Speed Overkill: How ISPs Sell You Bandwidth Instead of Performance (+ Bonus Free ISP Monitor Tool)

In this video I demonstrate how ISPs sell you more bandwidth than you actually need, when what you're really looking for is a reliable network which carries your traffic with minimal latency and loss. I dive into the three main factors which make up connection quality (bandwidth, latency and loss), explain why speedtests are almost useless, and show you how to estimate how much bandwidth you actually need.

Finally, I preview Netprobe, a simple and effective tool I wrote for monitoring your internet performance at home (and totally free and open source!)

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[thomasimmanuel]

Very informative. I work for the ISP in my country, and I usually just use speed tests when attending to customers' complaints. I learned something new; now I know how to approach customers' speed-related issues. keep it up

[Verycoolguy]

If u keep this up this channel will be one of the biggest networking/hacking channels in the future. Quality stuff mate!

[juancampos]

Certainly, your videos help me a lot because I'm studying networking but in my city there are not many ISP providers, there may be 2 or 3. Today, I have a 40 Mbps connection and cannot get the maximum download capacity when I try downloading a game such as GTA V, but at least I pay less money than the other ISP I had. With the first ISP I paid like 30 dollars, and they gave me 10 Mbps, now I pay 13–15 dollars for 40 Mbps.

[whatwhat-]

Man, why didn't I stumble upon this channel before. I am subscribed now.😊

[truckerallikatuk]

I have way more down bandwidth than I need, and yet I still bought an upgrade... for more upload. Perils of having a lot of data that needs an offsite backup.

[hesona]

Best computer networking channel, keep it up 💯

[feiwoza]

Great video again -- please do let us know when you have the tutorial for installing probe on docker

[thevivariumforhalfmeasures]

Latency is also a function of the number of hops and fibre optic cable issues.

[scotmaciver]

You sir, are me. If I made a Youtube video. I've been arguing the bandwidth/speed deal but hard with all the 'experts'. 20 year sr network engineer and I have 50mbps. Would have 25 but Xfinity upped all their bottom feeders to 50. I can run production with web services, data pulls, tunnels, etc...over 3k servers on the backend serving up, all on 500mb but ole lady Betty Lou next door needs 1gig?

Gonna carry this video around with me. Just need the first 30 seconds

[KyleWood]

Seems like most of this would apply to a managed circuit that guarantees speed (COR) and includes a SAL. For home internet, don't most contracts state best effort?

[harryjohnson]

Speec vs bandwidth, here's how I expain it to customers.
I sell you a lorry that does 60Mph and carries a million bricks and you're very happy until you find out I sold your neighbour a lorry that does 60Mph but carries 100 million bricks for the same price. Which lorry is faster? They both do the same speed so it must be a capacity difference. It's a very subtle but distinct difference.

[kevvyg]

Quality not quantity….. its all we want 😀

[derickasamani]

If you need guarantees, ask for a business or leased line

[chrisbarnard]

Is there a windows version of Netprobe? I don't know anything about Dockers

[niksatan]

not to self - been there when channel was small

[magneticshrimp]

"fun" fact. In the western world where wholesale bandwidth is cheap, on modern well managed ISP networks, averaging over X customers, delivering 50Mbps/customer costs about the same as delivering 1000Mbps/customer. Bandwidth is a very small part of operational costs for a ISP. So the upsells are almost pure extra profit. And once the base speeds are high enough people dont upgrade that often and now you (as an ISP) are probably spending more on managing different plans (backend systems/sales/support) than you make back on customers ugprading.

So I guess just run everyone at link speed and call it a day!

[EngrDJDebug]

will iperf do the same thing as Netprobe

[notaras]

So how do we monitor the long-term effectiveness of our ISP?

[lazerusmfh]

I have 4 gigabit up/down my local isp is great

[KavorkaDesigns]

I have a bridged router behind the isp modem, i've tried their dns, Google, CF, etc, at random times, dns errors, timeouts, any idea. I have new modem, i tried bridge and not, same affect, even with different modems, same errors, the cables are fine/tested and swapped, there seems to be no reason for the issues, I've done hard resets ip changes etc. any advice?