DSL Question

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cvfd1615

Gawd
Joined
Jan 23, 2006
Messages
669
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?
 
$40 for 768kbps is a lot. I have 1.5MB down for less money; you can get 3MB down for roughly $40, but that's here in Philadelphia from Verizon.

The extra distance shouldn't make too much of an issue; coming from dialup you will definitely be pleased with the difference. One thing to be certain of: insist that they run a speed test while you are testing it.

Actually, do it yourself; it is simple. Go to www.dslreports.com select Tests and click Speed Test. Make sure that your actual up/download speeds are comparable to what you're paying for.

Good luck.
 
Right and thats what everyone has said is that 40 for 768KBPS is high but its the only provider around here... AS I put in my thing I live in BFE, KY its out in the middle of no where and I'm actually fortunate to finally be able to get it.

I've been on Dial up for 14 years back in the 14.4kbps days.

I will definately do a speed test when they hook it up and get it going.
 
Given the distance, I would test for latency and dropped packets as well; Dropped packets may or may not show up in a speed test; But a simple ping -t google.com left running for a while should do the trick.

Anything more than %5 dropped packets and I'd ditch it.
 
ping -t google.com

How exactly I do that?

Will it tell me what the packet loss is?
 
cvfd1615 said:
ping -t google.com

How exactly I do that?

Will it tell me what the packet loss is?
Click to expand...

Go to your start menu and select "run"
type in command and click "ok"
then type in "ping www.google.com -t" and let that run for a while.

Packet loss is exactly that, a loss of packets. The ping command will send a request to www.google.com, google.com will then acknowledge the request and send its ack back.

If a request times out that is considered packet loss. While some internet/intranet hosts prevent ICMP traffic google.com is one of many that allow it.

More info about Ping
 
Start>Run>Type in "cmd" and press enter (no quotes)

That brings up the command prompt

Then I would type this line into the command prompt

ping www.google.com -n 25

That will ping google 25 times and report back average latency and packet loss. You can change the number higher or lower, the more the better but you dont want to sit there forever. -t keeps pinging unil it is interrupted.

Anyways, I would run a bandwidth test, and the ping test now on dialup. This way you know what you are coming from. Make sure you write it down so you know. Then when you run the test on the DSL you have an idea of what kind of improvement to expect.

If you can I would try to get something in writing from the ISP that says if the service drops off noticeably from what you experience when you test it out that you can get out of your contract. You might have to push to get them to agree to that but otherwise you could have a normal experience when you test it, then a month down the road it becomes horrible.

I think the before and after tests will be the most important to you, since you know how much you are paying now, how much you will pay for this, and can compare that to the before and after speed/bandwidth/ping/packet loss tests. I feel sorry for you and all the other people in rural America that get screwed out of good internet access because it isn't profitable for the giant telecoms to service you. Meanwhile people in metropolitan areas get triple 768kbps service for 20-30$ a month, and people in select countries in Europe or Asia can get 10 times that for 20$ a month.
 
Well the contact to break it say it doesn't work and stuff is $135 dollars soo I mean even if it does work out and all that then it sucks 3 months down the road then its really not going to hurt me too bad getting out of it.

I will do the ping thing set it to 25 that serviceman will just have to wait lol .
 
cvfd1615 said:
Well the contact to break it say it doesn't work and stuff is $135 dollars soo I mean even if it does work out and all that then it sucks 3 months down the road then its really not going to hurt me too bad getting out of it.

I will do the ping thing set it to 25 that serviceman will just have to wait lol .
Click to expand...

It shouldn't take more than 45 seconds or so if you are getting decent response times.

But I have to agree that what they are charging you is high. But you take what you can get when you live out in BFE.

As a comparison I pay $60/month for 10Mb/1Mb service.
 
Yep gotta do what I gotta do but man I am so tired of playing a game like Yahoo Pool or whatever or downloading something and getting almost doen then BOOOM disconnected.

So with that said I guess I'm stuck paying 40 bucks a month for not the fastest service but way better than the POS people pc almost online that I currently have.
 
Coming from a regional LEC that offers DSL....

20k feet is doable if and only if you have good copper going to your house. If its marginal, you are SOL. If you have good pairs going to your home, you are alright. If not, your service will be marginal at best.

The distance will not affect latency in the least. The only thing it will affect would be the speeds since the signal might be marginal past 18k feet.

Our company wouldnt even think about guaranteeing speeds past 18k feet, thats just not feasible. Basically, 768k is about 80KB/sec versus 5.6KB/second. Its night and freaking day (to say nothing about 200+ ping down to 50ish pings for online gaming).

Best case scenario, you get your 768k service. Worst case is you get marginal service frequented by dropouts in service. Have the LEC look at performance stats (PM's, Stats, etc) on the DSL before you accept the contract.
 
if slow DSL is all you can get, then go for it. IF something better comes along..then change over fast...something like cable modem..or verizon FIoS
 
Shitty DSL is leaps and bounds better than the world's best dial-up. Just do it. :cool:
 
Wow, that is bloody expensive, I pay $30 a month for 3MB business DSL.
I agree though, "Dial-Up" in my philosophy is considered a blasphemic sin of mankind.

I'd go for it if thats the only thing availible in your area.
 
Kaiga said:
Wow, that is bloody expensive, I pay $30 a month for 3MB business DSL.
I agree though, "Dial-Up" in my philosophy is considered a blasphemic sin of mankind.

I'd go for it if thats the only thing availible in your area.
Click to expand...

I pay 0 for a 12 meg line *Work Pays*:D
 
OK did the ping www.google.com -n 25 today on dial up

Averaged 340ms with no packet loss

So we'll see what happens with the DSL install. What should the average ms be with a good DSL Connection?
 
Shite man, I'm getting 6mbps down for $50 a month. Course that's cable, but still.... that's a lot of money for that rate.
 
If internet is important, and this is the only high speed available to you if you want to leave slow dial up...then 40 bucks for 768K would not be expensive to me.

Heck was paying 89 bucks a month for bridged DSL, just 1.5 meg, which...me being at over 14,000 feet, I was realizing 680K of it..but it was quality, clean low latency DSL...and since online gaming was important for me, I gladly shelled out 90/month for it versus the 49 SNET was charging back then.

Yeah...around the country you can find cheaper ISPs with higher speed packages...but that's 100% irrelevant. You live where you live...you're apparently out there you have little choice. Thus, to me, if internet performance is important, I'd have to ask myself..."Do I keep paying 15 or 20 per month for agonizingly slow dial up? Or do I pay 40 per month for DSL?"

It's a no brainer for me. Heck..in your situation I'd gladly shell out 100 bucks a month.
 
Hey,

Just wanted to give an update on my question that I asked.

So the DSL man shows up today and runs me a brand new line of Cat 5 cable and installs a NID Filter at the box. We run the wire into the room where I want the main DSL line to be and hook it up and wala we got a connection.

I do multiple speedtests on dsl reports and my connections are averaging as follows

650kbps - Download
560-580 kbps - Upload

When I do the ping www.google.com -n 25 I had no packet losses and my latency kick back was 70ms.

What ya'll think for being 2,200 feet to far than what they say.
 
Im not sure if its so much as distance, but condition of the lines. Im, maybe a mile... mile and a half from Quests Point-of-presence, as they call it. But after they signed me up and billed me for 7mb/896k DSL, I couldnt get crap out of it. After a few days and many calls, a tech came out here and ran some tests, said the signal out here was very poor... This is right near one of the main streets, near a half-dozen apartment buildings. Though I have cable now, so I cant complain too much.

Glad to hear it turned out well for you, now you can waste your time with things like youtube.com or streetfire.net. But seriously... DSL is an awesome experience if your a dialup/satellite user. I switched to 64/64k wireless a few years back, not even a 10Kbps gain over dialup, but going from 300ms pings to 50ms google pings, wow... Its very cool to see pages load when you click on them, not 10 minutes later after youve fallen asleep.

DSL (or high speed internet for that matter) has changed what I do in my free time. Rather than viewing a few pages before getting frustraited and giving up, I end getting home from school at around 3:30pm, sitting down, and saying "WOAH its 3:00am!!! :eek: <clicks on another [H] post> "
 
Yea I was surprised how good its working being that I was so far away.

So with the connection speeds I'm getting will I be able to play online gaming?
 
Yes, you will be fine for online gaming. Generally speaking, pings of <100 are good.

I "grew up" with FPS's on dialup. Tribes @ 250 ping was frustrating, but I got good at it. Once I got a low latency connection (50ms pings) I was "in the zone"

Since you don't seem to have any pre-conceived expectations about online gaming from dialup, you won't have to adjust your playing style.

Edit: sorry for the PM dude, I havent logged into the [H] in about a week. Damned work schedule kept me busy actually working. :D
 
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