DSL vs Cable

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

We currently have Cable internet and are moving. In our new location we can get DSL or Cable. Cable with Charter and DSL with Bell South. DSL is a little cheaper and does open up the option to go with satellite TV in the future. Anyone with experience with DSL and if so how do you like it?

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

I've used both DSL and Cable Modem Service. My cable operator is Adelphia and my local phone company is Bell South.

I had cable modem service for about 5 years. What really drove me crazy about the service was the it went down a lot. I need reliable internet access and I can't believe I put up with all of the outages for so long

One day, I snapped when Adelphia had an outage and said it wouldn't be up and running for 3-4 days. So, I immediately cancelled and signed up for Bellsouth DSL. I got the FastAccess DSL Xtreme service which gives you up to 6M download speed.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. It hasn't gone down once in 2 years. And, the download speeds are as good as cable ever was since I got the highest download speed.

I'll won't be going back to cable modem service any time soon.

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

I have cable internet at home with Time Warner Roadrunner and DSL with SW Bell at the office.

Quite honestly, I don't notice any difference between them. I use both in the same way as far as downloading and transmitting large files.

My Time Warner has been extremely reliable (in Houston, TX).

Personally, I would go with the cheapest that meets your needs.

[jericap Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close jericap]

I also have had both, I currently have AT&T DSL...nice to use the internet when the TV goes out!
I did not notice any appreciable loss in download time. It may be because my cable line was 1100 ft from the road, but I have been satisfied with my current ISP and it's been 2 years.

[tennisWalt Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tennisWalt]

I Have Both.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. It hasn't gone down once in 2 years. And, the download speeds are as good as cable ever was since I got the highest download speed.

I'll won't be going back to cable modem service any time soon.

I have both. I have Cable at home and DSL at my office. The speed seems to be about the same. At the office I would have to pay a much higher amount to have a Cable Business Account and AT&t gave me a better DSL deal for my monthly charge. So Cost and service are the reasons to take one over the other.

Walt

[cluemeister Member Find all posts View Profile Close cluemeister]

I have cable, which has been reliable, and my sister has DSL. We both simulataneously check download speeds on occasion, and although hers is slightly slower, it is not noticeable.

When I was helping her set up her DSL, I was impressed at how fast it was for the $. I'm bundled with other cable services, otherwise I wouldn't hesitate to switch to DSL.

[jjking42 Member Find all posts View Profile Close jjking42]

it all depends on your local provider and how far you are from the dsl switch.

we had dsl for years. we were happy with the speed but very unhappy with sbc and the outages. whenever we called they said their were no outages. Then when we called back hours later they said they have received lots of call so their must be an outage. it was like we were the first to call so they did not believe us.

we now have comcast cable it is faster and has never gone down.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Just wondering if all the people who posted that they have both cable at home and Dsl in the Office.
Are your sure your office is not using a T1 line.?

[tennisWalt Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tennisWalt]

I have a DSL line

Just wondering if all the people who posted that they have both cable at home and Dsl in the Office.
Are your sure your office is not using a T1 line.?

I have a DSL line.

Walt

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

Frank,

I know that my internet connection at my office is DSL because my landlord is too cheap to have a T1.

[Jimbo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jimbo]

DSL here and loving it

We made the switch from dialup to high-speed just about 9 months ago. We went with DSL from Verizon and have not looked back since. I used to hate to use the computer at home and now I can't wait most days to get home, get the kids to bed and then sit and type the night away.

We also dropped our cable service and we satellite TV. We have DirecTV and love it too.

The advice I was given was take the cheaper of the two and see if the downloads are acceptable. Test drive and then switch later if it doesn't suit you.

[Steve Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve]

Much prefer cable

I used to have DSL through Earthlink. The system was terrible. At times it worked pretty well, but often it was slow. The worst part, though, was that it went down several times a week. Very frustrating.

Finally, I cancelled DSL and signed up for cable internet through Comcast. It's a bit more expensive, but I absolutely love it! Wonderful, fast connections...and it never goes down.

Steve

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Steve, we have EarthLink DSL too and right now, it is not working either so I am using a dial-up connection on our boat. We are getting Verizon installed next week which is half the price of EarthLink and will have fiber optics soon too which will be so much faster yet! I hate to have to give them up since I have used them from the beginning. They are not willing to help me because I use the wireless router and I am not paying extra for that. They already charge us over $50 per month. They will lose a very loyal customer from the very beginning as I am so fed up but they don't seem to care!

We have two telephone lines at home and one will qualify for fiber optics but not the other one. I wonder why not? They are installing the cables right now in our area and then the connection to the house. That will be nice to have a super fast connection. We have no cable to our house because we use DISH. I wonder what is faster? Cable or fiber optics?

[Oracle Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Oracle]

I wonder what is faster? Cable or fiber optics?

The theoretical top speed for cable over thinnet coaxial cable is ~10 M bits/sec (Mbps) that you share with others on the run. Your top speed is based on how much of that 10 Mbps they carve out for TCP/IP traffic vs. video AND what your neighbors are doing. Others on the run can snoop the packets from everyone else on the run depending on their router.

Optical starts at 1Gbps (1000X Mbps) and it is switched so you have it all to yourself, but you are throttled at the central office (CO) to whatever bandwidth you have purchased.

I have copper telephone line (TP) and can purchase up to 6 Mbps DSL service all to myself, but $200/month is a bit too steep for me. There are some versions of twisted pair (TP) that can go up to 1Gbps but the usual is 100 Mbps.

I give the 1st line support people in India fits when I call for service because my Firewall is running on a UNIX server and I short circuit all their customer service scripts based on Winblows and Mac O/S. I tell them if it can't be done in a command line, it isn't worth doing.