Unlimited / No Throttling?

[Tiny Metal Tube]

Streaming is watching video or listening to music.

Streaming is watching or listening to video or audio online in such a way that it plays as it downloads, as opposed to downloading a file and then playing it back when you might be offline.  You have to be online to stream.

 

[frater secessus]

Honest question: what are people doing that they need actual unlimited data?

Actual examples will help me understand.

 

[Riverman]

Data should be like putting gas in your car... the more you use, the more you pay for.

 

[jimindenver]

Honest question: what are people doing that they need actual unlimited data?

Actual examples will help me understand.

I stream all of my entertainment. Move images back and forth and soon video. I have also had you tubers using my devices for uploads when their service is too weak or had everyone in camp on my hotspots.

 

[Annie W]

Honest question:  what are people doing that they need actual unlimited data?
Actual examples will help me understand.

sorry. - just realized am in wrong thread.
original discussion asked re https://vanlivingforum.com/showthread.php?tid=11128&page=22
#220 for up to 3 hrs. daily. &
why How... to 'stay 100% connected' was mission-critical for work.

 

[John61CT]

Movies & TV series downloads, plus 2-3 others streaming vdo& music, a lot when weather is bad. One wannabe youtuber.

Software & OS install images.

Plus all the usual heavy browsing, youtube email Skyping, social media, and forums of course.

 

[frater secessus]

Sorry, I wasn't clear.  I was referring to this:

I can't skimp on internetas it's how I make a living.

What kind of employment requires unlimited data?  Unless one is a movie reviewer for netflix or something.    I can understand Annie's need for stable internet moreso than an unlimited supply of data.

 

[frater secessus]

Sorry to threadjack for a moment: John61CT your PMs are full so you can't receive any messages.

...back to your regularly scheduled thread.

 

[Tiny Metal Tube]

What kind of employment requires unlimited data?  

Software developer here. Technically I can do my job with just uploading and downloading small text files and datasets, and that would fit very comfortably into 30GB or so... Unfortunately my coworkers insist on doing a lot of screen-sharing, which eats up about the same amount of bandwidth as videoconferencing.  Hours of it a day.

According to my ISP, I currently use 375-600GB a month.  But I also watch a lot of YouTube.

 

[Annie W]

Sorry, I wasn't clear.  I was referring to this:
What kind of employment requires unlimited data?  Unless one is a movie reviewer for netflix or something.   
I can understand Annie's need for stable internet moreso than an unlimited supply of data.

okay, so How... does one maintain "stable internet" in that work?
Asking because on another forum 2 such guys briefly chatted re RTR, (&
of course no explanation as to what RTR :huh: means) so I searched the internet,
which led me thru... dozens of Bob's videos,
which next led me here... to his Forum,
which then had me ask that question in previous response,
which no-one answered either. So then started another! discussion,
which needed to be closed. As made the mistake of combining... 2 topics
which went screwy.... As I explained to mods "I was only trying to save Bob some $" 
which finally also led me to this thread,
which hopefully will net the success... I've now spent 13 agonizing months trying to hunt down. 
(After 7 harmful unrelated entities cost family $45+K !! that only I can recover,
because sweetie has (totally paralyzed) PLS ... so failure is not an option. Understand ?
which btw Can you tell, I DON'T give up.... why? quitters never win, & Winners never quit.
Therefore continuing,
How... does one maintain "stable internet" in that work?

 

[RVTravel]

RTR = Rubber Tramp Rendezvous (get together in summer and winter). Stable internet may require multiple devices on different service providers as jimindenver owns. Some might even go with satellite internet if often remote.

 

[Annie W]

Thanks, & yes learned re the RTR last month. But
first gotta get the situation Stable on PC in site-built house.
Others are doing it successfully, but I'd lose connection
at the worst-possible moment :huh: , & hell breaks lose.
Their remedies for the situation aren't solving it either.
Strange that I never lose connection doing anything else.
Hence my asking...

 

[frater secessus]

Software developer here. Technically I can do my job with just uploading and downloading small text files and datasets, and that would fit very comfortably into 30GB or so.

Right.  Compressed tunnels/proxies, pulling down deltas rather than entire chunks of data.

.. Unfortunately my coworkers insist on doing a lot of screen-sharing, which eats up about the same amount of bandwidth as videoconferencing.  Hours of it a day.

Does the screen sharing tool allow you to adjust framerate, resolution, or color depth?  Or change codec?

I've had great luck ramping down video bandwidth and still having usable results.

According to my ISP, I currently use 375-600GB a month.  But I also watch a lot of YouTube.

Have you played with youtube-dl for extracting YT streams at lesser bandwidth?   I download talking head vids in audio only, and videos with actual visual content at greatly reduced filesize.  Running my sticks/bricks (and van) off a 3G hotspot.



audio:

youtube-dl \
        --audio-format best \
        --external-downloader aria2c --external-downloader-args " --conf-path [redacted] \
        --download-archive [redacted] \
        --no-playlist \
        --continue \
        --restrict-filenames \
        -x $URL

video:

youtube-dl \
        --download-archive [redacted] \
        --external-downloader aria2c --external-downloader-args " --conf-path [redacted]" \
        --format worst \
        --no-playlist \
        --continue \
        --restrict-filenames  ${URL}

If work is paying for the bandwidth then it doesn't matter.  But if you are a contractor it might help with some reduction.

 

[Tiny Metal Tube]

Right.  Compressed tunnels/proxies, pulling down deltas rather than entire chunks of data.

Eh, Visual Studio and TFS kinda abstract all that away so I'm not sure about how that connects behind the scenes... But text is small and easily compressed.

> Does the screen sharing tool allow you to adjust framerate, resolution, or color depth?  Or change codec?

Nope, we use GoToMeeting, which doesn't seem to have a feature like that.  But I could use a third-party tool to limit the bandwidth available to it.  Or just dial into the call and only connect on the computer when I need to see or show something.

> Have you played with youtube-dl for extracting YT streams at lesser bandwidth?   I download talking head vids in audio only, and videos with actual visual content at greatly reduced filesize.  Running my sticks/bricks (and van) off a 3G hotspot.

For legal reasons I'm gonna say I "have a working knowledge of it but would never actually use it". But if I were to do that, it would probably be on a Starbucks Google Fiber wifi hotspot.  Additionally I believe Youtube Red allows you to download youtube videos legally.

> If work is paying for the bandwidth then it doesn't matter.  But if you are a contractor it might help with some reduction.

They are not, but I'm an employee.  It's one of those situations where we don't ask them to pay for it because we'd still pay for it either way, we get to work remotely in exchange, and good remote  jobs are hard to find.

Edit: Multiple quotes seem to format weird. Changed quotes to italics.

 

[John61CT]

@Annie W

But bottom line is a truly bulletproof Internet link would be difficult and expensive, and would be based on multiple wired connections from multiple providers at a static location.

Wireless at a static location is less reliable, moving from place to place **much** less so, and while actually moving impossible.

Wireless reliability will always require redundancy, both multiple providers and double/triple the equipment. Obviously this doubles/triples the costs, both up front and every month.

Also selecting locations to park where they all have towers nearby. This will usually be near population centers.

Weather also comes into the picture.

If very high reliability Internet *and* high bandwidth are really mission-critical to your life, it may be cheaper to select a well-serviced town with low rents and live in a S&B home.

Best to start another thread to continue this I think, they're free

Feel free to quote the above over to that thread if you have specific questions.

 

[jimindenver]

John, you reminded me of a program that could connect multiple hotspots on different services and give you redundancy. It's called Speedify and connects multiple feeds to your computer. It would make it so that should one service drop off another would already be connected to the computer and life goes on smoothly.

In my case with all four networks I would only work in a area that I knew that multiple signals were strong, connect at least two to the computer which would actively be using them both. Should Verizon drop off or more likely become congested, AT&T would already running so you may not even know that Verizon went offline.

 

[frater secessus]

There were routers that used to do that; I seem to recall the term being "multi-homed" or something like that.

 

[frater secessus]

Thanks for your input on this. It helps keep my mollusk brain straight.

Nope, we use GoToMeeting, which doesn't seem to have a feature like that.  But I could use a third-party tool to limit the bandwidth available to it.  Or just dial into the call and only connect on the computer when I need to see or show something.

Something like a TightVNC viewer in 8bit color is surprisingly usable.  Over an SSH tunnel for security; I think the normal windows client is Putty for such things.

I've used it on 2G connections before.  <-- f33r!

 

[John61CT]

Yes many routers offer wired LAN for primary internet then WAN access for automatic fallback redundancy, seamless switchover.

D-Link has a consumer example, DWR-116

That was 4GAS original raison d'être, the free hardware they included in my package featured that.

I believe multi-homed means concurrent usage.

Bonding multiple channels for point-to-point LAN extension is related, usually high-end gear from Cisco et al.

I'd love to see something reasonably priced that would work with SIMs from say ATT and T-Mobile and good frequency bands support for both.

I doubt we'd see that with CDMA support as well.

 

[Tiny Metal Tube]

Something like a TightVNC viewer in 8bit color is surprisingly usable.  Over an SSH tunnel for security; I think the normal windows client is Putty for such things.

I've used it on 2G connections before.  <-- f33r!

I might be able to get them to let me put my main workstation in their server rack... Since I have it in my own server rack here at the house, should go right in.  Then I could VNC or RDP into that from anywhere...  I could join the video meeting from that computer and VNC or RDP into it to control the bandwidth; yeah.