Internet speed name?

Question

I would like to know what is and what is the difference between DSL and Cable modem/T1. I have a 1 meg broadband connection, which one is my one? and wat does T1 stand for?

please can someone tell me which one do i currently have, DSL or cable modem. Some of the answers confused me, i have NTL broadband 1 meg.

Answer 1

I'm going to try to explain this without going all crazy technical:

Cablemodem: Delivered over coaxial cable (what your cable tv comes on). Full throughput can be up to 27Mb down and 2.5Mb up but it's usually limited because of the pipe on the end (at the cable company). The coaxial cable is connected to a CMTS at the cable company locally. The most noticeable thing the CMTS delivers is your ability to be connected to the cable service provider. 1.5 is about average, although some places offer more. My cablemodem provider offers 3Mb down, but generally real world I get 1.9Mb down during peak times. I believe - though technology could have changed - that cablemodem bandwidth is shared within your community. Although I think in the last few years there's been a way to control bandwidth hogging from the neighbors. Cablemodem service comes in 2 varieties : 2 way (or bidirectional) where all signals are sent over the coax or 1 way (or what I call a hybrid) the download is over coax and the upload is over telephone line. If a hybrid type of cablemodem is in service, the cable company also has to provide a modem bank to dialup and connect to. As a customer you wouldn't see any of that, but it's necessary. Price (varies) about 25-50 dollars a month for residential.

DSL: Digital Subscriber Line - Brought to you over copper telephone wires. The speed reliability depends on your proximity to the central office. Though people even on the far end, don't seem to have a problem with speed anymore - not sure if that's due to the popularity and availability growing (and more points of presences being placed) or better technology. DSL theoretical bandwidth can be up to ~8Mb but more realistically is about 6, but it's normally set to about 1.5 Mb down. Prices vary from 15-50 dollars a month for residential.

T1: A T1 is part of the T-carrier system. Historically designed in the 60's by Bell System (going on memory here) for digitalized voice. A T1 is pure digital goodness using PCM and TDM. (Respectively I believe that stands for Pulse Code Modulation and ...um.. Time-Division Multiplexing. I just double checked that - yah that's right.) T1's deliver 1.544 Mbps. Also part of the T-carrier system is the T3 - which is 44.7Mbps. These types of lines are usually fiber but can also be copper. The price ranges on these 2, but for a T1 it is 500-1500 a month (location is everything) and a T3 15000-50000 (my husband's company got a sweet deal for 15k, but another friend's company was quoted 50k for their T3 so prices vary by provider) per month.

Other types of Internet connections for consumers are: ISDN (128Kbps) delivered over copper telephone wires. To get ISDN one needs to get an ISDN circuit from the phone company, then find an ISP to deliver the Internet Service over that circuit. Last ISDN line I sold cost 60 dollars per month for the circuit, and we provided the Internet Service for 29.99 a month. Basically the ISDN modem dialed up to our dialup modem pool and stayed connected with no idle disconnects. (Some ISP's may set it up differently, this is how we set ours up.)

Here's the rest of the big pipes:
OC3 - 155 megabits per second
OC12 - 622 megabits per second
OC48 - 2.5 gigabits per seconds
OC192 - 9.6 gigabits per second

I've never seen anyone purchase that - quite pricey I am sure. To give you an idea who purchases those, my college (although it was only 10000 students) has an OC3, which was plenty of bandwidth for the students back when napster was rampant and our Sysadmin did not throttle P2P bandwidth.

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What does T1 stand for. T-carrier 1. Real fancy, isn't it? ;-)

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What do you have for broadband? Is your ISP using coaxial cable or telephone lines? Are you in an apartment complex where you just plug into the wall? Some communities (like apartments) purchase a T1 for their complex and then wire up the buildings while they charge varying prices (25 dollars a month for some college networked buildings off campus to about 60 dollars a month for residential apartments in a city) As always with the pricing listed - the mileage may vary greatly!

Ok, before I have put you to sleep, there are other Internet Services styles available: Internet Service delivered over power lines (Manassas, VA has been using that for the last few years - I have never even seen it in use or used it and have no idea about the price at all, but I have 'heard' it was reasonably priced), FIOS which is fiber to the home. Verizon has started their FIOS program which is gaining popularity (which ultimately is what I would desire), and satellite internet service (which I had with Starband prior to my cablemodem). Satellite Internet service varies - high latency and low upload speeds plagued it. Wildblue has come out with a true hardware satellite modem with decent upload speeds which is gaining popularity, although an expensive startup. For many that is the only option. Bandwidth is monitored and metered on Wildblue and they are strict about it.

There is stuff I glossed over and stuff I omitted. This is a broad topic and I already put my cat to sleep typing this out. I hope this helps answer your question.

Answer 2

Well, keeping it simple, it's DSL if it hooks up to your phone line, and cable if you hook the computer to the cable (which would be coax). At 1 meg, it can be either. DSL now operates up to 5 megs, from what I've heard. I have DSL and 1.5 megs. I don't really know what T1 stands for, but it's an older (but not obsolete) type of connection that used to be about the fastest connection available. Businesses often had T1 when they had a need for receiving and sending massive amounts of data. So I think T1 might be for not just fast data transfer, but also big volumes of data transfer. The modem is just the thing that connects your computer to the line. You use a modem whether you're on DSL, cable, or dial-up.

Answer 3

U have a broadband DSL connection. Cable is faster due to the fact that DSL use phone line.

The T1 (or T-1) carrier is the most commonly used digital transmission service in the United States, Canada, and Japan. In these countries, it consists of 24 separate channels using pulse code modulation (PCM) signals with time-division multiplexing (TDM) at an overall rate of 1.544 million bits per second (Mbps). T1 lines originally used copper wire but now also include optical and wireless media. A T1 Outstate System has been developed for longer distances between cities.

It is common for an Internet access provider to be connected to the Internet as a point-of-presence (POP) on a T1 line owned by a major telephone network. Many businesses also use T1 lines to connect to an Internet access provider.

Answer 4

Yours is a cable modem and a fast one at that. T1 is for faster speeds when alot of people share your internet connection, like if you were to set up a network.

Answer 5

DSL is typically slower than a cable modem. It can be almost as fast, but it depends on how far you are from the DSL hub.

Answer 6

t1 is mainly for business who use alot of computers. the fastest speed and very expensive. hundreds a month. cable modem is the best for home and personal.

Answer 7

1

Answer 8

T1 is 1.544Mbps upstream as well as downstream. You may have faster downstream but not many have anywhere near the upstream speed. I am on 16Mbps down but only 768Kbps up :(

Answer 9

I dont know