[DM-MUG] DSL vs Cable Speed

[kristau]

Cable has always been faster on the download side at its maximum
throughput, but there is a reason for that.  Cable is usually
configured as a "shared line".  As more people in your neighborhood
join, you can see a decrease in your download speeds depending on what
others are doing (i.e. lots of file sharing).  If you are one of a few
people on the line and no one is a heavy user, then you all get fast
downloads.

DSL is a dedicated, point-to-point circuit, so you are guaranteed the
bandwidth you buy -- between your house and the Central Office, at
least.  If the DSL provider oversells their capacity at the CO, then
you will see a decrease in speeds there, too.  There is no one else
you your "line" until you get to the CO.  Then your speed depends on
the configuration of and load on the ISP's network.

For business purposes, DSL is the way to go because you can get a
Synchronous circuit which has the same upload and download speeds.
You'll notice that your tests show that the connections you have are
Asynchronous, with the download speed being much faster than the
upload speed.  Most consumer lines are Asynchronous because most
people are downloading, and not typically setting up servers (which is
usually against your TOS agreement, BTW).  Most business lines are set
up to support VPN or other server-like traffic, so they benefit from a
Synchronous connection.

On 9/24/07, Chris Tyrrell <tyrrell69 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I recently decided to switch to 3Mbps DSL to take advantage of Qwest's
> bundle savings. For the next few days, I have both DSL and cable, so I've
> been doing some connection speed testing and thought others would like to
> see the results.


-- 
Tired programmer
Coding late into the night
The core dump follows

My GNUPG public key is available at http://www.kristau.net/public_key.asc