Here's an update for you. After contacting the tech support for my ISP, I found out that they had us in the system as a default account (1.5 down and 384 up). We are being billed for the 1.5 synchronis connection but were not receiving what we were paying for. They've changed the settings now for our correct connection. Now I'm trying to get credited for the extra $10 a month we've had to pay for the last 3 years for the better upload.

I'll try this software. Thanks for the info!!

Holy crap. You're only paying an extra $10/mo to go from 384 to 1.5Mb up? Dude, you most certainly do NOT want a T1.

Incorrect.

T1's are full-duplex.

Reasons for going to T1:

1) SLA's are generally MUCH better. Most Tier 1 providers (AT&T, UUNet) provide 4-hour response SLA's. Restoration SLA's for broadband are often "best effort" which means you could be down 24 hours or more.

2) Most broadband providers don't guarantee passage of IPSec (VPN) traffic and some even filter them. This won't be an issue with a T1.

3) Standard oversubscription rates across the industry for time-division multiplexed networks (ie. anything other than cable) are much higher for DSL than for T1. Residential DSL is often 12:1 or 16:1, business DSL 8:1 or 10:1. T1's can be as low as 4:1.

Man, you guys are all f*kn wrong.

Stay the hell out of the telecommunications field and stick to something like...connect-the-dots or maybe tic-tac-toe.

Yes, but the total bandwidth is 1.54Mb/s. He has 3Mb/s split evenly between up and down. His situation is akin to a send only T1 and a receive only T1.

A T1 is 24 channels with a total of 56k each for 1.54Mb total. If you have a 756k download going right now you have only 756k left for either up or down transfer. He would have 756k of down left and still have his full 1.5 up available with his current setup.

What are they wrong about?

I connected my tic-tac-toe to your mom's dot in a field last night, then I called your dad to tell him.

Not true.

A T1 is full-duplex. I can transmit 1.5Mb and receive 1.5Mb simultaneously.

Right, that's what I thought it was. The only big bonus is to be on the Tier 1 frame with the T1. But as I discovered in talking with my tech support, they had me set at the slower speed's even though the company has been charged for the full 1.5 for 4 yrs. I've only been here since July of 06 and I'm still trying to fine tune this network from the last guy.

You'll only be directly on the backbone if you buy a T1 from a backbone provider. In all seriousness, unless you buy a T1 from AT&T, Sprintlink, or UUNet, you're not on the backbone. Everybody else is, for the most part, regional.

But the biggest benefit isn't really being on the backbone, it's the service level agreements.

Hey J. Call me on my cell. I'll pm you the #

I'll be damned. I've only ever had one data T1 and all I remember was that it was outragously expensive for the poor speed we got. We didn't host anything on it, it was purely for us to consume things from the web.

I used to install T1s and PRIs for voice all the time and never gave a crap about the total bandwidth so long as it carried the voice and didn't echo.

Every problem is an opportunity in disguise