OFF TOPIC Question about DSL vs CABLE

I have DSL, and I like it. However, I am thinking about switching to cable and a cable modem. Of course, $$$$$$$ is the incentive. Who here has Cable and can compare it with DSL? I'm looking for voices of experience. I already know the claims of both sides of the sales offices. I am asking here because I want disinterested opinions.

......................F>

Reply to
Froggy
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Froggy wrote: : : I have DSL, and I like it. : However, I am thinking about switching to cable and a cable modem. : Of course, $$$$$$$ is the incentive. : Who here has Cable and can compare it with DSL? : I'm looking for voices of experience. I already know the claims of : both sides of the sales offices. I am asking here because I want : disinterested opinions. : I've only personally had cable, but have set up several DSL connections. The choice of which is better depends on the particular broadband vendors in your geographic area.

You can look up reports submitted my broadband users in your area at:

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broadbandreports.com - the place for BROADBAND

which is also known as:

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broadbandreports.com - the place for BROADBAND

Then you can also check the archived postings of these two newsgroups:

o comp.dcom.xdsl o comp.dcom.modems.cable

hth,

--Jerry Leslie (my opinions are strictly my own) Note: snipped-for-privacy@jrlvax.houston.rr.com is invalid for email

Reply to
leslie

I have both. THe DSL is slower (144x144) and until today I would have said about equal in reliability. Comcast has just taken over the cable and at first it seemed a little better but, it's been up and down all day today.

DSL is rocksolid from my experience. I run a VPN from home to work and if it goes down it reselects the path. First it looks at cable and if it has apath to work it tries that. If the cable isn't available then it selects the DSL link. It's always on the DSL link. If I force it to the cable within a few days it's on the DSL link.

I like having cable for the download speed. If I'm downloading a couple of 100 MB it's really nice to have the 1.5MB-3.5MB download available. BUT, I can't count on it being there ALL THE TIME. An unannounced DSL outage is extremely uncommon ... in fact I can only remember one and that was PacBell doing something entirely stupid, not Covad or the ISP's fault. Things are definitely labeled NOW!

Total cost of DSL+cable is ~$160/mo. If your usage is recreational (that used to be how the cable companies described their residential service, not sure what the call it now) and your life won't end if it's down for 1-60 minutes then cable is probably a good choice.

See the cable modem and DSL news groups for endless comparisions. (If you think the trolling and such is bad in this group maybe you shouldn't go there ;)

Good luck, Paul

Reply to
Paul Newhouse

Ah yeah, That's why I'm here instead. Everyone over there has an "agenda" and the truth doesn't exist. You ask a question and next thing you know there are a couple of guys trying to 'Nuke" each other because they don't agree on the answer. I need input from users like you, not computer geeks.

....................F>

Barely (computer) literate, GA.

Reply to
Froggy

Reply to
Jon Miller

Newhouse)

Uhhh ... I am a computer geek ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Software Engineer. Home setup "

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". Well, except the 400MHz died recently.

Reply to
Paul Newhouse

What are you paying versus what will you pay? For cable it depends on where you live and how the plant has been built as to how the service is. I think you live in Georgia? Call Bell South and see what they are offering for DSL, it might be cheaper. Verizon has DSL for $30 a month for example.

Reply to
MrRathburne

I couldn't resist jumping in... But, first a confession: I've worked in DSL product development the past few years, so I guess that makes me a biased, bigotted, righteous computer geek.

BUT, I'll admit that cable MAY be a better choice - but it really does depend on your preferences and where you live. If your live in-town, then you're likely not far from the local telephone company's Central Office (where your telephone/DSL connection goes), and are getting the same level of DSL service as most everyone else regardless of distance, your mileage will vary more if you're in the 'burbs. Thing is, the telco actually caps the service for home users at about 10% of what it can really do - if you want more speed you have to pay $$$ for it. Cable works differently, and is in may ways a cruder technology (do you care?), but the cable operators tend to give you the whole thing. There is a catch however, and again how this affects you depends on your situation. Your DSL connection is private (unless the FBI is listening in ;-) between your home and the telco's internet connection. On the other hand, cable is a broadcast medium - which means you are sharing all that speed with the other folks on the same wire up and down your street - up to about 20 or so. Your actual cable performance depends on how many other folks on your street are downloading stuff when you are. Now, about preferences. If you worry about privacy or hackers, then maybe sticking with DSL is better. On the other hand, if your DSL service is crappy, or you don't care about snooping neighbours then cable is good bang for the buck.

The only way to really find out if cable is going to be better in your area is to take the plunge and try it out.

Regards, Gordon (the DSL hacker).

Reply to
Gordon

Both technologies work and can be reliable. What makes one a better choice over the other may just be a matter of how good the service is from the various providers. Here in the Cincinnati area we have big name providers for both - Time Warner for cable, and Cincinnati Bell for DSL. I went with cable because over the period of a year Cincinnati Bell DSL botched and twiddled one of my customers and never did get them running... they oversold their coverage area and really honked off a lot of people. They also took over the partial operations of some of the DSL providers that went out of business, and were not able to service them adequately. They have since straightened all of this out, but it took them long enough, and the bad taste is still in my mouth... in the mean time I got TW's Roadrunner and so far have had no reason to change it.

When I move, I'm going to be dealing with a much smaller cable company........ we'll see how it goes. No DSL available there.

Andy

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- Pre-Interstate Urban Archaeology

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Reply to
Andy Harman

Hey.... maybe we should ask our model railroad questions at the cable modem and DSL newsgroups! It might be more productive!!!

Reply to
Mark Mathu

Well, if you want to claim geekhood that is your privilege, You don't come off on this end as a geek. Knowledgeable, yes, but not geeky. You use terms that a layman can understand. Geeks do not.

..................F>

Reply to
Froggy

I thought I was a geek.

Then I looked at the diagram.

He's a geek. Trust me. : )

Karl

ps - Froggy - email me and tell me what it is you're doing with the 486's and P1's... I'm curious.

Newhouse)

Reply to
TDCLoki

The bonus was reduced expense for telephone and long distance The internet access is about the same. combining all three; TV, phone, internet, inder one carrier reduced the combined cost that I am now paying. BUT The World Wide Web is not as important to me as the usenet. I rarely go web-surfing. Someone said that Comcast (which is actually AT&T in disguise) may drop the usenet. This means that I would have to then pay for usenet access through the WWW. I don't think so. My savings would go up in smoke and my usenet access would be shot. I could not go back to my present ISP for what I am now paying.

I suppose I will have to wait and see.

Did you ever think about what it takes to be a bona-fide model railroad and not just a railroady diorama? I am interested in your opinion.

Reply to
Froggy

----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Newhouse"

That's 16725.33333 bits per second ... that's not DSL speed, that's

19.2 dial-up modem speed. AND you think it's an improvement?? That's terrible. Paul ~~~~

I'm betting the OP meant 147 kB (kilo bytes, that's how file size is usually represented), so his 9 second download works out to 133,802.66 bits/sec. Not blazing by any means, but beats a regular dial-up modem. (Had to use dial-up from hotel while in Denver to ride on Denver RR Club's excoursion this past weekend- 3985 is one darn big locomotive!!) Val

Reply to
VManes

Well, most of the lower two rows haven;t been turned on in quite a while. Mostly left overs from a serial port loading and network striping experiments.

Paul

Reply to
Paul Newhouse

HEY!!! I was being geekie man.

Sounds KEWL!!! Have to check it out next time we visit the kids.

Paul

Reply to
Paul Newhouse

If that was actually said by the cable company your friend uses, its a felony under federal criminal law as a criminal violation of the Sherman Anti trust Act. Illegal "tying" arrangement and all that stuff.

What the cable companies are actually saying / pushing is that if you buy TV Cable, your computer cable connection will stay at $ x.00 per month. However, if you do not add TV cable to the mix, and only take computer cable, your cost will be $x.00 + $10.00 per month for computer cable.

Your friend who already has a satellite ought to investigate that as n ISP connection. Satellite download speeds can be blindingly fast, approaching a T-! line. The rub is that the upload speed is relatively slow.

-- Jim McLaughlin

**************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** I am getting really tired of spam, so the reply address is munged. Please don't just hit the reply key. Remove the obvious from the address to reply. **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** Special treat for spambots: snipped-for-privacy@ftc.gov, snipped-for-privacy@ftc.gov, snipped-for-privacy@ftc.gov

suddenly

Reply to
Jim McLaughlin

As far as I'm concerned they're both local monopolies. I can only get cable from one company and DSL only from one phone company. Until there's real competition and not just the illusion of it, count me out. The money's not worth it. Plus it's "always on", which means I have to worry about hack attacks and firewalls. No thanks.

You have it, you love it? That's cool. Not for me yet.

Jay Modeling the North Shore & North Western C&NW/CNS&M in 1940-1955 E-mail is now open snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

Reply to
JCunington

Going to cable connect Aug 2. Have had it with AOL slow connects and disconnecting every 10 minutes during busy times. Makes it hell trying to list items on Ebay.

Reply to
EppersonJohnR

Backing way off lately, haven't upgraded anything in almost 2 years. Hmmm ... that corresponds to just after we started taking trains more seriously ... hmmmm!!!

While we were still living in CO, I had some contracts in Silly Valley, the wife wanted to do Reno so she flew out and we were going to drive up. She came into the apartment that I was splitting with a fellow contractor. She stepped in and asked, "what is this sh**??", looking at the workbench that used to be the dining table. Then she looked in the living room, several rows of 19" racks. We had taken the stationary side of the sliding door to the balcony out and put 3 of the largest window AC units we could find in the space. After she saw my bedroom she said she would meet me in Reno next time. When I unrolled the futon amonst the hardware there was just enough clear floor to open and close the door. In order to not blow the fuses all the time we rewired the dryer plug. A friend who had put himself through college working in Dad's electrical contractor business couldn't leave our handy work alone so he "fixed" it up so it was almost legal and definitly "sorta safe". He still brings it up every time I see him, refering to us as the incompetent arsonists.

... AH the stupid ol' days ...

Never had a diagram of the whole setup, most of the major pieces though.

Paul

Reply to
Paul Newhouse

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