Is 1mbps twice as good as 512kbps

Probably a really stupid question, but just wondering as a newbie.

It seems to me that the answer might be, an obvious 'yes'. However, if
other factors are limiting transfer rates e.g. the speed of the server
of the website I'm looking at, or the speed of the connection of the
person I'm accessing P2P, then it would not be twice as fast.

Moreover, ISPs don't seem to charge twice as much.

Sorry if this question has been asked before, but I googled and
couldn't find an answer.

The difference is such that i couldnt go back to 512k these days!, I then
swicthed to 2mbps and the difference isnt "that" much more. A lot of popular
download sites cap these days at 1mbps which means you wont notice the extra
1mbps-2mbs unless you download more than one thing at once.

Would I recommend everyone go to 1mbps .... YES

"CM" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Probably a really stupid question, but just wondering as a newbie.
>
> It seems to me that the answer might be, an obvious 'yes'. However, if
> other factors are limiting transfer rates e.g. the speed of the server
> of the website I'm looking at, or the speed of the connection of the
> person I'm accessing P2P, then it would not be twice as fast.
>
> Moreover, ISPs don't seem to charge twice as much.
>
> Sorry if this question has been asked before, but I googled and
> couldn't find an answer.

Hi there
A couple of points. don't forget that your download speed may go to 1Mbit,
but your upload will remain at 256Kbits (which will also be the speed from
your P2P friend - assuming they use ADSL) However, overall, I would say
that for surfing etc, going beyond 512 is a significant and pleasurable
increase in performance.

Cheers, Mike


"CM" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Probably a really stupid question, but just wondering as a newbie.
>
> It seems to me that the answer might be, an obvious 'yes'. However, if
> other factors are limiting transfer rates e.g. the speed of the server
> of the website I'm looking at, or the speed of the connection of the
> person I'm accessing P2P, then it would not be twice as fast.
>
> Moreover, ISPs don't seem to charge twice as much.
>
> Sorry if this question has been asked before, but I googled and
> couldn't find an answer.

In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, CM
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>Probably a really stupid question, but just wondering as a newbie.
>
>It seems to me that the answer might be, an obvious 'yes'. However, if
>other factors are limiting transfer rates e.g. the speed of the server
>of the website I'm looking at, or the speed of the connection of the
>person I'm accessing P2P, then it would not be twice as fast.

If most of what you do is large downloading - then yes its going to be
twice as fast doing the download.

If you spend most of the time surfing and getting emails etc, you may
not really notice much difference - I certainly don't think its
significantly any more usable ..... and I'm including a comparison with
work where its 10mb/s :-)

--
__________________________________________________
Personal email for Gareth Jones can be sent to:
'usenet4gareth' followed by an at symbol
followed by 'uk2' followed by a dot
followed by 'net'
__________________________________________________

"Gareth Jones" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> If most of what you do is large downloading - then yes its going to be
> twice as fast doing the download.
>
> If you spend most of the time surfing and getting emails etc, you may
> not really notice much difference - I certainly don't think its
> significantly any more usable ..... and I'm including a comparison with
> work where its 10mb/s :-)

Couldn't agree more home 512k, work ~10mB, use both for email, surfing, no
noticeable difference

Jon

Great, that's what I wanted to hear!

Could you tell me which ISP you use and how you find them? I'm hoping
for something cheap. I've got an Alcatel 330 modem and everything, so
no wires options are fine.

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 17:59:22 GMT, "Adrian Cantrill"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>The difference is such that i couldnt go back to 512k these days!, I then
>swicthed to 2mbps and the difference isnt "that" much more. A lot of popular
>download sites cap these days at 1mbps which means you wont notice the extra
>1mbps-2mbs unless you download more than one thing at once.
>
>Would I recommend everyone go to 1mbps .... YES
>
>"CM" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
>> Probably a really stupid question, but just wondering as a newbie.
>>
>> It seems to me that the answer might be, an obvious 'yes'. However, if
>> other factors are limiting transfer rates e.g. the speed of the server
>> of the website I'm looking at, or the speed of the connection of the
>> person I'm accessing P2P, then it would not be twice as fast.
>>
>> Moreover, ISPs don't seem to charge twice as much.
>>
>> Sorry if this question has been asked before, but I googled and
>> couldn't find an answer.
>

In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, CM
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>Great, that's what I wanted to hear!

Lets see..... you've had one person telling you do it, and two others
saying don't bother....... and you're listening to the former....

I'm sure if you ask the question 'should I slap myself around the face
for a couple of hours' someone is going to say yes....... so why bother
asking?? Just do it..... go on..... you know you want to....... the rest
of this newsgroup certainly want you to!

The search for justification ..... its a fascinating subject ...


--
__________________________________________________
Personal email for Gareth Jones can be sent to:
'usenet4gareth' followed by an at symbol
followed by 'uk2' followed by a dot
followed by 'net'
__________________________________________________

"CM" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Great, that's what I wanted to hear!
>
> Could you tell me which ISP you use and how you find them? I'm hoping
> for something cheap. I've got an Alcatel 330 modem and everything, so
> no wires options are fine.

Have a look at www.adslguide.org for information. My personal
recommendations for good value & reasonble quality providers would be:

www.pipex.net @ £28.93 + VAT
www.bulldogdsl.com @ £28.08 + VAT
www.plus.net @ £32.99 inc VAT

Paul

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:30:15 +0000, Gareth Jones
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, CM
><(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>>Great, that's what I wanted to hear!
>
>Lets see..... you've had one person telling you do it, and two others
>saying don't bother....... and you're listening to the former....
>
>I'm sure if you ask the question 'should I slap myself around the face
>for a couple of hours' someone is going to say yes....... so why bother
>asking?? Just do it..... go on..... you know you want to....... the rest
>of this newsgroup certainly want you to!
>
>The search for justification ..... its a fascinating subject ...


y'what?

You said it would be good for big P2P downloads, which is the main
thing I use my connection for. Everyone who specifically addressed the
P2P issue was positive, so that's why I'm interested!

And if I shop around, it won't cost much more than what I'm paying at
the mo

If he does p2p then who cares about upload ?, if he does p2p then in most
cases he will get close to 120kbps as opposed to 50-60 with 512kbps, so
whats your point ?

As for emails ofc there is a difference, if you get big emails they come in
2x as fast, not saying its huge but there IS a difference.

"Gareth Jones" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, CM
> <(E-Mail Removed)> writes
> >Probably a really stupid question, but just wondering as a newbie.
> >
> >It seems to me that the answer might be, an obvious 'yes'. However, if
> >other factors are limiting transfer rates e.g. the speed of the server
> >of the website I'm looking at, or the speed of the connection of the
> >person I'm accessing P2P, then it would not be twice as fast.
>
> If most of what you do is large downloading - then yes its going to be
> twice as fast doing the download.
>
> If you spend most of the time surfing and getting emails etc, you may
> not really notice much difference - I certainly don't think its
> significantly any more usable ..... and I'm including a comparison with
> work where its 10mb/s :-)
>
> --
> __________________________________________________
> Personal email for Gareth Jones can be sent to:
> 'usenet4gareth' followed by an at symbol
> followed by 'uk2' followed by a dot
> followed by 'net'
> __________________________________________________