

For download speed, I wouldn't want anything lower than 40 or so Mbps. I myself have 250 but I download an awful lot.

For upload speed, I wouldn't get anything less than 10 Mbps because you don't seem like you need that too much.

You didn't mention a cap, but that's important. I have a 2tb cap and never hit it, but again I download an awful lot. My sister has a 350mb cap, and has 2 kids who consume a lot of media - they tend to hit it a few days before the end of the month, and then have no internet despite paying for it, which is amazing to me. OTOH if you're the only one using it this won't be a problem.

hertz is how you measure CPU clock speed, specifically in gigahertz, today. It's not relevant.

Ping is the speed between you and a server. No matter what package you pick you should have normal ping speeds so again don't worry about this.

G is a kind of wireless protocol. When you use wifi, it comes in different flavors, from older (slower max speed) to newer (faster max speed). It goes from A-B-G-N-ac, but you don't really need to worry about this. I don't usually recommend this but in this case, take whatever modem your ISP gives you and make sure it has built-in wifi.

TLDR try to get a plan that is at least 40/10 with a 400gig cap.

 daedalus wrote:
ISPs generally have country specific quirks about them. I couldn't say much about Canadian ones. You should ask someone local about which ones are good. Someone like that grocery store clerk.

we need closure.

look for mbps starting from 10 megabites

and ping should be less then 200

usually, any unlimited DSL connection with proper speed/price is enough

 daedalus wrote:
You should ask someone local about which ones are good. Someone like that grocery store clerk.

Did I miss something important? I need some backstory.

You did indeed:

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/725270.page#9348240

Now, back on topic here...

Online gaming should run fine from about 8Mbit, which is likely the bottom end of what you'll get. I'd start there and upgrade if you need.

The only other thing you might need to be concerned about is ping time, but I don't think any domestic systems make any promises there.

Causes of link issues can be (caution: may include patronising comments):
--Contention in a busy area: If you have a contention of 50, for instance, you share your main pipe with 50 other customers. The pipe is much larger than just the amount you get, sort of like a 5-lane highway, and you get given the use of up to a lane's-worth of bandwidth. The problem is when more than 5 (or whatever the number is) worth of usage is getting used by those 50 people. If more than a couple of your neighbours are heavy users, you might see slowness. Find out the contention rating for the service, with lower being better.
--Download speeds: If you game, you'll know about initial installs and big patches. Having to sit while the patch downloads takes up gaming time. The bigger the download rate (usually rated in Megabits per second, not MegaBytes per second), the quicker the download goes.
--Upload speeds: Download isn't the only speed to consider, as multi-player games send your actions to the servers, too. Most games only need a bit of speed, so a low upload bandwidth is not usually an issue. But if you host, or do video calls or such, you'll want a bigger upload speed.
--Latency: High ping values cause lag, and lag causes deaths in games. Fibre links are usually the quickest, with copper cabling being next, radio links being pretty laggy, and satellite being really slow. You'll want Pings to the servers around 50 ms or less if you can.
--Download limits: Patches and such chew through limits in no time. Look to get an unlimited package if you can. Otherwise, some providers have a cap-less period during the day. Do your downloads during those times, and they'll not count that against your limit.

Then, there's the router. Try to plug into your router if you can.
Wifi is nice, but latency can jump out when you really don't want it. Get a channel scanner app from your phone's app store to pick a clear channel if you use Wifi.