On Mon, Jun 11, 2007 at 12:31:38PM +0100, Simon Capstick wrote:
> James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> >I have a friend who can only get 512Kbps over their DSL line. I was
> >thinking that they could maybe get 4 DSL lines, and then load balance
> >over them to make 2Mbits.
> >
> >Does anyone know any ISPs that support this sort of service?
> I'm assuming you're referring to download speeds.
It's possible (nay probable) that his friend just lives far enough away
from the exchange that 1Mb or 2Mb aren't viable as stable alternatives.
I can't get more than 512kb where I am (in South Reading) due to the
distance from the exchange (well I might be able to on Max or an ADSL2+
service from Bethere but I don't really want to risk that just now).
> A 50:1 line running at a maximum of 512Kbps will only give you 10Kbps at
> peak times, many times slower than an early 1990s modem!
It's rare though that you actually see this and certainly to this extent
due to the bursty nature of most net traffic.
> A 20:1 ADSL Max line running at 6Mbps will still only give you around
> 512Kbps of usable (download) bandwidth at peak times.
I'd like to hear if you have actually experienced this first hand. I
think there would be an open revolt of small businesses if this were
actually true most of the time.
In reality most people aren't solidly downloading all day (and this is
being restricted by the caps ISPs are having to bring in) so contention
isn't brought into play in this extreme way.
--
Simon Huggins \ "Just wait. My crystal ball is infallible." -- Linus
\
http://www.earth.li/~huggie/ htag.pl 0.0.22
