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General discussion

Download speed: What is really needed?

Jul 3, 2007 3:31AM PDT

Hopefully someone can help get thru this. I currently have Comcast at 6.0mbps download and 384kbps upload. I'm considering changing services, Verizon in this case. They offer 3.0mbps download and 768kbps upload. How much of this is needed and how much is waste? I download tons of music and videos, also need to be able to play videos as part of my business (without having to wait hours for it to download)...so this comes down to what you really need to be efficient and work well, and how much is just promotional numbers. Can someone help make sense of the numbers? Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Remember this. . .
Jul 3, 2007 8:58AM PDT

Download speed is in perfect laboratory conditions.

I have Comcast and am pleased. For downloading, the bigger number is better. But it totally depends on the site. How big is their backbone? Time of day? A gazillion other factors.

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Cost factor
Jul 3, 2007 11:39AM PDT

Comcast works great but they're about twice as expensive as Verizon. It's why I'm asking questions about downloads and such because with those numbers if I can still get what I need at a lower cost, so be it. That, and their customer service is awful. Any more thoughts on the speed issue?

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I have no good words for Verizon DSL.
Jul 3, 2007 12:28PM PDT

My neighbor had to call in because his DSL modem wouldn't connect. I was there and all I needed was the name and password to the modem. While I would have looked it up on google he wanted to call in.

It was laughable. There was some 10 second VOIP (bad voip) delay from when you stopped talking to when the person would start to talk. This simple question took 20 minutes to get an answer. Imagine if we didn't know what we wanted to know?

Bottomline. It's time they start fielding gear that "just works." No more requiring the home owners to point the web browser at the gear and set it up with profiles and more.

Cable modems have this all over DSL. You call in the MAC address or such and in no time it works. Done.

Think about it.

Bob