How Many Devices is Good for 500 Mbps Internet?
Everyone loves to have a fast Internet service provider connection with 500 Mbps (Megabits per second) being considered good but with multiple devices plugged in, you may be wondering how many of them are too many when the speed drops. Based on the information given above, this article will give the appropriate number of devices that should be connected to a 500 Mbps home internet connection.
When it comes to Internet speed, people may ask what is 500 Mbps Internet Speed?
500 Mbps means that the internet download speed is 500 Megabits/second, whereas the upload speed is 50 Megabits/second. They classified it to be a high-speed connection, which is higher than the average internet speed in the United States, which is roughly 100Mbps.
With such a connection, a full HD movie can be downloaded in 36 seconds as well as backing up more than 5GB of data to the cloud in one minute. For this reason, having a 500 Mbps connection will be good for those with many internet-enabled devices and those who require the internet for bandwidth-intensive activities.
However, the bandwidth may appear virtually unlimited and is often hindered by the total number of devices accessing the network. To be more specific, it is high time to consider how much is many in terms of the given context.
Operating System Guidelines for Number of Devices
A rule of thumb is that a connection of 500 Mbps can handle between 15-25 gadgets simultaneously with no worries about speed based on the activities. Here are some tips:
• Based on the given data, it can be seen that Internet-connected devices have different bandwidth capacity needs. Smart lights which might consume even only 10 MBs a day, will be very different from a 4K streaming box which will use more than 25 GB a day.
• If you are using the internet for normal usage such as surfing the internet, sending emails, interacting on social media platforms, listening to music, and other such activities, then up to 15 devices should work just fine. The higher the traffic of high bandwidth uses, the lower the number of devices that can connect to the link without some slowdown.
• It should support no more than 3 high bandwidth services such as Netflix, Online gaming, video conferencing, and many others since this ensures enough bandwidth left for other devices with less demand.
• Always connect wired devices with your router as far as possible always avoid connecting through WiFi. Physical cables are quicker and do not rely on a single router, occupying less amount of public WiFi bandwidth.
• If extending support for more than 20 WiFi devices, consider a more advanced router with additional antennas and wireless-AC/WiFi 6 which enables this router to distribute more WiFi bandwidth to each user.
• Look at the details of your internet subscription offer to see whether it limits the number of devices that one user can connect to the Internet. Some limit speeds if the connections exceed some predefined parameters.
Understanding Device Bandwidth Usage
Each internet appliance does not require the same amount of bandwidth as your internet plan. Light usage devices include:
• Smart lighting, sockets, or sensors (<1 Mbps)
• Voice assistant technologies such as the Alexa embedded in smart speakers (1-3 Mbps).
• Video doorbells, and security cameras — when not streaming video (1–5 Mbps)
• Smart home device control interfaces such as Samsung SmartThings (continuously at less than 1 Mbps).
• Web browsing on a phone or a laptop, which is the most basic internet usage, requires 5-10 Mbps.
On the other hand, heavy bandwidth activities which require constant high throughput include:
• Browsing internet, online gaming, watching HD videos on Netflix, Prime or YouTube (5-10+ Mbps per stream)
• Such as online multiplayer gaming where people compete against one another through a video game. Fortnite, Call of Duty (10–50+ Mbps).
• Real-time video calls through Zoom, skype, facetime, etc (more than 10 Mbps)
• Storing photos, and videos in the cloud (50+ Mbps).
When you have more than one high bandwidth utility at the same time, the available bandwidth is exhausted very fast. This means that if one opts for a higher speed plan, it provides the capability for supporting more devices as well as users at one time.
Here are some helpful tips that can help you cut the amount of bandwidth that is used:
If you find your internet slowing down with your existing devices, try these tips before upgrading your internet speed:
1. Try to be close to the applications that consume the bandwidth when you are not using them - for example, streaming boxes, games, etc are still hitting the internet speed in the background. Shut completely.
2. Facilitate quality controls in applications that Cox Streaming content similar to Netflix to restrict the quality rate. While using SD video, one can use far less data as compared to when he or she is using 4K streams.
3. If you use apps that have a background connection such as iCloud photo sync, then turn off auto-updates and syncing. Only update manually if required to avoid inflicting unnecessary harm.
4. Bypass wifi when streaming your smart TV and media box using an ethernet cable for faster and less interrupted video.
5. Find out which devices have outdated hardware – it is incredible how many modern laptops and phones have slow WiFi chips which can slow down your total WiFi network.
6. With regards to the router settings, there are bandwidth management tools and parental controls which, if the connected device is congesting the network, then limit the internet connection speed of the assigned device.
When it makes sense to change your 500 Mbps internet connection.
More to the contents of the paper, internet usage is found to continually rise over time, especially in homes alongside the advancements in online activities. If the 500 Mbps plan is deemed insufficient for your home’s usage, then the next best bet is to use the option of a gigabit fiber optic internet.
Gigabit plans can offer speeds of up to 1000 Mbps, which allows for faster download and upload speeds. It can support 30-50 connected devices without any problems, but this depends on how these are being used. The plans do sometimes run $20-30 more per month than 500 Mbps packages.
Therefore, for a 500 Mbps home internet connection one should try to have total connected devices below or equal to 20. Always prefer wired over WiFi connections, implement bandwidth throttling, and shift to higher capability gigabit plans if the current plans can no longer handle the usage. Typically, a 500 Mbps connection would suffice most households’ requirements with a little planning.
Ready to upgrade your internet experience? Call us now at +1 844-349-7575 to explore the best Cox Internet plans for your needs!