Gadgets & Technology
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
DSL questions
I am trying to help my parents upgrade so that they can use a webcam when LO is born. The currently have AT&T DSL service...which goes in and out and is particularly slow between 4:00 and 5:30 pm. They would like to upgrade to the AT&T DSL Elite service, but I have concerns about its speed. Doesn't the data run through the same lines they already have? So wouldn't it slow down at the same times? AT&T Uverse is not available in their area, and the only other option is comcast. Can someone clarify the above questions for me?
Thanks!
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Re: DSL questions
I agree with what feverdream said. Have your parents change their wireless password and/or security and see if that alleviates the problem.
If that's not the issue, then it's probably just a problem with too many people in the same last mile using internet at the same time, bogging things down at that specific time. Even if they upgrade to Elite, the AT&T High Speed Internet Disclaimers still states, "'Up to' speed claim(s) represent maximum downstream and/or upstream speed capabilities. Many factors can affect actual speeds, which will vary and are not guaranteed." So they'll probably have the same issues at the same time.
Now don't take this to mean that they shouldn't upgrade! If they do, they will have better guaranteed performance. AT&T's Terms of Service state: "Broadband access is provided in speed tiers of: (1) 200 Kbps to 768 Kbps downstream..., (2) 769 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps downstream; (3) 1.56 Mbps to 3.0 Mbps downstream; (4) 3.1 Mbps to 6.0 Mbps downstream."
So each tier has a higher minimum speed than the last. If they have the lowest level of DSL right now, they're likely only getting 200 Kbps at peak times, which is definitely not enough for video chat. Our DSL is through Qwest, but roughly matches the second tier, and is pretty good for video chat when we are apart. If you want them to be able to video chat at any time, though, I'd recommend the 3rd tier at least. The minimum of 1.56 Mbps is plenty for that.
Sorry for such a long post, but hopefully it answers your questions!
Everyone shares lines to a degree, with DSL or with cable. The way it's split up is a lot like a tree, with the main backbone line as the trunk. It gets split up and split up until it gets to each individual house (or leaf, in this analogy). So, all the houses in one neighborhood will be hooked up to one node, and are sharing their connection through that node.
That's why all the ISPs in the US are very careful to say "Up to" when selling their internet connection speeds. It's because of situations like the one your parents are in where it's very likely that a lot of people in the neighborhood are using the internet heavily when they get home from work. That way, they can still slow people's internet down - to make sure everyone is at least still connected, and that no one is getting zero bandwidth.
If your parents aren't on wireless, I'd recommend that they just upgrade to a higher level of DSL if they can get it. With the higher level, they are guaranteed a higher minimum bandwidth, and shouldn't have as many problems at the end of the workday. Yes, it will still slow down from their maximum speed, but the higher minimum should be enough for their needs.
I had so many problems with my AT&T DSL service that I finally gave up and went with cable internet.
I was located in the outskirts (or even beyond the limits) of where they offer DSL and they consistently told me I should even have DSL because of this. Yet, they never attempted to fix the issue or give me a discount or flat out tell me I needed to cancel. My DSL would go in and out. If we had rain, it would go out, etc. They refused to come out and look at my lines because 'technically' I shouldn't have had it.
I canceled my landline with them when I canceled my DSL because I had had it with their poor customer service.
Sorry...I know that didn't answer your question, but I really dislike AT&T because of this and discourage people from going with AT&T DSL if at all possible.