Worried About Internet Speeds!

[drs68]

Currently, I have Comcast Cable, Cable Internet, and Verizon Home Phone Service. When I came home from school today, I found out that my mom got a special offer including DirecTV, Verizon Phone, and Verizon DSL and the services will be installed next week. The DSL is where I am really getting concerned. I have always heard that Cable internet is somewhat faster than DSL, although I've never actually has DSL (we jumped from Dial-Up to Cable back in the day). My mom told me that after running speed tests, that the Cable Internet that we have IS(!) faster than the DSL service we will be getting. I am really worried that my internet speeds will get really slow and just wanted to get your feedback on whether you think I will notice a difference. Here is just some info...............

--According to speed tests on my laptop (both laptop and desktop run off of a router), we are now getting 894 kilobytes per second with our current cable service... that is only about one hundred kbps short of tier one service. Not sure about DSL speeds but I'm sure you could find out.

--According to Google Maps, I live about 0.5 miles from the Verizon location.... I live in a town of about 2,000 people (some on Verizon, some on Comcast, some on Dial-Up)

--there are two computers on our home network... one used constantly, one used moderately

--i browse the web all the time, stream video from youtube, hulu, and online radio stations a good bit, and download songs from itunes

--remember! this is my cable speeds vs. what i will get with dsl.
--WHEN I SAY DSL, I MEAN DSL, FIOS ISN'T EVEN CLOSE TO HERE YET! keep this in mind.

Thanks a lot for all your help.

 

[yg17]

If all you're getting is 894kbps on cable, which, to be honest, is absolute crap for cable, chances are, you will be getting somewhere around that at the very least with DSL. Hell, Verizon's slowest tier available is probably somewhere around 1mbps

 

[drs68]

not sure how accurate the test was.... i used cnet's... i actually thought those were good speeds but i'm assuming you know more than i do.... also note that i am in a small town area in the mountains.... most people would consider it rural and just out of curiosity would the slow speeds have anything to do with location... if so would the location factor affect DSL speeds too? Also, note that when my mom spoke to the Verizon rep on the phone, he actually had her perform a speed test and told her that we had faster internet than we would be getting with DSL...... I remember this very clearly as she told me that he tried to make up for the decreased speeds by telling her that when FIOS eventually got here that we would already have Verizon and would be mostly ready. (??)

 

[drs68]

i also should note that she did the test from our desktop which is literally right next to the router... while i did it from my magnesium alloy laptop one story up from there....... i don't know the results of her speed tests

 

[yg17]

not sure how accurate the test was.... i used cnet's... i actually thought those were good speeds but i'm assuming you know more than i do.... also note that i am in a small town area in the mountains.... most people would consider it rural and just out of curiosity would the slow speeds have anything to do with location... if so would the location factor affect DSL speeds too? Also, note that when my mom spoke to the Verizon rep on the phone, he actually had her perform a speed test and told her that we had faster internet than we would be getting with DSL...... I remember this very clearly as she told me that he tried to make up for the decreased speeds by telling her that when FIOS eventually got here that we would already have Verizon and would be mostly ready. (??)

Location doesn't have to be a factor if the ISP is any good. I live in the middle of a big city and the cable company here is absolute crap and I wouldn't ever switch back to them if their service was free. If Verizon's network out by you is well built, being in the middle of nowhere won't be a factor. I can't say Verizon will be faster, I can't say they'll be slower. You won't know until it's installed and you try it out. Unless the speed your mom got on her computer was vastly different than the speeds you're getting on your laptop (and they really shouldn't be) then chances are, Verizon is not going to be noticeably slower than Comcast.

 

[davidwarren]

If all you're getting is 894kbps on cable, which, to be honest, is absolute crap for cable, chances are, you will be getting somewhere around that at the very least with DSL. Hell, Verizon's slowest tier available is probably somewhere around 1mbps

Yeah- 900 is pretty slow. My cable is 20mbit. The DSL shouldn't be slower than that.

 

[followme]

You sure you don't have ADSL?

 

[drs68]

So, after checking with my mom, I found out that there's a good chance that the verizon rep got confused somehow. When she did the speed test on our desktop, it came out to be 956 kbps. The Verizon guy said that (somehow) this equals about 18 mbps (WTF!?) when in fact I'm pretty sure it's actually less than 1 mbps. Verizon DSL is supposedly going to offer us 3 mbps possibly (according to him). So was this guy getting something confused here? Or was he just completely crazy. I'll let you know how the speed of internet is going tomorrow, as the Verizon modem/router came today, ahead of schedule, and I will be installing it sometime tomorrow.


P.S. Just to give you an update on how our move from Comcast to the Verizon package is going, no changes were necessary to our home phone (as it was already Verizon), the DSL wireless modem came today and will be installed tomorrow, and DirecTV is going to be installed on Thursday. After that, we end our 15-year relationship with Comcast, as we've had Comcast Cable ever since we built this house. Kind of a sad thought really.... being such a loyal customer and then just leaving, especially on their part. But, oh well! I really don't feel Comcast is moving with the progression of technology very well compared to Verizon and is way behind DirecTV.

 

[Counterfit]

The distinction between bits and bytes is very important here. 900 kiloBYTES per second is roughly 7 megaBITs per second. If the test gives you bytes, multiply that number by 8 to see how it compares to the advertised Verizion line speed, which is in bits.

 

[plinden]

Yes, it's very important to distinguish between bits and bytes, and seeing as you seem to use them interchangeably, I don't think you know the difference. 1 byte = 8 bits.

If you're close to the Verizon CO you'll get close to the advertised 3mb/s (that's megaBITs per second). I'm on 6mb/s DSL and I consistently get about 5mb/s, or about 620kB/s (that's kiloBYTES per second). You probably won't see more than 310kB/s from DSL.

If you get 900kB/s now, that's pretty good, but if it's 900kb/s, you'll be much better off with DSL.

 

[drs68]

http://reviews.cnet.com/7009-7254_7-0.html?CType=2273&ac=301&ISPID=277858&ISPNAME=&&kbps=893.2
This is a link to my speed test results with my current cable internet... it does use a lowercase b (indicating bytes?) but I don't see a distinguishing factor on this site between the two? can someone please look and see? this time it came up with 893.2 but i did have a few more things running so idk.

p.s. I can't connect my Verizon modem up yet until the service is installed tuesday

 

[yg17]

http://reviews.cnet.com/7009-7254_7-0.html?CType=2273&ac=301&ISPID=277858&ISPNAME=&&kbps=893.2
This is a link to my speed test results with my current cable internet... it does use a lowercase b (indicating bytes?) but I don't see a distinguishing factor on this site between the two? can someone please look and see? this time it came up with 893.2 but i did have a few more things running so idk.

p.s. I can't connect my Verizon modem up yet until the service is installed tuesday

lowercase b is bits, so that's 893 kilobits per second, or about 111 kilobytes per second.

FWIW, bandwidth speeds and speed tests are always quoted in kilobits or megabits unless specified otherwise.

 

[drs68]

lowercase b is bits, so that's 893 kilobits per second, or about 111 kilobytes per second.

FWIW, bandwidth speeds and speed tests are always quoted in kilobits or megabits unless specified otherwise.

So then the DSL is actually going to be a little slower than what i have now, correct? As 3 mbps is what they say they are offering which is 768 kbps which will be like 100-150 kbps slower. Am I correct? If so, will I even notice this speed difference?

 

[plinden]

So then the DSL is actually going to be a little slower than what i have now, correct? As 3 mbps is what they say they are offering which is 768 kbps which will be like 100-150 kbps slower. Am I correct? If so, will I even notice this speed difference?

Where did you get 768 kbps from 3 mbps?

3mbps is 3 MEGAbits per second, ie 3 million bits per second. By my calcuations that's almost 4x your current speed (edit: actually 3.35x faster). Look at the link you posted again. Your new 3mbps DSL would be close to the line labelled "N x T1 3.0Mbps" (close since no one ever gets exactly the advertised speed)

 

[numbersyx]

So then the DSL is actually going to be a little slower than what i have now, correct? As 3 mbps is what they say they are offering which is 768 kbps which will be like 100-150 kbps slower. Am I correct? If so, will I even notice this speed difference?

From what I see that you are using the web for, I'm not sure there's going to be a huge difference in your experience between cable and DSL...

 

[Mr. lax]

Cable connections have higher promised speeds but the connection fluctuates based on the time of day, strain on the network, etc. The DSL will sound slower when talking about it, but in practice, i think that it will be faster (atleast as an average)

 

[yg17]

So then the DSL is actually going to be a little slower than what i have now, correct? As 3 mbps is what they say they are offering which is 768 kbps which will be like 100-150 kbps slower. Am I correct? If so, will I even notice this speed difference?

No...3mbps is 3,000kbps. If you're getting 893kbps on cable, then your DSL will be more than 3 times faster.