I’m using 21st century cable in Chicago and I’m maxing out at 100 kilobytes/sec and average between 80-90 kB/sec. I’ve heard much higher speeds are common with other providers anyone want to share their speeds? Considering my max is near my average I’m assuming they’ve put a cap on downloads somewhere down the line.
I have 192K SDSL (with the uplink and downlink channels running at the same speed), and I’ve tested it as being approximately that fast. My wife has 384K SDSL at her office, and sems to be getting all of that as well.
(SDSL is usually used as part of a business service, and you tend to be more able to attain the advertised speeds. It also tends to be more expensive than ADSL. My 192K SDSL costs me $100/month, and my wife’s 384K SDSL - through a different vendor - costs her $200/month.)
Cable is shared, like the funny tv ads they have about it where people attack their neighbors for all being online at the same time & slowing down connections.
DSL is not shared.
My ADSL modem (Bell Canada’s Sympatico “High Speed Edition” service) also averages about 80-90 Kbps.
I’m no expert, but I think that the term “ADSL” does not imply a particular speed. I saw an ad in a computer paper for “2.2 Mbps ADSL”. The price was something like $1000 a month (Canadian). Well, I pay $45/month for my 80-90 Kbps and that’s plenty fast enough for me.
A lot of good material at:
80-90 kbps is pretty damned slow ADSL.
It’s critically dependent on how close you are to your CO, as well as what grade of service you’re willing to shell out for. That site includes stuff which will tell you how close you are to your CO, etc. I’m lucky in that I’m only about a mile from my CO. I’m using PacBell through a non-PacBell ISP, 384/128 ADSL, $49.95 / mo. It generally measures out in the 400’s, and I’ve seen it get 600. The installer told me that I had a good clean line that would support the higher speed services easily if I wanted to spring for them. A matter of luck.
Of course, I can’t get cable modem in my neighborhood. If not too many people pile on to it, cable modem will give you near megabit speeds. I think I’d still go with DSL given the choice anyway.
DSL down the line also has a bottleneck at a certain point, eventually its all shared. A decent cable provider should open more channels as their business grows.
I am on TimeWarner/RoadRunner in Houston Tx and am getting between 2Mbps and 2.6Mbps downstream with upstream speed capped at 510Kbps.
Peace
LIONsob
The poster formerly known as TheLION
I have Roadrunner in Akron/Ohio. How do I know how fast I am downloading/uploading? Sorry if it’s obvious.
An easy way is to goto to Microsoft’s bandwidth test page, reload it a few times and the average you get is probably close to what your max speed is:
http://computingcentral.msn.com/topics/bandwidth/speedtest500.asp
The best way is to download a large file from a fast server during different times of the day, but the MS test seems pretty good, if you have broadband it downloads a 500k file to test speed.
Your kiloBYTES per secord are listed when you download using IE or NS. Networks are measured by kiloBITS per second, but when people usually talk about speed they use kiloBYTES cause it what they usually see. The OP is in kilobytes/sec.
I like the ones here:
HorseloverFat sez:
DSL down the line also has a bottleneck at a certain point, eventually its all shared. A decent cable provider should open more channels as their business grows.
I am curious as to where you are getting your information. Eventually ALL internet connections run into bottlenecks, so are you just pointing out the obvious or are you stating that DSL has a bottleneck similar to that of a cable modem? I say this because it does not.
A cable modem is like the old coax ethernet. Everyone is connected to the same line, so only so much information can go through the line at one time. Packet negotiation goes on between the CO and all the other computers on the same line. DSL however is more like modern ethernet, where each person is connected to the hub individually. This way the only packet negotiation going on is between you and the hub instead of you and 100 other people.
And while I agree that “a decent cable provider whould open more channels” the fact of the matter is that they do not open them as fast as they are used. My GF just ordered cable and the service is only 2 times faster than her old AOL connection (meaning she get 10-20 kb/s. I have DSL and have gotten speeds of 1.5 MB but regularly pull in about 150kb, depending on the site of course. And yes I know each cable provider is different, but would you rather have DSL where you are GUARENTEED at least 100 kb, or cable where they give NO guarentees, at least not any in my area, and your speed depends on other people.
just my 2sense
-N
The shared bandwidth problem is a marketing ploy by DSL providers eager to sell product. They are correct but DSL is also shared, though you never see that in any of the ads. Its shared at the ISP instead of the local node in your neighborhood. The only place you’re not sharing, and the only place your guarantee applies is between you and your ISP.
We can both list cable and DSL horror stories till our fingers go numb, but as it is with all services its your job to find who can deliver the goods and who can’t by provider not by technology.
just go here…and get your patch…very simple
http://www.speedguide.net