dsl speed

[ahopeter]

i just ran the self test...is this fast?
1542KBits and 192.8 KBytes

... thanks

[Mark H]

Thats very fast compared to dial up. My speed is around 3700 kbits, but I have cable internet. Your speed is about what I have at work, which I think is very fast.

Mark H

[ahopeter]

nice, but yours seems crazy fast... hmm maybe i should change to cable too.

[Mark H]

Mine is only crazy fast because my provider doesn't put a cap on the max speed. Most providers have a maximum cap. In case you wonder, my provider is Adelphia Cable.

There is nothing wrong with your speed. It smokes most internet connections out there.

Mark H

[ahopeter]

oh okay... thanks!  but why do they put a cap on the max speeds?  that sounds strange.

[Mark H]

DSL and Cable systems can only handle a certain amount of bandwidth. Bandwidth is analagous to several lanes of highway. If you get too many cars on the highway, it will bog down. Same with an internet backbone. Most providers have a cap, so that more users can get optimum performance at the same time. It is a way of controlling traffic on the provider's backbone.

Mark H

[ahopeter]

interesting... so does that mean that without a cap it could have the adverse affect of being considerably slower in a heavy used area?  

[Mark H]

Very possibly depending on how many people are downloading large files at the same time that are on your node.

Mark H

[query]

That's true of cable - where the bandwidth is pooled and shared.  DSL connections have a fixed bandwidth per node - your speed will not vary according to what your neighbors are doing - unless, of course, they are swamping the upstream routers (which is highly unlikely).

[ahopeter]

i learn something new on this forum everday, thanks.

[Mark H]

I didn't know that about DSL. You learn something new everyday. :)

My mom's DSL is similar in speed to ahopeter's speed.

Mark H

[Chandler]

Cable can be painfully slow in areas where there are a lot of university students in private accomodation.  Many of my friends went with NTL Cable and find that in the evenings the speed drops down considerably.  They also get frequent loss of service for hours at a time.

I went with ADSL, which was more expensive since you have to pay BT for line rental, and then the DSL on top of that, but I get a constant 576Kbps/288Kbps connection.  I can saturate the 576Kbps at any point, it's never less than maximum.  I think it was worth it.

[Mark H]

I'm lucky that I am on Adelphia. In my area, the majority of the population is on Charter Cable. Since there isn't much population in the area of my node, I never see any speed drops with my cable. :)

Mark H

[query]

In many parts of the US, the cable providers are being squeezed quite hard by the low cost of DSL from the Baby Bells (Verizon, SBC, etc.).  That likely will mean one of two things - pay as you go bandwidth for cable service, so the cost can be reduced, or less money put into infrastructure (which will impose a de-facto bandwidth cap for most people).

DSL providers charge more for more bandwidth - a model they're using quite effectively to compete with cable, which is still available more widely than DSL.

[Mark H]

Very true, however, in my case cable is the only option other than dial-up or satellite.

I would give DSL a try if it were available in my area.

Mark H

[Chandler]

Yes, in the UK, if you have the cable in your street, and a little box in the street outside your house then you can get cable internet.

With DSL there's a trigger limit before the exchange is broadband enabled.  There is a slightly amusing story where the population of a small village was 300 residents, but the ADSL trigger level was 500!  Luckily both my home town, and university town have had their exchanges broadband enabled, but my house is right in the suburbs, so we can only get 256Kbps speeds when we get it at home (in the Summer hopefully).  With my university accomodation, my house is in the town centre and so I can get the 512Kbps variant.

[Carskick]

I hear Cox Cable is very fast in Florida, which is what I have and where I live. But mines not quite as fast as some peoples. I do live in a colledge town though, but my speeds don't vary. When I test, I'll get about 1.2mbs, which translates into a download speed of 144KBs. The funny thing is I have no trouble getting to 250KBs when actually downloading any time of the day. So I guess that means I really have a 2mbs connection.