Cable vs. DSL

nickg · 07-23-2002, 09:09 AM

I'm putting the hammer to the old dial-up. Whats your opinions on DSL vs. Cable connection? I have cable at work, very fast but sometimes down. Never worked with DSL. Which is better?

Minnreefer · 07-23-2002, 09:13 AM

I think that both are equally good or bad, we have had many problems with our DSL line. I don't know what to say.

Jon

Sand Reef · 07-23-2002, 09:32 AM

I prefer cable. It's slightly faster and in my neck of the woods, I am unable to get DSL because I am too far away from the main station. At least that is what I have been told. I have rarely lost connectivity with cable. The speed the cable co. boasts is 1.5 mbps download speed. I have tested the line and it averages out to 1.1. I have no experience with DSL so I am biased towards cable.

Oh, and another thing, once you go cable/dsl, you will never want to go back to dial up.

paulF · 07-23-2002, 09:32 AM

my opinion is a little biased, because i work for cablevision. however ive had a cable modem for 4 years running and have NEVER had a problem. the speeds vary from one to the other but in new york my modem generally runs at t-3 speeds or better. i havent heard of too many problems with dsl out here but everyone seems to agree that cable is faster. hth

asmith · 07-23-2002, 04:22 PM

I think a lot of your decision should be based on the company that is offering it in your area. I am on cable and love it. People in other locations have better luck with DSL. I would choose the provider that is most reliable (least downtime). A high speed internet connnection won't do you much good if it is down most of the time.

JMO,
Andrew

Doug1 · 07-23-2002, 06:19 PM

I have used DSL at work and its sweet , where I live neither DSL or Cable is an option, and sat is way to spendy

Dialup

ad6735 · 07-23-2002, 07:07 PM

i've got DSL at home. haven't experienced any downtime at all and i like the fact that i'm getting phone calls while online. The speed is definately faster than dialup (aahh those illegal mp3s.

)..haven't used cable yet

RedSkaNite · 07-23-2002, 10:42 PM

I absolutely love my DSL. I did a comaparison. What took me just over an hour to d/l with my 56k modem now takes me 1 minute 4 seconds =). I hear cable is fast too, but as you share a cable line with other people in your area, it can slow down at peak usage times.

IMO the deciding factor is cost. I got a DSL modem free (with ports for 4 computers) and first month free. If I had got that deal from my cable company instead, I would have went with them. They are both so much faster than dial-up that you will giggle the first time you download a huge file in seconds.

Rick O · 07-24-2002, 06:32 AM

I have DSL with Mindspring. I've never had any experience with cable so I can't comment about it.

I have had some down time but not very often. Mindspring allows you to use dialup in the event of on outage or if you're away from home but only the first 20 hours are free. I've never had an outage last for more than a few hours and if it's for planned maintenance then they give you advance warning.

I would take Andrew's advice and go with the company that's most reliable. I've heard some horror stories.

DeepSix · 07-24-2002, 08:40 AM

i laff at my cable commercials, how they diss sattilite dishes during bad weather, cuz my cable modem cuts out during thunderstorms, tornados and other acts of God... ppl down the street have dsl, but i just happen to live a ~tad~ too far from the main box, i've heard it much better than cable, quicker, and more secure.
if ya ain't got a fat pipe plumbed up to your byte box, you need

.

peace...
d6

balakoth · 07-25-2002, 04:38 AM

Heres the Scoop and the Myths in a sense.

Myth:
DSL is better than Cable because you don't share your bandwidth with those in your block radius.

While this may seem like DSL just kicks serious butt, you do share bandwidth no matter what they say. Its probably a little less of a hit, but no matter what your sharing a Router with hundreds of users which then splits your Speeds. DSL is just more of a dedicated bandwidth from 128k Upload to 728k Download. Of course no matter what service you have it requires on the website your connected to, the lines in your area and or the person or persons computer you are connected to.

I believe both are pretty equal, and again it depends on your location. If you can get both, I would just compare prices based on the companies and the bandwidth they allow. I am upgrading my DSL package to 1.5 Mpbs which is a little more expensive.

I dont mean this to sound like a flame, but Paul :P What the heck do you concider T-3 speeds. Your Company would be losing money down the wang if they allowed you to move that fast. Most Cable modems just like DSL are capped to certain points. Bandwidth now a days is friggen expensive, and if your using the same amount as someone who has to fork out a good 5 to 10k a month for a hard piped line, someones gettin... pardon me "screwed".

There is no dedicated bandwidth nor will there ever be. Go with price and customer service. I hate verizion and if I could get cable where I live I would just because I detest this phone company.

Either way they all have their shares of problems, but in any case I feel they are pretty equal.

Its like Real estate, Location Location Location!

HTH - Joe

PS: As an example. Here at work we have a dedicated T3 line from Voice Advantage. Even at the middle of the night, I lag almost like a modem user trying to view Reefcentrals page. At home it wizzes by like Cheese.

paulF · 07-25-2002, 06:43 AM

when i go to our speed sites it pings the modem or whatever it does and i run about those speeds, and thats common for most of our customers. there is a reason that my companys internet svce is the top dog around here. i work on the cable end of it fiber optics etc... and i CAN tell you for a fact that people around here get impatient if they have to wait more that 5 seconds for a page to load etc.... how they do it? beats me. is a cable modem svce the same through out the country? nope not even close. like i said the numbers dont lie(at least i dont think they do

) ALOT of business have switched to a cable modem around here so i guess theres a reason for that. im not trying to sell this guy on a cable modem just giving my opinion based on my experience.

balakoth · 07-25-2002, 08:04 AM

The numbers might not lie, but those silly tests are just that :P We wont get into a debate here cuz thats not the objective of this thread! Nor do I want to come off sounding like a butt wipe lol.

Not sure where nick is located cuz im to lazy to look, but I have a feeling he will be brought down to the choice of either AT&T or Verizion. Ultimately all service ends up coming from them or some smaller out-side division of those companies :/ Is it just me or does the Telecommunications industry starting to become a monopoly?? Here I am complaining but I would just die without Broadband internet access thats for sure!

I bet most of you other DSL and Cable users would agree hehe.

paulF · 07-25-2002, 10:24 AM

i agree with that 100%

foobuddha · 07-25-2002, 01:47 PM

OK, I must weigh in on this one.

I've had both Cable and DSL in the past 4 years.

Bandwith:

They (DSL providers) do say that you lose bandwith during peak usage with cable and imply you do not with DSL. Well after a forty minute tech call going through three levels of less than technical persons, I finally got a "supervisor" to admit that there is shared bandwith.

advantage - even

Portability

I run several computers at home. With cable modem, all I have to do is power down the modem for a few mins (it stores the machine id of your computer in memory and won't share an IP without clearing it) and plug in to a different machine and voila it works. The DSL service I had required an interface application to sign on, so when I switched puters, I had to have the software - no big deal right? wrong, I couldn't get the linux version from the provider, when I signed up the asked "What operating system do you use? Windows or Mac" when I said "Neither" the "tech" became very patient and tried to explain to me that when I start my computer either windows or OSX would start...yadda yadda yadda. It was actually funny when I got the point accross that there are more than 2 OS's in the world (the 'tech' got very quiet until I said screw it give me the win98 version). What really burned me on this was the company that provides the software DID have a linux version, but I couldn't get it afterward unless I paid $40. No prob, i found an open source solution. Certainly Im in the minority in this category, so it doesn't apply to most ppl, but fwiw, when I talked to a tech at the cable co, at least he new what linux was and could actually help.

advantage - cable

OVerall

Cable feels a little faster and I have had less connectibility issues with it. If you can get both in your area, go by price and service (ask the neighbors). You may want to check on whether you can get a static IP or if it's dynamic only. Also, check out whether or not you can host a site from your machine - most providers allow non-commercial sites but cap bandwith. The one place where the DSL definitely beat out cable was that they provided a dial-up number *in case the DSL goes down* - which was a boon to me as was traveling alot for work and not being connected is not an option.

Conclusion - Cable is the better value *for me*, but like reefs...what works for me might not work for you.

Cable vs. DSL

DSL v Cable (round 2)