Netflix and Amazon Prime

Yes it is DSL service at the cabin.

What concerns me is if 3 kids are using their devices and maybe watching old shows on youtube or something. And then also someone in theater room using Netflix. But I guess if then everything would slow down…then maybe some of them would cut the devices off??

ATT reps. cause me to lose my mind :smile:

Hi @cabinhost,

I monitor usage here, because I have quite a low limit on the internet line I use for the guest room, and the maximum daily usage that I’ve seen is 5 GB, mostly from young Americans. (They tell me that the US Netflix streaming plan is usable here.) That works out to about 150 GB a month. Of course, some of your guests will use little or no bandwidth. Most of mine use little bandwidth.

Bear in mind that at least some of your guests will already have Netflix, and will be using their plan in your rental. Also, there are other ways of using bandwidth (e.g. video games). So you may not find the bandwidth changes all that much if you make a Netflix plan available to your guests. How many GB per month is your rental currently using? Also, check if your ISP records daily bandwidth usage - that would give you a useful idea of how it fluctuates. (It’s probably possible for you to monitor it yourself, but I don’t know how offhand.) If you can get daily usage estimates, you can pick the maximum daily usage for every month for a few months. If that number is similar from month to month, multiply that number by 30 to get a reasonable estimate of max usage for a month. If it isn’t similar, you could get a reasonable number by throwing out outliers.

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Yes, Netflix allows two simultaneous users. I offer mine to guests, but no-one has yet taken it up, as you say, they have their own accounts.

However, they get quite a shock when they find what a limited choice there is on Netflix Spain!

I second your suggestion of chromecast. It’s been brilliant for us … no more messing about with hdni leads etc.

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I used to receive advertising from another internet provider. But whenever I called they would say that AT&T owns the line so they would not be allowed to install it.

In my area you have to wait for a neighbor to move out and then you fill their slot. I had to go online twice a day and enter the address, until finally it said it was available in my area. Someone must have moved out of the area - freeing up a slot.

I have a feeling the limit is 150 GB per month…but won’t know for sure till I hear back from my partner. I know if you go over the limit, AT&T will send a warning for the first month. But after that then you get charged the second time.

Hi @Artemis,

Are caps something that US ISPs are introducing? Even so, caps or 600 gigs and 1 terabyte are pretty large.

Hi Faheem,
Yes, the caps only started a few months ago. I was pleasantly surprised at how high they were, since I envisioned a much smaller one. I do have one of the more expensive plans though (the highest speed available in the area). Maybe I get a bigger allowance than the less expensive plans. Still, there are not many options here and ATT knows that they can mess with customers and still have our business. Very frustrating.

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In my area, my plan has been capped for over three and half years.

Yuck! But that’s how they edge out old services. I had DSL for years and loved it, but then at my last house when we moved in I applied for service through Earthlink, who I’d been with for 10 years. They told me that the service was connected, but I couldn’t get a signal, any signal. So after sitting on hold for hours, I finally got a guy who explained that I was too far away from the nearest substation. ATT was the only provider who had a closer substation. Since they own the lines, they get to choose what to lease out.

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I suppose wireless internet options are still too expensive to make sense.

Oh…I am sorry - my internet is wireless. DuH!!

You all have to forgive me…I really am clueless with techy talk. Kona - I guess I have wireless then instead of DSL?? Or maybe I have both?? I don’t need to have my computer plugged into the wall.

I am going to jump into this pond, and hope that I do not regret.

Chances are, your internet access to the house is DSL, which comes into your house on a wire. The DSL line is plugged into a modem where the line comes into the house. This modem either has wifi built in, or there is a wireless router attached to that modem which is how your guests connect to the internet. Their signal is in reverse- wireless to the modem, modem to the wires, and then out into that big wide world.

Wireless internet is what you have on your phone and would be hopelessly slow for any real computer work and extremely expensive in comparison. AT&T does offer DSL service in some parts of this country.

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Hi cabin

I know, all this stuff is so confusing. Someone else out there correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure your “wirelessness” has to do with your router, not the type of internet connection you have. We have a “wireless” router, but the internet connection still comes into the house in the form of a cable from the street.

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smtucker and Chloe - okay you two are right. It’s DSL with either wireless router/modem…lol

Hi @cabinhost,

As others have said, it’s unlikely you have wireless internet. It’s either DSL or cable. There’s also fiber optic, but you’d know if you had that.

@cabinhost in Spain we have limited GB that are very small (we pay for the unlimted plan but our host neighbors dont). They experience ‘running out’ all the time, but only have 20GB which is comparable to what a typical iPhone millenial user goes through a month.

We let guests have access to Netflix. There is nothing they can order. Technically they could change our billing info, which is greatnif they want to pay for it. :joy::joy::joy:

We have Chromecast on all our TVs and its great. However, it will still use your GB allocation, as guests will be ‘watching’ the movies via ther own device ans casting to your TV. Honestly, your guests are already streaming Netflix/Hulu/Movies in general via the ipad/notebook pc/laptop they already brought with them. My guess is you will not see a significant bump in GB usage. These guests just want to watch their shows on your Tv.

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Okay!! - So they are using this anyway, but just want to watch it on the big movie screen??

Thank you for clearing that up! So when they watch Netflix on their tablet or laptop…is that in high def? High def uses more GB than standard def…right??

Does it matter the size of the TV or the projector screen they are watching it on? The Directv receivers are high def.

To use Chromecast, you need a reasonably modern TV and something like an HDMI connection, I suppose? I have a fairly elderly but still working CRT Sony Bravia (Sony used to make really good hardware; I wonder if they still do). That would not be usable with these new devices. I’m planning to put in an LCD wall-mounted TV at some point - but it’s not high priority.

Yes, the higher the resolution, the more bandwidth it would use. You should able to get numbers off the net for this.

I have an OLD TV… and it works fine. We have to unplug the satellite to use the Chromecast but the newer ones probably have more ports where that would not be necessary.