Anybody Running DSL, VDSL, or Fiber? (FTTN)

[THE_DEAD_POOL]

I am considering switching to CenturyLink which runs a FTTN (fiber to the node, copper to the house) set up I believe. Just curious if any Netduma users are from AZ and happen to have CenturyLink's FTTN service or live elsewhere and have a FTTN connection? If so, what are your pings? How is the jitter and overall quality of your connections?

 

I am currently with Cox and have the 300/30 plan with a base ping around 25ms. I have been having congestion issues lately and my pings are not that consistent with random spiking above 80-130ms. From what I understand is a VDSL line is a dedicated line, so you should have less congestion. I am considering CenturyLink's 40mbps plan. Unfortunately, they do not offer FTTH (fiber to the home) in my neighborhood.

 

Also, if I do decide to go with CenturyLink, does anyone have a preferred VDSL modem that works well with the Netduma?

 

And.. Cable or DSL/Fiber? Which works better for gaming?

[ColonicBoom]

I can't answer any of the specifics, I'm a long way from AZ and CenturyLink.

 

But my ping is a lot lower on VDSL than it was on cable. My cable was about 25-30ms base, my VDSL is 8ms base. It's much more stable too, even before my cable supplier 'upgraded' the infrastructure and it went bad it had at least 10 times more jitter. Bandwidth obviously get lower the further you are from the node.

 

I would never switch back while I still have thumbs to game with.

[iAmMoDBoX]

Yeah, by design dsl should be more stable but bandwidth suffers

[THE_DEAD_POOL]

Yeah, the bandwidth with cable is nice, just seems more erratic. Also I have heard the faster speeds you get with cable, the more unstable your connection becomes unless you go fiber. 

 

DSL being more stable should work better for gaming correct? 

I was recommended a Zyxel Q100 VDSL2 Modem on dslreports. It looks a little old, wonder how compatible it would be with the Netduma.

[iAmMoDBoX]

Yeah, the bandwidth with cable is nice, just seems more erratic. Also I have heard the faster speeds you get with cable, the more unstable your connection becomes unless you go fiber. 

 

DSL being more stable should work better for gaming correct? 

 

I was recommended a Zyxel Q100 VDSL2 Modem on dslreports. It looks a little old, wonder how compatible it would be with the Netduma.

 

I'm no dsl expert but I don't think any DSL modem should have compatibility issues. Try to get only a modem though.

 

You could always do DSL as a dedicated gaming line and keep cable for everything else

[RL317]

I'm on 50/10Mb FTTC/VDSL2 and my last year with it has been infinitely better than when I was on 100Mb cable or hybrid fibre coaxial aka a pile of shite from Virgin Media. Far lower latency out to the same distances, no random bandwidth drops as I used to get, no random packet loss and next to no jitter. On cable my base latency would spike from 14ms to 30-50ms every two seconds without fail. Now it's a base 7ms that stays at 7ms. I don't remember ever seeing more than a quarter of a millisecond of jitter.

 

I'm not from the US but I think gamers from everywhere would confirm it provides a superior, more stable experience. Also I should add that instead of a DSL modem I just use an ISP modem/router combo that doesn't even have a bridge mode feature and it still works flawlessly.

[THE_DEAD_POOL]

I am having  cable tech come out on Monday, see if anything is up. If they don't find anything, I'm thinking I'll give VDSL2 a try. The only issue running both DSL and cable is that it wouldn't be very cost effective. 

 

Trying to get some more details on CenturyLinks quality, but it's turning out to be quite difficult. No hard data to be found.

[iAmMoDBoX]

Trying to get some more details on CenturyLinks quality, but it's turning out to be quite difficult. No hard data to be found.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/centurylink/comments/42jn4d/terrible_ping/

 

https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&ei=Kc3zWbm6OYnSjwPfz4WgCg&q=CenturyLink+dsl+ping&oq=CenturyLink+dsl+ping&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i22i30k1.770.4176.0.4401.10.10.0.0.0.0.125.1071.0j9.9.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..1.9.1067...0j0i10i67k1j0i131k1.0.1EtuhkoR40Q