Acceptable DSL Speeds (ms based)

Wed May 4 18:18:22 UTC 2005

I think we are WAY overanalyzing...

The only tool a typical end user has for testing is ping and tracert on 
their windows machine. They do not care about packet processing, icmp 
priority, processor speeds, forwarding paths, mpls, internal bus, they only 
care about what the ms latency is between each of their trace route hops. 
They do not care if it is accurate or is even relevant. When they call into 
support they only care that their buddy down the road gets 45ms to 
yahoo.com with BST and gets 82ms with Centurytel.

I have always noticed that about this list which is why I rarely post. 
Seems that people spend more time picking apart your question then actually 
answering it.

I am not asking which tools are best or most accurate. I am not asking if 
ms latency is an accurate measure of DSL service. I am not asking about 
DSLAM configurations. I am simply asking what a typical and acceptable 
traceroute/ms latency is for a home DSL account.

I have received several very good answers that have answered my questions 
perfectly. Thank you to all that answered. I have enough information to 
accomplish my end goal now, again thanks for the help.

Luke

At 11:58 AM 5/4/2005, Florian Weimer wrote:

>* Luke Parrish:
>
> > Andrew, traceroute is an effective tool is measuring roundtrip in ms
> > format.
>
>No, it's not, because routers generate ICMP TTL Exceeded packets with
>totally different machinery, separated from the forwarding path.  Many
>factors influence the ms numbers traceroute reports (MPLS, main CPU
>load, priority on internal busses), and only some of them correlate
>with forwarding latency.

Luke Parrish
Centurytel Internet Operations
318-330-6661