doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com More New Internet Connection, Fiber optics

Yesterday, Verizon installed my "Fiber to the house" connection for my internet and phone. I have a blazing 5 mb/sec download and 2 mb/sec upload service. I coulda opted for a 15/5 or more for more money, of course.

Installation took half a day for 5 guys...and it was free! $29 for first 6 mos then $39/mo

They actually had to shoot a hole under my yard and driveway and install a flex conduit and pull a fiber optic line to my garage.

They came in the house with RG6 coax and provided a 4 port (wired) router with a built-in Wi-Fi (wireless) ("G") router at no cost. Their wireless router has better range and speed than my old Linksys 54G router with booster antennaes.

Downloading all these gun pics just got faster for me.

Chuck,

I've been watching this fiber optic thing because it's supposed to be coming here sometime this year. But I was told to expect up to 50mbps download.

I have cable now and just did a speed check. I got 11mbps download and 2 upload so I'm surprised the fiber optic speed isn't greater, are you sure your 5mbps isn't 50?

Really sounds great ----- I only wished I knew what you are talking about. Ken

Mr. Ken,

It's the size of the pipe and water pressure of the information going to your computer.

Rob

Rob,
I think they are limiting speed for more money. http://www22.verizon.com/content/consumerfios/packages+and+prices/packages+and+prices.htm

They are offerring up to 30mbs on residential accounts but I did see somewhere that 50 was available, maybe on the commercial accounts.

I had cable which had the potential for higher speeds, but routinely slowed down pretty slow during peak hours. Cable also had some higher perfomance packages for more money.

Chuck H.com

Just saw where the neighboring town thru which I get my mail & phone service is considering installing FTTP (Fiber to the Premisis) but don't suppose it will affect me. The downside to living out here in an isolated rural area is I am stuck with 57.6kbs dial-up. Upside is I can step out the door & fire any of my guns I feel like, when I feel like.

Chuck, for anyone coming to high speed service from dial-up, they'll see a big difference. As RecoilBob says, it's the size of the pipe and the pressure that determines how fast you receive data. But the other side of the equation is how much pressure and volume the server is sending to you.

That said, I had 1.5 mbs DSL service and when it was upgraded to 3 mbs speed (gratis), I thought I'd see a big bifference. Didn't happen, made no difference. I can go to a speed test site and verify that I get about 3 mbs download, but it rarely happens in real life. Many files that I download open a window that shows transfer rate. The highest I've observed was about 1.5 mps. Most are around 500k (0.5 mbs).

I think it's because of several issues. Some sites don't have the capacity to send as data fast as you can receive it. And some sites limit the way they apportion their upload bandwidth to make sure that one user doesn't get it all and others are left without. A good example might be your local paper or TV weather site. They may have 50 mbs of upload bandwidth, but restrict it so many people can log on at one time. Cable (or Roadrunner) internet service has high bandwidth and connects to a splitter that serves eight customers. If you're the only one in your neighborhood on line, you get it all. But when somebody else connects, your rate drops to half, etc. That's why cable is famous for slowing down during busy times. DSL, on the other hand, gives you a dedicated speed (slower than cable) but it doesn't change no matter how busy.

There's a whole world of internet geeks out there telling us how to ping a host and maximize the data packets to optimize speed. You can play with it by searching for "internet speed."

Hope all this doesn't sound like a wet blanket. You'll be happy. This technology is getting so cheap that I can't see why everyone doesn't go to some type of high speed service. Even satelite TV services are offering it where land lines aren't available. Once you leave dial-up, you'll wonder how you ever survived it. 2-piper, you there?

That's bandwidth I envy. If I did that, it'd be possum and day old coffee till I could post bail.

Wow. And I was happy with my 1mb DSL for USD60.- a month!

No wonder it takes us so long to get out of 3rd World status.
Blame again the Spaniards who own Telefónica Movistar. They are getting
their colonies back and we don't even realize it. ;-)

JC(AL)