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> the normal way to cope with larger than expected usage is to just start dropping packets where there's congestion. And lo and behold, that's what ISP's have
by snuxoll 10y ago
> the normal way to cope with larger than expected usage is to just start dropping packets where there's congestion.
And lo and behold, that's what ISP's have always offered to consumers. There's a reason connections are always advertised as "up to 50Mbps" instead of "50 Mbps", hell, even my "business" connection with the local cable company has absolutely no guarantee beyond "we'll have someone out to repair your service within 4 hours".
- IshKebab 10y agoNo it isn't. The "up to" is because the last mile is over copper wires which are variable so not everyone will get the same speed.
- wtallis 10y agoISPs will generally not sell you a plan that advertises throughput in excess of the achievable modem sync speed, unless your achievable speed is already below their lowest tier of service. AT&T won't let you sign up for 18Mbps DSL if you live 2km from a DSLAM that doesn't even have ADSL2+ equipment. The "up to" provision is because their backhaul capacity is less than the sum of the last-mile connection speeds.
- kalleboo 10y agoMy last mile is 1 GBps fiber. I have a choice of a hundred or so ISPs over that fiber. The cheapest ones drop to single-digit megabit speeds during peak hours because the ISPs have such oversubscribed interconnections.