What’s better than a T1 in your home? Two T1s
Broadband access is the driver behind the smooth operation of many households, I know with 9 computers in mine it’s a big part of our world. I have been using a cable modem for years and even though I’ve seen the bandwidth upgraded over time it can still suffer from occasional "overcrowding". It’s particularly noticeable in the evenings as folks get home from work and begin jumping online. The only way around that is to install a dedicated data line like a T1. Or better yet, two T1s. Covad is rolling out a new service for home & small businesses that uses two T1 lines bonded together to provide double the bandwidth of a singe T1. When they asked me to evaluate this new service how long do you think it took me to say yes? Nope, not that long.
The dual T1s have been run to the house and yesterday a very nice Covad tech came to my home office and got everything hooked up. I have only been using it for a few hours in total but it has been powering my home network with rock solid bandwidth since it went live. I hooked the Airport Extreme wireless router to the Cisco router that Covad supplied and we are seeing no latency issues or speed dips as you would expect from such horsepower. Prior to the install I expected to see the biggest speed increase for uploads as the dual T1 pipe is full throttle both ways and I haven’t been disappointed with that for sure. I upload a lot of audio and video recordings and this improved upload bandwidth is going to save me literally hours each month. Here’s a typical bandwidth speed test I just ran:
I’m cooking now! :)
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This will spoil you when you go mobile. The next thing is WiMax or XOHM from Sprint with 4G speeds. It will roll out next year. I know it is always hard going from a fast connection to a slower one. Hopefully this will help you churn out more video reviews now that you have the bandwidth.
Thanks,
Joshua A. Hall
The upload is really nice. I have mid-speed VDSL from u-Verse and get 2500 to 2900 kbps down consistently but only about 900 kbps up. since I do not do a lot of uploads like you do, it is very nice for me. As soon as I get a job again, I will spend the $10 more per month and get the 6Mbps down speed. I also tried out the ATT Hot Spot that I am “entitled” to as a subscriber in McDonalds in Burnet, TX and it was quite acceptable and free.
thanks for your work and reports
..wiley
NW Houston, TX
You make me sick. RASBERRYS
Is there any pricing information on it? I’m curious…
BTW – looking forward to meeting you guys at Barcamp.
You can get pricing on their website by searching for your address. For me, it would cost around $700/month. I think I can live with my DSL line… :)
DSL is, just like the T1, a dedicated connection to the ISP so you don’t have to share it, as you do cable.
We have a very nice local ISP that does ADSL2+. The only negative is the 1MBit upload speed, but the 24Mbit downspeed is rather nice. :)
Just out of curiosity, are those numbers considered the norm for T1?
I’m at work here (not exactly sure, I’m told it’s 100MB Ethernet). I ran the same speed test at http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest and got:
Last Result:
Download Speed: 34810 kbps (4351.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 2761 kbps (345.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
A T1 is if memory serves 1.544 mbit (it’s a US type of line, so not something I’ve ever seen personally). Combine two of those and you get roughly 3.
Wikipedia as usual has some info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-carrier
The chief benefit here (for a residential user) would be getting 3mbit up, which would beat ADSL and Cable handily on that. Still, I think I prefer my 24Mbit down, even with just 1 up. :-)
Can I move in with you?
Raphael, those sound like T2 or T3 numbers to me. Yowza!
Rodfather- sure, rent is one T1/ month.
Richard Yoo, you in Houston?
Wiley, you going to BarCamp on Saturday?