my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » 768 Kbps DSL service. Worth it?

Author Topic: 768 Kbps DSL service. Worth it? Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-18-2006 12:03 PM                     Verizon (my phone company) is promoting DSL service for $14.95/mo. but it's only 768 Kbps. DOWN and 128 UP. That's about $5.00 cheaper than I'm paying for Dial-Up with Earthlink. They are offering 1.5 Mbps for $29.95/mo. (Reselling Verizon's services, of course.) I used to keep Earthlink Dial-Up service, even though it's more expensive because I used to travel a lot. I needed to be able to download e-mail and communicate with people. Now, I stay at home most of the time. When I do need to get e-mail away from home, there's probably a secondary means of connecting to the 'net. I have use of the college's network when I'm at work. I probably don't need to have coast-to-coast Dial-Up anymore. As a "bonus", they'll sell me a wireless router for an additional $14.95 (One time charge.) Does anybody have 768 Kbps DSL service on one of these plans? Care to share your experiences? Or, should I hang on for a while longer until full-speed DSL service comes down in price?  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-18-2006 12:12 PM                     768 down/128 up is obviously a tremendous difference over dialup. You weren't clear about the 1.5Mbps though...is that both up AND down? I highly doubt it. Upload is probably 256. Regardless it does make a huge difference in either step. My area only had the first option and it was fine, but when 1.5Mbps down / 256k up became available and I upgraded, the difference was quite noticeable (at least to me). BTW, my DSL provider gives me a free dialup account to use when visiting lovely places such as Watseki, Illinois with the DSL connection, so just inquire.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-18-2006 12:51 PM                     I've had DSL for the past few years through SBC. My first connection standard was rated at 384k down/128k up. That was a huge improvement over 56K dial up. Often my download speeds were more than double that 384 rating. Then the service quietly got upped to 1.5Mb. I recently upgraded to "DSL Pro" featuring 3Mb download speeds for around $30 per month. That wasn't as noticeable a difference as going from dial-up to DSL, but it was pretty noticeable nonetheless. Large files on e-mail upload much faster. I can download video clips from places like Apple's movie trailer park much faster than before -usually a lot faster than the amount of time required to play the clip. You still have to wait for HD stuff to download.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-18-2006 01:02 PM                     768 Kbps./128 Kbps. = $14.95/mo. 1.5 Mbps./384 Kbps. = $29.95/mo. ($21.95 for the first 3 mos.) 3.0 Mbps./384 Kbps. = $29.95/mo. (If you are close enough to the exchange.) Modem & filter(s) included in price. For an additional one-time charge of $14.95 you can buy a wireless modem/router instead of the regular wired modem. I have two computers in the house. I'd probably pay the extra $$ for the wireless.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 01-18-2006 01:43 PM                        Always-on 768kbps is far superior to dialup. If the price is right, do it. We have 7.2mbps ADSL where I work (896kbps up). It's dirt-cheap too, like $50/mo. (in addition to a full T1)  |  IP: Logged Steve Scott Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1300 From: Minneapolis, MN Registered: Sep 2000 posted 01-18-2006 02:01 PM                     With all hardware included, that's a sweet deal. I paid the same for 256K from Qwest up here & was never really satisfied with it. But the ADSL line from Qwest here at work is great, though, with far fewer service interruptions.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-18-2006 03:55 PM                        I pay £59.99 per quarter (equivalent to $35.19 per month) for 1.0mbps (256k upstream) ADSL on a 'no frills' contract - i.e. no 'phone helpline or hardware bundles are included in the rate. The advantage, though, is that there's no bandwidth limit. There are lots of broadband contracts available in this price range. Most include freephone helplines, modem bundles and that sort of crap, and some offer faster downstream connections than 1.0; but they also usually impose a monthly bandwidth limit, which is usually around 2gb per month. Given that I listen to a lot of streaming radio and video from sites like BBC and CNN, that's something I could really do without, even if means a slightly slower ADSL line.  |  IP: Logged Frank Dubrois Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 896 From: Cleveland, OH Registered: Mar 2005 posted 01-18-2006 04:03 PM                    I'd go for the 1.5mbps. 768k is a huge difference over dial-up, but as time goes on..you'll want more speed. We can get 3mbps for $30/month here, actually its closer to 3.5mbps. I definately prefer cable over dsl, I had nothing but issues with dsl speed and reliability. Your speed definately will be determined based on how close to the switching station you are. I was less than 1 mile away and I got roughly 400k as opposed to the 768k promised with dsl. When you get your service, goto dslreports.com and do a speed check to make sure you are getting what was promised.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 01-18-2006 04:38 PM                        quote: Randy Stankey Reselling Verizon's services, of course. Reselling or running their own PVCs?  |  IP: Logged Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-18-2006 05:06 PM                        Sprint just brought DSL to the sticks (where I live). I was using a satellite dish, which supposedly had 1/2 meg down and 64K up (it didn't) When I switched to DSL 3meg down and 512k up it was an amazing difference (and $25 cheaper per month than the dish) The DSL is pretty slick and speed tests show about 2.8-2.9 meg down and 480-490K up. I'd switch to DSL over dial up in a heart beat. The only problem is that there seems to be a size limitation for up loads. I tired to send a 22meg file and it wouldn't take it. Then I tried a 12 meg file and it wouldn't take that either. Is that normal?  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-18-2006 05:51 PM                     Your mail server probably has a queue limit. They should have some kind of technical details written somewhere listing the limit. 10MB and 20MB queue limits are pretty common. Sometimes you can get around that issue by breaking up really big files into smaller multi-part .ZIP or .RAR files.  |  IP: Logged Matt Fields Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 545 From: Ohio, United States Registered: Jun 2005 posted 01-18-2006 10:27 PM                     I had dial up and switched to the Verizon 768 DSL plan your talking about. As other have noted, the DSL is way faster. I've been happy with the switch, but I don't do anything on the net that requires tons of speed. There will be some setup/installation fees on your first phone bill. About 20 or so bucks...  |  IP: Logged Anslem Rayburn Master Film Handler Posts: 476 From: Yuma, AZ, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 01-19-2006 05:48 AM                     I just upgraded from 1.5Mbps to 5Mbps. The jump from dial-up to 1.5Mbps was astounding. The jump to 5Mbps was noticeable. I'm willing to pay the extra $10 per month for the difference. 768 Kbps to 1.5Mbps is a double in speed, for less than half the price. If it's in the budget, I would go for it. You'll be amazed at how fast that is. Especially if you want to use more than one computer on it. Make sure they are giving you a decent modem/router, though. Go to DSL Reports and check what real users have to say about the hardware AND the service. It's a real braintrust of high speed internet knowledge.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.