Your Internet Speed

[alkafluence]

Originally posted by clanger


DSL is fundamentally not a dedicated connection. Don't talk about going back to school when you have it wrong. DSL like all false advertising goes through the same backbone as other users. This means there is no dedication because it is all shared at the core station.

I do not wish to get into a flame war here, so here are a few facts:

How can you say that its fundamentally not a dedicated connection?

If you have a static ip and are always connected to the internet, you are by definition a "dedicated" and static connection. However, to clarify what you said- I know what you both mean by "shared bandwidth." With Cable you share with everyone in your local loop - basically your neighborhood, whereas with xDSL you share further up the pipe beyond the DSLAM.

DSL is only a nice option when you are located close to a phone company. This way you can get top speeds like your claiming( usually capped).

No arguments here, I used to live only a block from the CO and had the potential to get a full 1.5 Mbp/s SDSL (that's symmetrical both ways) but it was too expensive, so I settled for 768kbp/s [notice the small b's which indicates bits not bytes]. I consistently got about 150kB/s download from an established FTP connection.

Most companies cap limits on all types of broadband.

This isn't necessarily true, it just depends on what you pay for and when you jumped on the xDSL bandwagon.

Also, DSL can only send about 1.5mb downstream to a user( tiny phonelines prevent more).

This is the max if you live - say right next to the CO such as I did, before I moved out of state. But since 1.5mb/s is the speed of a T1, I have to ask - what home user needs a T1 in their home?

Cable can send around 35 - 40 I believe( not sure because it has been awhile).

I don't know where you pulled these figures from? Maybe the cable core can, but no user connection could ever pull that. The local loop will at most pull 3-4 Mb/s and no user will ever see that due to the sharing on the level it exists for cable architecture.

However, for some benchmarks to compare. Once again with a nice steady FTP connection I have been able to pull in, in excess of 300kB/s (notice the big B for bytes not bits). Yet, there are disadvantages for cable. It is highly unlikely as a home user that you will get a REAL static IP address and your bandwidth will bounce up and down depending on the user load.

So to summarize, they're both shared, just at different levels. If you want to run servers and want guaranteed bandwidth with a steady ping and latency - go DSL. If you're the typical home user and just want bandwidth for say - gaming, go Cable.

To help qualify this: I've gone through 2 different DSL providers (who both went out of business) an ISDN provider and currently have Cable through Roadrunner.

[cphilip]

well wish I had those options but out here in the sticks we got two...dial up at best 28K or Satellite.

Satellite, while not blistering, (60K up and 600+ down) certainly beats that all to heck. Plus the ability to network many computers for all time connected by multiple users it was much better choice for me. Well...only option realy. But if you are chosing on of these then do not go with Starband until their chapter 11 plays out. DirectWay 2 way is the only option right now although it limits you to 300MB per day use or it cuts you back to 56K for the rest of the day. Starband is unlimited but who wants to spend $600 on equipment that might become an expensive bird bath and door stop in a few months. But I can say I do like the service so far. Too bad no one can seem to make money off of it. At least Direct still has Huges corp and now soon Dish Network to prop them up.

[mykroft]

OK, as I am an expert, I'm going to weigh in here.

xDSL is a dedicated connection. It shares the ATM cloud once it hits the CO, just like anything else, but DSL VPI/VCI's are almost always UBR (Unspecified bit rate) so you aren't guaranteed any particular amount of performance. xDSL can reach 6Mbit/s download speeds, and 1.5Mbit/s upload speeds in practice. You have a dedictaed connection into the ATM cloud of your Telco. Home xDSL is usually 1.5MBit/s or 1MBit/s downstream and 64KBit/s to 256KBit/s upstream unless it's IDSL, which is 144KBit/s both ways. SDSL is usually 512KBit/s or 768KBit/s both directions, but is rarely sold to home users. Personally, I have a 3MBit/s down, 768KBit/s upstream corporate ADSL connection to my home (Advantages of working for UUNET/WorldCom). Residential DSL Connections very often oversubscribe available bandwidth into the CO, or QoS Rate Limit the residential connections on their backbone. Sympatico is notorious for this.

Cable is technically capable of ~30MBit/s downstream, and about 1/3 of that upstream. The modems top out a 9MBit down, and you share that total 30MBits with everybody on your local hub. On a busy hub, you can get very poor performance, on an empty hub is silly fast. Rate limiting at 1MBit/s to 3MBit/s down and sub-512KBit/s up is common to reduce congestion problems.


Cable & xDSL are both dedicated connection types, however they are not as stable as a T1 or OC3 due to the poor grade of wiring on the last mile from the CO to your Home. xDSL is probably the better technology, provided you have good copper to the CO and aren't too far away (My DSL is at 5 9's uptime, better than most T1's.)


ISDN is a digital dial technology, with an 8KBit/s D channel for control and 1 or more 64KBit/s B channels for data transfer. While more reliable than analog dial, due to some noise immunity, ity's still dial.

56K Dial is a neato hack of standard Analog Modem technologies and ISDN. It's effectively 64K ISDN downstream (as there is no D channel, you give up 8KBit/s of bandwidth to control signals) and stock 33.6K analog upstream.

T1's are 1.5MBit/s both directions, over a engineered line to the CO (Impedance matched, and tested for noise gives the line it's excellent quality), other than that, it's effectively 23 ISDN B channels, either bonded or channelized (Usually bonded) over 2 pair copper. At the CO it is backhauled, to the CO your ISP connects into, over the same ATM networks DSL or Dial, just with the bandwith guaranteed by ATM Contract. Ditto T3. OC grade circuits are ATM, POS or MPLS circuits all the other ones run over. All the fibre is OC Grade Circuits.

There you go, more detail about connectivity than you'll ever need.

[Coaster]

the only connection i can make with xDSL and ISDN is that IDSL does use ISDN signals...

[Skittle]

*hangs head low*

i have 56k...but, i dont care..sooooo

hey, at least its not aol....

[mikey101]

I can only connect at 28.8k due to living in the mountains...but i've recently ordered ISDN from qwest so thats a plus

[MicrOMag]

Originally posted by headcase


????????

I don't know about everyone else, but my DSL pushed around a meg a min, which is AT LEAST 18 times faster than a 56k connecton. Probably faster since few 56k's actually conncect at 56k, and then there is the added plus of having an always on connection.

I have a Dell computer with cable, listen to this and most of you will cry.


New P4 Chipset at 2.4ghz
512mb ram
80gb hard drive
16x DVD
48x cd burner
Geforce 3 64mb video card
Surround Sound
Optical Mouse
Flat Screen monitor
Net keyboard w/ USB hub built it
Webcam
etc., etc.

and I have cable, I get like 1.5mb a sec. Its nice, my friend is only a p3 550 and lives down a few street and gets 1.8mb per sec.

I'd cry if I had a system like mine and 56gay*

[845]

GO PIE!!!!

[MicrOMag]

Originally posted by FrAuStY


Wrong! DSL stands for Digitally Switch Link (Also called Digital Subscriber Line) Its a DEDICATED (Key word) Connection. Most go about 256k upload spead and 1.5 Mbit Download speed. I don't know where you people do your research and think Cable's faster, or that DSL's no faster than 56k.. but you better go back to school on it. Cables good for one reason, bad for more. That reason is its a loopback style connection meaning upload and download speeds are both about the same. 1.5 mbit up, 1.5mbit down, GRANTED there's no one else on your node (Nodes normally cover about 150 subscribers) If you have 150 people on your cable node..guess what.. your 1.5mbit just went to like 70k LOL I truck along with my ADSL all day long with 700k download and about 120k upload.. thats faster than most peoples average speeds on cable. Anyway I thought I'd clear that up as people seem to have fallen under the BROADBAND herd mentality that AT&T's pounding into your skull. Cable sucks...DSL is better, ADSL over ATM (Which I what I got through bellsouth) it WAYY better!

There's one thing where you're wrong on. I get cable for $30 a month, and get 1.5mb per sec. Friends of mine get even faster, close to 2mb. Granted it might dump to 1mb per second if its loaded *boo whooooo*, but it sure beats paying $300 for DSL that goes 1.5-2mb constantly. I'll take the drop off that rarely happens rather then get screwed. ...and if you're wondering I live close to the city in a populated area, my sister lives in another city and has cable and she gets around the same speeds.


BTW, it was actually more then $300 for a 1.5mb DSL line around me...(i got it off a cnet test, the DSL co.'s website) It was like $300 a month for DSL, 500 for the modem, and 300 installation.


My cable would whoop your connections butt all day long.

[MicrOMag]

Originally posted by RT_Luver
cable here. soon we're gettin a cable modem even better then the one we got right now. I forgot exactly what it is, but its cable but faster then cable.......

digital cable*

[Hexis]

mykroft a few corrections:

Qwest's DSL deployment is up to 7 down 1 up. Tho you would have to be pretty damn close to the CO for that to work.

A T-1 is the equiv of 24 ISDN B channels, you can only use 23 on a PRI since one is used as the D chan. 24x64k = 1.5m.

ISDN BRI (Basic Rate Interface) is 1 8kbit D, and 2 64kbit (some older deployments are 56k, but very rare these days) D channels. Pretty much all ISDN gear supports linking those B Channels for a possible 128kbit/s.

ISDN PRI (Primary Rate Interface) is 23 64kbit B, and 1 64kbit D. It's just 1 form of a T-1. PRIs are usually used for voice, not data.

I like the T-1 and OC3 referance, kinda a large jump in speeds tho, from 1.5 to 155. And for the long haul, OC3s are fiber, where the last mile for a T-1 is copper.

IMHO, the advantace of DSL over Cable is that in some markets you have a choice of ISP over the DSL. I would much rather have a slightly slower line and a clueful ISP that a fast line with AOL service.

[RaventheNinja]

I'm a 56ker, it's awesome, 2 minutes to load a page and everything. However, like my neighbors, we're upgrading to XDSL which is rated around here to go 1.5MB/s *drooooool* that's better than my 1.5k/s right now >: )