Cable vs DSL?
- Lucifer
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Cable vs DSL?
Ok, here's what I've got. Right now I'm on a pretty good cable connection. I think I'm the only person in my neighborhood or something like that, I almost always have the best available bandwidth. But you guys have seen the pings out here. Anyway, $46/month.
I've been offered something with 1.0mbs/3.0mbs by AT&T. It's DSL. The upstream looks better than what I've got, but I can't do a real speed test right now without installing Java, apparently. Links to non-java speed tests would be appreciated. Anyway, the service will cost a max of $38/month, and since I"m an existing cable customer of a different company, they've offered me 3 months free. I like the deal, but I want to know all the ramifications before I commit myself to it. (They tried a package deal with phone service, but they just can't beat my voip line. Competitive, finally, but can't beat it)
So what have you guys experienced? The companies involved are Time Warner (with Earthlink as the actual ISP) and AT&T. I used to be an AT&T cable customer and I was very happy with their levels of service, I would expect their DSL service to be the same, so the only real question is whether or not the line itself would be to my advantage. The Speakeasy guys (who don't offer service in my area) tell me that DSL gives better pings (i.e. has lower network latency). Is this true?
I've been offered something with 1.0mbs/3.0mbs by AT&T. It's DSL. The upstream looks better than what I've got, but I can't do a real speed test right now without installing Java, apparently. Links to non-java speed tests would be appreciated. Anyway, the service will cost a max of $38/month, and since I"m an existing cable customer of a different company, they've offered me 3 months free. I like the deal, but I want to know all the ramifications before I commit myself to it. (They tried a package deal with phone service, but they just can't beat my voip line. Competitive, finally, but can't beat it)
So what have you guys experienced? The companies involved are Time Warner (with Earthlink as the actual ISP) and AT&T. I used to be an AT&T cable customer and I was very happy with their levels of service, I would expect their DSL service to be the same, so the only real question is whether or not the line itself would be to my advantage. The Speakeasy guys (who don't offer service in my area) tell me that DSL gives better pings (i.e. has lower network latency). Is this true?
this might do it
http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/
http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/
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My ADSL experiences have been extremely good. The connection trouble I had a while ago, which I blamed on my new provider at first, was tracked to my defective phone outlet at last. Other than that, the connection was extremely stable. No packet loss between me and my ISP, and no ping fluctuations. One downside: my ISP only offers interleaved mode where packets are split and the bits are shuffled around for better error correction, that makes pings 30-40 ms larger than they could be. You should probalby watch for that.
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- skullflame
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I'm also looking for some good info; I'm currently connected through a shared cable connection from Chello/UPC most of the time, and everything but its peak throughput sucks (note about it being shared: there are no other heavy users, and it's consistly bad). OK, say, the tool ping tends to give reasonable results, but 'real' traffic tends to mess up badly, destroying games.
I should have the option of getting my own DSL connection. So, what variables are there, what tends to be the difference between price ranges, if/how can I look for more than theoretical peak throughput without having to investigate too deeply, etc?
Edit: I did manage to get accused of cheating today.
I should have the option of getting my own DSL connection. So, what variables are there, what tends to be the difference between price ranges, if/how can I look for more than theoretical peak throughput without having to investigate too deeply, etc?
Edit: I did manage to get accused of cheating today.
I've had ADSL since 1998, and have only had two problems since
then. One time my modem quit on me, and another time one of
my computers could connect, but not the other. It was something
with the ISP, and they had fixed within an hour.
Running that speed test, just once mind you, came up with this:
Communications 1.9 megabits per second
Storage 229.6 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 4.5 seconds
Subjective rating Great
then. One time my modem quit on me, and another time one of
my computers could connect, but not the other. It was something
with the ISP, and they had fixed within an hour.
Running that speed test, just once mind you, came up with this:
Communications 1.9 megabits per second
Storage 229.6 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 4.5 seconds
Subjective rating Great
- Freewheelin'56
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Communications 2.7 megabits per second
Storage 329.8 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 3.1 seconds
Subjective rating Great
on cable here..
Had Communications > 4 megabits per second on my old cable connection back home though.
Storage 329.8 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 3.1 seconds
Subjective rating Great
on cable here..
Had Communications > 4 megabits per second on my old cable connection back home though.
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If you're unhappy with this post, please feel free to suck it up and move on.
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- Lucifer
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My run didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, and it didn't include upstream transfer.
Maybe I should just install java and run the one linked from the wiki. I'm going to need a good upstream test anyway when the dsl gets hooked up.
So yeah, we went with it, but I made sure we got an option to back out without penalty early. There will be a penalty later, but I should know pretty quickly if it's going to be better than the cable. What it came down to was that the only way I'd know is if I did a side-by-side comparison, so sometime after Tuesday, I'll do that.
Watch for Lobsters on Crack in the server list and let me know how it does when it appears.
Maybe I should just install java and run the one linked from the wiki. I'm going to need a good upstream test anyway when the dsl gets hooked up.
So yeah, we went with it, but I made sure we got an option to back out without penalty early. There will be a penalty later, but I should know pretty quickly if it's going to be better than the cable. What it came down to was that the only way I'd know is if I did a side-by-side comparison, so sometime after Tuesday, I'll do that.
Watch for Lobsters on Crack in the server list and let me know how it does when it appears.