The Trees

I was sjut wondering if anyone else has problems all the time with charter high speed being down or having to reset the modem over and over again or is just my lucky month or so and if anyone has A T&T are the any better i am at my wits end.

Thanks

Hrmm I thought it was just me, we had the same problem with Charter. I switched to ATT Uverse and it is MUCH better than Charter!

I agree, I went from AT&T DSL + DirecTV to UVerse when the marketing guy was going door to door.  UVerse is awesome and costs the same as my DTV & DSL combined.  I get much better bandwidth (quality) with UVerse and the way the network is designed it works better than cable.

Cable will add everyone onto the same "node" where their bandwidth is combined and sent upstream.  There may be several nodes inside or just outside the neighborhood, so you're combined with everyone.  The ATT network works differently, technically it's still DSL (vDSL-Video DSL), and your copper telco pair goes to the fiber nodes in the neighborhood (the beige dualboxes throughout the neighborhood).  The fiber still goes to the CO then to Richardson before it joins onto much larger circuits.  Less chance of a network bottleneck.

The "max" bandwidth is less than Charter, however when we're talking 24 MBps versus 40Mbps (Charter), quality is more important.  Most websites you download from will not provide the maximum you get on your own line anyway, there are many factors out there that prevent the theoretical max from being achieved.  The "maximum" speed is a marketing ploy, and if talking to someone who is 1-2 router hops away, then yes you will get the maximum.  Most things on the domestic internet are 10-15 hops away.  Those who surf other sites internationally (eg, someone who may have moved to the US and wants to view news from back home) can attest that things are slow.

The "tracert" command from windows will show you the route it takes and the relative speed at each stop along the way.  Most good (average) connections will be an average 60ms by the time it reaches the other end.

Sorry to get super-geeky on this post, but this is my area of expertise.  I'm a "right tool for the right job" kind of guy, I don't work for either company, but have knowledge on how their IP networks operate.  Computer networks and network engineering is my day to day job, and has been for 20 years.  I used to work for the phone company years ago and still make my living by networks.  UVerse turned out to be a cheaper option (DTV used to be cheapest years ago).  The only issue with my UVerse is my company's VPN connection (a full-time VPN) is not completely compatible with it, but I work-around the issue.

Good luck!

Jim

Network Engineer & RHCE

 I was under the impression that DSL was not up to the speed of Charter. Is U-verse faster than traditional DSL? My complaints as of lately with charter is of compatability with others such as DTV and Panasonic Viera Cast/BD Live. I probably could have used your networking expertise there......Perhaps I will give U-verse a shot even tho I hear there are pixelation issues or have those been corrected yet?