Broadband speed

[MisterEd]

Now, I am not very good with all the technical data etc, could anyone tell me if Voipo would work with this speed ?
Thanks!

First; the 15mb you speak of isn't the speed. That's the bandwidth. Speed is latency. This is a very important fact. You could have 15mb bandwidth, but if the latency is 200ms, then no, voip isn't going to work too well. For what it's worth, I've used voip internet phone service on "DIAL-UP" service and it worked fine.

Now, when dealing with true data, such as file transfers, downloading, etc... the bandwidth is the key. While the bandwidth itself isn't speed, the more bandwidth you have, the more data you can process at one time, thus the faster you can go from beginning to end. Voice on the other hand is LIVE. If it takes you 15 seconds to speak a paragraph, then it takes the same amount of time to get that message across whether you have 15mb bandwidth on cable or 1.5mb on DSL. Basically; if you weren't doing any other computer work, and just talking on the phone, then 1.5mb DSL is more than enough. It's better to have more bandwidth so you can do other things at the same times.

But it's the latency, and more important "Jitter" (The Difference between the low and high in latency), that is the biggest factor in successful or poor quality voip. But to answer the question, the 15mb is more than enough. Assuming you have less than 150ms of latency. That's usually the high end when voip starts having problems. Remember; you're talking. Not sending normal data. You CAN'T RESEND a voice packet. The conversation has already moved on. And if the latency is too high, you'll end up talking over each other. FWIW: Voip, at it's highest codec level G.711, only uses around 90kb of bandwidth up and down. With g.729 codec, it only uses around 25kb of bandwidth. (That's why it worked fine on dialup). later... mike....

The poster said she or he isn't good with technical data and you gave him or her a pedantic dissertation!

Basic simple answer: It should be perfectly fine. The amount of bandwidth you will be getting is way more than enough and will be at least as good as your previous internet provider and probably more than 90% of other users.

[christcorp]

The poster said she or he isn't good with technical data and you gave him or her a pedantic dissertation!

Basic simple answer: It should be perfectly fine. The amount of bandwidth you will be getting is way more than enough and will be at least as good as your previous internet provider and probably more than 90% of other users.

Sorry; but that's a lame excuse. And no, it wasn't a pedantic dissertation! If a person said they don't know a lot about cars, but wants to know if their car is "Fast Enough" to pull a boat, would you simply say "YES" or "NO". I give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are willing to "learn". If a person has no desire to learn, then I have no respect for them and no desire to comment. They can definitely say they don't want to learn, and they don't have to hear from me.

Here's a great example of why my post was "Necessary". You can get hughesnet or wildblue satellite "High Speed Internet" type service. You see them offered on TV. They have some services available that are 5mb down and 2-3mb up. More than enough bandwidth. But it won't do you very good with VOIP. Why? Because of the "SPEED" (Latency). It can take up to 2 FULL SECONDS for a packet of data to go to the satellite and back. On average, it's around 500ms (half of a second). That's still way too long. Voip will suck. 3g Cellular service is the same thing. You can easily get 2mb down and 1mb up bandwidth. Do it all the time. But the average latency (Speed) is around 180-250ms. That's too much time for voice to work.

Now; if you don't want to learn, have at it. And if the original poster doesn't want to learn and move on to another poster's response, that's cool. Doesn't bother me at all. But ignorance is NOT BLISS, and just because YOU don't want to learn, doesn't mean I won't put the information out there so someone else can learn something if they want to.

[ymhee_bcex]

Mike,

You are one of few people that have both the knowledge and the patience to explain quite complex topics. So, what I am going to say, is with a lot of respect! Most "non-technical" people that ask questions have high-WIIFM threshold for any information. Does the poster care about the difference between speed and bandwidth? If somebody tells me that the unit of measure is megabits per second, my first assumption would also be that he is talking about speed. Moreover, to be pedantic, latency isn't speed, either - it's time!

So, I don't think it's a lame excuse! If I ask whether my car can tow a boat, and a knowledgeable person says "yes" - then I really don't need to know anything else. If that person says "no" - then I want to know what my car is missing. Then I might want to learn more about torque, or horse power - or maybe I just want to know how much would it cost me to by a car that can tow!

In most cases, the response might be "it depends". Then I definitely want to know more... depends on what? On the size of the boat, quality of the road, etc.

Now, let's bring the conversation back to VoIP.

I don't care what you geeks call this thing that ISP advertises! Bandwidth, speed - whatever. If you tell me that 15Mbps is good enough (and obviously, it's way more than enough) - then case closed. If you tell me that it's not enough information - then tell me what additional information you need. Oh, upload speed (I swear, ISP gal called it speed yesterday - but if you want to call it bandwith, who am I to argue!)... it's 786kbps (btw, is it more or less than 15Mbps? - and don't get into explanation between kilo and mega; there is a reason US is still on Imperial measures).

Anyway, what else do you need from me? Latency and jitter? What the heck is that. Oh, never mind - just tell me how to find out? I should go to speedtest.com (see, they also call this bandwidth thingy "speed", but you insist that they are wrong! Maybe it's not them, after all ). Ok, so I got average latency 60ms, and jitter 3ms. Good enough? OK, thanks!

I help my 80-year old dad and his retirement-home neighbors all the time (by the way, most of them barely speak English); so explaining the difference between SIP and Skype is pointless. Also, in my day job I deal with scientists (and before - stock brokers) who are very intelligent - but have no interest in learning about IS (even those who spend 6 hours every day on the computer), just like I have no interest in learning about cars despite driving 20,000 miles every year! In short - remember WIIFM!