Re: Dsl Connection

I'm no expert here, but supposedly the DSL line is a direct unshared
connection to a "central office". Your speed is a function of the distance
from the central office, and the quality of the equipment in between. I was
told that if I wanted to pay for a higher rate line, they could provide it
by upgrading equipment between me and the central office. They have a very
high speed connection, I believe, to the central office, so that isn't a
problem.

LOTS of people throughout our neighborhood went to cable, so there are a lot
of folks sharing the pipe. I had good experience with cable, but the speed
degradation was really noticable at times, when it didn't seem any better
than my old 28k modem. DSL was a good move for me, even given the expense of
the switch.

Gary


----- 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 4:00 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

HTML: hwg-basics mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA