<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 11:19 AM, Adam Tauno Williams <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:awilliam@whitemice.org">awilliam@whitemice.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="im"><br>
<br>
> I know someone on the Hudsonville-Jenison<br>
> line that has U-verse and really likes the<br>
<br>
</div>My neighbor who has U-verse is happy.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> package. My impression is that the Internet<br>
> bandwidth is not all that high, but that the<br>
> package of TV, Internet, phone, etc., works<br>
> very well.<br>
<br>
</div>I think the base speed is 3MBps (twice what I have now). But, IMO, if<br>
you aren't running services [which is forbidden anyway] speeds upwards<br>
of 3MBps are pretty pointless. At home I'm on a T1 speed business-class<br>
DSL right now and don't have any complaints at all. At work we have a<br>
fiber connection to our ISP and just about every upstream site throttles<br>
[on purpose or not] big transfers to something around ~3MBps anyway.<br>
The only time it goes faster is when pulling an ISO from a big mirror.<br>
Web surfing is much faster [fiber vs. DSL] if I look at the numbers but<br>
I honestly can't feel the difference.<br>
<br>
I suppose it depends on what you do, I just don't see the need for<br>
sky-high link speeds.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br> </div></div></blockquote><div>It probably is true that server congestion<br>is a bigger issue in general, and can often<br>negate any advantages one might hope to<br>get high speed. <br>
<br>But if things like downloading and/or watching<br>movies or TV online are ever to become much<br>of a reality, the bandwidth will be necessary.<br><br>Much like 1TB hard drives, people seem to<br>find a way to use the bandwidth, and if they're<br>
will to pay, well, that's a business.<br><br>One can quibble about the net good of it all,<br>but the world seems to run on a 20/80 rule.<br>( I'll go with 10/90 too. ) 20% of employees<br>do 80% of the real work. 20% of cell phone<br>
use, at best, is probably for anything useful.<br>80% of Internet use is probably for looking<br>at porno. Etc. But the 20% in all these things<br>are what keep things going. And the 80% pays<br>for development of bigger, faster, better, and <br>
cheaper things.<br><br> -- Bob<br><br></div></div>