How efficient is DSL vs. dialup?


DSL

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is certainly much faster than a standard dialup connection. While the dialup connection will give you a maximum of 52 Kbps downstream , DSL starts from 128 Kbps and can go up to 2048 Kbps!

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In practice the above figures translate to around 5 Kb/sec for dialup and for DSL it varies depending on your connection speed. We have a 386 Kbps here in the office and I average around 25-30 Kb/sec sustained downloads with peaks up to 45 Kb/sec.

Apart from the faster speeds DSL provides, it is also a permanent connection. This means no waiting for your modem to pick up the line and dial to your Internet provider. The connection is permanently online and ready to use.
 

This was first published in September 2003

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