jpwriting
join:2008-02-21
Enfield, CT
| reply to NormanS
Re: [help] How does ATT DSL compare to Optimum Online Cable?
Deviation is sometimes an understatement. I'm with DSL because the variance on cable for my area was absolutely horribly. Between 5pm and 11pm my cable latency would always rise to upwards of 400ms, while speeds decreased drastically. The reason being that cable is a shared resource, your bandwidth and latency depend on how much your neighbors are using it and how dense the information traffic is. DSL is yours, it will not generally vary to any significant degree unless there is a technical issue, and ping times are generally always the same.
All that said, the deal you have now is not that bad (as long as the speeds and latency are reliable). However, if you don't use that much bandwidth and would be happy trading slightly lower speeds for a little extra cash in the wallet then it might be worth it for you to make a switch. |
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NormanS
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
 ·Pacific Bell - SBC
| All Internet is shared. DSL is just shared farther out (at the aggregation router) than cable (on the last mile).
I've seen Embarq and Qwest (DSL) users posting latencies in the 100s to 400s. I've very rarely seen Comcast and Road Runner (cable) users posting such high latencies. But that is not normal deviation
I don't believe that cable is inherently so bad, compared with DSL, WRT latency. DSL latency deviation is normally 1-3 ms on an average of 8-9 ms close to the premises. Cable latency deviation, that I have seen, is normally 8-10 ms on an average of 5-6 ms close to the premises.
I am referring to the statistical standard deviation from a statistical average.
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Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum |
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jpwriting
join:2008-02-21
Enfield, CT
edit:
April 27th, @03:15AM
| You seem to be taking my reply personally, ie: as if I were trying to prove you wrong somehow. I only said sometimes it is an understatement, the cable in my area had terrible deviations in ping based on conditions and that DSL is effectively not shared on a neighborhood basis due to the difference in the way it is handled. I never said one was better than the other, only that it depends on the condition of the service in the area.
Please don't read too much into a reply and go on the defensive from the word go, I'm not here to pick a fight or argument, prove how much I know, etc. I was only giving the OP my reasons for preferring ATT ADSL over Cable, and that is performs quite well as a less expensive more dependable alternative (albeit with generally lower top speeds).
I don't believe that the OP is looking for statistical standard deviation (which as you said deals with a minimal difference of a few milliseconds). He's looking for real world application that would be of significant influence to his decision. I was trying to give him that input.
Adding to that information: my speeds are 6000kb/s down 630kb/s upstream with little variance, they almost never change far from that. Ping is generally 57-65ms.
Edit: forgot to add ping as requested. |
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NormanS
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| said by jpwriting  :You seem to be taking my reply personally, ie: as if I were trying to prove you wrong somehow. Seriously? I don't particularly care what you think about me.
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Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum |
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skj
Welcome to the far side of reality
Premium,Mod
join:2002-04-04
Atlanta, GA | reply to NormanS
And now back on topic please. |
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