Computer Internet DSL Latency ?

[Clarence Martin]

Got DSL . Ran the speed test on the DSL. I understand the MBS speed part of it , but what does Latency mean ? Test showed 21ms on the Latency. Is that good or bad?

[Mike Henderson]

When your computer sends a packet to a server, it takes time for that packet to travel from your computer to that server. That's latency. 21ms is not terrible.

Mike

[I forget - latency may include the time for the packet to get to the serve and for the server to send a packet back to you, and not jut the one way time. Also known as "ping time". I've been retired a long time:)]

[Dan Hintz]

Got DSL . Ran the speed test on the DSL. I understand the MBS speed part of it , but what does Latency mean ? Test showed 21ms on the Latency. Is that good or bad?

21ms is decent enough... an imperceptible delay. When it starts getting into the multiple-100ms range, then you may start to notice a slowdown, and it's a sign there's something along the path that is breaking down.

[Eric DeSilva]

I forget - latency may include the time for the packet to get to the serve and for the server to send a packet back to you, and not jut the one way time. Also known as "ping time". I've been retired a long time:)

Latency is round-trip...

[Joe Kieve]

Interesting....never understood what latency meant until now. Not to hijack the thread but is "ping" the same as latency?

[Eric DeSilva]

"Ping" was the name of a Unix utility to troubleshoot IP networks. "Pinging" an IP address does give you a round-trip time, but I've always thought of ping as more of a way to determine whether a particular IP address was responding or not.

[Justin Ludwig]

Satellite internet has horrible lag (latency). I'd be tickled pink with 21ms. My pings are 200-250ms. Once the download starts, it's fast though. Can't complain unless I want to move outta the country.

[David Falkner]

For DSL, 21 is very good. When I had DSL mine had gotten up into the low 200's and they couldn't seem to fix it so I switched providers. I just ran it and got 9, which ain't too shabby at all.

If you want to have a little 'Geek' fun, open a DOS window and at the prompt type "ping sawmillcreek.org" and when that finishes type "tracert sawmillcreek.org" (without the colons). The first will give you the total round trip time from your computer to this site (71 ms for me) and the second will show you all the hops between your router/modem and this site. In my setup there are 11 hops. When I was on Bellsouth DSL there were over 20 (26 if I remember correctly).