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Pastimes : Computer Learning
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To: Siber who wrote (36148)8/27/2003 12:53:09 PM
From: Rick Faurot  Read Replies (1) of 110652
 
DSL is not a dedicated line in the way you are thinking of IMO. As a residential DSL user you are connected to a four port switch that you share with up to three other residential users. You may be the only one on your card, but you are still connected to the phone system. This is not particularly a negative if the DSL provider is on the ball and taking care of business. Maintenance and steady upgrades are vital to any system.

DSL is not as vulnerable to performance impairment due to other sharing users, however. From what I have heard cable can go from lightning fast to 56k speeds depending on who is on your line at the time and what they are doing. On DSL you may see a slight reduction of speed when there is heavy usage but you will most likely not even notice it unless you run frequent speed tests.

It is worth noting that DSL performance is a function of distance from the CO (Central Office). If you are closer than a mile, you will get excellent service. If you are farther than three miles, you won't be happy. There are other factors of course.

You are likely to get lots of pings on DSL. The ISP pings you, their mail server pings you, their tech support people may ping you and the DSL provider may ping you from multiple departments. This is not a big deal and it is not a security problem. Since you have ZA, the pings don't get answered and no hacker could use a ping as a way to do anything to your computer.

My advice is if you are in other respects happy with the cable co, forget about the pings. It's just maintenance activity and it is unlikely to affect your performance adversely.

JMO.
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