What's the difference between idle, download, and upload latency?

[JohnJSal]

I used to just measure idle latency, which for my ISP and cell phone plan are typically around 20-29 ms. I figure that's pretty good and I never notice any delays or lag when doing things online. When I had satellite internet, the idle latency was 600+ ms, which was awful and I definitely saw the lag in between every action.

But now I've noticed that my speedtest app (Ookla) also includes download and upload latency, and I'm wondering what exactly these are for and if I need to pay attention to them. For both my ISP and cell phone, these range from 100-200 ms each, which seems high, but as I said, the idle is still around 20 ms, so I don't really notice any lag.

What's the difference between these three, and when does each come into play? My main concerns are simply being able to browse the internet without having to wait 1-2 seconds between each click (like I did with satellite!) and not having lag while playing games online.

Thanks!

 

[johnb35]

https://www.ookla.com/articles/introducing-loaded-latency

It looks like you are using what is called wireless internet (jabwireless-risebroadband) You shouldn't see latancy has bad as satellite but it all depends on your location. What download speed do you have?

 

[JohnJSal]

Thank you! According to that link:

• Download Ping. Latency is measured while the download test is in progress to see how it is affected by download activity on your network, like a household member downloading a large game while you’re trying to work.

So does that mean that download latency doesn't really matter if I'm a single user? If I'm streaming a movie or downloading a big game file (and leaving the PC alone in the meantime), does it not affect anything?

I do have Rise Broadband, which is a wireless internet provider. My download speeds are supposed to be 50 Mbps, but they are consistently around 58 Mbps instead. Upload is supposed to be 5 Mbps, unless they changed that, because I usually get around 17-19 Mbps. Idle latency is usually in the 20s.

I'm definitely happy with it, but I'm considering switching to T-Mobile's home internet service, which is where I started to notice slightly higher download/upload latency (but still low idle latency), so I wanted to make sure these aren't numbers I should be concerned about.

 

[johnb35]

If you can get faster download speed with Tmobile then go for it. I just switched a client to it and they were getting almost 200mbps, of course that all depends on TMobile signal strength where you live. And its simple to setup through the mobile app. I heard they have a trial offer as well. As far as latency speeds go, If you are the only one using it and not downloading or streaming on the pc the your cell phone would get all the speed and vice versa.

As you can see I have gig speed through xfinity and what my latencies are.



So speed to latency doesn't compare.

Not much you can do about the latency but having decent computer specs makes it better. If you were running an old dual core cpu without an SSD or only say 4gb of ram, the latency would seem way worse.

According to your signature, you have a decent pc so I wouldn't worry to much about it.

 

[JohnJSal]

Thanks so much! I just upgraded to a 5G phone, which is what made me consider the switch, because my download speeds on my phone now are 600+ Mbps! That's just insane to me.

I thought maybe I would see that on the home internet service too, but it sounds like maybe that speed will be lower, but perhaps still higher than my current 50 Mbps.

I spoke with a T-Mobile rep earlier and according to him they use separate towers for cell phone service and home internet service, so I may not be seeing the same speeds with the home internet if it's using a totally different tower. But hopefully something similar. I'm okay with 50 Mbps, so anything more than that is a bonus!

I'll probably give it a try since it's so easy to set up (and cancel). I just dread the possibility of having to have my current hardware (the dish) removed by my current ISP and then maybe needing it again. Hopefully they can suspend service for a while without the need to remove the hardware.

 

[beers]

It just measures the connection once it's saturated or throttled, so if you pegged it out to the capacity of your plan then you'd observe higher latency values at that point. Which makes sense when the interface is nearly completely utilized, a lot of the time you'd wait extra milliseconds for your data to traverse the buffer. But, as you indicated, once the traffic contention goes away then it's easily back to mid 20s for response.

Not really unlike a highway and a traffic jam.