But the whole point was that if you order a 256k DSL line from US-West, you are going to train at whatever speed your phone line supports, just like if you buy a 512k DSL connection or a 7MB DSL connection. So the argument was, now that US-West isn't rate shaping at the DSLAM, why would you buy a 512k / month DSL line. If you're seeing 256k downloads you probably can only get 256k DSL, because US-West isn't rate shaping anymore (unless VISI is). Even if you do get a 512k DSL connection, US-West won't guarantee you /any/ bandwidth, there is no CIR with DSL. They'll drop your packets into the bit-bucket without batting an eye - voice traffic takes precedence over DSL traffic. The argument is that the internet doesn't have the infrastructure to handle residential users with high-speed connections. But if you're downloading from Citilink's tucows mirror or something else that's close or has enough capacity you'll definately benefit from more bandwidth. The thing is, I've got multiple T-1's to VISI (and soon a DS-3) and I'd say on average downloading something from some random place I don't get full speed, I get probably 30KByte, sometimes 50KByte on a good day...that's a rough estimate of an average. I'm certainly not saying that having more bandwidth is bad, but why pay an extra $25 / month to US-West for 512k if you can still train at 512 with a 256k DSL line? Adam Maloney Systems Administrator Sihope Communications On Fri, 25 Aug 2000, Dave Sherohman wrote: > Adam Maloney said: > > The only reason I could see more than 256k is if you're planning on > > transferring large amounts of data from more than 1 place simultaneously. > > Most things you download won't be able to peg a 256k DSL line (or the ISP > > on the other end or backbone won't support it). > > I have to disagree with you here. I have (and am quite happy with) a 256k > DSL connection with Visi as my ISP. Although there are some that run slower, > the majority of my downloads consistently report transfer rates of ~25.3 > kB/s. When you factor in overhead for packet headers, error correction, > etc., that's extremely close to 256 kb/s, so, yes, I do manage to peg the > connection fairly frequently. > > -- > "Two words: Windows survives." - Craig Mundie, Microsoft senior strategist > "So does syphillis. Good thing we have penicillin." - Matthew Alton > Geek Code 3.1: GCS d- s+: a- C++ UL++$ P+>+++ L+++>++++ E- W--(++) N+ o+ > !K w---$ O M- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t 5++ X+ R++ tv b+ DI++++ D G e* h+ r++ y+ > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: tclug-list-unsubscribe at mn-linux.org > For additional commands, e-mail: tclug-list-help at mn-linux.org > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: tclug-list-unsubscribe at mn-linux.org For additional commands, e-mail: tclug-list-help at mn-linux.org