bandwidth/connection questions

I am using an earthlink DSL connection. My speed tests out at just over 300 Kbps for both download and upload. This is far below the stated maximum rate of 1.5 Mbps for the connection.

Is it normal for DSL to be that far below the maximum rate?

Would I see a significant increase in (real) bandwidth if I switched to cable modem?

Would that improve the performance of Second Life for me? Right now it seems to take forever for sims to load, and I experience lag and packet loss even when I set bandwidth as low as 200 Kbps.

I am running a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 with 3 GB RAM and an ATI X1600 with 512 MB.

Thanks.

cable vs dsl is soley dependant on your provider, so call them up and ask

round here dsl is 6mb and cable is 8mb ...

Do you actually get 6mb, or is that just the advertised max bandwidth? 6mb would be about 20 times faster than what I am getting on my DSL!

its like 5.8 average and has spikes upto 8mb

Wow. Guess my DSL really sucks. No wonder I'm spending all my time in SL twiddling my thumbs while things rez.

Try to figure out where your packets are being lost. If it is only while using SL, you are out of luck. But I will guess that you would have packet loss for other sites, maybe even to your dsl provider, in which case they should fix it...unless it is in your house wiring 8-(

lee

I have a Time Warner cable connection.......Road Runner. I pay extra for 6 mps upload (the normal is 4 mps) and I pretty much get it (anywhere from about 5.6 to 6.0). I looked into DSL when I was first getting broadband but the central office being over 3 miles from my house they wouldn't give it to me because my speed would diminish greatly. Maybe you are on the edge of being too far from the CO? If that's the case then without a huge investment on your part DSL may not be the route for you (it wasn't for me). I'm happy with my cable connection.........it meets the speed every time I test it. It's about the same price as DSL. In over 4 years of the connection I've only experience two outages on my internet (TV might go out but for some reason the internet stays up........not at full speed though).

The stories about your speed going down on cable with the number of people connected on your node is probably not true. There are numerous homes connected to Road Runner in my area (I live in the Los Angeles area) and my speed remains constant. Given a choice, I'd pick cable over DSL everytime.

The problem with all these increases in bandwidth advertised, is they will never tell you the contention ratios, that is the number of people you share your precious bandwidth with. Nobody gets a full uninterrupted sole use of the full bandwidth quoted, its just a potential or maximum your line will support, based on distance from the exchange.
When I had a 2mb ASDL connection, I went with a business package, which is quoted (at the time, since removed from the information) as a 20:1 ratio, whereas 'domestic' connections were 50:1. I enjoyed a stable 1.5mb connection until they swapped me over to a domestic connection without telling me, or seeking my permissions, and they never lowered the price when they did. After threatening them with Oftel and a Solicitor, they refunded me part of the money and after 3 months finally took me off their node.
I signed up with BT Broadband 8mb, after testing my lines capabilities from the exchange, at it's rated at 7.195mb potential. In the first 3 months things were great.. connections stable at 4.5-5.9mb bandwidth. Since then, in the past 4 weeks I have dropped down to around 360-490kbps downstream, which is almost equal to my upstream rating.
4 weeks of dealing with their support, that employ people that sound like 1st year interpretures, speaking through a cardboard toilet roll from the otherside of the moon, they finally told me that my 'interleaving' needed adjusting at the exchange (interleaving being a techie alternative to contention ratio), apparently I has sharing my bandwidth with over 200 people!
My broadband connection at work, rated at 2mb ASDL still runs at 1.5-1.8mb and only has a contention ratio of 20:1, support is almost instant, and they don't leave you hanging for days, they stay with you and sort it on the spot.

To get the full picture, DEMAND that your service provider divulge what the contention ratios are for the package they offer.

Internet over Cable and DSL are both kludges on top of old technology.
In the case of DSL, it is very sensitive to distance from the phone company central office, the 'quality' of the wire to your house and your house's wiring. Normal phone lines include all sorts of analog 'amplifiers' that make your voice calls sound great over miles of copper wire. But those 'amplifiers' destroy digital signals.
In the case of CABLE, bandwidth IS shared by all. Think of the local cable network as a 'tree', with a medium sized trunk and LOTS of thin branches. The trunk is just large enough to hold the IP traffic of say, '5%' of the users simultaneously. When more thin branches try to use it, there's congestion in the trunk, and everyone slows down. (No spamming! I know this isn't technically accurate, but the analogy holds)

Both DSL and Cable advertise speeds of "up to". A guaranteed rate is a business class connection, and will cost you many Lindens.

That said, 300kbps is very low for DSL.
---> You are NOT using a wireless router on your end are you?

Then, I'd call and have the provider do a Line Test. (they can do it over the phone while you wait.) If you're armed with a TRACEROUTE or two that would help find out WHERE the problem is at.

Thanks for the info. No, I am not using a wireless router.

I just discovered that I also seem to have a latency issue -- 375 ms.

If I set the bandwidth slider in preferences to 160 kbps the packet loss is minimized and things seem to run smoothly, though it takes a l-o-n-g time to rez after teleporting to a new sim. I often just type afk after teleporting and go do something else for a few minutes while waiting for things to rez.

I'm actually surprised at how well SL has been working for me, given the poor quality of my connection. Latest test showed 328kbps download, 301 upload, and ping of 375ms.

[edit: Some of my lag problems apparently were due to the latest viewer update. I went back to the previous version of the viewer and everything is working much better now.]

I will probably switch to cable. The price is almost the same as DSL, and it couldn't be any worse than what I've got now ... could it?

To put closure on this thread, I called Earthlink tech support and asked why my dsl was so slow. They checked the line and told me it is because I am too far from the phone company office to get any higher speed. I asked if I could switch to cable modem, and they told me they had no circuits available in my area. So I called Comcast and had them install one of their high speed cable modems. Now I am getting almost 8 mbps, more than 20 times what I was getting before. SL is so much nicer now. I hope it holds up over time.

Some less scrupulous companies like to sell out to the extreme edge of the "technically feasible" range.

earthlink sucks!

I switched after 8 years with there dsl went from 1100kbs test to 11,000kbs with at&t dsl, and got at&t to bring me a new drop to the house so I am all new wire as well for free! and all for less than I was paying for the crummy eartlink.