[NTLUG:Discuss] RadioShack Offers $99 Acer Netbook

[Steve Baker]

Carl Haddick wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 02:11:10PM -0600, Steve Baker wrote:
>   
>> I got AT&T wireless "broadband" - it was dog slow...worse than dialup.  
>> We were seeing maybe 10k bits/second...there are agressive monthly 
>> download limits...and the service coverage was (to say the least) 
>> patchy.   We cancelled after just one month.  I definitely do not 
>> recommend it!
>>     
> With Alltel it depends on where I am.  Out here PDANet report 192K, but
> it is probably more like 128K.
>   
Is that the true bandwidth?  Many of these services do on-the-fly data 
compression on your
I/O stream - which makes it seem to go much faster - so long as you 
aren't exchanging
already-compressed data (MP3's, JPEG files, ZIP files, etc).  In those 
cases, the compression
doesn't help at all and your percieved bandwidth becomes the same as 
your actual bandwidth.
That might explain the 'bursty' nature of your experience.

This can make it seem like you're getting 128k when it's really only 64k 
or less.  That's
how some of the dialup services manage to claim such unreasonably high 
speeds.

  -- Steve.