[HM] Cable Modem Speed

[Duane Murphy]

--- At Wed, 30 Nov 2005 13:44:50 -0500, TheCraigLaw at aol.com wrote:

>Hi, I have never understood the whole "data speed" issue with high-speed
>internet. Lately, however, I have been made aware that I may be getting
>duped by my carrier.
>
>My cable modem info page says I am getting the following performance:
>Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 3146000 
>Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 256000 
>
>Now, which of those figures do I use to compare my performance with the
>industry standards? Do I have 256k "high" speed internet, or 3.1mbps?
>Something tells me 256k...

Nope, you have 3.1 Mbs.

Broadband connections are typically (but not always) asymmetric. That is
the downstream speed (how fast data gets to your computer) is a
different and usually faster speed than the upstream speed (how fast
data leaves your computer).

The rational is that most of us do web browsing and email reading. The
protocol for web browsing has little tiny requests (upstream) with large
responses (downstream) so upstream speed is more important.

If you are running a server, then having fast downstream speed might be
important because you are the one providing the data for web browsing,
email reading, etc.

So in comparing your speed to other broadband systems you have a 3Mb line.

 ...Duane