Internet Tech Help Please!

[Sweet Pea]

Originally Posted by BoredOutOfMyMind

type "broadband speedtest" in any search engine and you will find about 11 dozen million of pages (ok not THAT many but enough to find one to test bandwidth)

check out sonic.net also.

thanks BOOM. I'll check out this sonic.net... All I knew about sonic is that they have great food and fabulous cherry limeade!

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by Sweet Pea

I have a question... I'm not real savvy about this type of thing. Currently we use broadband cable as our internet connection. Since we don't subscribe to the cable TV service, it seems that we are penalized and pay more for just internet service.

I keep getting advertisements in the mail about A T & T internet service. Their "Elite" plan (best) is less than my broadband connection. It states "up to 6.0 Mbps". (Whatever that means.)

Can someone who has used both tell me if the speed is comparable? I have gotten used to having fast service and would hate to lose that just to save a few dollars.

So........... if you have made the switch from broadband to A T & T - are you happy? Thanks so much for any input!

DSL vs. Cable? We've used both, and when it comes to heavy uploading/downloading, I'd say Cable is faster, but DSL is competent. Certainly DSL is MILES ahead of dial-up, which I can't even tolerate.

So for normal internet usage, you probably won't even be able to tell the difference between Cable and DSL.

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by pelathais

I have used both DSL and Cable- for most practicle purposes they are indistinguishable - at least to me. I use cable at home right now and DSL like connection at work and I have to be doing some heavy downloading to see any difference. If price is a factor- go with the cheaper DSL.

Or...what pelathais said.

[Rico]

The problem with cable internet is that it slows down at different times of the day, depending on how many people are signed on. I don't remember all the details, but I can say that speed is more consistant with DSL than with cable. You really won't notice that much of a difference, though. Your computer is only going to accept so much information at one time, regardless of how fast your connection is.

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by Sweet Pea

I found a site that let me do a download bandwidth test. I did it twice. These are the results. Is this good?

Download speed: 2499 kilobits per second
Test details: 1577 kilobytes downloaded in 5.047 seconds.
Receive buffer size: Not available


Download speed: 2354 kilobits per second
Test details: 3200 kilobytes downloaded in 10.875 seconds.
Receive buffer size: Not available

I am at home now and on Comcast. Here's my test result from 2wire.com

Your current bandwidth reading is
10.82 Mbps

3 Mbps
1.5 Mbps
1 Mbps
768 Kbps
384 Kbps

Your "2354 kilobits per second" puts you almost halfway between the two red values above. That's a pretty cool upgrade to the AT&T network - or I'm dyslectic. Well, I am dyslectic - but that's a great connection - some small businesses don't have that throughput.

That 10.82 for me is probably too high and unreproducible. I just wanted BOOMM to see it (heh!)

This is more realistic. So right now I'm paying around $53 /month for this and the TVLAND channel.

[Sweet Pea]

I just used 2wire and this is what it said


Your current bandwidth reading is

127.66 Mbps
127.66 MbpsYou
3 Mbps
1.5 Mbps
1 Mbps
768 Kbps
384 Kbps



Am I understanding all this correctly? I would say this is quite a bit better than "up to 6.0 Mbps"

[Book 'em Dano]

Originally Posted by Sweet Pea

I found a site that let me do a download bandwidth test. I did it twice. These are the results. Is this good?

Download speed: 2499 kilobits per second
Test details: 1577 kilobytes downloaded in 5.047 seconds.
Receive buffer size: Not available


Download speed: 2354 kilobits per second
Test details: 3200 kilobytes downloaded in 10.875 seconds.
Receive buffer size: Not available

Not for a 4Mbps service

[Book 'em Dano]

Originally Posted by Sweet Pea

I just used 2wire and this is what it said


Your current bandwidth reading is

127.66 Mbps
127.66 MbpsYou
3 Mbps
1.5 Mbps
1 Mbps
768 Kbps
384 Kbps



Am I understanding all this correctly? I would say this is quite a bit better than "up to 6.0 Mbps"

Are you sure it did not say 127.66 kbps?

[Sweet Pea]

Originally Posted by Book 'em Dano

Are you sure it did not say 127.66 kbps?

I "cut & pasted" this straight from their website after it came up because it seemed pretty fast compared to what everyone else was saying. Of course, this was at 5 am so maybe no one else was online.

An update:

I had signed up for the new AT&T U-verse offering but am too far from the switching station for it to work. I did talk to the technician while he was out though.

It actually gives you a dedicated 27 Mbps for your total connection from which it carves out a maximum of 6 Mbps for your internet connection, reserves another 8 Mbps for your high definition television signal, another portion for regular "non-HD" channels, etc. It sounds like a very interesting service and is not the same as DSL although it does come from the phone company (using fiber optic cables for at least part of the connection). The interesting part is that the set-top boxes connect to the central "router" via a cat 5 cable, just like a computer... so this would make the standard RG-59 coax obsolete if it functions as advertised.

I know that I could get a regular DSL line here, but am still not close enough to the switching station to get "U-verse". The MAXIMUM throughput you can get through DSL at this point is 6Mbps, where with cable the potential bandwidth can go much higher. Right now I am getting about 8Mbps on cable but it does go down as low as 4Mbps during "primetime". A standard DSL connection would only be 1.5Mbps which is much better than an analog phone line but not nearly as good as a standard cable connection.