DSL vs. Cable modem? Need input

[resq302]

Ok, here is my problem.  My cable company has been a bunch of idiots lately as we have had no internet access due to our cable line coming into my appt complex is so old and deteriorated.  We have been without it since Jan. 25 and they say that a line repairman will not be out to fix it for another 7-10 days.  DSL is cheaper and will probably work and we can get it up and running probably a heck of a lot faster than what the cable company can come to repair our problem.  We have been at this appt. for just over a year now and have had  the internet out for lengthy periods 3 times now.

My question is:

Those of you that have DSL, how much slower is it compared to a cable modem and are you happy with your speed of your DSL service?

Any input would be greatly appreciated as I am tired of not being able to use the computer at my house.

thanks,

Brian

[Brock Samson]

i was asking too,.. lemmie know wll ya?.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,9582.0.html

[Old Moparz]

i was asking too,.. lemmie know wll ya?.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,9582.0.html

You didn't ask loud enough Strat. 

Got your disc today but haven't had a chance to hear it yet, thanks.

[resq302]

i was asking too,.. lemmie know wll ya?.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,9582.0.html

Ok, I just read through that whole post on your link and didn't see a thing about my topic?     Maybe I am going blind?

[my73charger]

Honestly I have had both and I can't tell alot of difference.  I had Qwest DSL and it was rated at 256KB.  I now have Cable modem and my cable company advertises it at 3MB, 12 times faster!!  What I have been told is that this is deceiving because you are sharing bandwidth with whoever else is on line at the same time as you.  I am not a techy so all I can tell you is that I don't see a big difference in speed between what I had and what I now have.  I guess you notice it more on huge graphic pictures downloading, but to be truthful I cannot tell.  All I know is that it is much faster than dial-up.  I wouldn't hesitate to go back to DSL, the only reason I switched is because of the price of the package that was offered.

[resq302]

Price difference for me would be cable modem at $45 a month vs. DSL at $29 a month.

[Troy]

You need to figure out the speeds offered by each company as there can be a massive difference even in the same market. I have found that cable is faster and more reliable where I live but the opposite is true on the other side of town by my parents. If there's that much of a price difference then the DSL is probably noticeably slower but I guess it depends on what you are used to. I have to transfer large files and I work from home at times so cable works out better. If you play games and need a consistent speed then DSL might be better if it's fast enough for decent pings (cable speeds can fluctuate with traffic but so can the entire internet).

Troy

[ChgrSteve67]

Go with what makes you happy.
Obviously Cable is pissing you off.
Try DSL and see if you can live with the speed and the price.

I have cable because my phone company is a bunch of monkeys and technical morons.
I'm 1/4 of an inch away from getting a broadband phone doing away with my phone company all together.

[bull]

I went from dialup to DSL, which is like going from a K-car to a Viper performance-wise. I've heard that cable is faster than DSL but I've never seen any real evidence to support that. I think DSL would be more versatile because you can use phone lines but then sometimes there are packages you can get so that you have cable TV included in your service. My conclusion: six of one, half dozen of the other.

[2Gunz]

As stated above cable and DSL services are VERY different from town to town. Cable may suck here but 20 mins away be great. Same with DSL great on this street or area and on the next block be horrible. The best thing you can do is ask the neighbors and see of they like what they have.

Im going to punch a few holes in some common ideas about Cable VS DSL.

#1 Cable is faster than DSL.

In the beginning, and in most cases that was true. But with technology that line has blurred. I currently have a 6 Mbps down and 768 kbps up DSL connection. That is roughly 2 times faster Downloading and 3 times faster uploading than "standard 3 Mbps" cable. I can download single files at 650k+ all day and night. I can also sustain a few files totaled up to 800k+ range.  Is there faster cable plan out there? Not that I know of.

#2 DSL is better because you dont share bandwidth with your neighbors, like you do with cable.

While it is true that with cable you share bandwidth with you neighbors, the same can be said about DSL. DSL just does it in the central office instead of on the street. In the end your internet and everybody elses goes into a few "Fat" pipes and out to the world.

The only downfall of cable setup is the possibility of running out of bandwidth for your block or area. But with a properly designed and mantained system that shouldnt be an issue.


#3 Dsl has better pings than cable or cable has better pings than DSL.

From what I have seen it depends on how good or bad the network staff is.


#4  Blah Blah is more reliable than Blah Blah

Once again this is how good or bad the network staff is.

Personally I have had my DSL go out 3 times I think in 3 years. And they where all at like 2 am in the morning for like 5 mins. Which was prolly some scheduled maintenance had I bothered to look. I have http://www2.dslextreme.com/  and HIGHLY recommend them.

Before that I had Earthlink. It was great in the beginning and about 2 years in, it turned into a big turd. I was getting random disconnects, 4- 8 hour outages, and huge packet loss.  I spent hours on the phone with those lossers who over and over tried to tell me there was nothing wrong. And when I started tracing the hops and clearly found a router that was coughing, they would never fess up that they had hardware/routing problems. The end came when the guy told me "Well sir we dont garantee speeds, this is a best of service"  My reply was " Best of what?  My download is half what it used to be and randomly disconnects, all I want is what I used to have."  He came back with some BS and I told him to cancel it.

I got DSL extreme a week or 2 later and BAM, same phone line and suddenly no problems.  Earthlink DSL.... what a bunch of asshats.


The bottom line here is you need to do your homework. Look online and talk to people near you. Ive had 2 different DSL services on the same phone line at the same house. One sucked and one is awesome.

If you havent looked already please check out www.dslreports.com.  They have reviews, speed tests and what companys will serve your area.  With DSL in many cases you have alot of options.  I know of 3 companys that would provide DSL service to me. Verizon, Earthlink, and DSLextreme.
Also dont let the phone company talk you into thinking that you can only get DSL from them. Im on a Verizon wires but other companys are aloud to service my area.

I hope the book I wrote helped ya.

[resq302]

2gunz.


Yes you certainly did.  Thanks!

[kab69440]

There seems to be very little difference in speed on my laptop from the cable at my house, and the DSL at my Mother's place.

[69_Hemi_Charger]

There is actually a new thing in my community in Dallas. Verizon has decided to deploy a maze of fiber optic cables throughout the metro and will be offering an internet service through the fiber optic cables!

For about $49 a month you can get 15 mbps down and 2 mbps uploads. This is blazing compared to my current 6 down and 1 up with comcast. If you got the big bucks you can pay about $175 a month to get 30 mbps down and 5 upload. Which would more than pentruple (5X) the speed of your average *high* end dsl/cable unit. Now if only I had the money.....

I am converting to the $49 plan and will see if there is a difference. I am anticipating a large one, as one of the problems with DSL and Cable is that the speed dramatically ranges. Fiber optics cut that range down dramatically, allowing blazingly fast service all the time.
I CANT WAIT!!

Another option is Comcast now has a 8 mbps download and 2 upload for about 50 bucks a month as well. I will stick with the speed!