Ping.
DSL is good. OS-X good too, btw.
I’m very happy with our AT&T bundle: High Speed Internet (average about 54 Mbps), telephone with unlimited long-distance and the new U-verse television (400 channels, some HD and a DVR) for about $110 month.
I think it would, but I don’t think you will realize a lot of money saved: I used to have AT&Tdialup and local telephone service was provided by Verizon. About 2 years ago I decided to go DSL with Verizon and keep the local phone service ... my bill is now $83-85/mo; I do not call long distance with verizon. Verizon offered an introductory rate for DSL but I think it only lasted for about 6 months. I hope this helps you decide.
I have DSL, and am very satisfied with it. However, Verizon is installing Fiber Optics soon, and I have signed up for it. DSL has different speeds, but I have the $30 Verizon subscription and speed is not a problem.
> I live in an area which is not served by cable TV companies.
Make sure about that.
There’s no “cable” (or DSL) here either, but two competing
local operators offer wireless LAN. The one we picked is
using Motorola Canopy technology. It has been more reliable
than either AT&T dialtone or REA kilowatts. The 700 Kb
level service is $35/mo.
No FAP.
Upload speed = download speed.
I have neither, but I do have dialup but if you don't want to pay $80 for dialup speeds, yeah. I've test-drove Starband and Hughes Net and neither are as fast as 56k. They're great if you want to free up the only phone line in your house, but you're not going to get a whole lot of enjoyment being penalized under their FAP's.
I switched from cable broadband to DSL when the cable charges became exorbitant. Although the nominal bandwidth is less, the perceived speed is often greater because the latency is less (usually), and FAR less than satellite. This is Verizon’s $14.95/month “for life” program (actually only until they discontinue the 768 kbps service). It’s fast enough for me.
There used to a restriction with DSL. If you lived more than one mile from the Central Office, your service was less than exemplary. If they have overcome that distance problem, DSL beats satellite hands down, especially on a rainy or snowy day (not to mention the cost). Of course, if you live within a mile of the CO, go with DSL (I would never have satellite again unless that happened to be my only choice.
I have had satellite, DSL, now cable, and find cable to be the best if available however.
Just my opinion.
My neighbor is considering going back to dial up : ( WiMax is on the way, supposedly.
I use the satellite for big downloads and a Modem for quick response. I am almost to the point of chucking the satellite service because of throttling. The satellites are over subscribed.
Unless you have an utterly incompetant DSL provider, it’s a no-brainer of a decision. For one thing, the DSL should be cheaper, and offer bigger bandwidth, for less money than your Sat company. Also, if you plan to, or *do* use any online interactive resources or games, you will see a marked decrease in “lag time”. That being, while the Sat link, can
Download and upload at a pretty good clip, once it starts transmitting, there is lag time while requests are sent up to, and back down from the sattelite. Not good when speed of interaction is key. Saty DLing a movie would go just as fast as a DSL DL, at the same speed, but in a online game, an opponant would be several moves ahead of you, before you saw his first on your screen.
But if possible, check to see if you can find out the DSL companys rep for service in other areas, before making the leap, and if all still looks good...definitely! Make the jump!
That’s the opinion of *this* DSL subscriber.
Slow, unreliable Hughes for $90/month, Reliable, faster cheaper Verizon for $30/month, hummmm tough decision, not. Now if you would just drop the Mac or load Windows on it and you would be in business.
> Would going to DSL be a good move?
Should be a lot cheaper and more reliable, and have much lower latency. If you are one of the first in your area, be patient but report all problems until they are fixed. After than it should be fine. Don’t turn off your satellite access until your DSL is working fairly well.
I use Verizon DSL. I’ve never had a dropout that I know of, and it is fast enough, but not particularly blazing fast. We can watch TV shows on the internet and it occasionally freezes up.
We got the DSL moden with wireless router built-in, and I haven’t had any trouble with it. We all sit around with our laptops and surf.
I could have Comcast Cable, but I hate giving them any money, even though I haven’t dropped my cable yet — I’m nervous about switching to DirectTV, and we don’t have Verison FIOS vailable yet.
I’ve had Verizon DSL for 4 years up here in southern New Hampshire. Love it! Never had a problem. Easy to install yourself. Meanwhile, I hear co-workers complain constantly about Comcast.
Unfortunately, Verizon recently sold its northern New England fixed line operation to FairPoint. I’m staying with DSL. So far, so good with the changeover.
I have had Verizon DSL for three years now. I have the higher speed version for $30 per month. Before moving to this area, I had Cox Cable internet which costed around $40 per month. I cannot tell any difference between them.
Verizon service here is Palm Desert, CA has been excellent. Very reliable - maybe one or two short interruptions in three years. Plus, Verizon service techs are easy to reach and very helpful, especially when I added a wireless PC. We now run two desktop PCs on a Verizon wireless modem. One is hardwired to the modem and one runs wirelessly.
Our community also has Verizion Fios fiber optic service. I have chosen to stay with DSL because Fios is $20 more per month. Unless you are doing a huge amount of downloads or uploads, as in running a business from your home, it is not worth the money.
With DSL, you will drop your dial up service as you never will want to use it again.
It was OK - better than dial-up. Problem was that my wife worked from home and her company used a VPN network. VPN is NOT supported by HughesNet (despite what their marketing info says....) Ended up having to get a wireless card for her laptop until DSL arrived.
Had we been told truthfully that they didn't service VPN, we wouldn't have invested the money. If you have any special needs for particular services I wouldn't suggest HughesNet.
I pay 29.99 a month for Extreme DSL which is 6.0 Mbs down and I 350 up (Just for the record I have clocked it). My down is usually 5.9 and my up is 330 Mbs. Its fantastic I love it. I am also running WIFI at the house. I use a 17” lap top computer. So I can work any where in the house.
Other posters have referenced the delay issue, which will prohibit VoIP and some interactive games.
Another thing that often happens with the satellite software drivers is that you cannot run VPN - if you need to run VPN drivers to connect to a corporate network (eg), then you might be out of luck with a satellite link.
One other thing that others have not mentioned is that all three of the major satellite carriers (Hughes, Gilat and WildBlue) is that they have per-week or per-month usage quotas, and when you exceed these quotas, your speed is restricted (sometimes severely) for as long as it takes to get the moving average bandwidth back below the throttling threshold.
For Gilat (formerly “Starband”), the quota used to be about 780MB over a seven day rolling period; ie, if you used more than 976MB of download b/w in the last seven days, they’d throttle you. For you to get unthrottled, you’d have to use as little bandwidth as possible so that within the most recent seven days, you’d use some lower limit - like less than 500MB.
The trouble with the throttling is that their DNS server starts to drop your packets when you’re throttled, so you cannot resolve named and you have to keep hitting the “reload” button on your browser.
Oh - one more thing about satellite ISP’s: During the spring and fall equinox periods, you lose satellite connectivity as the sun lines up behind the bird for about 90 minutes for about 3 to 7 days during these periods.
And no,I don't work for Verizon.