?s about download speeds, wifi, roku vudu etc

[bofe954]

I am currently stuck with DSL due to home phone requirements.

We had service that was supposed to be "up to" 1.5mbps. Roku and some other systems say that is sufficient to stream movies. Then I ran speedtest.net. It says I have 0.15mbps. It seems a little low to me since it says it would take 35 min to download a movie clip at that pace and it doesn't...I can sit and watch netflix streams on my monitor but I imagine the resolution would be awful if I had a 50+ inch monitor.

Our provider says that their 12mbps service is recommended for streaming movies. Who is right?

We bumped our service up to 7mpbs(it hasn't kicked in yet) because it was only a couple bucks more. Now I want to run a wireless router and add a roku/vudu/or a blue ray player that can also stream to my TV. I have netflix so I'd like to be able to use their service and hulu etc.

What speed do I really need to see? Any equipment recommendations that are wifi capable?

[larry cazes]

We stream video from Netflix through our TIVO over a wireless link through a DSL router. It may take 30 seconds or so at the start to buffer up but then it is seamless. It is not HD quality but neither is our older plasma TV.

[bofe954]

Do you know what download speed your plan is, and what it shows up as on speedtest.net?

[Graham Smith]

The key phrase here is "up to" - that means pretty much anything from 0.1mbps to 1.5mbps. The closer you are to the distribution point, the faster you will get. But if you are getting significantly less than 1.5mbps now, changing plans may not help because you may already be at the limit for your connection.

These speed limited plans are really deceptive. They guarantee a maximum speed but do not guarentee a minimum.

[larry cazes]

Do you know what download speed your plan is, and what it shows up as on speedtest.net?

This DSL is a 1.5M line from Earthlink through a Netgear G router. I have no idea about speedtest.net results, though. I have never wanted for more bandwidth.

[bofe954]

The key phrase here is "up to" - that means pretty much anything from 0.1mbps to 1.5mbps

I ended up calling our provider to talk to them about this... Since I was getting about 10% of max. They said they try and work with you to get 80% at least. I have to work with them a little, trying the modem on different jacks etc to try and figure out the problem and I didn't have enough time today. Our service bumps up the 11th so I'll get to see if it increases or is limited somehow. They are blaming the phone lines in my house so far. They may be right. House was built in '49 and I'm sure no one cared much about DSL then...

[DWFAN]

I have a Roku hooked up to wirelss via DSL and the picture comes out very good on my 1080P 42 inch TV. We cant get cable into the building because its a historic district and would be $20K to bury the line under the street from the nearest access point, so we're stuck with DSL.

I cant imagine them paying for high speed DSL either. I would try the Roku before shelling out for a monthly fee/contract to up your speed. Roku has a 100% money back guarantee also.

[Graham Smith]

They are blaming the phone lines in my house so far.

They are correct. DSL piggybacks on POTS (plain old telephone service) lines. The further you are from the central station the more the signal degrades. The older the lines are, the more the signal degrades. The problem is, that since there is no guaranteed minimum connection speed, there is little you can do other than to run a new line directly from your modem to the house junction box - from that point on it's the telephone companies problem and they are not likely to run you a new line just because you are only getting 50% of the max speed.

Several years ago I had a customer in Annapolis that had an ISDN line they used for remote access (before DSL there was ISDN). There was nothing but problems with it and since my company had put in the server and router, we got the blame. We spent hours and hours and hours working on the system, all the while insisting that it was the POTS lines coming into the building and not the equipment we put in and Verizon kept insisting that it wasn't their problem. Long story short, the equipment we were using was from Cisco and once the tech support got bumped far enough up the chain, they went directly to a regional office at Verizon who got a local tech out to check the lines and (surprise) they were crap. Once a new line had been run from the central office, all the problems went away.

For those who have a cable modem, the same applies. They can offer speeds that are theoretically higher than DSL, but it all depends on the quality of cable in your neighborhood and how many others on the same lines have service - the pipes are only so big and the more people using them the slower the overall speed for everyone.

The only technology out there today that can, in theory, give you cleaner faster service is FIOS, but they jury is still out on how well that's going to work in the long run.

[Flatland Shooter]

They are blaming the phone lines in my house so far. They may be right. House was built in '49 and I'm sure no one cared much about DSL then...

I know the feeling. My house was built in 1999 and to get top speeds we had to do some re-wiring. I also have a 1.5M contract but never get close to it.

I started watching this thread about download speeds when my daughter (who lives east of Oklahoma City) advised that she was getting rid of her aircard (went off contract and no longer has "unlimited access") and is going with a local microwave system that will supposedly have speeds that will allow her to use her WII and NetFlix account.

I had no idea this kind of stuff even existed.

Bill

[TGriff]

You should be OK if you can get close to 7Mbps. We have 20 Mbps through cable and can have five people watching movies, playing XBox live, etc. Double-check all your filters for DSL. My parents battled horrible bandwidth for a year and discovered that they didn't have a filter on the line going into their satellite box.