DSL

OK so here is the deal, I was asked to look at a local company for our DSL. Right now our DSL is through our telco.

Currently our DSL is 4Mb/768Kb ADSL with a static IP

the new provider is offering
a 272Kb/272Kb ADSL with static
a 1Mb/1Mb SDSL with Static
and a 768/768 with static

her claim which I don't believe is that with them their 272/272 is faster that our 4Mb/768Kb because they have a large backbone. My contention is that claim is like saying Ducks beater truck go 60MPH faster that Razes Trucks 60MPH because Ducks has more horsepower. we all know 60MPH is 60MPH. I might believe it a little more if she was trying to compare 600kbs to 700kbs but to compare 272 to 768 or 272 to 4000 is nuts. Any opinion on how this could be true. Thanks

Proxy, they probably have a proxy that caches the pages to the local service and when you ask for it it's faster to display you the cache instead of refetching the page. When it comes to gaming, your running no faster.

Yeah but that wouldn't help our business either. She is claiming her routers and backbone make it much better I just think she is full of crap, I have asked many of my more knowelegable IT contacts to ask how, and no one has an answer yet. I told her this is for business not for surfing yahoo.

I forgot to mention this isn't for me individually this is for mine and Sarge's office. All well thanks Raze.

A few things strike me as Odd. ADSL by it's mere nature is not equal speeds both ways. Hence, Asynchronous. The next thing that strikes me is the number 272K. That just didn't make sense. Then I broke it down. 4 64K B channels with a 16K D channel. That sounds more like ISDN than DLS. Last time I checked, DSL did not require a D channel to work unless it was IDSL or VDSL based on ISDN technology.

Well, that doesn't help answer your question. So let me try to answer your question as best I can. The answer is yes and no. Now let me ask you a few questions.

Do you pull more traffic than you push?
What type of traffic is it? Web, File Transfer, Email?
Where are the end points? This is really important. If you most used resources have less latency on the second provider, then there is a chance it may appear to run faster. However, downloading a 500MB BF2 patch will still take longer on the second network in most cases.
Are you able to maintain a 4MB/768K sustained connection with your current provider? Or does it drop way down after a few minutes?

Here is some information to confuse you more. Her use of the word Bigger belays her ignorance. Bigger does not mean better. However, latency or the amount of time it takes to get from one point to another can make a difference. Throughput is another important factor. Hence my question about sustainability. These two things together determine perceived speed.

Read this. It explains what I am trying to say very well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latency_vs_Bandwidth

So, answer my questions and I'll see what I can do to help.

Is there a chance for us to know who these people are? Maybe they have a website that explains their infrastructure. Otherwise I think she is giving you somethine scripted.

my 2 cents

Yeah see there is some latency between me and answers ;-) the woman I have to deal with is a salesperson, I think shes just gots her head way up her ass.

This afternoon I told her I would need a static IP and she promised unlimited static IPs which I don't believe ( I thinks she meant email addresses, from her definition of this). In any case, I will not be switching, but I am still investigating. According to Sarge we should have the capability for fiber in the upcoming month or so. I would rather not reveal this womans company they are small and local, but I assure you their webpage says nothing on the topic.

To answer Atomms questions just for poops and giggles...
1.) We use this for sarge and I to surf (GR) or download BF patches, some people stream radio, bear in mind we are a small office. So most of the time we are using http only. We do have a mailserver and a vpn that allow workers to access our network from the outside world. When the VPN is used it transfers alot of data (huge amounts).

2.) in my experience we can to a large extent maintain transfer rates.

Given the fact the VPN gives me the ability to do my job completely remotly, I find the up speed to be very important.

All well thanks for the help guys. Being that I am only like a 50% time IT person, sometimes I think maybe I missed something. All of her answers seemed so wrong I thought I must be overlooking something, but I think she was a salesperson without much background getting "all them tech things confused".

Bubbaspanky wrote:\"all them tech things confused\".

DING! DING! DING! We have a winner!

If you guys are noticing performance issues going to the outside world, then I would suggest the shotgun approach. Get DSL and Cable, then buy a SOHO router than can handle both together. You be amazed at how much something like this can speed up a network.

yeah, but it costs money which is something our little agency doesn't seem to have a lot of. We will probably just wait for fiber and see what deals they offer to switch.

Well, I hate to be the person that says this but I just switched from DSL to Cable. I had static DSL with 3.0/512 and now using buisness 5.0/768 with cox. There isn't anything I can say other then OMG, DSL was crap. Now within the last couple of weeks I have noticed an increase in speed. So after checking I now have seen I am around 8.0-9.0/1.0 with cox. So with that I will have to be pushing cable instead of DSL. Sorry I have fell to the dark side. 🙁

In all honesty, it's all about the backbone and SBC never had a backbone provider worth a crap. I was always happy with my cable for gaming, surfing and downloading. The only problem I ever had was when I tried to stream 64k constantly for the first station.

I plan on trying it from Comcast. I hope I can pull it off. It would be nice to go back to a live station.

Speaking of falling to the darkside... Soon as it is available in Norman I am switching to a WIFI LOS provider (looks to be another 6 months). Be nice to get 4up and down for the same price I'm paying now, and go static no less. On the other hand, for $20 more I can up it to 6up and down. Which I may very well do. Which will enable me to host here in the very near future, as COX is bastardly about such things and wants an insane amount of money for those speeds.

Course only real downsides to LOS Wireless is that you have to know what you're doing and buy the equipment for it. But we're using it for the OKGG LAN's, and my employeer has been using it at each new store install. I've just been very impressed... and I know what I'm doing so I say why not, eh?

Note: LOS=Line Of Sight.

LOS is the ONLY way some rural Ide-ho areas get their "cable"tv and their internet.
No one bitches about it here, so it must work.

Tuna used LOS WIFI for gaming. It gave him nothing but fits. So, he called up the provider to cancel and when he explained about gaming, they hooked him up with the Network Engineer/Owner. The owner made some tweaks on their end and things work smooth from there out. This was a little mom/pop provider, but it goes to show the key is how they are set up.