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| Thread ID: 68002 | 2006-04-13 11:14:00 | What's 256/128 broadband like? | Strommer (42) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 446063 | 2006-04-13 11:14:00 | OK OK, I know 256 broadband probably is no good for gaming and probably not for TV programs, but how bad or how good is it? Aside from games, what about VOIP, Skype, or video conferencing? Will it be possible to speak on the land line telephone while online? Whats your experience with 256down/128up ? I am looking at WorldNet's $30 plan, with a 2 Gb cap. Thanks. |
Strommer (42) | ||
| 446064 | 2006-04-13 11:24:00 | Its fine. Landline works normally while on-line, the same as any ADSL. VOIP works just fine as well. (they all have an "echo" delay in my experience) |
godfather (25) | ||
| 446065 | 2006-04-13 11:32:00 | Fine for casual use, Nothing more, No matter how low expectations maybe. You can get away with gaming on local servers, And streaming radio works alright. For general use, Pages load in a snap, and the speed of downloads is a welcome increase over dialup, but yeah, Dont expect it to open you up to the world wide broadband experience because its not broadband. Large emails still "feel" slow to recieve, sending large emails and uploading data is like having each individual hair on your body removed by tweezers. |
Metla (12) | ||
| 446066 | 2006-04-13 11:34:00 | While I wouldn't call 256k "real" broadband, it is certainly significantly better than dial up. If you are going to be using VOIP all the time, then upgrade to a plan with 512Kbps upstream (128Kbps is really the bare minimum for that sort of thing). :) | maccrazy (6741) | ||
| 446067 | 2006-04-13 12:31:00 | Yeah what Metla said - it's adequate for gaming on nearby servers. Website browsing it's good. Large downloads is mostly where you'll find it's less than great. | Greg (193) | ||
| 446068 | 2006-04-13 14:05:00 | I agree with what every one says above :) The only thing you will find is the 128K upload speed will be a pain. |
stu161204 (123) | ||
| 446069 | 2006-04-13 22:35:00 | I The only thing you will find is the 128K upload speed will be a pain. Thanks everyone. Interesting about the 128 upload speed being a problem because as far as I have seen, ISPs don't start with 512 until you fork out around $80 a month. I was thinking of going with iHug's $30 cheapie plan but it has a 500 Mb cap. Surfing around news sites, PF1, email and other usual stuff, is near 10 Mb for me, and that does not include file downloads (email or freebie programs). So having a 2 Gb cap for $30 (WorldNet) is appealing; for only another $6 the download speed is 2M. Freeing up the phone line will be a plus, not to mention those 1 to 4 Mb email attachments that I am getting more of these days. |
Strommer (42) | ||
| 446070 | 2006-04-13 22:43:00 | And streaming radio works alright. Speaking of that, I find that radio streaming from ABC News Network and Newstalk ZB works fine on dial-up too. There are no significant stutters except when you load a webpage while streaming. Cheers :) |
Renmoo (66) | ||
| 446071 | 2006-04-13 22:44:00 | FWIW... I notice Slingshot has a better deal: $30 a month for 3 Gb (256/128). |
Strommer (42) | ||
| 446072 | 2006-04-13 23:01:00 | if you go with their tolls program. Do they still charge you $10 if you don't make enough toll calls every month? | Greven (91) | ||
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