Internet Speeds

[Mr Gates]

This is kind of a random question, but what are the different speeds of internet, what's the fastest, and how much would they cost. I'm not really looking for any specific location, nor am I looking into getting it, I'm just curious to what is available these days.

[Dani]

28.8 kbps = slow dial-up modem
56.6 kbps = fast dial-up modem
dial-up cost = initial price of the modem (about $50) + $20/month for an ISP such as AOL or MSN

Broadband
-------------
DSL Line (leased line)
ISDN Line
T1 Line
Cable Modem (shared line) (the one I have is 10mbps download/1mbps upload)
I only know how much this one is cuz I pay for it. Around $35-$45 / month
T3 Line (niiiiiiice 'n' fast!)

A lot of broadband ISPs don't advertise their speeds because they don't want to be held down to any guarantees in contracts.

A DSL line (over a regular telephone line) is a leased private line to your ISP. This is different from a cable modem where you share the line with others in your neighborhood. This means that the more people in your neighborhood who sign up via the same cable company, the less bandwidth you have.

DSL LINES ARE UPGRADES TO TELEPHONE LINES
CABLE MODEMS RUN OVER STANDARD TV CABLE LINES

kbps = kilobits transferred per second (8 bits = 1 byte)
mbps = megabits transferred per second

Sorry I don't know much more. Hope this helps a bit.

[Mr Gates]

I just upgraded from 28.8 k yesterday to Cable. It's QUITE a change from what I've seen...I went from 3 kbps to 205 kbps downloads. I love it.

I've heard of things capable of speeds 16 GBps, is that true, If so, how much would that baby go for?

[Riker]

there are actually faster speeds than that...google for some info ;)

[unb0und]

in my Cisco Networking book, it talks about SONET(synchronous optical network) that can reach speeds up to 9952Mbps :shock: . the kind of connection is called OC-192, so it's just another type of OC connection. i believer there's a new internet speed record. search the cnn.com site for "internet speed record"

[MuddBuddha]

That kind of connection ( anything in the OC cat ) requires fiber optics. Not only for transmission but integrated into the sending and recieving ends. A lot of military bases are converting toi fiber optic networks as well as most telecom companies. The only draw back for the telecom companies is that they are using fiber to transmit across long streches (say a call placed from Cincinnati to Cheyenne) but are degraded back to standard transmission bandwidth once the signal reaches the hub at the destination point - but someday....
All signal travel at the speed of light - but fiber carries much more badwidth for such a small transmission device - once you peak over 1 gb a sec - you would never personally notice an increase - everything would seem instantaneous

[PantherAHA]

In reality the OC3 (optical) connections that these people speak of are not for home use. The cost of a Fiber optic connection although the fastest connection on the planet is also out of most home users pocket range.
So lets be realistic...

here are your choices as a home user.....

Dial up/ISDN I group these two because they both use telephone lines. The difference
is speed and dedication. Dial up is analog and will produce syncro-
connections of a a wopping 7 kbs....ISDN on the other hand is a digital and
dedicated line. 64 kbs..keep in mind this is Kilo (bits) not bytes, so for actual
speeds devide by 8. 64 devided by 8 = 8 kbs. But it is dedicated and you
can have as many as you like.

DSL This is a nice option for those concerned about dedicated bandwidth. For the
most part the speeds are good, but again since this service is run over the
phone lines any speed you are quoted must be devided by 8. Here is an
example of how you can get ripped off by DSL providers. I will use Verizon
since well I don't like them :D

Line speed promised: 64/1.5 (this is 64kup/1.5 meg down)

Now lets do the math, 64 devided by 8 as we already know is 8kbs. So the
reality of this connection is because of the (just slightly faster then dial up) up
load, it's a pretty crappy DSL connection. A good standard DSL line speed
for the home user would be 768/1.5 or in that range. You will have a much
lower "ping" if your DSL is "A" synconis...same up speed as down for
example......786/786 would produce much lower pings then 786/1.5

Cable Heres where things get confusing, Cable modems are rated in Kilo-bytes, not
not bit's...So if your cable company promises you 500 K throughput, and your
system is configured correctly, bet your bottom dollar thats what you will get.
The problem is the bandwidth is shared. Therefore you and everyone in your
neighborhood that uses cable is sharing the same bandwidth. So during peek
internet times the connection may be slower then usual. Most companies have
imposed speed caps to account for this. For instance 384/3.5 is the speed cap
imposed by Comcast for they're pro package. But since thats in Bytes not
bits it's actual speed. Unlike DSL which would have to be devided by 8. The
mis-information people have is that at peek hours it will slow down to less
then dial up speeds because of the shared bandwidth. This is a crock, cable
companies for the most part use Fiber optics once it reaches the street, so
there is more then enough bandwidth to go around.

This type of connection is probably the fastest most cost effective connection
for the home user.

T1 This is a bundle of 24 ISDN lines. They are basically tied together and create
one damn fast connection. But is you do the math and devide by 8 you will
find that even the infamous T1 connection is not much of a match speed wise
to a good cable connection.

T2/T3 Is just what it says it is 2/3 T1's , This is very expensive and most likely
out of the price range of a home user.

[Mr Gates]

Wow, thank you very much for the very detailed information. You seem to know a lot about this topic. :shock: I guess I should just wait a few years until college to have a free T1 line.

[gdmania]

You can always uncap your cable connection. Although, I'm still yet to master how to uncap mine, I'm working on it... any suggestions? :P

[Dani]

You can always uncap your cable connection. Although, I'm still yet to master how to uncap mine, I'm working on it... any suggestions? :P

That violates the terms of service with your cable provider, doesn't it? I know at least with Optimum Online that's grounds for canceling your account.

[gdmania]

Well, many of my college friends do it at their house as they share a cable connection thoughout the house. They all uncap and have about 50x's the speed they were already getting through cable. Yes it does violate the terms, but how would the SP find out? Do they keep track of how much bandwith is being sent? :twisted:

[Dani]

Optimum Online, my provider, keeps a very close watch on bandwidth usage. They even prohibit any servers from running and are willing to cancel your account for having an ftp server.

[Mr Gates]

how do you uncap your cable modem?

[odious face]

Do they keep track of how much bandwith is being sent?

Just for public knowledge and forewarning most companies that are in the business of leasing lines or hosting server space keep very close track of bandwidth consumption aswell as anything else that may place strain on their network. The company I work for leases server space and bandwidth to customers. I have had to suspend sites/accounts in the past for either uncapping when one was placed and for peeking cap and not wanting to pay for it. So do be careful with it if you value your ISP, I know in some areas your choices can be limited and you may not find another company that will be as good as what you have. As far as your friends doing it and having yet to be caught surprises me if they are doing it on a regular basis. Either the sys admin's who monitor the ISP's logs dont care because the network is not suffering as yet or they are just slacking. At any rate do as you please ofcourse but now you know that uncapping is a monitorable event.

[Triad808]

A word about uncapping and sys admins...
uncapping is essentially abusing your agreement with them and if they are tight wads because they have overcommitted themselves they will want to make you pay for it if they think you are a small business or young user.
Most good ISPs are NOT nazis but the small ones are because they are petty criminals themselves, not really providing much in the way of service and access to something that is or was in essence free . Sys admins sound really scary and all and quite powerful but bear in mind that they are usually not up to date and overworked themselves. Hey Im a system administrator myself :D but much smaller scale and less experience. If you draw their attention than you are probably screwing up really bad. I suggest www.speedguide.net for info on optimizing your connection and learning about things within the bounds of your computer and connection. There are many many ways to increase your bandwidth and linespeed... you need to realize that if you uncap and havent optimized your connection already its a major waste. and if you are running file-share you are going to see more going out than in.

Added note on how sys admin/ISP can determine abuse... they typically have their lackeys monitor data rates and the like or will use packet sniffers ... a little hard to fool the good ones out that can 'sniff' out even what you are transmitting/recieving but if they are dedicating staff to watch your account then you either already know what you are into and should have bags packed or just brush up on 'naive look' when they confront you.. you may be able to get off on the "my computer was a script kiddie's zombie.." worked to get my friend of the hook ;)
dont quote me on that just a little phun :D

[lukeredfern]

my internet is currently 10 meg, but it rarely gets to its potential. that is very annoying

[jbennet]

Ive got 16 meg.

[MidiMagic]

That does you no good at all if the website has a 56K modem.

[jbennet]

but i only go on daniweb and it doesnt

[bugmenot]

How???
how can u update your speed from 3 kbps to 205 kbps??
plz tell me................plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

reply me the update procedure on:
[e-mail]

Thanks..............:)

[buddhaswink]

"The mis-information people have is that at peek hours it will slow down to less
then dial up speeds because of the shared bandwidth. This is a crock, cable
companies for the most part use Fiber optics once it reaches the street, so
there is more then enough bandwidth to go around."

I agree and would also add a misconception of DSL is that your a dedicated line and that prevents this issue. I've seen that promoted all over the place. It is true that you are a dedicated line but you can then experience slow downs because the routers are jammed with traffic. I've run into the situation more than once when managing the connections at work. We would have an office running super slow and upon calling and working up to a level 3 tech they would discover that the we were routed through a super packed router and simply rerouted us through another one that opened up the connection. There's always a limitation someplace and you just have to get experienced to look through the hype and make your own decisions.

While we had that consistant issue our offices that i could get cable access for always run smooth with the least amount of trouble. Not to mention Cable is often burstable to give you more on demand. Hope this doesn't muddy it up for you.

[gracyj]

There are various internet speed in various Kbps and Mbps. You can ask for the required speed to the various Internet Service Providers. The costs will change according to the plans the ISP provide. Once you've bought a connection you can often check your speed in the speedometer available at Ip-details.com to know if you are getting the correct speed you asked for.

[jingda]

er gracyj, this thread has been more than 8 years old and the previous post is already 3 years old. No point posting here but thanks for the suggestion anyway

[crunchie]

er gracyj, this thread has been more than 8 years old and the previous post is already 3 years old. No point posting here but thanks for the suggestion anyway

And you replied to him 6 weeks after he posted?

[jingda]

And you replied to him 6 weeks after he posted?

yup, and i am still thinking why he has not reply

[mo12lan]

In my country server is not too busy and admins increase the speed without any problem

[cool_priya]

if u have any problem check the speed at ip-details.com

[venmalathy]

cool_priya i agree you.....