Quote:
Originally posted by DarkReality@27 October 2003 - 00:57
Wow!
I just saw a commercial on TV. SBC is offering DSL now for $26.95 a month!
That's only $3 a month more than AOL, and much faster!
Let's look at the technical side.
When we say 56K, we don't mean kiloBYTES we mean kiloBITS. Don't ask why we have the confusion. Now, there are 8 bits in a byte, so 56K means you can transfer 7 kilyBYTES per second because 7kb*8 bits/byte=56k. Modem internet aka Dialup is Synchronous (sp?) meaning that 7k is divided between upstream (uploads, sending) and downstream (downloading, receiving), so you could have about 3.5k either way or 6k down and 1k up.
Pretty crappy.
My DSL connection tops out at 185 kiloBYTES per second. Versus 7 for 56K. Therefore DSL is about 26 times faster than 56K. If you want to think in terms of 56K, having DSL would be like having 1480K. Actually, it's called 1.5 megaBIT. DSL, however, is Asynchronous (sp?) meaning you can have full downstream, and upstream is rated differently. My upstream is 128K, or 16 kiloBYTES per second. I can be uploading AND downloading at near my limit on both sides, neither affecting the other. Now, I've heard if you max out one, it can affect the other. With Kazaa Lite, it's really hard to max out downloading, and they have a config tool that sets your max upload to just under your limit so as to prevent that. :D
asynchronous just means that your download and your upload speed isnt the same for example 1.5 mbit down and 256 kb up.