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hawkesrw
join:2013-05-23
Libby, MT

1 edit

hawkesrw

Member

Bottom Line?

I recently moved to rural Montana from North Carolina. I ran turbo Cable and I was always very happy. So fast forward to the present. Where I live is about 20 miles from where they film History Channels Mountain Men. Up there they still use drums to make phone calls (well maybe I'm going just a little overboard!!) Anyway to my town I was using the local cable service which is slow during the day and downright dismal at night (Streaming music on Youtube at 8:00 pm is a challenge). So I've switched to Frontier DSL Ultra package. So if they say you are suppose to get X down and Y up how much of that can you expect to be true before you consider it a issue?My only complaint up to this point is, I experience a latency almost like I used to get from Satellite many years ago? What these carriers are good for up here is that they have you do a speed test to downtown and its great but try using say Speakeasy to anywhere in the outside world and your rates drop in half? So after all this rambling I guess my question is what should I consider a reasonable data rate vs. what I'm suppose to get? It's hard to tell what the infrastructure is up here, some say Frontier is fiber? I know that cable keeps saying it's on the way? It seems hard to get a straight answer from either carrier. Just looking for opinions??

I was always under the impression that DSL could never match cable in the speed department.
Aranarth
join:2011-11-04
Stanwood, MI

Aranarth

Member

DSL is distance limited. Speeds drop from 20mbps to 3 mbps in the first 3 miles, after that speeds drop again to 0-1mbps over the next 3 miles or so. After 6 miles you will either get nothing or barely anything at all.

Latency is going to range from 10 to 100ms depending on the technology use at the phone office.
SteveJobs
join:2012-07-18

SteveJobs to hawkesrw

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to hawkesrw
Both have fiber running in your area. Frontier has fiber running to the central office, and the cable company does as well. Depending on the size of your town, and how many have frontier services, and what their speeds are, you could be suffering from Congestion at the central office.

If you could tell us the speeds your getting, and modem stats they would help greatly.
hawkesrw
join:2013-05-23
Libby, MT

hawkesrw

Member

Well I'm suppose to get 15 down and 2 up. I was told that dsl doesn't suffer the same as cable with from congestion? Last night I could barely run Youtube by itself.

The infrastructure up here is ancient. And I understand there is politics involved. With the cable the bandwidth is suppose to be some sort of Microwave at this point with fiber on the way (SOMEDAY!) from Kalispell which is about 100 miles away. The DSL is suppose to be fiber already but the cable company claims it's not turned on due to some political ordeal while frontier claims this isn't true. So you see it's hard to get the story straight. My house out east had fiber almost to my front door so I'm spoiled. Yesterday I opened a ticket I was running about 3 down from Seattle, a far cry from 15 I'd say?

So in Real Life what should I be satisfied with? I know if I',m paying for 12 or 15, 3 does not cut it. To me even 6 is to slow? I am 1 mile from the local distribution office(not sure what it's called?). Tech claimed I could get 25 down but they don't offer it? I just need to find someone to give me the story straight? I understand Lans very well Wans are another story??
AlmontJohn
join:2011-01-27

AlmontJohn

Member

You're in "rural Montana" and have cable & DSL? I'm in an area sometimes considered part of Metro Detroit, yet can't get either

I'd gladly pay $$$ for 6mb DSL....
hawkesrw
join:2013-05-23
Libby, MT

hawkesrw to SteveJobs

Member

to SteveJobs
Steve my modem is a ZYxel model P663HN51. Speeds from here to Seattle 2 to 3 meg down, about 1.8 Meg up. Im in Northwest Montana bordering Idaho. I guess my question is can DSL deliver the 15 to 25 meg that they say? My connection is ADSL2 and they are now checking into BDSL as the local area has recently been upgraded. (Note: I hope I have my terms correct. I know nothing about DSL)Heck the last time I messed with phone internet was my screaming dialup modem with what the called gun shot for that extra speed
hawkesrw

hawkesrw to AlmontJohn

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to AlmontJohn
John, you sound like my dad its a good much less stressful way of dealing with things...."be happy with what you have"
hawkesrw

hawkesrw

Member

OK,

I can't complain about service response. Changed out Modem and hard wired the computer instead of the wireless now its where it should be. I guess only time will tell?
brad152
join:2006-07-27
Chicago, IL

brad152 to hawkesrw

Member

to hawkesrw
dsl can provide those kinds of speeds, ADSL2+ maxes out at 24/2, and VDSL2 can do i think 80Mbps pretty easily.

I have 40/5 DSL from CenturyLink here and i'm very happy with it considering the least i get is 35/3 during "congestion" times

Most likely your issue is more congestion at the CO, i frequently have that issue with CenturyLink at the Ohio account, it's only on a 3/512 but at times it will go .5/.12 but it's only 19.99/mo as a price for life promotion so i do not care about it, not to mention is CenturyLink is the only provider there period
Dolfan
join:2010-12-03

Dolfan to hawkesrw

Member

to hawkesrw
The zyxel is a bonded modem. Probably set at 12/2 or something close to that. Your up side is normal. 1.8 is what you could expect to get from a 2m profile. The down is certainly off. You need to post your stats from the modem. It will test both sides for sync rates and snr's, attenuation's, errors. Those kind of things. Then you can begin to determan if you have a congestion issue or not. Good luck!
SteveJobs
join:2012-07-18

SteveJobs to hawkesrw

Member

to hawkesrw
DSL and cable both get congestion. Cable gets its congestion when your neighbors start streaming Netflix and the fiber to your neighbood can't handle it. And DSL, the DSLAM gets congested with too many users and not enough bandwidth so your speed suffers. All ADSL2+ and heck, and central office nowadays has fiber.

If it makes you feel better, I have 3mbps. Although I'm switching to cable Wednesday. :P
hawkesrw
join:2013-05-23
Libby, MT

hawkesrw to Dolfan

Member

to Dolfan
The Techs here have mentioned that they are having issues with the Zyxel modems. They are waiting for a order from another company and they will switch it out again. Other the latency it is doing much better so far.

Like I said I'm just spoiled back east I could download a image of windows in a matter of minutes. I wanted cooler, rural, mountains and you have to pay a certain price . It is just breathing here. Like I said the area where History Channel shoots some of the show Mountain Men is about 20 miles or so up the mountains. My neighbor claims to see some of the guys at the grocery store in town fairly often. The area up there is called the Yaak, and it is off the grid for sure.
hawkesrw

1 edit

hawkesrw to SteveJobs

Member

to SteveJobs
Steve,

Is your reason for switching speed? Just curious.

You know the one that hate is the standard tech excuse "blame it on the wan"
SteveJobs
join:2012-07-18

SteveJobs

Member

We can get a lot faster speeds for the same price. We get 30mbps for $15 and with frontier we got 3mbps for $30.
hawkesrw
join:2013-05-23
Libby, MT

hawkesrw

Member

Good Luck I always loved my cable back home At the two houses we had in NC One was Charter the Other Time Warner. Time Warners support sucked but it sure was fast. OF course in NC we got everything for bad weather from Ice to Hurricanes so many times service would be out multiple days. Here I guess I'm lucky I have anything past Dialup given the location. The only thing I have not lost after retiring from IT was I always want it Faster more speed!!! I want to download a HD movie in three minutes or faster.....LOL!!!! Big dreamer here hugh?? You know these big companies depend on bandwith to stay in business and they pay for it. If it goes down theses a small army ready to jump. Now me when I did home support if my system went down I would have a tech within three hours nature aside. All I ask is if I'm paying $20.00 more dollars for extra bandwith just deliver to me what you advertise most of the time. They sure would cut it off fast enough if you didn't pay your bill?? And I think this should hold true most anywhere. Don't ask me to pay for 15 then deliver 6 down or all over the place. And the sad fact is most of us are stuck so I try not to P??? them off so I get the best service I can. Sorry about being long winded one of my few talents but a subject I am passionate about.