The modern home can do everything. Whether it’s competitive or casual gaming, streaming your favorite TV shows and movies, or working from home and taking video conferences. But often many families find that their home networks limit these activities to be mutually exclusive. The demand is high for a sustainable network that can multitask – without a meltdown. Here is how Mercury Fiber can help:
Gaming and Streaming: Two Very Different Demands
Gaming and streaming are very similar in that they require a strong connection, but they rely on different things to be effective.
- Gaming is very latency intensive, meaning that every millisecond counts between your upload and download speeds. Gaming relies on real time interactions as information is communicated between you and the host server.
- Streaming is bandwidth intensive, which requires downloading a lot of data online to watch your favorite shows and movies. Streaming is even more intensive and downloads more data to stream in 4K quality.
When you put these together, real issues begin to arise.
The Collision on Regular Internet
Imagine you are in the middle of an intense match in a competitive video game, or enjoying the immersion of a casual survival game, but someone on your home network decided to start streaming their favorite show in 4K. What happens now? Video game ping spikes, this is a measurement of how much time it takes for your network to communicate with the host server. High ping means more lag for you, and a terrible playing experience.
Now if you are watching your favorite show or movie and vice versa, what happens? Video buffering, dropped frames, and internal server errors can lead to an overall poor viewing experience for anyone.
These issues occur because traditional home networks can’t prioritize traffic effectively. They were not originally designed to multi-task so many high demand tasks all at one time.
How Fiber Handles It Differently
Fiber internet was built for this multi-tasking world we live in. Dedicated fiber lines reduce contention with others in your service area, in other words meaning no traffic throttling during peak hours. Symmetric upload and download speeds guarantee that latency issues would be a thing of the past for video games, allowing for a smooth playing experience.
Fiber Internet’s Secret Weapon: Stability
Speed matters, but for gaming and streaming, not more than stability.
Fiber delivers a low latency, jitter free experience that traditional connections cannot compete with. This means fewer packets lost between you and a host server for gaming, and smooth high resolution viewing for streaming.
Ideal For Households That Multi-Task
The more devices you have online at the same time, the more viable fiber is for you. Benefits extend beyond streaming and gaming. If you work from home, video conferencing becomes much easier and you don’t have to worry about connectivity issues if someone else in your household is a known bandwidth hog.
Tips to Maximize the Experience
To get the most out of your fiber connection:
- Upgrade to gig speed plans if available, especially for large homes
- Use dual-band or tri-band WiFi routers to segment your traffic
- Enable QoS to prioritize real time applications
When to Consider an Upgrade?
If you find regular interruptions due to bandwidth when you are streaming or gaming, Mercury Fiber can upgrade you to our fiber network. Whether you need help choosing the right gear or want a full-home connectivity plan, our team is here to guide you. We’re proud to serve families across Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio.