I've never really had the chance to play with any high speed connection other than my RoadRunner (5Mbit) at home. I've recently gotten a new job at which we have a T1 run for our dedicated internet access.
I've always known that T1's are 1.5Mbit, but I never really thought about that? I was always under the impressions that the order of speeds was: dialup, dsl, cable, t1, t3. In my mind I've always thought, "wow I wish I could have a T1 to my house."
However, am I accurate on that? As I said my RoadRunner is 5Mbit and when I run bandwidth tests I do indeed get that. When I download at home from good servers I get speeds upwards of 600Kb/sec. Here at work, though, I only get about 180Kb/sec, and now that I do the math, that seems right. 180Kb/sec is roughly the 1.5Mbit that a T1 gets.
So, is cable actually faster than a T1!? Why do so many business use T1's and not cable modems if this is the case?
Also, I never really knew this either, that T1's were actually run with phone lines??? The way people explain why cable is faster is by saying something like "a phone cord is only this thick, where-as a coax cable is about 3 times as thick, therefore it's like more lanes of traffic, it can go faster." But apparently that's not the case. If a T1 at 1.5Mbit can come in through a phone line why were we stuck with 56kbit connections on dial for so long? Are these so called high-speed dial up ISP's using technology similar to a T1?
Sorry if I sound like an idiot. I thought I knew the differences between these connections but I guess I'm wrong. Anything you can tell me to help me understand would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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Ahh...so probably the main reason we have a T1 here vs. cable is because of the phone lines..?? The only in-house hosting we do is our Domain and Exchange server. Exchange shouldn't need that much upload bandwidth...should it? The domain stuff is all local (if I'm correct) so the internet speed wouldn't effect it anyway, right?
Well, if they host their own e-mail and web site, it's quite possible they want the reliability of a T1 and don't want to take changes with cable or DSL. Other issues may be that DSL isn't available in the area and cable MAY not offer business class services - which means they may block web and mail ports so that you couldn't host your own mail and web site.
There are probably three primary reasons why you are using a T1 at work:
1) reliability -- usually T1's come with some type of service level guarantee.
2) T1 speed is not impacted by other members of the network. Cable modem speeds suffer as usage goes up, and "usage" is very granular -- every person in your neighborhood with a cable modem affects the performance of your connection. With a T1, the bandwidth all the way upstream to the provider is all yours. This also more true of DSL, though the argument can be made the DLS is only dedicated to the phone company CO, where bottle necking can occur depending on the infrastructure.
3) With a T-1, the speed is identical in both directions. With Cable, and usually with DSL, the high speed you see is *downstream* speed. For consumers (i.e., folks sufing the web, or receiving e-mail) the vast majority of traffic is downstream. For businesses, it's different. Often a buiness is a _provider_ of data. That is, the consumer is trying to download pages from your corporate server at 5Meg, your outbound (upload, relative to the server) speed better keep up. Cable connections often have a 384Kb upload speed limit -- much to slow for a busy corporate server. Some DSL variants offer downstream/upstream speed that are the same.
Hope this helps.
Thanks guys, I appreciate the information. As for the uptime guarantee I'll have to talk to SBC about that. Our T1 is randomly down a lot. Everytime I call them they test the line...with errors. They send a guy out who always tells me we have a bad line run from outside into the building, but that to get them to change it is a big pain in the ass...and he's right. I've had to open up 15 service tickets, doing the same exact thing each time, and they still won't come change the damn thing!
At home I have RoadRunner Premium service which gives me 8Mbit down and 512Kbit up. Not enough for business. Kind of sad cable doesn't even that out a little bit more for business, or at least make 1 plan for it. When somebody first starts downloading from it begins at like 500kb/sec sometimes, but then immediately drops down to my cap speed of 60kb/sec. :( They've done a pretty good job of keeping the bandwidth from getting overloaded as far as neighborhood users. Very little do I notice a decrease in my speeds.
Thanks again for the info. I do understand a little better now.
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by: leewPosted on 2005-09-02 at 13:59:46ID: 14813528
Hi angelleye,
> I've never really had the chance to play with any high speed connection
> other than my RoadRunner (5Mbit) at home. I've recently gotten a new
> job at which we have a T1 run for our dedicated internet access.
>
> I've always known that T1's are 1.5Mbit, but I never really thought
> about that? I was always under the impressions that the order of speeds
> was: dialup, dsl, cable, t1, t3. In my mind I've always thought, "wow
> I wish I could have a T1 to my house."
>
> However, am I accurate on that? As I said my RoadRunner is 5Mbit and
> when I run bandwidth tests I do indeed get that. When I download at
> home from good servers I get speeds upwards of 600Kb/sec. Here at
> work, though, I only get about 180Kb/sec, and now that I do the math,
> that seems right. 180Kb/sec is roughly the 1.5Mbit that a T1 gets.
>
> So, is cable actually faster than a T1!? Why do so many business use
> T1's and not cable modems if this is the case?
It depends. If you live close enough to a CO a DSL line can be as fast as 7.1Mbit down. Cable Modems are currently in trials (on Long Island) for speeds of 50Mbit down and otherwise vary - some cable providers only offer speeds of as little as 384Kbit while others can go as high as 10Mbit (10000Kbit). The speeds really do vary.
T1's are GENERALLY VERY reliable and offer service level agreements (SLAs) that virtually gaurentee limited downtime. T1s provide a dedicated, equal up and down bandwidth to the internet, not shared until you reach the Provider's end point. They can also be run to just about any place and are not subject to DSL's distance limitations.
DSL does not offer that level of service in MOST cases. DSL also TYPICALLY offers uneven bandwidth (768up, 256 down, for example).
Cable doesn't offer SLAs either. They do provide much faster download speeds, but their upload speeds are usually SLOWER than a T1. Cablevision on Long Island provides 10Mbit down/1Mbit up. In addition, cable connections are shared amongst people in your local loop. Meaning that you might share the same total overall bandwidth with 500 of your neighbors. And if 5 or 10 are downloading loads and loads of stuff constantly - or uploading constantly, it's going to affect your performance.
For a company hosting a web site, they may need the extra up capability a T1 can provide or the otherwise guarenteed level of service.
>
> Also, I never really knew this either, that T1's were actually run with
> phone lines??? The way people explain why cable is faster is by saying
> something like "a phone cord is only this thick, where-as a coax cable
> is about 3 times as thick, therefore it's like more lanes of traffic,
> it can go faster." But apparently that's not the case. If a T1 at
> 1.5Mbit can come in through a phone line why were we stuck with 56kbit
> connections on dial for so long? Are these so called high-speed dial
> up ISP's using technology similar to a T1?
>
A T1 is 24 channels - each channel is 64K - Each channel is also equal to one voice line. You can actually split up a T1 so it's half data and half voice. A regular old modem can only use one channel at a time.
Coax cable is better than a typical phone cable you're thinking of, but to provide the high speeds they do, most cable providers are using optical cable to bring the data to a near by media converter that puts it in a signal that is carried on the coax cable.
> Sorry if I sound like an idiot. I thought I knew the differences
> between these connections but I guess I'm wrong. Anything you can tell
> me to help me understand would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Cheers!