Super high speed 56K connection information?

Tim

Due to the local phone company yanking my DSL (just because I didn't pay the phone bill, something like $350 now), I'm currently on a dial up 56K. And it sucks.

The place I'm getting internet from, a small local ISP, is advertising a new high speed 56K line that they claim will increase transfer speeds from 1.5 to 5 times a 56K rate. They say they are the only ones in this area offering it, and they are hosting the technology locally from their office.

It'll cost me an extra $3 a month, for $22 a month instead of $19.

What I'm wondering is if this is true or even possible? And if it is for real, how is it done? I thought 56K lines were limited to 53.3 by the FCC.

And why would the FCC limit them to 53.3 anyhow?

primesuspect

It's probably a caching thing. I'm gonna stretch a bit here and maybe go out on a limb and say that they are full of crap. Modems are modems. End of story.

Cyclonite

I'm going to have to agree with prime. I call :bs:

profdlp

That's the big push in all the ads I see these days. Prime is right, it uses a caching technique. If you visit a popular page it will load faster from the cached copy (cached on your ISP's server). For off-the-beaten-path pages it won't get you diddly. Plus, you may even be viewing an older version of the page.

Modems are modems. End of story.

Amen.

Armo

the 56k thin is because after X ammount of speed xfer over telefone lines POTS start to have interfereance with other lines they can send ALOT more data over fone lines, like HomePNA is like 12MBs but alas the interfreance would be too great to make any fone calls

mmonnin

The absolute MAX a 56k can go is 53k set by the government or something. Thats theoretical Max not reality. I got between 32-40 on a good download when I had 56k or rather 4-5kB. A lot of the time it was 2-3 tho. Just the way it works.

Straight_Man

Tim wrote:

Due to the local phone company yanking my DSL (just because I didn't pay the phone bill, something like $350 now), I'm currently on a dial up 56K. And it sucks.

The place I'm getting internet from, a small local ISP, is advertising a new high speed 56K line that they claim will increase transfer speeds from 1.5 to 5 times a 56K rate. They say they are the only ones in this area offering it, and they are hosting the technology locally from their office.

It'll cost me an extra $3 a month, for $22 a month instead of $19.

What I'm wondering is if this is true or even possible? And if it is for real, how is it done? I thought 56K lines were limited to 53.3 by the FCC.

And why would the FCC limit them to 53.3 anyhow?

Basically, if they are doing anything at all for you, they are doiing it with precaching from an inward pipe that is faster than what you really get. THAT can be done. IF they are truely dynamically caching as the remote site sends live, and not feeding you what the last user saw as much as possible. I will bet they are also setting your IE to cache what it can if you install software, so it does not ask for whole pages.

The gang here has it right, they cannot offer 56K nominal through whole line from your computer to site at 5X 56K. Period. Caching and prefetching might get you a net throughput on surface of 1.5-1.7X though-- IF they are doing it right. BUT, clear IE's cache and go to same site, bet throughput plummets to almost normal. AND if thier caching server is bogged, site page load time once you are connected to site and page starts loading might appear to be fast, but connect latency will be terrible-- bogged caching servers do not precache for any one customer very fast when they are caching for many customers at once.

John D.