Is this Network activity normal?

[Aidanlockett1]

so my Ethernet cable is kinda shoddy and old, i was watching hulu and when downloading through steam this always happens. I get about 8mbs every spike when downloading on steam. Is this normal? or is it just my Ethernet cable/Router My cable is a CAT5E/Router is Airport Extreme apple, we have my pc, 4 active phones, apple tv, and 2 laptops (apple tv + laptops only have about 2 hours of uptime a day)

[Crunchy Dragon]

Do you have another cable you can test with?

[Aidanlockett1]

Just now, Crunchy Dragon said:

Do you have another cable you can test with?

only my steam link cable which looks very low quality

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, Aidanlockett1 said:

only my steam link cable which looks very low quality

Try with that anyway, and see if there's a difference

[Aidanlockett1]

1 minute ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Try with that anyway, and see if there's a difference

similar but with higher MB spikes

[Aidanlockett1]

Just now, Aidanlockett1 said:

similar but with higher MB spikes

nvm way lower spikes

[Aidanlockett1]

Does anyone know if this is normal network usage

[AresKrieger]

Streaming often downloads chunks of data so it may be normal for hulu, it really depends on the service I could give you a comparison to something like youtube

[Aidanlockett1]

Just now, AresKrieger said:

Streaming often downloads chunks of data so it may be normal for hulu, it really depends on the service I could give you a comparison to something like youtube

ok thanks!

[AresKrieger]

So it peaks and given that youtube is much lower quality hence less data I'd say that is normal

[daysend]

2 hours ago, Aidanlockett1 said:

Does anyone know if this is normal network usage

 

3 hours ago, Aidanlockett1 said:

so my Ethernet cable is kinda shoddy and old, i was watching hulu and when downloading through steam this always happens. I get about 8mbs every spike when downloading on steam. Is this normal? or is it just my Ethernet cable/Router My cable is a CAT5E/Router is Airport Extreme apple, we have my pc, 4 active phones, apple tv, and 2 laptops (apple tv + laptops only have about 2 hours of uptime a day)

Yes, that is completely normal network usage for a non-latency-sensitive application, such as video content. A video doesn't need to load in real time, that would just make it very susceptible to lag, so it sends packets in large groups so slowdowns can be detected and fixed before you need them(it also uses a network protocol that most networks use that prioritizes reliability with a handshaking process) whereas something like an online game might send a lower speed, more constant stream of data so you're getting the updates to your environment that you need in real time. But you don't need so much data because you only need to see the changes from locally stored data(such as those multi-gigabyte game files steam has you download)