Re: Dsl Connection

Adsl, is the flavor of dsl that is winning the race thus far.  It is being
deployed by the majority of the telcos in this country.  This list includes,
but is not limited to Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, Bell South, Bell
Atlantic, etc.

xdsl has it benefits, because your dsl line is a dedicated line.  You have
the customer premise equipment that is connected to the dsl line which is
connected to device called a DSLAM which is located in the telco's central
office.  After the dslam, you have an number of atm switches that route your
traffic to your isp's network.

With a cable connection, you again have your cpe equipment which is
"connects" you to the streets coax network.  This then is connected to what
is called the "head end". From the street to the "head end" is where the
neighborhood is sharing the bandwidth.  As more people get on and start
working, there are more packets being stuffed into the same size pipe.

Price cable is usually cheaper than dsl.

Availablity cable is also usally easier to get.

ADSL technology in general is limited in the distance that the signal can be
maintained.  Generally, an ADSL line will not function properly over 15
thousand feet.  This is because we are running over this country's copper
and between bridge taps and the guage of the copper changing, as well as
other high speed services like isdn in the same copper bundle degrades the
signal.  With all of these variables, it is difficult for the phone company
qualify lines properly.

As for hosting services (e.g. web server, etc), the problem with doing this
with ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) is that.  The technology is
asymmetrical.

What this means is, if you are sitting in your home or your office, and you
click on the link of a site, those packets travel up the small pipe to the
server.  Say that link initiated the dowload of a large file. That would now
be travelling down to your machine on the "large" pipe.

If you are hosting a web server on your lan, reverse that diagram.  Think of
the users.  Their mouse clicks will travel up to your server on the large
pipe, and again if that iniates the dowload of some large file, that will be
travelling down to the users machine over your small pipe.

This is why ADSL was not intended for hosting services.

I just wanted to throw in a couple of more cents.

Craig M.
cmonroe11(at)mediaone.net  (dsl not available in my territory)

----- Original Message -----
From: Shelley Watson <shelleyw(at)home.com>
To: Gary Bonham <Gary(at)BonhamDesigns.com>; <hwg-basics(at)mail.hwg.org>
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2000 7:00 PM
Subject: RE: Dsl Connection


> Folks,
>
> > I was on Cable (@home) for quite awhile, and really
> > noticed the degradation
> > in the evenings and weekends when everyone else was
> > home tying up the
> > bandwidth.
>
> Having to share a "pipe" with a large amount of traffic
> definately has its affect on the cable system's efficiency and
> speed.  It is possible that this is contingent on who manages the
> cable service and how prompt they are on upgrading and adding to
> the system.  So far we have only noticed a couple of very brief
> periods when the transfer rate was noticeably slower - the reason
> why was hard to pin down but it was not during what is commonly
> peak periods.  Other than when upgrading has been happening to
> the mail servers we have not noticed any interruption in the
> service at all.  But! - the customer service end of our service
> could definately use a boost (grin) - no one likes to be on hold
> for 30 minutes while their access is down for some unknown
> reason.    Our service has assured the customers in this area
> that upgrades will continue to happen so that traffic has no or
> minimal effect on speed.
>
> > I get a consistent 700+Kbits bandwidth. I have a
> > fixed IP address, so can host websites at home on my
> > server, and I use a
> > proxy to share the connection between three other
> > computers in the house.
> > @home would not even think about allowing web hosting,
> > no matter what!
>
> There are definate limits to the service, however we have had no
> difficulty with networking our three computers and using one ISP
> account - as for webhosting, well that I'm sure is not available
> in our package :).  As I mentioned DSL was not available to us
> and Telus mentioned that there were no plans to expand the
> service in our area in the near future.  Our cable speed tests
> are consistently in the 650 to 850 kbsp range.  BTW, this is no
> promotion for our cable company - we actually dislike them and
> the tactics that they have used in the past (laugh), however, the
> pricing was very competitive and the package along with transfer
> speed was a big selling feature.  We have had our fair share of
> dropped connections and busy modems - enough to last a lifetime.
>
> I personally think that it is best to look at what options are
> available, what are the benefits, detriments and what is cost
> effective.  Cable, for us, was an alternative given the pricing
> and the overall package and it is sure nice to not tie up phone
> lines in what is consistently a busy household  :)  However, I do
> look forward to whatever else can be offered in our area that
> competes in those areas (speed, package, price).  The aspect of
> satelllite access has some interesting prospects but it's been 2
> years since we first heard of it and nothing has happened so far.
> 'Sides, it's line of sight from the mountain they would be
> using - might not work too well for some of us. :)
>
> When we first acquired the cable access we were not allowed to
> put up a "commercial" website in our available, personal
> webspace.  This has changed and there is no objection at the
> present time, however, if you have a "personal" account you can't
> use a dot com addie unless you URL forward.  Their commercial
> accounts are considerably more expensive.
>
> So, to the original query about liking DSL - I can't personally
> answer that.  As for cable, well we're quite happy with the
> package given it's pricing, speed and the modications we have
> made in order to take the greatest advantage of it.  ISDN was not
> considered given the pricing difference (significant) and other
> than that only regular phone access or cable access was
> available.  Given those choices, cable was the reasonable
> decision.
>
> One question, tho - doesn't large amount of traffic affect DSL
> connections also? - Could the speed difference in your area be
> because of the amount of traffic on the cable as opposed to the
> current amount of traffic on the DSL?
>
> Shelley
>

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