Club409
The best damn waste of time!
Internet Speeds
henclewood
Total posts: 5
3/17/2011 3:50 AM
So the internet has been around for years now and I still kinda don't know how it really working especially when it comes to internet speeds. When ATT says the offer speeds of 5 50 100 Mbps (for example) how do they control they speeds for two customers who have two different speed packages? If one subscribes to the 50Mbps and the other 100Mbps package does ATT use hardware of or software to control the speeds to the customers? Irrespective of the use of hardware or software can we liken the way they control speeds to constricting (or expanding) the diameter of a pipe? With that in mind is the "flow" of information constant and the person with higher speed package just have a larger (fatter) pipe hence they download things faster?Let me know what you guys think.
mwinter
Total posts: 4318
3/17/2011 3:57 AM
Your pipe analogy is very apropos. I suspect rate limiting is mostly a product of software rather than hardware because they also do things like cap the overall bytes per month (e.g. 250 GB/month for Comcast).
henclewood
Total posts: 5
3/17/2011 5:16 AM
You have enlightened my darkness not only with internet speeds but I now know what "apropos" means (thank you dictionary.com).
Shawn
Total posts: 1366
3/17/2011 5:18 AM
I know a couple of females that wouldn't mind "enlightening that darkness" if you know what I am saying.