Hello again to you all.

Two days ago, I bundled my Verizon Online, and phone stuff, with Directv. To do this, I had to upgrade from the 760 of the dsl to the 3.0. The guy said "it makes much more sense to do this, you'll save money, which I will (when it's all bundled you get $6.00 off of Direct tv and $8 and change off the phone), so all together it's a good deal.

Now I didn't know what the big difference was from what I had and the 3.0. So I went on some DSL forums and asked questions and this is what I found out.

If you have 3.0, that means your download speed is supposed to be 3072 kbps (I forget what the upload speed is supposed to be but I don't upload anything except photos to photobucket.com, so I don't really care).

So I did a speed test the day after I upgraded and my speed was 743 download and 131 upload. So I hadn't been upgraded as of yet.

Well, yesterday, I did the test and shazamm. The download was 2873 and the upload was 680. I went to itunes and downloaded a song and it did it so fast I couldn't even blink. I then went to photobucket.com and uploaded a photo and Bam. quicker than a wink!!! So no problem there.

So here's my question.
If the guy on the dsl boards said that I should be getting speeds of 3072 download if I am paying for 3.0, and I am getting 2873, (it varies, sometimes it's 2800), then I am not getting what I am paying for, right? That is what he said.

So I just went online and did an online chat with the Verizon Online tech person and I just wanted to verify and ask why I'm not getting 3072 download speed if I 'm paying for 3.0??? and he typed "it depends on how far you are from the central office, and the speeds vary all the time".

So here I am, coming to you guys to verify all this.

Should I be getting the 3072 if I'm getting the 3.0 price?? I am quite satisified with whatever is happening now by the way.

Oh, and here's a good question. I understand the download and the upload stuff. But would my having 3.0 change the speed of my web surfing. I really don't see web pages loading up any faster. I expected BAM BAM, and there I would be. Maybe it's a bit faster, but nothing really dramatic.

Can you clear these things up a bit? Thanks much.

Melody

DSL is distributed via your phone line and is dependent on those lines for your bandwidth. Basically, you are paying for additional bandwidth on a fiber optic phone line. The distance from the lead station can effect the speed similar to a projectile, it slows as it goes.

Check your literature and I'm sure you'll see, "up to" before any promised speeds. Usage during "peak" times can also slow it down, but usually not too dramatically. Then, there is your in-home wiring that is typically still copper (unless you have made specific upgrades), and the copper will slow it down more (again, not drastically).

If you are running a wireless network in your home, this will also shave off some of those precious kbs. If your wireless network is bridged by a second router to boost the signal, that will be an additional mild depreciation.

Bear in mind also, if a website is busy or under maintanence it can negatively effect the download speed.

Look for "up to" and you'll see what I'm talking about.

If you're dissatisfied, they will usually let you downgrade without penalty within a specified, short time (generally 30 days) after the upgrade goes into effect.

Hope this helps a little.

but either way...soooooooo much better than dial up.

says the monkey who finally got dsl.

What's dial up?

dial-up is what I'm using presently. groan

Speed: 45.2 Kbps

groan again.

Can't help you sorry, Melody. lol

"If you are running a wireless network in your home, this will also shave off some of those precious kbs. If your wireless network is bridged by a second router to boost the signal, that will be an additional mild depreciation."


What on earth did you just say??????? lol

And what about my surfing the net?? Is the 3.0 going to allow me to zip around the web pages, or does the 3.0 only apply to downloading and uploading.

Thanks for being a professor!!!!! lol
Melody

a wireless network in your home would mean you have no cables running from the computer to your DSL modem.

You would have a wireless card {w/antenna} in your computer and you would have a wireless router that sends the signal from the DSL modem to the card in your computer.

But if you have your computer near to the DSL modem you probably have a cable connected to it "wired". Or you might have a cable running along the wall or in the wall that you connect to.

I can't tell if my webpages load faster or not because we are on the edges of the service area and we share a wireless connection in the home between 3 computers- so that slows things down.

My modem is connected via ethernet thing. How do I know this??? Because I just looked at the modem, all 4 lights are on and one of them says ETHERNET.
So no wireless stuff going on here.

I hear the word router used from time to time. I have no idea what that is.

My son in California has a dsl line but he bought a router. I said "why would you need a router?" and if you think I understand him when he talks, forget it. He lives in a virtual world called Second Life where he is an android. He is the smartest person about computers (he has aspergeers).

Anytime I have a problem, all I have to do is ask him and in 5 seconds he knows exactly what is happening. He doesn't even have to be on his computer. HE JUST KNOWS STUFF IN HIS HEAD. I'll never be like that.

You might be thinking "how come she just doesn't ask her son these questions about dsl" . Well, he is without a phone where he lives. He just has the computer and a dsl line. So if he wants to speak on the phone, he goes outside to call me.

The odd thing is that because he is a gamer and lives on the internet, I thought his dsl would be zipped up super fast or something. He just called me tonight and I asked him 'what connection speed do you have?" and he said 1.5" and I said "you mean, I have a faster connection than you and you are a gamer???" He laughed and said "Second LIfe can't handle faster speeds".

I was under the impression that all these people who play video games, well, that they are using really high speed cable modems and T1 lines. I guess I am totally mistaken. I'm just now learning what he already knows.

Hey, at least I'm learning (at my age anyway).

Thanks much
mel

LOL, if you had a wireless network, you'd know it.

The term, "data speeds" refers to all of your internet transactions. I can't say for certain what you can expect, it also has to do with how powerful your computer's internal system is, including processor speed and how much RAM is installed.

If you have your browser's cookies turned off, every time you load a website, it will have to load the entire data set. With cookies on, your computer will remember the bulk of the data from your previous visit and load fresh information such as news, new posts, price changes, etc.

If you honestly don't feel that you are getting your "bang for the buck", call the customer support center and try to get someone who speaks English.

I opted for 2.0 because it's adequate for my internet needs. I have a pretty powerful system and I did notice a big difference when I got this one last year.

Lara:

You are actually the only person I know now that still uses dial-up.

Up until 18 months ago, I had AOL and a 56 k modem.

Brother, when I got the dsl and I could talk on the phone at the same time, well glory be.

And I just got new phone features, like call waiting, etc. And today, the Verizon girl said "you do know that you have voice mail don't you".

Now THAT was a funny conversation. She gave me a phone number to call and I am supposed to activate my voice mail. So I called the number and a robot voice on the other end says: "We do not recognize you".

So I called back Verizon and said "the robot lady doesn't like me". She got hysterical and tried to help me. She said "Please press the number 2 on your phone, I have to make sure that you know you have touch tone service". I said "lady, I know the difference between touch tone and pulse". She laughed her head off. She checked the number and yes indeed, I was right. It seems they did not switch on my voice mail with Verizon until today so I can't activate it until tomorrow night.

See, I can still learn stuff.

lol Melody