Is dial up faster now that everyone is on broadband?

[pete6032]

Question in the title. If everyone is now on broadband internet does that mean that dialup internet is better today than it was 10 years ago? Or no?

 

[lxskllr]

Dialup was always fast for me within the constraints of dialup anyway.

 

[shortylickens]

Not even.
broadband might go from 300 megabit to 100 kilobit but thats still a lot faster than 56 kilobit which never actually connects faster than 53k and in practice only gets real world speeds around 50k.

 

[Zeze]

Ia 56k the limits of dialup?

 

[Red Squirrel]

No, since with dialup, the limit is the last mile. You're never going to get more than dialup speeds because the tech that connects you to the CO is limited to that speed. Also, chances are the bandwidth is going through the same pipe as broadband anyway.

Now if the pipe going to the internet was congested back in the day, ex: you got much lower than 50kbps speeds, then it would be faster (ex: running at full dialup capabilities) since they've since upgraded the pipe and there's more bandwidth available.

 

[TheELF]

No, since with dialup, the limit is the last mile. You're never going to get more than dialup speeds because the tech that connects you to the CO is limited to that speed. Also, chances are the bandwidth is going through the same pipe as broadband anyway.

Now if the pipe going to the internet was congested back in the day, ex: you got much lower than 50kbps speeds, then it would be faster (ex: running at full dialup capabilities) since they've since upgraded the pipe and there's more bandwidth available.

Wut?!Maybe it's the way you saying it but I don't get it.
Dial up is slow because it is 100% analogue, it has to travel as sound and you can only switch from high to low that fast,broadband is 100% digital and you can switch between high and low much faster,DSL is even faster at switching because it uses light instead of electricity.
Switching = zeroes and ones = digital information.

 

[WelshBloke]

Modern content heavy web pages on dial up would be horrific!

 

[Sonikku]

I lived in rural country and didn't get broadband until 2012. Downloading WoW patches at 5 kb a second was NOT fun.

 

[kn51]

Ia 56k the limits of dialup?

Theoretically. But the max was around 53.3 IIRC due to FCC regs.

 

[Spacehead]

Modern content heavy web pages on dial up would be horrific!

Yes, they would.
I used to run several FF add-ons to block pics & content just so i could use the net & go to someone elses house for larger downloads to copy to floppy, CD or thumb drive. I still do some of these things(content blocking) as my "broadband" isn't very broad.

I wonder if there are even any dial-up providers around here anymore? I remember looking a few years ago & the ones i could remember weren't around anymore. Verizon is my phone provider(& my DSL) but they never offered dial-up here.
This is an example of why i looked:
6:12 PM 3/26/2020
down - 110 kilobit/s
up --- 396.4 kilobit/s
ping - 299ms

It seems to be settling now but i've been having issues since the beginning of the year. The above is my slowest since i've been keeping track mid January.

 

[lxskllr]

Is that satellite?

A friend of mine was using toast.net as of 2015, so I guess they're still around.

 

[Spacehead]

Is that satellite?

A friend of mine was using toast.net as of 2015, so I guess they're still around.

<Travis Bickle>You talkin' to me?</Travis Bickle>
If so, that's my slowest DSL speedtest since mid January, when i started having speed issues.

 

[lxskllr]

<Travis Bickle>You talkin' to me?</Travis Bickle>
If so, that's my slowest DSL speedtest since mid January, when i started having speed issues.

Oh, I missed you saying dsl in your op. That's some nasty ping you got there.

 

[brianmanahan]

sense

this post makes none

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Ia 56k the limits of dialup?

Actually, under the best of condition you would likely only get around 53.3 Kilo bits per second. FCC defined operating voltages for equipment on the line talking to the telephone network was a big reason. But the other was simply no one had perfect line conditions between them and the receiving equipment. And it should be noted that a 56K modem using a standard telephone line took up a 64 kbps DS0 channel, which 24 DS0 channels make up a DS1, the Digital Signaling '1' class carrier. The difference between the 64K and the 56K is signaling and control.

Mind you there were other options and many small businesses used this alternative option. It was called ISDN and it would use one or two DS0 channels for the full 64 or 128 kbps bandwidth. Unlike dialup modems, the ISDN equipment was completely digital.

 

[BudAshes]

Question in the title. If everyone is now on broadband internet does that mean that dialup internet is better today than it was 10 years ago? Or no?

Yup, you should cancel your internet service and get an analog line and fire up one of those AOL CD's with a US Robotics modem. Prepare to be blown away.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wut?!Maybe it's the way you saying it but I don't get it.
Dial up is slow because it is 100% analogue, it has to travel as sound and you can only switch from high to low that fast,broadband is 100% digital and you can switch between high and low much faster,DSL is even faster at switching because it uses light instead of electricity.
Switching = zeroes and ones = digital information.

And that's what I said, the last mile is the limit, because of the fact that it's analog and the voice channels are limited to that speed. The system between you and the CO is the limiting factor and not the backbone. So just because there's less people on dialup won't make it faster than it's limit. Unless the backbone back in the day was so congested that you never even got the full capacity of dialup, then now you would get the full capacity as chances are it's upgraded and probably sharing same bandwidth as broadband.

And DSL does not use light, it actually uses sound too but a different spectrum which is why it can share with a phone line. DSL is basically just finding ways to get more out of what is just a single copper pair by modulating it differently. But there's limits to that too, such as how far you are from the CO or if there's any line conditions etc.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Dial up is slow because it is 100% analogue, it has to travel as sound and you can only switch from high to low that fast,broadband is 100% digital and you can switch between high and low much faster,DSL is even faster at switching because it uses light instead of electricity.

LOL. Most un-informed post of the year, sadly.

 

[Noid]

Copper vs. Fiber.
No comparison.

I did telecom installations for 12 years.
( copper is still the only option in some places )

Looking to the sky has it's limits also. ( Sat )

Anyway, this post put a smile on my face.
Ignore the neffers.

I gutted 10's of thousands of pounds of copper from the old switch offices in my area. ( recycled ) Put in new tile floors.. and your ready for contract server space !
( after you drop your dark fiber )

The photo attached was over 15 years ago inside a W/C switch office.
My job this day was to pull one of those out ( on the bottom )

 

[Red Squirrel]

We still have copper everywhere here, but they introduced FTTH a while back to houses with aerial cable feed.

We still have DSLAMs from the early 2000's when they first introduced DSL, it's actually kinda funny seeing the evolution of the tech as you follow the rows of equipment in that room. only 8 customers per card at 1 meg each. Now with the Stingers there's 48 per card if I recall, and speeds up to 20ish megs but you only get that on a good day. When I was on DSL I got around 8, but in reality it was more like 5 actual.

I don't think our copper is going anywhere any time soon though as there's still tons of customers on the DMS and DSL alike.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Get a second wired phone line and look on e?Bay for one of those "shotgun" dual modem thingys
Double the speed!

More serious question is most POTs have gone digital now, can you use an analog modem over a digital phone line?

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'd actually be curious if dialup would work over that. It's technically still POTS it's just that the dial tone is generated locally at your ONT. The fibre coming to your house acts as a transport link for your internet, TV and phone but as far as any device connected to the line is concerned it's still POTS. I can't see why it wouldn't work but I don't know enough about it to say for sure.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

It should work as there are plenty of DS3/OC3 devices out there for the optical long haul to customer prem.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

We still have copper everywhere here, but they introduced FTTH a while back to houses with aerial cable feed.

We still have DSLAMs from the early 2000's when they first introduced DSL, it's actually kinda funny seeing the evolution of the tech as you follow the rows of equipment in that room. only 8 customers per card at 1 meg each. Now with the Stingers there's 48 per card if I recall, and speeds up to 20ish megs but you only get that on a good day. When I was on DSL I got around 8, but in reality it was more like 5 actual.

I don't think our copper is going anywhere any time soon though as there's still tons of customers on the DMS and DSL alike.

It ain't but not because of the customers. American telcos have wanted to get rid of the copper infrastructure in one swoop of a sale to some poor bastard too dumb to know it is a losing game. Much more profit off-facilities and large telcos know it. For instance, before BellSouth managed to get their sorry butts bought by SBC they actually tried to sell their POTS infrastructure and just lease access to it ... just like a CLEC would. And after SBC acquired BellSouth it tried to sell off its IFITL infrastructure and failed, but thankfully they finally got around in 2017? and converted the 1.8 Meg ports to full G ports. The original fiber was reused, but fiber from the lawn pedestals into the homes was needed, but that was cheap, as was the ONT.

And there isn't any way in hell that the FCC is going to allow any national telco to just turn off POTS or the copper-only form of POTS. The telco would have to completely redo the last mile and then some to every stinking customer before they could let copper die.

 

[Red Squirrel]

In my area it's like they WANT to keep the copper going, especially for business. They don't allow businesses to get the new FTTH service since they make way more money if they get them to lease a DS1 or DS3 for less bandwidth. What lot of businesses do is they setup an apartment then they can get the FTTH service in the apartment.

In a way it's good for my job though, we work mostly with the legacy stuff. Any time something new goes in it gets monitored from down south even if it's in our building. The FTTH equipment is like 25 feet away from my desk yet I have no visibility of it other than physical status.