Confused looking for guidance

[PEFrost]

I have a lot of experience with traditional genealogy but am new to the DNA side, unfortunately, FTDNA doesn't seem very user friendly to a gpbeginner so I am confused and a bit frustrated trying to understand this, I am male, took a 67 marker Ydna test. Questions
1. I am "predicted" haplogroup I-m253. Why predicted? Will predicted ever become confirmed and how?
2. Someone asked if I knew what I was "downstream" and suggested (since we spring from the same region) that I might be I-p109 or L22. How do I find out? I assume downstream means a subgroup within the haplogroup?
3. I looked at my haplotree and near the top was m170. Below that was something about another test for SnPs that would cost $119. Frankly the only part I understood was there is another test available for yet more money. Obviously don't want to spend more since I don't understand what I already paid for and therefore don't feel I'm getting my money's worth at this point.

Looking for some guidance

Thanks

[MoberlyDrake]

Predicted will not become confirmed unless you spend money for more testing.

However, if your main interest is traditional genealogy, you may at first be interested in whether or not you have any matches who have the surname you would expect from your research, providing you have any matches at all.

If you have matches with the right surname at 37 or 67 markers with genetic distances that are fairly close, you have proven that your paper trail agrees with your DNA. After that, it depends on how deeply you want to delve and how interested you are in ancient population movements.

My Italian father still has no matches at all. Few Italians have tested. On my mother's side, my cousin had close matches, but with an unexpected surname. That may or may not be a problem, because of all kinds of reasons for surname changes and the recent adoption of surnames in some cultures. In my case it eventually led to the fact that my great-grandfather was not the son of my great-great-grandmother's husband, but the son of a neighbor. And 10 years of research down the drain. But it doesn't always work out that way. My cousin had quite a list of close matches with the unexpected surname, not just 1 or 2, and he obviously didn't match anyone with his own surname.

[prairielad]

yDNA testing yDNA12, 25, 37, 67 and 111 test STR markers.
Based on the first 12 markers, FTNDA predicts your basic haplogroup placement.
If they can not confidently predict they will run a backbone test which tests a set number of basic SNPs used to confirm basic haplogroup.

SNP testing is needed to confirm and to place you into your final known subclade branch.
SNP testing should be done only after talking with your haplogroup and or surname project admins. They can suggest the best route to take. May only have to test one SNP for $39USD...

[PEFrost]

Thanks for the responses. This is helpful.