does it matter how close you live to your isp carrier as far as your Internet speed at 56k?

Answer 1

It could, but mostly likely not... you are using dial up I assume, so line quality may degrade as your call makes its way to the active switch at your ISP. What can degrade the line quality, patches/splices, exposed wires (if you notice low connectivity speeds during heavy rains)... etc. Realistically however your distance is usually a tiny fraction of why you may not be running at a full 56K. You are sharing the switch on which you terminate at the ISP, so the more people in your area that share the same switch the less bandwidth you are likely to get. This is true only because ISPs oversubscribe their switches (10:1), couting on the fact that not all of their inbound connections will be running at 100%. So for example they may have 96 customers attached to a T1 link (oversubscription rate of ~ 4 to 1). Hope this helps shed some light on your question... just because you connect at 56K does not mean you are acctually getting that much badwidth.

you if you have a few relays to go through.

Answer 2

Yes, it very much does, just like DSL, it depends on how close you are to a "CO" which technically means Central Office, but now they're just small boxes on the side of the road that connects your twisted copper pair to the fiber optic backbone. The signal does degrade over distance and the closer you are to one of these CO boxes, the better your signal is. Most ISP's "Rent" their phone numbers from the local phone company so the only thing that matters is did your ISP rent enough numbers so you don't get a busy signal.

Also, keep in mind that the FCC has a limit at the "volume" or voltage that the lines can carry the signal, so while technically, both your hardware and the phone's hardware is able to produce a 56K connection, you will rarely get it because the FCC is limiting the phone company from applying the voltage necessary for the signal to be carried at that speed. The theory is that if there are too many people connecting at this speed, it will create too much static and "noise" for the people who are trying to carry on a conversation.

Answer 3

U still have 56k? WHOA!!

Answer 4

None at all, distance is completely irrelevant