Why You’re Probably Paying For Faster Internet Speeds Than You Use | WSJ


– [Narrator] We’ve all been here. You wanna stream a show,
but when you go to load it, it does this. In the age of high speed internet the circle can be maddening. But before you call your provider know that you’re probably already paying for faster internet speeds
than you actually use. We’ll explain. This is your computer, it
connects to your router. Your router is one of many routers which make up your provider’s network. Your provider’s network
is one of more than 70,000 such networks that make up the internet. When you try to load a video
or type really anything into your browser, your router sends the request on a journey across the internet. Often, it’s the journey
back where things can get a little complicated and crowded. Imagine a network of highways with delivery trucks running across it. Each of these are packets, the basic unit of internet traffic. Some are Amazon, some are Netflix and some might be a photo
you’re e-mailing to your aunt. And they’re all taking different routes based on agreements the
networks have with each other. Your video might be passed
from one network to another until it gets back to you. Or the content provider
might pay a transit provider to carry the request back. Either way, it’s sharing the road with a lot of other content. So there are plenty of places were things can get jammed up. Anytime one network hands
off content to another there’s potential for a traffic jam, which can slow down your video and cause a spinning wheel. The important thing to understand is that you can’t fix
a bottleneck out here by paying your provider for higher speeds within your own network. Your network is only
responsible for this leg of the journey. Paying for faster internet just because you encountered a spinning wheel is kind of like getting a bigger driveway in hopes you’ll get to work faster. So, what does all of this
look like in real life? In real life, these networks are made of millions of miles of fiber and cable running around the world and connecting with each other in big data
centers full of servers. Here’s an actual request for the homepage of a local broadcaster in New Zealand, provided to us by researchers
at The University of Chicago. It starts in Vienna, Virginia, outside of Washington D.C.
with a Verizon Fios user and travels across the
country on Verizon’s network. In California, it connects
to a different network which sends it to Austin, Texas and then back to California. It then gets handed to a transit provider which sends it across the Pacific Ocean to Auckland, New Zealand. It likely takes a similar path back. See all the opportunities
for traffic jams? Other trips have few or even no hand offs. Powerful tech companies like
Google, Netflix and Amazon and content delivery networks
have rolled out thousands of servers spanning the globe to get copies of popular
content closer to you. Smaller sites can rent space
from some of these companies to speed up their journey. Here’s a request for netflix.com that starts in Los Angeles, California. It goes to a server in
Calipatria, California. That’s it. So why do you sometimes
get a spinning wheel when you request content from Netflix or other big tech companies? Well, sometimes their servers can crash and cause an outage, or maybe they took a longer
route that got congested. But the problem could be closer to home. Are you trying to stream video
during peak evening hours? In many networks you’re sharing bandwidth
with your neighbors. Or maybe it’s your WiFi. Maybe you’re leasing an
out of date modem or router from your provider that isn’t capable of receiving the speeds you’re paying for. It might be worth an upgrade. You may also have an interference problem from another device, like
your neighbor’s baby monitor or maybe you’re just too
far away from your router. Or it just could be your own device. Are you using an old laptop or phone, or an outdated streaming box? Your device could be slowing you down. It could help to restart
your modem or router or even invest in a better one. Same for your devices. But a lot is still out of your control. Like if your neighbor’s son is downloading 15 video games one night. Or a traffic jam out in the internet. So next time this happens
and you call your provider, they’ll likely try to sell you more speed for your connection, but now you know better.

Danny Hutson

29 thoughts on “Why You’re Probably Paying For Faster Internet Speeds Than You Use | WSJ

  1. Just watched GAME OF THRONES at a lower bandwidth. Netflix is pretty good at adjusting for various internet speeds on the fly. YouTube and HBO on the other hand, not so much.

  2. According to this video, you should switch to a Dial-Up connection and connect it to a Gigabit router to stream 8k videos without buffering.

  3. Absolutely right! You don't need more bandwidth. You need smarter congestion control for better Internet quality. Check out VirtuLocity Networks.

  4. Solution
    1. Move into a home closer to the content server.
    2. Throw away the baby monitor.
    3. Only use the internet between 2:30AM-4:00AM
    4. Get the newest and best router.
    5. Time for a faster computer.
    Did I miss anything? 🤔😰

  5. Hey! No fair. A.I. wants us to trust it, don't they? Hospitals use it too and nuclear things. Whoa. But it's all good really 🙂

  6. Downloading local files doesn't have this problem. While Wi-Fi might be convenient, but you're better off using wired where possible.

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