How about the upload speed? Here you will find everything you need to know

When choosing a home internet service, it’s important to find a plan with the speeds you need, as well as download and upload speeds.

The information highway is not a one-way street. It’s more like a four-lane, busy highway on one side (downloads) and a two-lane, low-traffic road on the other side (uploads). While this road is certainly less traveled, you may find it difficult to get around the internet if it closes.

What do you use these upload speeds for? And What is a good upload speed for your home?? You can find the answers below. You can find more WiFi tips here The best place to put your router to speed up your internetand our tips for them best wireless routersThe best mesh routers and the best WiFi extenders.

Of course, download speeds are most important

Almost everything we use the internet for depends on download speed. You probably don’t think about it when you stream the latest version House of the Dragon Episode or online shopping for one new iPhone case, but this activity involves downloading data from the Internet.

What determines how quickly and easily you can download this data – i.e. how well it does Streaming Quality is how quickly the website and images load – your download speed.

The faster your speed, the better your experience is likely to be. Speeds of 100 Mbps and higher are often sufficient download speeds, but what constitutes a “good” download speed varies depending on the household and the number of devices connected.

But fast internet upload speeds will come in handy

I bet you Really Don’t think about it when you post your cat’s seventh video on Instagram today (go ahead!), or when you’re logged in zoom for a meeting, but both everyday activities involve uploading data to the Internet.

Also consider this: If you’re looking for House of the Dragon HBO MaxYou enter data and send it to the Internet – this is an upload. When typing “new iPhone case” Type in the search bar and press Enter. You upload data. When someone “likes” your cat video (it’s possible it was me), they upload data. Admittedly, you don’t need particularly high upload speeds for this, but you’ll still be using the upload side of your connection.

Here are some other ways we use upload speed:

• Video chats via Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, etc.
• Play online
• Submitting work or homework and working and learning from home in general
• Voice over IP calls
• Post on social media

What determines how quickly and easily you can complete these tasks? You guessed it: your upload speeds. When it comes to your upload speed, again, faster is better, but you can also get by with upload speeds that are slower than your download speed.

The FCC defines 20 Mbps and above as broadband

For nearly a decade, the FCC considered upload speeds of 3 Mbps and above broadband. However, recently the FCC updated its broadband definition to 100 Mbps for downloads and 20 Mbps for uploads. I would recommend upload speeds of more than 20 Mbps where available, especially if there are multiple people in your household working or studying from home.

Still, 20 Mbps should be enough to meet most minimum requirements for applications like Skype and Zoom. Skype recommends at least 100 kbps for calls and 512 kbps for group video chats with seven or more people. Zoom is a bit more demanding, requiring an upload speed of at least 600 Kbps for 1:1 video calls and 3.8 Mbps for 1080p HD video group calls.

Keep in mind that these are minimum speed requirements for a single device. Therefore, you will likely benefit from much faster speeds.

How to find out your internet upload speed

A good speed test gives you an idea of ​​your upload speed. Run a few speed tests with different devices in different locations around your home to get an overall impression of your connection’s upload speed performance.

If your upload speed is slower than you think, check out our list of common speed performance issues and how to fix them. And for more tips on how to improve not just your internet connection, but everything that keeps your home running, be sure to check out our CNET Home Tips section.