Just made a download at 40kbps with dial up!!!

[Jose]

Yap, amazing never had happened to me. Makes you wonder if the lack of speed sometimes isn't just made up by the providers...It was on peer to peer though.

[odin]

Only possible with uncompressed data, such as bitmaps or text files.

[createcoms]

Thats right, there wasnt actually 40kbps being transferred literally but the hardware compression was able to acheive a good result on whatever this uncompressed data was and so reduced the amount of data needed to send so *effectively* u were getting 40kbps.

Kind of cool for some things.  I prefer my 128k full duplex ADSL line which doesnt have hardware compression tho, but cuz its digital (no AD or DAC action going on).

And next year once I got a job I will get my 7.6Mbps ADSL line...... Counterstrike server on me!  :-D  :-D

[Jose]

Hmm, ok, I was kinda thinking of puting up ADSL too, but the thing is you have to pay a fixed price with virtually every provider, and they limit your maximum transfers.
I was kinda wondering if that max lim.  is for downloads and not for HTTP, cause in that case some cool software might appear or already exists that... :-D

[Argo]

You should be able to max out at 7KBps. Assuming perfect conditions....

[KennyR]

Even if your modem was capable of that speed, the serial connection that connects it to your computer (if it's an external modem) isn't. Serial itself is too slow.

56k is an absolute maximum on an analogue phone line using audio wavelengths. Nothing faster can exist - it's been tried, and isn't reliable. In practise, dialup gives you about 4600cps max of raw transfer speed. If you get over that, it's probably modem compression. Face it, dialup uses a century old technology. Broadband is the present.

[Agafaster]

KennyR wrote:

Face it, dialup uses a century old technology. Broadband is the present.

But at around 25 quid a shot its still way too expensive. not to mention 25 to 50 quid connection fee. :pissed:

[whabang]

What do you guys pay for those frigging connections anyway?
I pay 365 SEK ( 43$, 40€, 27£ ) a month for my 2.4 mbit adsl connection. No connection fee.
With a modem I generally got stuck with the same prices, but then I only checked my e-mail with it, allmost no surfing at all.

Now I can surf as much as I want, listen to "high quality" web radio ( don't start about MP3 and DivX, they generally suck big time when it comes to quality... ) etc. etc...

[KennyR]

But at around 25 quid a shot its still way too expensive. not to mention 25 to 50 quid connection fee

I know - blame BT's monopoly. Europe gets twice the speed for half the price, and it's even cheaper in the US. The fastest DSL in the UK is 1mbit*- that that's £40 a month - ridiculous!

* Edit : Correction - £40 for 1mbit - there is no 2mbit DSL in the UK! :-x

That said, dialup really is too slow. I was sick of its 2 hour cutoffs too. Once you get broadband, you'll never look back. You can even get 128k or 256k ISDN - it's not much more expensive than dialup and is a hell of a lot more usable.

[Crumb]

In Spain the speed is pathetic and the price is similar :-(
With Cable for example we pay 30€ (VAT not included) monthly for 128kbit (and telephone, phonecalls not included, of course :-( ) the uploads are a bit limited too (1/2 or 3/4 of the download speed) It raises to 36€ after the first 6 months. for 6 or 9 € more you get a 300Kbit connection. AS you can see it's quite expensive compared to the rest of Europe :-( but I find it better than telephone, where you pay 18€ (VAT included) and you can only connect from 6pm to 8am. Now I've seen a company that for 20€ (VAT excluded) gives you 24h phone access
ADSL costs 40€ (VAT not included) for 256kbit download/128kbit upload

Although there are 3 or 4 companies that give you ADSL access, it's just an oligopoly and they have more or less the same prices. I don't know anyone with a 2.4Mbit connection and I think that I won't know anyone in many years :-/

In spain not much time ago the only telephone company was Telefonica, the government privatized it and gave it to their friends, and they haven't done anything to improve our connections and lower the prices... Anyway People who voted them don't have a clue about technology and think that paying lots of money for a crappy modem connection or the slowest ADSL/cable connections of europe is cool and that "spain is going well"... government is corrupt and the Bush puppet. They are censoring everything they don't like like in the dictator Franco times... for example what they did with the Prestige was the most stupid thing in the world... they forced the captain to do zig zags instead of moving the ship to a port... and they want to go on and pass the water from one region to other to earn the comisions of the construction companies involved(and punish aragon because they didn't vote them). Thank you Spanish Governmet (PP) for making us travel in time to 1970! for redefining what is people without work or not, for your rubish contracts that now companies can make us, for allowing companies to getting rid of workers without paying a cent... as you can see I love the spanish government  :-x

Well... I'm going to describe the situation in Spain with one word: Pathetic :-( :-x

[KennyR]

And next year once I got a job I will get my 7.6Mbps ADSL line...... Counterstrike server on me!

That depends on your upload speed. Most ISPs sacrifice it for download speed. I've seen really fast DSL with only 192k upload - not really useful for running any kind of decent game server...

[YttriumOx]

And people wonder why I love my 10Mbit Cable for only $69.95 (about $US35) a month...  :-P  (capped at 3GB downloads (free upload) at which point they speed limit you to 28.8Kbps)
Considering the other major provider here charges only slightly less for a 1.5Mbit Cable with only 550MB a month (after which they charge you for the extra usage, but you maintain the speed), I think I'm getting a pretty good deal.
I can also change my plan on a month by month basis if I want a higher or lower limit at a different price...

[KennyR]

But doesn't cable take a performance hit if lots of people in your neighbourhood are downloading at once?

[Bodie]

YttriumOx wrote:
And people wonder why I love my 10Mbit Cable for only $69.95 (about $US35) a month...  :-P  (capped at 3GB downloads (free upload) at which point they speed limit you to 28.8Kbps)

Optus, eh?

I hope your enjoying your 5 gig download limit ;-) .

[Elektro]

KennyR wrote:
But doesn't cable take a performance hit if lots of people in your neighbourhood are downloading at once?

Not really if the network is designed as it should be nothing slows down. And ADSL has the same problem too. You have your own connection to the DSLAM central but if the network from there to the ISP is full the speed will drop down too.