You have to remember that with a cable modem, your neighbors will have 
an effect.  Cable is more like a hub, DSL is more like a switch.

I'm on a cable modem & it seems my neighbors are light users.  Also, 
the cable company redid the cable in my condo complex a few years ago 
when we had everything ripped up to put in the sewer.  It was about the 
time Mediaone bought...ummm..  the Lowell cable company... cablevision?

I can offer subjective data.  I worked at Genuity until November.  As an
internet backbone provider (Nearnet was run by Genuity as GTE
internetworking or as BBN once upon a time) we had 10Mb (yes, megabits
on ethernet) to the internet.  Probably one of the few places that would
make a cable modem or DSL line seem slow.  I did notice the difference
when I was downloading a CD iso file, but for web surfing and
downloading small files (10MB or less), it's almost a wash.

Oh, since Genuity hosted some of the sites I went to (MSNBC, ZDnet), I was getting 
stuff across the LAN so there's some speed up there too.  Mediaone 
connects to Genuity's net in NYC so there's a bit of a lag from the 
cable modem.

This doesn't help you measure much, but maybe it provides a datapoint 
for some people.

Jack Hodgson said:
>Benjamin Scott wrote:
>>You have to realize something about Internet feeds.  The bandwidth of the
>>"last hop" link is but one of many factors involved.
>
>Ben,
>
>Good explanation of the situation, and I agree with your warning that 
>we can really demand/expect very little (nothing?) from our 
>residential broadband providers. But that doesn't mean there isn't a 
>good reason to try and measure that service.
>
>One of the important factors in judging the acceptability of an ISP 
>is its "speed". It would be helpful in deciding the cost/benefit of 
>cable modem vs. DSL vs. satellite vs. whatever.
>
>So the (implied) original question: How DO we measure the "speed" of 
>our connectivity?
>
>-- Jack Hodgson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 603-433-7161 <www.jackhodgson.com>
>
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-- 
-------
Tom Buskey



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