[TriLUG] Broadband Speeds

[Jeremy Portzer]

The "dedicated bandwidth" of DSL is marketing bull.  Sure, you have your 
own dedicated line back to the CO (Central Office), unlike cable where 
you are shared with your neighbors immediately.  But once you reach the 
CO, your DSL connection is still shared with your neighbors in whatever 
upstream connection the company uses from there.  There's no such thing 
as non-shared bandwidth in DSL -- for dedicated bandwidth you have to 
pay much more, for a leased line or frame relay.  As you say at the end 
of your comments, cable infrastructure is built to widthstand multiple 
users, and the difference in the "point of sharing" has little 
difference on the outcome.  The result is that cable is a better choice 
IMO because of the ultimately higher speeds.  The 128kb/sec upload rate 
of some DSL offerings is especially pitiful.

--Jeremy

Chris Bullock wrote:
> You have to remember that cable is shared bandwidth, compared to 
> dedicated as with DSL.  Potential speeds of cable are significantly 
> higher than that of DSL.  I have heard that DSL is more reliable but 
> can't make an honest call about that.  Cable is like the days of dial-up 
> when everyone got off work and tried to dial up and got a busy signal.  
> Cable acts the same way, unless the infrastructure is made to withstand 
> a lot of people surfing at the same time.  Depending on the cable 
> provider depends on the speed decrease, hopefully the cable provider has 
> planned for this and the consumer should notice little difference if any.
> --chris
> 
> Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> 
>> Ok, so with respect to speed for TWC, what are the actual download speeds
>> for Cable?  I am at a consistant 160Kb/sec (advertised at 1.5M), how does
>> this compare to the other providers?  I have heard stories of cable
>> getting painfully slow around 5ish when everyone is home and surfing, is
>> that the case here?  How about Upload speed?  Bellsouth DSL gives me
>> roughly 35Kb/s upload.  I am considering the switch, but want to make 
>> sure
>> I am getting as much bang for my buck as possible.
>>
>> TIA.
>> Steve
>>  
>>
> 
> 

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