Originally posted by REP0MAN
It also depends on how far you reside from the local office of your telephone (DSL) provider. You may run into the same situation. Having someone else, in a different location that your computer, run a ping plot test, will not help differentiate the 2 connections. You are dealing with 2 separate locations and distances from the local DSL switch. Apples and Oranges.
The distance is why I put the "where you live part" there.
As far as using some one in your area on DSL to see what kind of connection you would get, the only difference you would see is in speed.
On DSL on a decent ISP your latency to you gateway will be between 8-14 ms. If it's higher you are on an Interleave system which can be removed (or there is a problem with your line.) If they have a much better connection to the AH network from their network, then you will to, if it's not, then you wont.
Distance will play a bigger part as far as you speed selections go.
I'm 12,000 feet from my CO (That's far), my DSL will only get 2 megs down
My latency to my gateway 10 ms, the next connection device is the core router 12 -14 ms. after that it's all internet with minimim points of failure.
Connection 2
TWC cable, 6 megs down (Great for Down loading...stuff)
Closest hops to TWC upstream provider is 5 (Not bad) When AOL and TW merged it went to 19 hops for about a year till the changed it back.
My third connection at home (or where ever I roam)
Sprint broadband EVDO
Latency is bad (But it's the nature of the beast)
1.5 at best, 768 is the norm for me, but there were places on the way to the Reno airraces I dind't get signal at all (Understandable but just letting you know of it's limitations) But I can't take my other 2 connections with me, so this is cool.
Now I can go to my friends house who's on a 768 DSL connection from my ISP his latency will very -2 to +2 ms from mine to the same loactions on the net giving my a better idea of the differences (Network Routing and Engineering wise) in these ISPs.
But there is much more home work you should do:
Upstream providers (Level3, MCI, AT&T, Quest...)
If they are multihomed even better! As long as they are not in fail over.
Some ISP (Like my TWC connection have more than one connection to the net but it's Level 3 is it's primary route till thee is a problem with there connection to it, then it fails over to MCI (Now known as Verizon Bussiness)
This doesn't really make use of better paths to networks directly on MCI's back bone till Level 3 goes down.
Peering (direct connection to other AS networks)
Polocies, some ISP wont let you do more advanced things and block ports, some ISP's don't, some do and you ask request to remove them.
Bandwidth Capping (Most
Be careful, never ask an ISP if they cap, they will tell you "No"
But you can generally find out searching through
http://www.dslreports.com*Side note
Mind you, my ISP side by sides only count for these ISPs in my area.
IPS services very on region. But this will give you an idea of a basic way to compare.
