Cable Cord cutting.. alternatives/ideas? Speed Choices?

[kjvmartin]

I've decided to start using Google Photos and iCloud as a secondary backup to my Apple Time Capsule/Apple Photos.

This has led me to realize that my Internet upload speed at home is horrendous. I'm paying my cable provider $54 per month for 15mbps down and 1mbps upload speeds. I have never had any issues running Netflix/iTunes movies. I do not subscribe to cable television.

We have about 60 gigabytes of photos and videos. I want to upload this to my iCloud and my wife's Google Photos. This may take *years* at the rate it seems to be going. As an alternative, I could sit at my local library where it seems to run much faster, but I'm not sure I'll have the time to do that. I can't find any other Internet providers that give service to my zip code. I've checked AT&T and Verizon, Google, etc.

I have the following options:

$54 goes up to $74/month for 35mb/down and 2mb/up. $20/month to go from 1 to 2 megs upstream seems kind of weak.

$54 goes up to $89/month for 75mb/down and 5mb/up. $35/month to go from 1 to 5 megs upstream seems... not as weak?

Are either of these plans going to really make my life that much better? They have a 150down/10up plan as well, I didn't even ask how much it costs. They are pricing their plans so you only have to spend about $10 more to cable Cable TV service.

[nordlead]

If you have 60GB of pictures and a 1Mbps upload link it will take (under optimal conditions) ~5.98 days. We'll call it 6-7 days.

A 5Mbps is 5x as fast, so it'll be close to 1.5 days, but that is assuming that the service (google drive, icloud, etc...) allows you to run at 5Mbps upload for long periods of time.

You don't seem to need the extra download speed, so personally, I'd just kick off the uploads and forget about it for a few days. If you find you run into this problem more often, then I'd switch to something faster. Business lines are also an option and tend to have faster upload speeds available.

EDIT: since you want to upload to two different spots, it will take 2 weeks, not 1 week

[JDot]

btw make sure you have the proper modem (which needs to be compatible with your service provider) and router to take advantage of any extra speed. This stuff should be easy to figure out with a little digging. BTW- I recommend buying a modem for $60 or so rather than renting a crappy one from your provider.

[Jamieson22]

I have comcast blast! service and get 60Mbps down and 15Mbps up. It is bundled with TV so hard to do direct price compare but I'd say on par with what you are paying. For $10 a month I could upgrade to get 105Mbps down and 20Mbps up.

15/1 for $54 is criminal.

[archii]

Yes, that's very high $ for a 15/1 connection.
We live in a small town in colorado, and charter cable gives us 60/3 for 59.99 mo.
Who is your cable provider? There must be other options... This is why I worry about consolidation of the cable broadband providers - they see the writing on the wall with people moving toward streaming, and they will certainly fight tooth and nail to try to maintain the oligolopy to keep their ridiculous profit levels.

[mmmodem]

You're not going to be uploading 60 gb everyday. Once the initial back up is complete, it will just update changes. If you have no issues with your current download speeds, upgrading will only decrease your misery from the initial 6 days to something shorter. And then you will be saddled with higher internet costs. You will perpetually pay for a higher speed that you don't need unless you change to another cloud storage solution.

[kjvmartin]

I'm with Brighthouse Cable.

It turns out AT&T Uverse does have some options in the area now, but they are front loaded with a bunch of installation charges/fees. They don't publish their upstream speeds and I've read online that they are quite slow for what you pay. I'm researching this a bit further. They offer $59 a month for a 45/meg plan and their phone support says it's 6 meg upstream. With fees it looks like a real price of about $80 a month + installation of $100. I'm considering trying to leverage bright house into a better deal by threatening to leave.

I realize this is ideally two weeks of time, but I move around a lot.. and I can't always tie up the broadband. I take my computer on the road for work (where I use a hotspot, so I can't use that for uploading). While I'm doing the upload at home, the Netflix or Prime TV gets fuzzy/buffers etc. We can't get webpages to load in reasonable time frames.

Mike

[DSInvestor]

I realize this is ideally two weeks of time, but I move around a lot.. and I can't always tie up the broadband. I take my computer on the road for work (where I use a hotspot, so I can't use that for uploading). While I'm doing the upload at home, the Netflix or Prime TV gets fuzzy/buffers etc. We can't get webpages to load in reasonable time frames.

Mike

What about doing the uploads overnight only when nobody else is using the internet? Our iPads and iPhones backup to iCloud so we charge up overnight so it doesn't impact internet performance for web/netflix/hulu/Amazon Instant Video etc.

[rxtra8]

If interested, you can test your upload/download speeds to see if you are getting what you paid for; this is very simple.
Site: Speedtest.net All you do is click "Begin Test" I do not see any negatives, just only click on Begin Test.
I get 30.33 download and 25.60 on upload; Verizon Fios

[kjvmartin]

I will do that for now, but I discovered a deal through ATT Uverse offering me 45 down/6 upload including a basic cable TV package for $66 per month all inclusive. There is a $100 installation fee, but they are giving out a free year of Amazon Prime ($99) for signing up, so that's a wash. Anyone have any insight about ATT Uverse? I'm largely unfamiliar.

For $13 more per month I am getting 3x the download and 6x the upload speed plus some basic cable channels. I don't really care for the TV service - I'm mostly streaming and otherwise have a good antenna, but I assume it can't hurt to have that as well for the first year promo.

Mike

[nordlead]

While I'm doing the upload at home, the Netflix or Prime TV gets fuzzy/buffers etc. We can't get webpages to load in reasonable time frames.
Mike

This can easily be resolved by setting a decent router (not anything the cable company provided) with a quality of service setting giving every device a minimum upload speed of 100Kbps (or 1/1th of the upload speed). I do this myself when I'm backing up multi GB files so the phone stays on and the wife can use the electronics.

Even with the 6Mbps you'll have problems if the upload is using 100% of the bandwidth, it'll just be done in a handful of days instead of a week or two.

[DSInvestor]

I will do that for now, but I discovered a deal through ATT Uverse offering me 45 down/6 upload including a basic cable TV package for $66 per month all inclusive. There is a $100 installation fee, but they are giving out a free year of Amazon Prime ($99) for signing up, so that's a wash. Anyone have any insight about ATT Uverse? I'm largely unfamiliar.

My mom has U-Verse and I think they're awful. They cannot seem to get their billing right. My mom was supposed to get an introductory discount price and it didn't show on the invoice. We'd call, they'd apologize and issue a credit. Same problem the next month, so we call again, they apologize and issue a credit, then promise to fix it so it doesn't happen again. We had to call for 4-5 months in a row because they just couldn't get it right. They wear you down. After the promotional price went away, the price skyrocketed to about $175/month for U200. We called, and they offered a discounted price on a higher plan (U300 for about $120 which came with tennis channel, showtime and faster internet). This is the game you have to play with them.

I have comcast internet blast at my home which gives me about 100Mbps download and 10+Mbps upload. I pay an introductory price $29.99/month good for 12 months, then I think it jumps to about $60 (I can't remember). I'll probably downgrade the plan once the intro price expires.

[kjvmartin]

While I'm doing the upload at home, the Netflix or Prime TV gets fuzzy/buffers etc. We can't get webpages to load in reasonable time frames.
Mike

This can easily be resolved by setting a decent router (not anything the cable company provided) with a quality of service setting giving every device a minimum upload speed of 100Kbps (or 1/1th of the upload speed). I do this myself when I'm backing up multi GB files so the phone stays on and the wife can use the electronics.

Even with the 6Mbps you'll have problems if the upload is using 100% of the bandwidth, it'll just be done in a handful of days instead of a week or two.

I do have an Airport Time Capsule. My understanding was this was a pretty good router?

I'm getting a bit jealous of everyone with these awesome Comcast plans available!

[Andymoler58]

I cut it back in January and switched to Sling TV and am very happy. I just have to go to the bar to watch the NBA finals but that's ok.

[fredjohnson]

We have a 65 mbs down and 7 mbs up speed right now for $55 a month. A good router will help maximize speed. Spend at least $200 for a decent one. We don't have 60 GB of photo's but we use Crash Plan to back up all computers and devices continuously, so there must be 300-500 GB of info backed up to the cloud on 4 computers in our house. It does incremental backups continuously while you are on your computer. The web speed we have is so fast we don't even notice the backups. We can also be watching a couple of netflix movies at the same time and have our iPads going and still no noticeable lag in our devices.

[sunny_socal]

I live in San Diego, in an area where Cox has a monopoly on the market. I don't even know what "package" I have, or what the speed is - all I know is that I have only internet, at the lowest possible speed. (I just went to their website to look - it's deliberately obfuscated, the real prices and speeds are nowhere to be found.) It's still $50/month and it's fast enough for netflix.

You could call your company and 'upgrade' to the lightning fast option. Upload all your files. Then call them back and say "I changed my mind, I want my old package back." Done! (Don't feel bad - these telcos do it all the time behind your back.)

EDIT: I'm sorry I even posted in this thread. I logged into my Cox account and attempted to view "My Connection" and every customer support related web page is down. It's soooo very typical of Cox. The only good thing I can say about them is that their internet connection is stable.

[Boomer01]

I cut it back in January and switched to Sling TV and am very happy. I just have to go to the bar to watch the NBA finals but that's ok.

You should be able to pick up ABC and the rest of the basic channels over the air with an antenna.

[wfrobinette]

If you have 60GB of pictures and a 1Mbps upload link it will take (under optimal conditions) ~5.98 days. We'll call it 6-7 days.

A 5Mbps is 5x as fast, so it'll be close to 1.5 days, but that is assuming that the service (google drive, icloud, etc...) allows you to run at 5Mbps upload for long periods of time.

You don't seem to need the extra download speed, so personally, I'd just kick off the uploads and forget about it for a few days. If you find you run into this problem more often, then I'd switch to something faster. Business lines are also an option and tend to have faster upload speeds available.

EDIT: since you want to upload to two different spots, it will take 2 weeks, not 1 week

I did my first crash plan backup on a DSL 3mb/750k up on an off hour 11PM to 7 AM schedule it it took 7+ weeks. Thankfully I'm now 20/5MB

[Pajamas]

It is probably not worth the extra money for the upload speed since the difference is not significant except in percentage terms.

Have you checked your actual speed?

http://www.speedtest.net/

[watchnerd]

What's the upload cap?

I got nailed last December for overage charges for surpassing my upload cap of 3 GB/month.

[patrick]

If you have 60GB of pictures and a 1Mbps upload link it will take (under optimal conditions) ~5.98 days. We'll call it 6-7 days.

A 5Mbps is 5x as fast, so it'll be close to 1.5 days, but that is assuming that the service (google drive, icloud, etc...) allows you to run at 5Mbps upload for long periods of time.

You don't seem to need the extra download speed, so personally, I'd just kick off the uploads and forget about it for a few days. If you find you run into this problem more often, then I'd switch to something faster. Business lines are also an option and tend to have faster upload speeds available.

EDIT: since you want to upload to two different spots, it will take 2 weeks, not 1 week

It may well be that the connection is slower than the advertisted speed. However, taking the calculation a bit further and dividing by .0288 mbps, we come out with 208 days or about 7 months to upload 60GB using a 28.8 dialup modem!

[patrick]

I'm with Brighthouse Cable.

It turns out AT&T Uverse does have some options in the area now, but they are front loaded with a bunch of installation charges/fees. They don't publish their upstream speeds and I've read online that they are quite slow for what you pay. I'm researching this a bit further. They offer $59 a month for a 45/meg plan and their phone support says it's 6 meg upstream. With fees it looks like a real price of about $80 a month + installation of $100. I'm considering trying to leverage bright house into a better deal by threatening to leave.

I realize this is ideally two weeks of time, but I move around a lot.. and I can't always tie up the broadband. I take my computer on the road for work (where I use a hotspot, so I can't use that for uploading). While I'm doing the upload at home, the Netflix or Prime TV gets fuzzy/buffers etc. We can't get webpages to load in reasonable time frames.

You could use a different computer to upload the data constantly even while you are taking a computer away. Even if you have only one computer that you actually use, perhaps you have an old computer (or three) lying around in the closet somewhere.

In addition to the use of router settings as already mentioned, you may also be able to prevent tying up the connection by using configuration options on the cloud software itself to limit how fast the data is sent.

[LadyGeek]

This thread is now in the Personal Consumer Issues forum (Internet).

[kjvmartin]

We're closing on a house in a couple weeks. I may get the uploads somewhat completed by then. Unfortunately our new house is in the same zip code with the same internet options; however, I'm going to take advantage of the AT&T Uverse 45m/6m plan for the first year and see how it goes after that.

[kazper]

This is probably a stupid question, but why do you need them saved on a cloud based service? Unless this is for a business where your clients will be accessing it or you continually share with family members, friends, etc., I would suggest going the hardware route and buying an external HDD. 60 gigs would be moved over relatively quickly (hours). I'm amazed at how much space you can buy for under $200. I remember my first external HDD was about 150 and had maybe 100 gigs. Now, we're up into the TB stage!

[tainted-meat]

I've not had cable for 6 of the last 7 years. Get a decent internet plan (mine's $30/mo) and a tv antenna. I've found that you really don't miss tv that much anymore. Also, the local pbs station (ket) has some great stuff on it and the nba finals are on abc.

[TomatoTomahto]

Competition works! My son is in his first apartment, and has no need for TV or landline (ie, no bundle). He played Optimum against Verizon and got 50/25 for $50/month with no installation fee. He measured the speed, and got latency of 9ms, throughput of 82/26.

OP, I understand your options are more limited. Rural?

[kenyan]

I faced this problem a little while ago when I decided to backup all of our precious photos/videos online. Like you, I had a 15/1 plan (though I think I tested it out at 20/1). It was definitely a pain. However, it so happened that my provider upgraded the speed eventually without a plan change. I'm now sitting at 50/5 and uploading is much nicer (had to do it again as I needed to rearrange things between different 'clouds').

If you don't have any recurring need for the extra speed after this initial data dump, I'd either avoid the upgrade and bear the pain, or see if there is any ability to upgrade temporarily and then revert the change. Internet plans I've had have been no-contract - a temporary upgrade could be possible.

[kenyan]

This is probably a stupid question, but why do you need them saved on a cloud based service? Unless this is for a business where your clients will be accessing it or you continually share with family members, friends, etc., I would suggest going the hardware route and buying an external HDD. 60 gigs would be moved over relatively quickly (hours). I'm amazed at how much space you can buy for under $200. I remember my first external HDD was about 150 and had maybe 100 gigs. Now, we're up into the TB stage!

Hardware solution is ok, but my biggest fear is what one of my friends experienced recently - fire (or natural disaster, or robbery). Not only do you lose your house, but you could "lose" all of your memories.

[kjvmartin]

Competition works! My son is in his first apartment, and has no need for TV or landline (ie, no bundle). He played Optimum against Verizon and got 50/25 for $50/month with no installation fee. He measured the speed, and got latency of 9ms, throughput of 82/26.

OP, I understand your options are more limited. Rural?

I'm in a large metropolitan area, but each area only seems to have 1 assigned cable provider. The west side suburbs of Detroit get Brighthouse Networks, and the east side gets Comcast and WoW as an alternative. I've checked everywhere and Verizon, Xfinity/Comcast, Charter, and Time Warner are not available in my location.

I called Brighthouse and told them I wanted to cancel because Uverse offered the same price for a much faster package including basic cable TV. They said that Uverse does not do free installation and they wouldn't match prices as a result. They also pointed out how their package was a fixed price and Uverse would certainly go up after one year. These are true statements, but Uverse is offering rebates to cover the cost of installation right now. Brighthouse was not willing to negotiate!

[kjvmartin]

This is probably a stupid question, but why do you need them saved on a cloud based service? Unless this is for a business where your clients will be accessing it or you continually share with family members, friends, etc., I would suggest going the hardware route and buying an external HDD. 60 gigs would be moved over relatively quickly (hours). I'm amazed at how much space you can buy for under $200. I remember my first external HDD was about 150 and had maybe 100 gigs. Now, we're up into the TB stage!

Hardware solution is ok, but my biggest fear is what one of my friends experienced recently - fire (or natural disaster, or robbery). Not only do you lose your house, but you could "lose" all of your memories.

I have that, too. Hard drives fail. My wife is a picture fanatic so I'm making my goal triple redundancy. iCloud photos, Google Photos, and our 1tb Apple Time Capsule does an automatic backup wirelessly every hour when I'm home. I'm paying $3.99 a month for the 200 gigabyte iCloud plan through Apple. I should be good for a long time with that much space, and it stores our original quality DSLR pictures. Google Photos downsizes those.

Also, Google Photos is automatic on her iPhone.. so I can log in and grab all of the pictures and bring them into our Apple ecosystem for safekeeping. iCloud is under my ID, Google Photos is under her Google account. She can also access my iCloud.com to get any full res picture she wants if she wants to show them or order prints. She can do this from any computer, tablet, or phone. It's pretty nice.

Mike