DSL Question

[cvfd1615]

Hello,

After the last 3 months I've been haggling my phone company to try to get DSL into my area well yesterday they finally agreed to service me. They advised that DSL typically works best at 18,000 Feet from the switch point and that I am 20,2?? feet from the switch point.

I am going to get the 768KBPS Plan for $39.95.

Here is the stipulations they've set:

I come in sign a 1 year contract and they will waive the installation fee and will give me one month of DSL Free. The serviceman will come and install the DSL and will use a Laptop ( theirs ) and I will get to test it and if I feel like I'm happy with the service once the serviceman leaves then I am responsible for the 1 year contract. If I'm not happy with it then they will take it out and I will owe nothing.

How will DSL do being alittle bit farther than the 18,000 feet limit they have?
How is 768KBPS? I'm currently using Dial Up! for the last 10 years ( back in 14.4KBPS days )
When I have this opportunity to test it what should I do to make sure I'm happy with it?
Anything else?

 

[Doh!]

You should be happy w/ much faster web page loading. The 768 is about 75k compared to about 5k/sec you were getting w/ a dial-up connection.
Make sure you do a speed test to see if you're able to download at near 75k/sec.

I don't know where you live but $40/mo for 768 is pretty expensive. Don't you have AT&T/SBC/Yahoo DSL in your area?

 

[cvfd1615]

Hey,

No I don't have anything like that unfortunaly there is only one provider in my area so they can kinda do what they want... But I've been on dial up for sooooo long I'm ready for a change and will be willing to pay for it.

Will 768KBPS stream video, listen to music on line? stuff like that?

 

[radioouman]

It will stream 512 kbps video, which is about the highest quality video that typical news sources use. You'll be able to stream audio without any trouble since most of them are 128 kbps or less.

It will be a huge improvement for you. You will be able to download 1 meg in about 10 seconds. I can't even imagine being on dial-up anymore. I feel like I would have to leave the connection on 24/7 just to get Windows and antivirus updates! haha

 

[JackMDS]

Since you have No other alternative, than what you get is what you get.

Is it better than DialUp? Sure.

The impact of the extra distance depends on the overall quality of the lines. No significant effect if it is a good infrastructure.

Does it worth the cost? It is a personal call.

So relax, and enjoy when it inatalled.

If you want more info. read these pages.

The pages below were written a while ago. Ignore the prices and the Hardware recommendations, stick to the principles.[/i]

Link to: AnandTech - FAQ. Basic Options for Internet Connection Sharing

Link to: AnandTech - FAQ. Hubs, routers, switches, DSL, LANs, WANs...?

Link to: AnandTech - FAQ. What do I need for wireless Networking?
(Ignore the prices in the above link).

The whole thing should look like this.

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.ezlan.net/network/router.jpg

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.ezlan.net/PPPOE.html--->http://www.ezlan.net/network/router.jpg</a>

Optimizing the TCP/IP Stack - [L=http://www.ezlan.net/Internet_Speed.html]http://www.ezlan.net/Internet_Speed
html">DSL PPPOE and Cable/DSL Routers.</a>

 

[frostedflakes]

Hello,

I say go for it, sounds like you really have nothing to lose, except dialup. 😀 Also, shoot me a PM once you test it out with the results. I am in a similar situation -- according to the engineer I talked to, we are ~18k ft from the nearest remote terminal. Supposedly the signal only carries ~15k ft. If you can still get decent speed from 20k ft, though, I may have to start pestering them and see if they'll let us do something similar. I had always figured 15k ft was a conservative distance they probably stick to in order to make sure that even under the worse circumstances, they can guarantee 768kbps to customers. I'd assume as long as the infrastructure is not total crap it can go further.

We actually recently upgraded from dialup to wireless broadband through our cell phone. Bandwidth is similar to slow DSL, and it is a HUGE improvement, so I'm sure you'll be very pleased if you can hit at least 500kbps out there. The only downside is latency is very high (400ms typical), which makes most online gaming impossible. Please do a bandwidth and latency test with your DSL (speedtest.net is a good site for this) and let me know how it does. If it's pretty good we may have to switch. 🙂

Good luck!

 

[cvfd1615]

Hello,

Just a quick update.

Got the DSL installed.

According to DSLreports.com speedtest here are my following speedtest.

Download: 600kbps
Upload: 542kbps
Latency: 70ms

Sound pretty good for the distance?

 

[bruceb]

FYI .. I am in NJ on very old Aerial Sub & Drop Cables and also near the 15K feet distance from the central office
I am able to get 1700KBS Download Speed from Verizon on the DSL connection

 

[xgsound]

Originally posted by: cvfd1615
Hello,

Just a quick update.

Got the DSL installed.

According to DSLreports.com speedtest here are my following speedtest.

Download: 600kbps
Upload: 542kbps
Latency: 70ms

Sound pretty good for the distance?

Sounds like it beats the snot out of the dialup. I just got DSL too and it doesn't take long to get used to the speed.


Jim