ISP questions/help.

[Noodlefoo]

Currently I am running on dial-up at home, which is why I only play during the weekends at Blue's place...ridicule me if you must, but nothing else is available in my area(I live in a fairly rural area, though not the boonies) other than certain satellite ISPs which are all far too overpriced. Some are cheap monthly, but actually have a $2,500.00 installation fee(not kidding), while others are just expensive monthly.

AT&T is finally laying cable in my area, which means I will most likely finally get proper internet. Primarily I posted this to ask if any one has any personal experience with them and have any helpful reviews of their service. Also, I know this may be a dumb question, but I have never heard the term "downstream" rate, which is what they use to describe the speed of the internet(of which they have 6 differing speeds at differing prices). I just don't know what aspect of information transfer it refers to.

Thank you for hearing me out,

-Noodlefoo

[z0th]

Also, I know this may be a dumb question, but I have never heard the term "downstream" rate, which is what they use to describe the speed of the internet(of which they have 6 differing speeds at differing prices). I just don't know what aspect of information transfer it refers to.

not a dumb question, it can be (intentionallly?) confusing. there are generally two items that people get tripped up on.

the short answer: "download rate" is your speed limit, "bandwidth cap" is your size limit.

longer answer...

1. "downstream rate" -- this is the measurement, typically in megabits (Mbit), of how fast the connection has the POTENTIAL to go. this is a measurement of actual download speed. 1 Mbit is roughly equivelent to 100kb/s in speed. so if you are looking at a 10Mbit connection, you would be able to download at an absolute maximum of 1000kb/s. just keep in mind that this is the upper ceiling, you wont get that speed constantly.

2. "bandwidth cap" -- this is the measurement, typically in gigabytes (Gb), of how much actual data you can download. if you exceed the cap, you will generally get charged money per GB on the overage. the easiest way to think about this is in hard disk space. 1Gb of data downloaded from the internet takes up 1Gb of space somewhere on your hard drive.

that help at all?

[Noodlefoo]

Yeah, it does help quite a bit, thank you for the information.
Now all I have to do is decide which speed is good enough for the gaming aspect so that I can play games with as little lag as possible for a decent enough price.

[D34THSPAWN]

well i play on 1.5 meg and my ping is around 50 or 60. i was on that at my grandparents house for a while and was getting 30 or so. but before my grandparents got that they had 256k which some of you might remember made me change my name to deathping cuz it was around 200. i'd reccomend faster than 1.5 meg personally. it is nice except when you have to download something cuz you only get about 150 kb/s give or take

[z0th]

ive got a 10Mbit down by 1Mbit up line and my ping is 30-50ms.

ping is actually a measure of latency, sort of like distance in network terms. while technically your allocated speeds shouldnt affect your latency, but they do. just becase ISP's will clamp down on, or bump up priority of certain kinds of traffic depending on the account you have. theres also the fact that the state of the intar-tubes changes from momment to momment. big routers go down, others come up, that kind of thing.

edit: sentence syntax, good is my english. :-P

[captainAngry]

I have 16Mbit down and 3Mbits down. My ping on our server ranges between about 10 and 20.

I download and and upload all those damn maps so I am glad I have a decent connection. I do web development for a living so finding the best internet service in my area for a reasonable price is the first thing I do when I move.

[Noodlefoo]

Cool cool, thanks everyone, it helped me understand everything more.
I think I'm going with the 6.5 or 10 mbs connection.

[Divine Fate]

I use AT&T's internet service, and have a very fast connection. If you're getting what I have, customer service is great and they installed everything fine. I have only once had internet downtime, and it runs smoothly all the time. I have a 25m down and 2m up: my ping would be lower if I wasn't running 5 computers on a network with constant activity, but even with it as it is I have an average ping at around 50.