just got dsl for 14.95 a month......was wondering how you tell the speed of the hookup? with dialup was just putting the mouse on the computer icon and would tell you.....also, when not in use do you disconnect the phone line going into the computer? thanks.......now the updates with edge will be a whole lost shorter in lenght.

 

Leave it plugged in at all times.

There are several free online connection speed test.

Just google, connection speed test.

 

Here are some sites to test with.

http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/BandwidthUp.asp

http://www.dslreports.com/stest

As far as disconnecting the line, no need to. I do shut down may pc and have my modem on a switchable extension. I just turn it off.

Do make sure you have a good AV/firewall program.

 

I just used the http://www.dslreports.com/stest from kingfish post.

My results

dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-03-14 19:10:32 EST:
2736 / 466
Your download speed : 2736 kbps or 342 KB/sec.
That is 50.9% better than an average user on sprint-hsd.net

Your upload speed : 466 kbps or 58.3 KB/sec.
That is 8.6% better than an average user on sprint-hsd.net

That was with outlook express, msn, yahoo, norton 2006, all running! (My outlook checks for new messages every minute, and I recived 4 emails during the test.)

 

Download speed: 595 kilobits per second
Upload speed: 141 kilobits per second
faster then dialup.....is this ok?

 

That depends on your DSL, for a 640K line that would be acceptable, for a 1.5 it would suck.

Dump the DSL and go cable !

 

It depends on how far you are from the CO. For Verizon DSL, the limit to get any DSL is about 18,000'. To get 3.0mb service you need to be within 11,000'. I am at 10,900' per billing at Verizon. I normally get about 2.7-2.8mb download speed, and up to about 650mb upload speed. Also a lot depends on the condition and age of your lines.
Also, to keep from having trouble, make sure you have filters on EVERY jack that is NOT used for DSL. If you split a connection for use with both DSL and regular phone, make sure you have a filter on the phone side.
Because I have quite a few jacks for phone and DirecTV service, I ended up buying extra filters from Radio Shack.

Edit: Also, it can depend on the time of day for the particular site you are getting your speed check from. I can use the same site 5 times in a half hour and get quite a difference in speed, due to the volume of traffic at the site. To get a real check, use multiple sites, multiple times.

 

it is 601 this morning....supposed to be 764 or something like that.....another question... usually put the computer on standby, and when i got up this morning it was on? i run avast for the virus protection for now....should i just shut it down at night then? thanks.

 

You could shut it down, or you can look under Win XP as to what wakes the system up. It could be a scheduled task, like a virus scan or auto update feature that woke it.
Myself, I turn all scheduled tasks/auto updates off and do them myself, probably more often than the scheduled stuff.
As far as your speed, first check dslreports, they have a feature that may be able to tell you how far you are from the CO. There is a lot of info out there. If that doesn't help, check with the phone company, in Verizons case, the billing dept. They should have the info.
As I stated before, there are a lot of things that will effect your speed.

 

For 15 a month 768k is normal and not bad considering max on a dialup under perfect conditions is 53k.

Providing you have some sort of firewall (Windows XP SP2 has a basic one built in) you can leave your system on.

 

If it's only 14.95 a month, I would bet it's a 768 plan. And, you will never reach your exact advertised speed, becuase of TCP/IP overhead, and it probably is a PPPoE connection as well, so more overhead.

Also, as mentioned already, different speeds at different times of testing is quite normal due to different levels of Internet traffic at different times.

Jim, do you have paperwork from them that describes what plan you purchased?

EDIT: Vader slipped that one in while I was typing up this one.

 

yea but great minds think alike


now all we got to do if find some

 

I pay $39.95 a month for 6 MB/1 MB. That's right, I said, "6 MEGS down and 1 MEG up." We also have another package we offer our residential customers...it's a whopping 9 MEGS down and 1 MEG up. 9 freaking MEGS.

 

Your current bandwidth reading is:

724.40kbps

which means you can download at 90.55 KB/sec. from our servers.

28.8 kbps dial-up
33.6 kbps dial-up
53.3 kbps dial-up
56 kbps ISDN
128 kbps ISDN
384 kbps DSL
724.4 kbps YOU***************************
768 kbps DSL
1000 kbps DSL
1500 kbps DSL/T1/Cable Modem

this from my isp running test tonight......what i have:
residential ADSL 768k/128k
zoom 5560 DSL modem