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by HaloZero 3312 days ago
I was debating about getting it and curious if it really makes that world a difference? Does a gigbit connection make the internet substantially better?

It's almost double the cost of MonkeyBrains another provider that has a strong net neutrality position, custom service, and etc.
2 comments
pfooti 3312 days ago
I went from ADSL to fiber (both provided by sonic). It is really quite something. The speed is rad (I can't compare it to something like, say 500 mbit, but compared to DSL it's amazing) - I can download a whole steam game or a stupid xcode multi-gigabyte update in a couple of minutes. The latency is also really, really good - my ping times went way down also.

Another thing to think about is that although the upload speed is asymmetric (only 100 Mbit up), it is quite speedy enough for me to run my plex server in a mode that lets me watch my content from wherever.

In any case, I work remote and do a lot of video conferences (hangouts mostly, some skype), and the transition from ADSL to gigabit fiber was huge there, and is definitely the biggest benefit I've seen. My videoconferencing is now pretty solid. Any dropouts or hangups are the fault of the other end of the connection (as far as they can be attributed at least), whereas on DSL I'd get a lot more dropouts.

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wpietri 3312 days ago
My friends with MonkeyBrains grumble about variable bandwidth availability and poor customer service. Sonic has been rock solid for me on both accounts.

Personally, I expect the gigabit connection to make a pretty modest difference for me vs my current ADSL. The main problem it'll solve for me is backups, which take too long to run. It'll also make it much easier to stream audio and video from my home server to other spots when I'm traveling.

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HaloZero 3312 days ago
I will admit, variable bandwidth availability has been painful sometimes. Sometimes I just want to watch a movie and it's like crawl.

Not sure if that's worth an extra $500/year though for gigabit.

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wpietri 3312 days ago
If I'm reading things rightly, it's about $700/year for gigabit. [1] I'm paying something like the same for Sonic's ADSL, so it's a no-brainer for me.

[1] http://hoodline.com/2017/05/sonic-now-offering-gigabit-fiber...

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inferiorhuman 3312 days ago
Yes, Sonic's DSL offerings are quite expensive.
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