Originally posted by psx2000
Ok but on average before the end user what is cables max and dsl max send capabilities in KBS?
This is dependent on which DSL standard you are aquiring and what type of cable service you are wanting.
DSL has a current theoretical max speed of 50Mb (6.25MB/s). This is on the g.mnt, vDSL, standard. While it is possible to obtain DSL at that speed, it is incredibly difficult to find a provider that will support it, not to mention a location that is within the maximum distance needed for it. Normally, though, the average residential DSL provider (which uses the g.lite standard) can range anywhere from 128K to 6Mb (16KB/s to 750KB/s) with the maximum over g.lite being 10Mb (1.25MB/s).
Cable internet has the potential maximum of about 44Mb (5.5MB/s) down and about 22Mb (2.75MB/s) up. It is possible to reach those speeds over cable, however the limit here is not the user as one would believe, but the speed of the DOCSIS 1.0/1.1/2.0 standards. Under these standards, cable internet is limited to 10Mb (1.25MB/s) via the 10-BaseT interface found on cable modems. Thus, the possible maximum via a standard DOCSIS compliant modem would be 10Mb (1.25MB/s).
DSL's main selling point is that it is a non-shared system. This is, however not exactly true. Yes, you are not being shared from your home to the CO. However once you are at the CO, you connection is shared with the other DSL customers routing through their system. While it is possible to get fast connection speeds with DSL, you are still limited by the amount of traffic at the CO and over the net. Because of IP reasons, a lot of DSL providers will allow you to host servers or other dedicated equipment. If you want a static IP, they usually can give them out for a few dollars more per month.
Cable is a shared bus network. You connection is "shared" with the other cable users in your area. Most cable providers set the maximum speed per user between 1.5 and 3Mb (187.5KB/s to 375KB/s). However, it is not uncommon to find someone like me with a 10Mb cable connection (actually pay for it
). Cable is usually always on and, considering you have a decent provider/network, can be quite fast and reliable. A lot of providers give guaranteed minimum speeds (the ones that operate over fiber backbone lines) so try to find some that do. Cable providers usually do not like servers run on their network (without subscribing to business services or some sort of home networking plan) because of traffic issues. Servers over cable usually consume more bandwidth than needed, thus causing a henderence with other users.
Personally, I prefer cable to DSL. Much cheeper in the speed to price ratio.