Selected ISP Support > Sonic.net > Can I get any more speed out of my plan?

Can I get any more speed out of my plan?

Here is a FAQ that we used to send out to customers that shows DSL speeds and explains the overhead. This isn't used much anymore since we have the online speed test, but this is a bit more accurate:

These are DSL speed guidelines. Please Download the test file at the URL below, and use the chart to find out what speed your DSL line is running at.

Listed below are download speeds used for Sonic.net DSL service offerings. For example, a Basic DSL circuit's download speed should fall between the performance listed for 384kbps and that listed for 1.5mbps.

Maximum net FTP transfer of
DSL sync cap Net DSL speed* transfer speed 10 meg testfile**
------------ --------------- ---------------- ------------------
192 Kbps 163 Kbps 20.3 KBytes/sec ~512 seconds
384 Kbps 327 Kbps 40.8 KBytes/sec ~256 seconds
768 Kbps 655 Kbps 81.8 KBytes/sec ~128 seconds
1.5 Mbps 1.3 Mbps 162 KBytes/sec ~64 seconds
3.0 Mbps 2.6 Mbps 325 KBytes/sec ~32 seconds
6.0 Mbps 5.2 Mbps 650 Kbytes/sec ~16 seconds

Listed below are upload speeds used for Sonic.net DSL service offerings. For example, a Basic DSL circuit's upload speed should fall between the performance listed for 128kbps and that listed for 256kbps.

Maximum net FTP transfer of
DSL sync cap Net DSL Speed* transfer speed 10 meg testfile**
------------ --------------- ---------------- -------------------------
128 Kbps 111 Kbps 13 Kbytes/sec ~735 seconds
256 Kbps 222 Kbps 27 KBytes/sec ~367 seconds
384 Kbps 334 Kbps 41 KBytes/sec ~245 seconds
408 Kbps 354 Kbps 44 Kbytes/sec ~230 seconds
608 Kbps 528 Kbps 66 KBytes/sec ~155 seconds

* Protocol overhead for ATM, LLC, TCP/IP, and other factors contribute at least 13% overhead, dependent upon MTU settings and other factors. Some software packages use different means to compensate for this overhead, so readings within 10% of the listed value should be considered normal. For a technical look at ATM-related overhead, please see »www.sonic.net/support/docs/ip-at···head.pdf online. Acrobat Reader is required to view this document.

** Full URL is »ftp://ftp.sonic.net/pub/testfile.compressed.10meg
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Tage J
Sonic.net Customer Support

Thank you for the quick reply Tage.

That explains everything as I remember connecting at ~5.25mb on various speed tests when I was on the 6mb plan so that chart clears everything up.

If you wouldn't mind answering another question I talked to a Sonic tech who told me if I wanted to get more speed I could try having AT&T 're-profile' my line.

What exactly is involved in this process as I'm really interested in getting back as much speed as possible at this point.

Thanks.