DSL vs. Cable

[Angelita]

Hello fellow Tech Gurus,

I went to www.lowermybills.com (http://www.lowermybills.com) and found a few places that offer DSL to my home location. I don't understand why verizon (my reg phone co.) can't give it to me but others can.... Anyway, I have been getting mixed reviews on DSL vs. Cable.

Does anyone have DSL? if so, does it go down alot? Does anyone have an opinion on DSL vs. Cable? pros/cons/which is better/etc...

Thanks a bunch.

[OuTpaTienT]

btw Dave, that would be 1Mbit/sec not 1Gbit/sec. (and is not really that fast.)

Angelita, I'd recommend cable over DSL. Cable is routinely MUCH faster than DSL, and usually cheaper as well.

My cable connection cost me $0 setup, $0 for the equip, $0 for the first month, and has been only $39 a month since then. Plus it's a month to month thing, I'm not locked into 6 months or a year plan like DSL companies routinely do.

I routinely see download speeds of 2,000-4,000kbps during the day and easily 5,000-8,000+kbps at night.

As far as outages go, I know the DSL in my area frequently has trouble (or at least used to). My cable connection has only gone down once (for a weekend) in over a year of service.

And I'm not just giving a one sided perspective because I have a DSL connection at work that I use 8 hours a day. DSL is not bad, just nowhere near cable's speed. At least not here in the SF Bay Area. The problem is different companies and different areas of the country are going to have different experiences with DSL vs Cable.

[HmC_RaNgEr]

It all comes down to money x speed x availability. I have both Cable and ADSL at same time. My cable connection is Shaw@home in Victoria, BC Canada. I pay $39 for it. My downloads are around 250-300 Kilobytes per sec. My max upload is 128 Kilobytes. Not bits, bytes. Of course, during the day, it gets slower, not a whole lot, but it does. Now, my cable very seldom goes down but it does, and my email is down all the time. At least 3-5 times a week.

My ADSL on the other hand. I pay $59 for it. Its the second highest package available from Telus. I get 2.5 Megabits down, and 640 Kilobits up. My upload is not as fast as my cable, but it never goes down, with more people online. Unlike cable. My downstream is roughly the same as cable, but never slows down, unlike cable. My email has never gone down, nor my connection. But I do pay more for this service. So as I said before, its all about money, speed, and availability.


Cheers,
Ranger.

[thekingofpain]

I'd recommend cable over DSL. Cable is routinely MUCH faster than DSL, and usually cheaper as well
Not in my neighborhood...dsl reigns supreme, I have a pal in Florida, he has a 1.5 connect for what I pay for a 768...id check around abit as things are obviously different depending on location...

[JayMan]

Out here in Australia we are still only new to broadband, in the way of cable we have a choice between "Optus@home", or "Telstra Bigpond Advanced", I have optus@home and find this service excellent, much better than my friend which has telstra. I pay $70AUD a month (about $30-35 US), i get up to 700KBYTE downloads, and 16KBYTE(128Kbit) uploads. I love the downloads, but the uploads could be better i feel, even 32KBYTE would be much better. Telstra offer ADSL also, but i still think it is too early to try that with them and from what i have heard even their telstra's cable (slower than optus) is faster than their ADSL.

JayMan

[jad1097]

40 a month for 1.5/256 DSL, actually it is ADSL but most call it DSL. Also $0 setup, $0 for the equip, $40 for the first month, with no long term BS contract. @home cable cost me $60 a month because I did not pay for cable TV so I had to pay extra, what a crock that is. OuT does it really only cost you $39 a month total?

@home pissed me off one too many times so I told them to shove their cable modem where the sun does not shine. Sure, it is fast but when it goes down you do not have a dial up account unless you pay extra or get a free ISP.

I was a happy customer unless I had to deal with their flunkies. The outages where not that bad and they usually lasted only a few minutes every few days. They always seem to be upgrading because that has always been their excuse, I hate being lied to. They deleted my account last year because some incompetent idiot did not transfer my account when I moved. All they could say is they were sorry. What finely got me was last month they disabled my modem and when I called, they said I need to pay them $400+ to get it turned back on. I told them I paid my bill and they insisted I did not. When I returned my cable modem, I brought 2 1/2 years worth of bank statements and proved I did not owe them a penny. I will probably never deal with them again.

I almost forget about the dumb *** that dropped of my modem when I moved and said someone would be out latter to hook it up. No one ever showed up and it took three calls to get to someone who could give me my new IP address and stuff.


Another thing about @home they may have fast Internet access but give them a call and see how long it takes to speak to them. I have better things to do than sit on hold for an hour waiting to speak to an idiot who says sorry we are upgrading the service.

[OuTpaTienT]

Well, with taxes and other "fees" it's actually $42.05/mo. Reasonable, I think.

[jad1097]

It's better than what I was paying. Even with cable they charged me...
Date: 08/28/99 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Item # | Description | Unit Cost |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 000001 | D- Cable Customer Monthly Tax | 3.71 |
| 000002 | D- Cable Customer Monthly Fee | 44.95 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Charged to Your VISA | 48.66 |


Notice the date? This was the last time I received a confirmation of payment from them. This is also when I still had cable TV.

Without cable TV it was $61.12 a month.

[This message has been edited by jad1097 (edited 02-27-2001).]

[OuTpaTienT]

That is a rip, jad. Here, even if I didn't have cable TV, it wouldn't cost anymore (as long as the neighborhood has cable & they could access a line in front of the house.) Here's what my bill looks like every singe month:

Current Statement

$39.95 ____ Service Charges

0.00 ____ Other Charges

2.10 ____ Taxes and Franchise Fees

(0.00) ____ Credits

$42.05 ____ Total Current Charges


Total Charge This Period $42.05

[pcmech007]

I'm a cable user, have never used DSL, but am amused by all the tv commercials, especially Bell's satellite service. They love to trash cable and dsl, but that's all **** because the Net as a whole can't fill up my cable pipe's capacity. Sometimes when I think cable <i>may</i> be the problem, I go to some fast server, like at Microsoft or somewhere, and bring in a file at over 200KB/s. That's Bytes, not bits.

So all this trash talk on tv is just misleading the consumer. Plus what Bell doesn't tell you is satellite is only 1-way; you still need a dial-up connection to upsend.

<RantingTangent>
I rate Bell's tv commercial right down there (in a plugged toilet bowl) with polar bears drinking Coca Cola and that zoom zoom Mazda kid. What crappy advertising!!!
</RantingTangent>

[TechJumper]

Ditto to the rant! http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

I want DSL SOOOO BAD. Im with you warthog,


Michael

BTW- I MADE SENIOR MEMBER!!!!!!!!! YAAYAAAAAYA

Now I have to be serious.......we'll see http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[TechJumper]

Ooops,

NOW I MADE SENIOR MEMBER!!!!!


Michael http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[jad1097]

Angelita, they shipped my DSL modem out so if UPS ever decides to bring it here I will let you know what I think of DSL. www.dslreports.com (http://www.dslreports.com) is an excellent site and will tell you how far you are from the CO, I am 3400'away which means I should get a great connection. Also http://www.speedguide.net/index.shtml has some good info. Sorry about my long-winded rant before but sometimes my fingers just don't stop.


OuT, I did have an awesome connection though. If I am not happy with DSL I will try a 2-way dish. If I ever find the piece of land I am looking for at the price I want then I will need a dish anyhow.

[brandon184]

I'm on VDSL lines, which are 50mbit connections.

This is usually a more expensive/corporate solution, but is uncomparingly faster than cable.

I'd also have to vote for regular DSL over regular cable too.

- Brandon

[Warthog]

Does anyone have DSL?

lol Yeah, just about everyone except me http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

I'm sure you will get a slew of responses/links very soon http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Warthog

[daverme]

I looked into DSL a few months ago and found that my house is to far from the nearest telephone company central office for me to get regular household service. That might be the case with you and Verizon. However, I found others who could provide me with "business service", which would cost about $100 per month and would only give me 128kbps (bits per second). I wonder if those "others" are talking about the same thing?

Being disenchanted with DSL, I just forgot about it and when Road Runner service became available recently, I just decided to go with it without revisiting DSL again. That was about two weeks ago. I have two observations about the cable service (Road Runner) that are specific to my supplier, Cox Communications of Fairfax County, Virginia: (1) Due to a server outage, there was no service at all for the first two days. Since that outage ended, the service has been rock solid. (2) The throughput I get has varried GREATLY, but has steadily gotten better. Beats me why. The first time I checked (day #1), it was only 128kbps. I called Tech Support yesterday and they sent some field guys out today and while they were here, I got 1,136kbps. No typo, 1.13 Gigabits per second, durn near T1 quality.

So what does all this mean? My guess is that folks will like what they have, if it is working! If it's not, they will hate it. I would be interested to know how many have experience with both and actually have a preference.

[MiKe85]

www.Dslreports.com (http://www.Dslreports.com)

This a good informative web site ...

Also don't feel bad warthog - I'm still on 56K http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif

Mike

[daverme]

One more thing: If you do decide to go with cable, keep a dial up connection as a backup. That server outage I mentioned in my previous post lasted for DAYS, at least three, maybe more. Also, in our area, we have WAY MORE cable outages than phone outages. Truth is, we have NEVER have a phone outtage but have cable outages regularly.

[daverme]

Hey, prior to going on cable, I was screaming along at 28.8 !!!

[GroundZero3]

warthog how the heck do you play Rogue spear online with a 56k?!?!

I have cable here. i love it to death. its new out here and barely anyone has it so i get great speed. plus im on all hours of the nights. mostly 12 am - 4 am when barely everyone else so speeds are awsome for gaming.

Jason

[This message has been edited by GroundZero3 (edited 02-27-2001).]

[Warthog]

Groundzero - I actually have a really good ISP, so I get exceptional pings for a 56k.

I have only been booted ONCE because of my modem - not kidding.

I routinely play with people who are amazed when they find out I have 56k as a connection. BUT cable and DSL are still better http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

I actually do just fine with my 56k for gamin, I just can't host with more than 3-4 people or so. I want broadband to be able to play online ALL the time if I so desired. Current "blocking incoming calls" problems restrict me to playing online only on late nights (weekends or vacation) because I like to play for several hours.
http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif
Warthog

[King_Kooba_Fantastique]

I have adsl and its pretty good, i am very happy with it,all my friends have cable, when i visit them i fool around on their computers, i have not noticed any differences between the two services in performance.

Id say go with the cheaper offer whatever it is.

KKF.

[ArnoldLLerch]

Cable!

ARNi LEE
Waiting for FMD

[ArnoldLLerch]

Cable!

ARNi LEE
Waiting for FMD

[SpookyEddy]

Just a few ideas,

DSL pro's

Dedicated bandwidth (you are not affected by how many people in your area are logged on).

Uses existing infrastructure.

DSL con's

Limited in range from exchange (due to coil based repeaters in anologue phone lines, that dont work with digital signals).

Cable pro's

Theoretical higher MAX bitrate than DSL services.

No limit on distance from exchange (uses fibre).

Cable con's

Bandwidth is shared between users in local loop. If lots of people use it then slower connection speeds/bandwidths.

Regards,

SpookyEddy

[flash4master]

this is a conversation i have learned to stay out of... http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/biggrin.gif

[digital_d_17]

This whole Cable vs DSL is being blown way out of proportion. It really depends on where you live for what is best. Where I live, (Bellevue, Washington) Cable is not available yet, and, from what I recently found out, I'm about 15,700 feet from the CO, and the max is actually around 18,000 feet. Also, what was really cool, is that for Qwest, they upgraded all customers using services from 256-640 all up to 640kbps down speed... For free. Yes, for free. Tres cool, but then again, we should have been getting those kinds of speeds for the $35/mo we're paying anyways. And I also get a month-to-month service agreement. No long-term commitment contract. So all this **** you people have been saying that all these features that Cable has over DSL or that DSL has over cable aren't really as plentiful as you would like to believe.

Edit: Forgot some of those 0s Hehehe :Þ

[This message has been edited by digital_d_17 (edited 03-01-2001).]

[loki515]

I have www.speakeasy.net (http://www.speakeasy.net) who has very good reports for service and tech supprot.When I frist go with them about 7 months ago there service was good but hold times were so long you would fall asleep.Sincce then they have added so much new equipment and tech support the other day picked it up ,twice mind you ,the second ring.The reason I called twice is becuase when the guy picked it up I had it on speakerphone playing cs thinking it waas going to be atleast 20mins wrong.I like it I have 604/128 which usually tests at 450/110 or so.
Date | User ID | Description | Charge | Total
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2001-02-28 | loki515 | 608/128 Residential RADSL | $ 59.95 | $ 59.95
2001-02-28 | loki515 | Federal USF Tax* | $ 2.06 | $ 62.01
2001-02-28 | loki515 | Additional IPs: 2 | $ 5.90 | $ 67.91
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total | $ 67.91


That's a total of 4 ip's...Playing games never better...SIC...

[neo_otyugh]

i have cable at home and do tier 3 dsl support at work.
cable and dsl are really not all that different in many cases. the difference depends on the equipment used in the dsl set up.
we have 120 customers on legacy equipment that works almost the same as cable. DSL CAN and WILL have slowdowns related to many people being on at once. it all depends on the speed of the lime going to the ram/dslam. ram boxes have 8 to 16 ports and usually are on single or dual ds1s. a ds1 does 1.544 megabits a second...if you have 16 customers on napster at the same there will be slowdowns. even a dslam can be slowed down. on the ones we use yo can put up to 240 people on one dslam. the dslams are usually on a ds3. we currently are only provisioned for 120 people per dslam. even then 45 people on t1 speed lines can bog a ds3 pretty easily. and one other thing is that many ISPs dont upgrade their backbone fast enough. many companies will ahve a fractional ds3 to provide for a thousand dsl customers, several thousand dial up and a scattering of t1 and isdn customers. believe me on bad nights that backbone will start to choke.

my cable at home has been pretty good overall, the longest down was 5 days, usually it is never down though.

what does it all come down to?
price and service. if cable has good service (the service is terrible at time warner roadrunner in houston), and a good price then go for it. if dsl has a better proce go for it. before you get either of them do research on the companies you might want to consider buying the service from.
the dsl i work with is very different from most bridged dsl solutions. i support dsl that is geared towards LAN and business minded customers. we provide routed NAT solutions over ATM. when you get dsl from us you will usually be getting a cisco router that is MUCH better than many items offered by cable companies or by compaines selling bridged dsl.

dsl seems more widely availble where i am at, but cable seems to be more dense where it is. either one works great if youget it from a good company. when it comes time to choose call both providers and talk to their tech support and their customer service...you can learn a lot that way too...not just about the technology, but about the companies support philosophy or lack of one...

one thing about why verizon doesnt offer it...they dont have dslams of their own in the CO they operate or they are operating out of a CO belonging to another company. dont look at the isp, find out who the line provider is for dsl in your area, and then see what isps they work with.
i work for a phone company that does dsl within our phone area, but also offers it DEEP into Bell territory, because we rent rack space in the COs from Bell...

[This message has been edited by neo_otyugh (edited 03-01-2001).]

[gauge]

I have a cabel modem which download very fast, but the part that suck is it is a line that requires a dial up so it still takes up my phone line. The other thing i dont care for is with Comcast they require you to have basic cabel if you want the internet service. I dont really have time to watch t.v. so i have never had cable and still dont use it. I enjoy the quick download, but would much rather have DSL. My cousin has it and it's slightly faster and mine and he gets better pings when playing Counterstrike.

[gauge]

The cable cost me $50 and basic cable is another $20.

[OuTpaTienT]

gauge, you have one-way cable. Meaning it's only a high-speed cable connection for stuff moving downstream (downloading to your computer). Anything information moving upstream is going over a regular dial-up connection. This is pure ****. I'd recommend dsl over this anyday.

Two-way high-speed cable is the only way to go AFAIC.

[rtyp3]

With all due respect Outpatient... 1Mbit/sec is fast and I'll take it any day! http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[OuTpaTienT]

With the same due respect...33.6kbps is fast (when compared to 9600baud).

It's all relative. Sure 1Mbit/sec is fast. But surely you'd agree that 8Mbit/sec is faster, right?

[RayH]

Cable at its fastest is faster than DSL. The speed of your cable connection is dependent upon how many people are in your node.

DSL at its slowest is faster than cable at its slowest. The speed of DSL is dependent upon your distance from the phone company central office.

That is the technical end. Like dialup, some ISPs provide better and more reliable service than others.

The pricing may depend upon the competition in the area. In San Francisco, right now the ball game is primarily DSL. Pac Bell has now jacked up DSL back to its "regular" price of $49.95/mo, as may DSL providers are falling by the wayside.

AT&T, which is the cable television provider, is slow at wiring the city for cable internet. By the time they get ready citywide, they will have effective competition from a second cable company!

But a THIRD alternative is Sprint Broadband, if available. It's like a mini satellite system. It beams from your residence to a tower. You have to have direct line of sight and within 35 miles! It's faster than DSL!

When they are all up and running, the prices should drop!