SDSL vs ADSL

[Baron_Michael]

Hello,

I've heard the SDSL tends to perform better than ADSL for online gaming. Despite SDSL's lower throughput, I've been told that it does indeed lower latency (ping) somehow. Can anyone confirm this, as well as give an explanation? I am currently using ADSL from Univeral Access and the performance for games has gotten pretty bad. Perhaps they are just overloaded or something, but I have the opportunity to get 384(?)kbs SDSL from another Verizon and I just might get it.

Thanks
- BM

[rpeAMP]

SDSL is mainly geared towards business users, therefore making it a higher priority for the ISP. Usually, SDSL includes better routing and requires a service level agreement signed by both the consumer and the ISP. Most of the time, this contract states that the ISP must get the connection to be 80% of the speed purchased.

ADSL is generally geared towards the home user, so not as much priority is placed on it (you get what you pay for). Also, service level agreements are usually not a part of this kind of connection because of the lower price.

Because of this, SDSL will be more pricey than ADSL even if the speeds are lower.

[]-[§q-§§Cipollino]

My connection in italy is an ISDN connection with only 64kb/s!
My ping on Quake3 or Unreal tournament is 30-40ms!:)
But my download is 7.6kb/s :(

[FunK]

SDSL is better as stated above. However, with VERIZON, I don't care what your "priority" is, you will get terrible service if you ever have line problems. Customer service is non-existant with Verizon (especially Bell Atlantic). If it is actually on the old GTE network, you MIGHT get better service, but with Verizon taking over, you can shoot that out the window in a few months to a year.

Of course you could be riding Verizon copper right now. Anyway, ask people how the cable service is in your area. Most people on cable don't have too many gripes (except the upload caps).

Peace,
FunK

[rpeAMP]

FunK is exactly right, I was just laying out what the service should be like, and is with some ISPs that care.

[Baron_Michael]

I can't comment too much about any provider's service and support, but I can say that after making general inquiries to various providers, Verizon's representatives were by far the most helpful. That might not translate to customer support, but it's all I have to go on... other than what I've been told on this board.

My current provider is Universal Access/Shared Communications. Does anyone here have any comments about this company?

- BM

[rpeAMP]

Wait wait.....are you using Verizon as an ISP, or Universal Access? I didn't think that Verizon provided SDSL, only a business version of ADSL. If your satisfied with your current provider and want to change over to a higher-class service, then I'd say definately go for it.

Let me know if I missed something here.

[Baron_Michael]

My current provider is Universal Access. I am having major problems with latency and packet loss. Quite often I will see packetloss around 10-20% at the first several nodes after performing a traceroute. Ping times to the first hop can often be near 200ms. Note that these connection problems aren't always present - early mornings and really late at night performance can be good, although at times it is still bad. But at peak hours, performance is almost always bad.

I contacted Verizon and told them that I was primarily interested in online gaming performance. Their representative recommended their SDSL service. So I am thinking of changing over to Verizon. But I'll contact Universal first and see if they can straighten out their problems.

[rpeAMP]

Definately check with your ISP about their problems first because I have heard nothing good about Verizon's DSL service. Also check www.speakeasy.net to see if they're available in your area. They seem to have great reviews at www.dslreports.com and they are the "gamer's ISP".

[Baron_Michael]

I contacted my current provider (Universal) and they told me that they were aware of the networking problems at my location and that they were in the process of upgrading the backhaul within the next 2-3 weeks. So I guess I'll wait and see how that works out before I change providers. It is true, that the complex I live in has grown at a super fast rate recently so I can how problems could have came about here.

[rpeAMP]

For your sake, I'm glad that they realized this and better yet decided to do something about it! Some of these bigger ILEC ISPs like Verizon are so distant from their customers when it comes to fixing problems that they probably wouldn't do anything about it. Let us know what happens.

[Baron_Michael]

Thanks for all your advice! BTW, what does ILEC stand for?

[YeOldeStonecat]

Classes of phone line carriers...

ILEC=Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier
CLEC=Competitive Local Exchange Carriers

[rpeAMP]

Sorry about that.....an ILEC is basically your telco.