with dsl i know its better to be close to the central office to get the best speeds. how do i find out how?

Question

close i am. in leesville la 2 hrs south of shreveport.. 1 hr west of alexandria.

Answer 1

call your tech support and ask them is the best way to know.

For instance for me I the CO, is just a few blocks down the street. However my loop , the physical wiring between the telecom demarcation point ( the phone box on your house ) to the wire center or central office ( same thing ), is about 4700 feet long.

Basically the telecom has a formula in which they apply the composition of the loop, which generally could be anywhere from 19 to 26 guage copper wire and often a mix of wire segments of different guages, and factor in expected attenuation from the length and composition , then any other factors such as bridge taps or load coils ( you can look those up if your curious )

And all of thise gives an overall number of expected attenuation or how much expected signal strength loss.

If your down the block from the CO with only a couple segments of wire your going to have a much stronger signal thn some guy who is 18k feet out and has 6 different segments of wire composed of 3 different guages of wire in his loop.

stronger signal means that your line can handle the higher speeds. your support people should be able to tell you that info.

Answer 2

A quick and approximate way to determine the distance from the Central Office to your home is to use Google Maps to show the drive distance between the two locations. The drive distances follows the streets where the cables usually go (versus as the crow flies) and will give you a quick estimate.

You may have DSL served out of a remote cabinet and the distances would be shorter than the CO.

ADSL-RE (Reach Extended) has increased the distance served to about 24,000 feet depending upon cable conditions.

It is best to order the service and then monitor they are giving you the speeds promised. Go for it.