What speed dsl do you think is enough?

[JustMe]

Hi all,

I posted a question about dsl before and now have a more specific one..."I'm learning everyday and now understand that there are different speeds of dsl (at least that's what I think I understand). I want to be able to upload pics from my 7.2 megapixel camera in a reasonable time. What speed do you think is enough?

The isp I am currently using offers a plan for $14.95/month. It states that it is 5x faster than a 56 modem. I really need to stay at a reasonable price. I know cable is better, but it is out of the question financially.

Thanks,
Robyn
single mommy to an almost 4 yr old from Guatemala

[fattytuna]

May I ask:

a) When you say upload pictures, what size prints do you usually get with those you upload? Most of the time I don't need to blow my pictures up that big. A lot of times I just get 4x6 photos. But if you want 8x10 or 11x13, that would matter.

b) What size (in Mb) are the photos you have taken with your 7.2 megapixel camera? I have a 6 megapixel camera, but since most of the time I don't need to blow my pictures up that big, most of my photos are a little over one meg in size, and that is plenty if you just want to print 4x6 photos. Now if you want bigger sizes, then you want finer setting on your camera (more pixel, less compression, or just in raw format) so your file size would be larger.

I have downstream of 1.5 Mbps and upstream of 500 kbps. Naturally, downstream speed matters more when you are browing the web, upstream is the speed that matters when you are uploading files.

[JustMe]

Thanks so much for the response, Katherine. I do sometimes want the larger size photos (8x10 or 11x13), but not always. I tried resizing the pics that I only want the 4x6s of, but I ran into problems with that.

Okay, here is where my technology ignorance kicks in. As far as I can tell the pics upload to about 3.5-4.5mbs. It would be hard for me to pre-set my camera differently, as most of my pics are of my active preschooler, and I dont have time to pre-set. In addition, I hope every pic is a winner and would be one I'd want to blow up (of course, it doesnt always turn out that way).

I didnt realize there were differences btwn downstream and upstream speeds (actually never even knew those terms existed), but I guess the upstream would be more important to me.

Robyn

[fattytuna]

At the dsl speed I have, 3.5-4.5mb per picture is pretty big if you have a lot of them to upload. DD is 18 months old and it's hard enough for me to take out the camera alone - she just goes for the lens before I can even aim, so I understand a lot of times you bearly have enough time to get anything in focus. I'm getting into a habit of always checking my programmed settings before I start taking pictures after so many times of not realizing it was set at a lower resolution because I was taking some small pictures of something for email only and forgot to turn it back to my usual setting. It helped when I spent some time to get to know my camera a little better - there are still functions I have never used before, but now the first thing I do after I turn on my camera is glance at some of the basic settings real quick: resolution, compression, exposure compensation, white balance, and flash setting. Resizing and retouching afterwards takes up a lot of time, which is sadly why it's taking me longer and longer to publish DD's monthly photos online.

With the DSL speed offered by providers, for most people downstream will always be a lot faster than upstream, because most of the time you are browsing the downloading information. What speed(s) are offered at the price you were quoted? I'm with SBC/Yahoo, and I'm paying $17.99 per month for the speeds I have (1-year contract). It's usually cheaper to go with your existing phone company, but then you have to deal with their customer service which can be horrible. Actually my downstream speed is supposed to be higher but I haven't had the time to get on the phone with SBC to sort it out. If you have decided to go with DSL anyway, you can try the speed they are offering for the price you are willing to pay for right now. And see if that's fast enough for you. I'm guessing they will always be more than happy to upgrade you to a higher plan for a higher price if you find the speed too slow, but you might have to restart you contract when you upgrade. But I would ask about their policy before I sign a long term contract.

[caheinz]

Do you actually mean to upload every picture you take with your camera to the internet? If you simply upload them to your computer (which is limited by the cable you use, and not the internet at all), and then select the ones you want to print using an online service, you'll probably figure out that you're not really uploading all that many. You can also use software on your computer to resize the pictures -- there's no need to force the camera to do it.

You download way more data browsing the web (as by reading this site!) than you're likely to want to upload on a constant, everyday basis, which is part of why the download speed is so much higher. Services also set slow upload speeds on purpose, to discourage uploading copies of movies (commercial movies -- not home movies!) and music and the like.