cable modem or dsl?

[superraton01]

my wife and i both want to be online at the
same time. do cable modems or dsl
enable this? what kind of download speeds
are typical? for ex, I'd love to
d/l Bdog's Mandrake file, but with a
56k modem my typ d/l speed is 5kbps.
also, we want to be able to use the phone
while both of us are on line at the same time. PLS give us recommendations.
Any service or reliability problems?
Tnx! =)

[GroundZero3]

okay when you say at the same time im assuming with two computers at the same time. if so then your gonna need a lan. you can get a cheap kit. cable doesn't interfer with phone. DSL is able to to talk and be online at the same time. The countless argurments about which is faster is old. each has its pros and cons. Cable is faster in a sense but your sharing the connection so more people slows down connection. DSL is not affected but futher away from the switch slower you get. I have @home service (cable) its new out here so not many people have it. im pretty happy with it most of the time. i play alot of games online and im happy about the ping i get.

JaYsin

[darrelld]

DSL or Cable can accomplish what you want.
Cable seems to be faster for download. My typical connection speed is around 4000Kbitsps or 500 Kbytesps, I haven't seen any home Dsl connection that comes close to that. Cable limits your upload connection on some area's. Not a big deal for me, I don't upload alot of information.
Ground is right that you will have to network your computers in some fashion to share an internet connection.

[This message has been edited by darrelld (edited 11-24-2000).]

[Ygor]

I thought you needed adsl to talk while online?

Anyway, my experience is with cable, not dsl. Our service is $40 per month times 2 modems on one shared cable. The installer said we could get a router and just use one modem. Then again, we have 2 accounts, none shared.

[brandon184]

Ygor, I think its any type of DSL on which you can talk while online.

I'd go with DSL. I've got it serving my network, and am MORE than happy with it.

- Brandon

[Warthog]

I would go with DSL also.

As high speed i-net gets more popular, more and more people will be getting it, whether cable or dsl. If you have cable, it will slow down a lot because of the influx of new subscribers. IMO, DSL is better for the long run.

Warthog

[jamis]

For the average user, I vote cable modem.

Typically easier to set up (splice off your cable tv jack), typically faster (average service is 1.5Mbps max down, 300k max up), and best of all, you wont have to work with your local phone company (ie: I hate Verizon, and if line work needed to be done, they'd be the ones to do it.)

The only reason I'd switch to DSL is for a static IP address.

[FrozenLiquidity]

I guess I'n the odd man out when I still am unlucky enough to connect with a 56k modem that will only give me speeds of a 28.8 modem.

Frankly, I would kill for either of these services, I have been trying for nearly a year to get a high speed internet connection to no avail. Our nextdoor neighbors have DSL (from Boeing) and every company we go to says, oh you're too far away or there's too much magnetic interference. Cable modems haven't even appeared in my area. I Prefer DSL over Cable but if any was available I would take it in a second.

FrozenLiquidity

Now I will wait six minutes for this post to upload on my crappy modem.

[OuTpaTienT]

Now, how do you know you prefer DSL over cable when you haven't had either. I don't quite understand that. I have cable at home and DSL at work. And I'll take cable anyday. I guess I could have DSL at home as well as at work...that is if I wanted to download MUCH slower and pay more money than I do with my cable connection.

---

Re: ADSL or DSL, it's my understanding that almost all DSL offered to the home user is ADSL (Asynchronous DSL). Synchronous DSL would mean it has the same speed up & down stream, which is rare for the companies to offer. And when they do, it **** expensive.

[Mungla]

It depends on what your wanting to do with your computers. If you want to run a web server, then you defently want DSL (fast upload and static IP). I perfer DSL due to that fact that 1) I run a server; 2) I upload alot.

Out is correct, 99.5% of all DSL being offered is ADSL. But, if you have a chance to get a newer Sync DSL connection -- TAKE IT! The only mainstream SDSL modems that I know of are Net-to-Net boxes and Elastic Networks products (such as Etherloop). The latest update and firmware for Etherloop is outstanding -- 4meg up/down for me at 2mi. Newer offerings of DSL service are coming too guys!!! The company my father works for has been on the top of DSL -- the latest offering is VDSL! We've had VDSL running at 25meg (offering 4 channels of video, 2 phone lines, and 1.5meg internet) at distances up to 1mi -- VDSL is brand new, so look for it in the consumer market soon!

[Warthog]

and best of all, you wont have to work with your local phone company

Yeah, so then you get to work through your local communist cable company who doesn't know jack (my experience )

Warthog

[OuTpaTienT]

Mungla, whats the "V" in VDSL?

[Mungla]

Video DSL -- That's why there are four channels of video. I've seen the working prototype of VDSL up and running -- the video has superior quality.

The VDSL box that we are testing is just like a normal DSL box, just a bit bigger. It has four coaxial outputs on the backside (allows you to hook up four TV's -- all allowed to view all channels of video), it then has two phones jacks (each jack is one line, not dual lines), and then it has an RJ-45 connection - just like a standard DSL modem - allowing 1.5 megabits up/down.

Apparently the DSL box is running a compression method for the video. From what I've been told, normal video from a broadcast company takes up 45megs of bandwidth.

[Ygor]

If both are available at about the same cost, could be a tough decision.

Here we were pleasantly surprised to find cable available earlier this year. The cable company (Adelphia) has been topnotch in service and our tech knows what the heck he's doing.

As for the phone company here (Verizon), they missed several appointments to fix problems and then came on a Sunday when we'd given up and went out of town. (no calls on the working line about this either) The local company has no intention of replacing the old (usually 28k, sometimes less) lines and won't bring fiber closer than about a mile away.

Cable companies are not communist, they're very much capitalists, out to make a profit. I only know what I read here about Cox, @home & others. Fortunately for us, Adelphia seems to want to do it right the first time rather than just sign up everyone they can and play catch-up on service later.

[yankinoz]

Warthog,

In Sydney we get the cable modem from Foxtel which is not only the local cable company (Fox) but also the local telephone company (Telstra.) yikes - talk about the "best" of both worlds! It took four months to fix a billing error.

Overall I'm happy with my cable modem service. It only sucks from 7-9pm.