While I never actually ran any performance tests on my cable line,
according to comcast, I should have been getting about 1.5Mbps
downstream and 128Kbps upstream. This is what they (claim to)
throttle it to.
According to Earthlink, my speed is limited only by my distance
from the CO. The speeds are not throttled back.
Having studied network theory, I know that there are a number of
ways to get a true bandwidth measurement. I'm not a scientist
though, so I just hit some webpages instead. So these results
might be a little off. :)
The downstream varied from around 300Kbps to 1.2Mbps averaging
around 750Kbps. That means the connection I get has dropped a
hundred K or two.
But the real eye-popper was the upstream rate. It ranged from
130Kbps to _325Kbps_, averaging somewhere probably around
_200Kbps_. That means that the connection you get should be
about 56% faster on average (though you will probably only see it if
you are on broadband yourself).
That's quite an increase, and worth braving dynamic IP numbers
for. (Course, that huge pile of treasure might make it worth braving
the red dragon's lair, but he might still have you for lunch.)
Hopefully, it will all work out nicely.
---Michael Springer
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