Newbie question about DSL speed / quality?

[mshan]

I am researching the basic Yahoo Verizon DSL package (768/128) for my parents. They live in a single family home (built in the 1970s), approximately 90 miles from NYC. The Yahoo Verizon rep said our dsl source would be from Newark, NY, so I'm guessing we're at least 120 miles from the source.

How will this affect our speeds? (we only have dial up, so anything that is perceptibly faster, and maintains solid constant contact, will be fine with them. They're not gamers and just use the web for web surfing).

 

[theMan]

wait, 120 miles???? are you sure? i know people that are 2 miles from the source and are getting terrible speeds. at 120 miles i would be suprised if you got any speed. the guy must be wrong. go here: http://www.dslreports.com/prequal/distance

that will tell you the distance.

 

[Aquila76]

Originally posted by: mshan
I am researching the basic Yahoo Verizon DSL package (768/128) for my parents. They live in a single family home (built in the 1970s), approximately 90 miles from NYC. The Yahoo Verizon rep said our dsl source would be from Newark, NY, so I'm guessing we're at least 120 miles from the source.

How will this affect our speeds? (we only have dial up, so anything that is perceptibly faster, and maintains solid constant contact, will be fine with them. They're not gamers and just use the web for web surfing).

The 120mi is probably their main connection to the web backbone. The CO's are usually located one or more in each town , at least near me. At 120mi out, you wouldn't even get your modem to synch with the DSL pool, forget any speed of connection!

 

[bluestrobe]

The usual max distance from the dsl server is 15,000 feet of wire, not LOS. Beyond this DSL isn't worth considering. In this area I prefer cable since Qwest DSL is getting raped by the other companies in the area.

 

[Fresh Daemon]

Cable, the more people in your area that use it, peak times you'll experience a slower conenction since you all share it.

It's a misconception that DSL will be any different. They both have a bottleneck, but with DSL it just occurs at a different point. The bottom line is, when the Internet is busy and lots of people are online, it'll be slower. Doesn't matter how you're connected - DSL, cable, dial-up, even T3 (since T3 can't help you if the server on the other end is congested).

 

[daftpunkit]

That representive was probably thinking of the regions like central area or something. Don't know the exact term for it.

Example. I lived in Shelton, CT. The ping would go from my house to the local CO, in shelton, and from there it would go to bridgeport, then NYC, then the place i was pinging, say Yahoo.com, which could be located in LA, so from NYC it would go to the next major center, to the next to the next etc etc all the way to LA.

120miles is too far, way too far for DSL.

 

[raz3000]

I've used SBC Yahoo! DSL for about a year and a half now. I pay $42/month for a 2.5m/416k connection. I must say, reliability is not a problem. The connection never fails and remains at EXACTLY the same speed at all times: day or night, weekends, holidays, weekdays, etc. I get 305 KBps downloads at all times.

Before that I had MSN DSL before they shut it down. That one was 768k.

BTW I live in Chicago and within 5000 feet of CO.

 

[Hacp]

DSL is def better than dial up, even if it is "crippled" 100KBps" speeds.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Fresh Daemon

Cable, the more people in your area that use it, peak times you'll experience a slower conenction since you all share it.

It's a misconception that DSL will be any different. They both have a bottleneck, but with DSL it just occurs at a different point. The bottom line is, when the Internet is busy and lots of people are online, it'll be slower. Doesn't matter how you're connected - DSL, cable, dial-up, even T3 (since T3 can't help you if the server on the other end is congested).

While this is true in theory, the fact is that in the real world cable users suffer a much more noticebale slow downduring peak times.
Yes this can easily be eliminated by the cable company adding more nodes, but they are reluctant to do that because of the significant cost involved.

Since DSL is line feet limited as many others have stated, they are must less likley to become overcrowded. The phone company has no choice but to add more CO's to get more customers. Whereas Cable can just keep adding wire (up to a point obviously) without additional hardware. And they are famous for doing this.