High speed internet

Joss

Joss

Joined
Nov 20, 2001
Messages
7,353
Hi all,

I have a couple questions, and I hope the techies here will be able to answer me.

1) I have Earthlink DSL, which is 3mbps. How come my Local Area Connection icon (bottom right in Win XP) shows 100mbps?
2) Is 3mbps pretty much standar, or are there ways to get faster DSL in residential areas without paying through my nose for special cable installation, etc?

Thanks,

JD
 
3 mbps is plenty fast. I have cable and only get about 2.5 mbps (which is still extremely fast). For anything less than a T3 line, that's about as fast as it gets. The reason your connection is being shown as 100 mbps is that your computer sees the DSL connection as a network connection, and the rated speed for your network card is 100 mbps. That little icon is only a display of your theoretical top speed, not an actual measure of the bandwidth available. If you want to see what your connection speed really is instead of just the rated speed, go to http://reviews.cnet.com/7004-7254_7-0.html?tag=cnetfd.dir and enter your info.
 
Joss said:
Hi all,

I have a couple questions, and I hope the techies here will be able to answer me.

1) I have Earthlink DSL, which is 3mbps. How come my Local Area Connection icon (bottom right in Win XP) shows 100mbps?
2) Is 3mbps pretty much standar, or are there ways to get faster DSL in residential areas without paying through my nose for special cable installation, etc?

Thanks,

JD
Click to expand...


The 100Mbps is probably what your network interface card is capable of, not what your Internet connection is. 3Mbps is decent enough, mine is only 1.5Mbps and I typically only realize 1.2Mbps. Many things can effect throughput and 3Mbps would be the maximum potential, not necessarily what you will actually get.
 
Thanks, I did the test and I only get 1486.9 kbps. Very interesting!
 
That sounds closer to the mark for DSL, it's about what my parents get on their connection. That's still nothing to sneeze at; beyond 1.5 mbps or so you get diminishing returns for casual internet use IMO. Sure, faster is better, but you'd need a benchmarking program to measure the time difference for page loading. Most of the time your load time is influenced more by the load the server you're trying to contact is experiencing than by your connection speed; when you're on broadband that is.
 
Ok, took the same test you did and got 1197.9 kbps, which translates into 1.2Mbps (if you round up). Normally I get 1.26Mbps when I run the test from my ISP's speed test servers. Since the CNET test is outside my ISP's network, it stands to reason I get a little less download speed. For all practical purposes however, the two results are identical.

You got 1.5Mbps which is plenty good (I agree with Roadrunner's assessment). Again, the advertised rate of 3Mbps is the maximum potential you "could" achieve, not a guarantee that you will achieve it.
 
While testing, start multiple downloads to make sure you use all the bandwidth of your DSL link.
I have a 1 Mbps DSL link and don't feel the need to go higher yet. The fastest DSL offered arround here is 8Mbps, and they are starting to talk about 15Mbps in the near future.
 
I got cable internet and my connection speed hovers right around 4.5Mbps. At heavy use times it might drop down to about 4, and at off times spike to around 5. I am a happy computer geek!

:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Connection is:: 4724 Kbps about 4.7 Mbps (tested with 2992 KB)
Download Speed is:: 577 KB/s
Tested From:: http://www.testmy.net/
Test Time:: Sun Feb 06 2005 18:27:51 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)
Bottom Line:: 84X faster than 56K 1MB download in 1.77 sec
Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/id-GJPB5UF8S


Just in case you guys don't believe me. :D
 
4498.3 kbps Roadrunner. Not too shabby. I went for the broadband phone setup and haven't any problems with that either. Clear as a bell. About 30 bucks a month for almost unlimited calling.
Greg
 
i have a dsl from the phone company

i got 687kphs from the computer hardwired to my apple airport extreme

i got 987-1200 kphs on my laptop connected to the dsl line wirelessly


however, if i select the (optional) dsl provider line on the cnet test i only get 68 kphs (ie tell them what company i use)

interesting........


btw ....as i dont download stuff i am quite satisfied with my speed
 
:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Connection is:: 4574 Kbps about 4.6 Mbps (tested with 2992 KB)
Download Speed is:: 558 KB/s
Tested From:: http://www.testmy.net/
Test Time:: Mon Feb 07 2005 01:10:07 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)
Bottom Line:: 82X faster than 56K 1MB download in 1.84 sec
Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/id-HYKDG0815


Not bad...

N2
 
Joss,

I have Speakeasy DSL and am super happy with it. 6 Mbps for $79.95/month. I've had sustained real-world transfers of over 5 Mbps with it.
 
Gabe Newell said:
Joss,

I have Speakeasy DSL and am super happy with it. 6 Mbps for $79.95/month. I've had sustained real-world transfers of over 5 Mbps with it.
Click to expand...

That would be pretty cool, unfortunately for my location their prices are much higher - above $100 for 6mbps...
 
It's not down that's the issue...it's up. Up is always lower. Poor up.

Also, I got poor testing stats when I just tried. However, when I download files, I usually am in the 300KBps+ category.

I wait with great anticipation for Verizon's Fiber2thehome to make it to my area. Lotsa speed, little price.
 
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