cable/dsl/download speeds/connection speed questions

[enhanced08]

this is a few questions all rolled up into one thread.

1. cable is faster than DSL and has more bandwidth but costs more and isn't as reliable, right? this then makes DSL slower with less bandwidth less cost and more reliable. cable speeds can vary durring different hours of the day like dial-up and dsl is more constant, right?

2. which is the one with about the same upload and download speeds, dsl or cable?

3. if a computer connects at 100Kbps thenit can download at a max of about 10KB/s right? if not how fast can it download?

the reason i'm asking is that i'm getting cable from adelphia tomorrow for free (1 month testing in our area and we are the test subjects ) and a friend of mine has DSL. he about at the limit of the DSL (100ft further and he would be too far) and he told me that he has peaked downloading at about 400KB/s i have only ever seen it hit about 95KB/s the few times i was there. i just wanted to compare the 2 services.

thanks!!

[Yuanji]

cable is usually pretty stable. i have had a lot more erratic speeds with DSL since it spiked whenever i used the phone. i have gotten around 700kps dl sped fastest with a 1.5mbps speed cable which isn't the fastest ones. most modern cable providers let you have 3 mbps speeds.

[glc]

1. Not all cable is faster than all DSL. You have to look at what speed plans are offered. Reliability is not really an issue, but cable *is* shared bandwidth - if they oversell their bandwidth, it *can* get slow at peak times.

2. There are no residential plans with symmetric upload and download speeds unless you want to pay through the nose. Again, you have to examine the plans. Most cable these days is anywhere from 1.5mbps to 4mbps down, and 256kbps up. Most DSL is the same up and anywhere from 768kbps to 3mbps down.

3. 100mbps (NOT kbps) is the reported speed of the NIC. The actual speed will be strictly determined by the broadband speed plan, and there are very few that are faster than 4mbps.

4. 95kBps is reasonable for a DSL at the range limit. My DSL is advertised as a 768kbps download and I get 82kBps downloads (max theoretical is 96kBps but there's TCP/IP and PPPoE overhead of about 15%). Advertised 1.5mbps cable will get you about 180kBps downloads. Cable is not range dependent like DSL.

b = bits
B = bytes
8 bits per byte

[enhanced08]

ok, but what i mean is if your on dial-up and connect at 40kbps then you can download atabout 4KB\s right? just move the decimal point to get an estimate of the download speed.

[glc]

That's a close enough estimate if you are math challenged. That's actually the right way to calculate dialup because not only is there 8 bits to a byte, the serial communications protocol has an additional start and stop bit - and with the 15% overhead of PPPoE DSL, this gets you real close too.

[netnamakan]

I have dsl, and downloading i get about 170kbps, its always been like that never
spiked or changed, only thing I don't like is the 6gb per month limit.
but for $25 per month cdn its great.

[enhanced08]

since we will be testing the service i would guess that they will try to push the max speed to us just to see what speed the lines and all will handle. if i'm right (i hope so) then we will be connected at 3mbps about how fast could i download with this? 300KB\s? that doesn't sound right, if my friend has 1.5mbps DSL and can download at a 400 peak and Yuanji can download at 700KB\s with 1.5mbps cable. would that make a 3mbps cable connection able to download at over 1MB\s???

[bailey]

when you get connected, just go to pcpitstop.com and run all the test you want on the speed up and down.

[glc]

Don't necessarily believe the download speed indications you get, especially as reported by IE. Peak is meaningless, you need to look at the average during a sustained download. Speed tests at pcpitstop, dslreports, etc. are a lot more meaningful. A 3mbps cable will download no faster than 375kBps, period, which is 22 megabytes per minute. You have to do math - file size versus elapsed time. You cannot violate the laws of physics, it just doesn't happen. 22 megabytes in one minute is 22/60*8 megabits per second - 2.933, close enough to 3 due to the rounding off.

[enhanced08]

ok, well thanks for clearing that up for me. i knew there was a way to figure out the speeds but i wasn't sure how. thanks.

[Yuanji]

yeah the 700 was a peak. i think i get average 180-240

[shadowbreaker513]

i got 3mb cable and i download consistantly at about 400kbs, occasionally getting 800+. however this is probably because of the mass of splitters at the cable box, a friend of mine has the same cable service, put his directly into the ground line at the cable box and get 6+ megabytes per second download speed