Internet Question

patman · 05-18-2025, 11:41 AM

FWIW... ISPs will often oversell you on what you need. I've had DSL from Consolidated Communications with 15Mbps down/3Mbps up for 5+ years. Not a typo: Mega-, not Giga-. In that time, I have had zero problems with any of the streaming services (netflix/amazon/apple/hbo/discovery/etc etc) and successfully worked full-time remotely doing video conferencing (zoom/google/etc) and software development.

The key to the equation is what is your typical availability, competing traffic, and round-trip response. Even with 'fast' service, how often do you actually get that throughput? How often do you actually need it?

DSL has been slow (on paper at least), but it's been completely usable and dead reliable. We've had maybe 1 outage per year, the longest one was about 3 hours last fall (aside from regional power outages where everything is down). It doesn't get bogged down with neighbors' traffic (partly because nobody else uses it so there are no 'neighbors' to share with), and the ping times are decent.

I've tried to get broadband connected 4-5 times, but we have buried utilities, and although the cable is available at the pole, and there are TWO empty conduits available, nobody seems to be able to tell me how/who the line gets run through the conduit to the house. The techs only know how to run from the pole through the air to the house. That said, all I hear about Breezeline (and comcast, and others) is the frequent outages. Do I really want to fight the battle to get the cable run to the house for spottier service? So far...no.

Cell service varies wildly, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's 1 bar and nothing goes through. Sometimes it's swamped. Sometimes we were getting connected to a 5G tower that...wasn't passing any traffic through. So cell really isn't a better option either.

Food for thought.

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05-18-2025, 11:41 AM	#13
patman Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: NH Posts: 380 Thanks: 56 Thanked 156 Times in 78 Posts	FWIW... ISPs will often oversell you on what you need. I've had DSL from Consolidated Communications with 15Mbps down/3Mbps up for 5+ years. Not a typo: Mega-, not Giga-. In that time, I have had zero problems with any of the streaming services (netflix/amazon/apple/hbo/discovery/etc etc) and successfully worked full-time remotely doing video conferencing (zoom/google/etc) and software development. The key to the equation is what is your typical availability, competing traffic, and round-trip response. Even with 'fast' service, how often do you actually get that throughput? How often do you actually need it? DSL has been slow (on paper at least), but it's been completely usable and dead reliable. We've had maybe 1 outage per year, the longest one was about 3 hours last fall (aside from regional power outages where everything is down). It doesn't get bogged down with neighbors' traffic (partly because nobody else uses it so there are no 'neighbors' to share with), and the ping times are decent. I've tried to get broadband connected 4-5 times, but we have buried utilities, and although the cable is available at the pole, and there are TWO empty conduits available, nobody seems to be able to tell me how/who the line gets run through the conduit to the house. The techs only know how to run from the pole through the air to the house. That said, all I hear about Breezeline (and comcast, and others) is the frequent outages. Do I really want to fight the battle to get the cable run to the house for spottier service? So far...no. Cell service varies wildly, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's 1 bar and nothing goes through. Sometimes it's swamped. Sometimes we were getting connected to a 5G tower that...wasn't passing any traffic through. So cell really isn't a better option either. Food for thought.