On Fri, 13 Jul 2001, Richard Villa wrote: > I had a choice and decided to go with DSL. If you go with cable, your speed > can at times degrade due to the number of users on the line. Sorry, but can't let this crap fly. *All* connections can slow due to number of connections. Further, many people at work share a T1 line and don't seem to have this problem. For this affect to be noticed, you would literally need every person on your loop to decide to hit the net feverishly. I have never had this problem in three years. Now for the simple facts. The DSL is typically a little slower in the first place. Often the DSL is artificially held at a lower rate then the line supports. They meter you to not be able to get more then you pay for. Finally, the most important thing is to remember that eventually you share bandwidth. The ISP absolutely has to sell more bandwidth then they actually pay for to make themselves profitable. Thus if every subscriber hits the lines at a given time, the ISP will slow to a crawl. Simple economics will prove this. Consider that a T1 costs close to $1000 a month. The ISP portion of DSL typically runs $10 to $15 a month for a 384Kbs rate. Thus four subscribers make up the purchase of a single T1 line. Simple math will tell you that for a single T1 line, the ISP must sell many multiples of their own bandwidth just to pay that portion of their overhead. Quite simply, either route you go, you will often notice that one site is slower then another. You can actually get a feel for how well a given site is connected versus their data load. In the end, you will share your bandwidth with your neighbors. ======= Kirk Wood Cpt.Kirk at 1tree.net The mind is like a parachute; it works much better when open. If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out.
