Re: Does Internet Speed Vary by Season?

["Patrick W. Gilmore" <patrick () ianai net>]

On Oct 7, 2009, at 10:52 AM, Scott Howard wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 7:16 AM, Patrick W. Gilmore  
> <patrick () ianai net> wrote:
> > I read the article and the follow up posts and I wonder if we are  
> > all using the same definition for "speed" here.  The article seems  
> > to imply you don't get 6 Mbps on your DSL line in summer because  
> > the copper is hotter and it's harder to push electrons down the  
> > link.  That is clearly BS, the clock is ticking six million times  
> > per second, period.
> So you're saying that if I put in an 8Mbps ADSL1 connection, then  
> I'm going to get a guaranteed 8Mbps point-to-point back to the  
> exchange, regardless of the quality of my phone line, or the  
> distance from the exchange?

Yes, everyone, I was imprecise.  Please tell me all about baud and  
variability and such.  Because that was the point I was trying to make.


> > That laser is blinking at 10 billion times per second whether the  
> > queue behind the port is full or not.  (And don't tell me the laser  
> > is quiescent when the queue is empty, you know what I mean.)
> Laser?  Perhaps this is a different type of ADSL than most people  
> here are used to?
>
> (I'm not saying that the article is right, but...)

I admit I totally spaced on the fact DSL != ethernet when I was typing  
the first paragraph.  But when I wrote the above, I actually thought  
to myself: "I better mention I'm talking about a 10G backbone link...  
nah, everyone on NANOG is smart enough to figure out what I meant."


End of day, the point stands that the article is worse than useless as  
it does not add data to the general knowledge pool, but actually makes  
everyone dumber for reading it.  Apparently it even made me forget how  
DSL works....

--
TTFN,
patrick