I worked DSL tech support.
Go out to DSLreports.com it is a great web site that gives some good info on the basic differences between DSL and highspeed cable.
The big factor for DSL is distance from you central office. If you have a lot of buildings (i.e. Factories, power plants, tv anttena is in the imediate area it can cause problems with EMI interference, but other than that if you are about 15000 cable feet from you central office it should work fine. It is very stable, and consistant in speed. If you have any specific questions let me know.
I use DSL for the house and for my business too. I have found it very reliable and fast. My provider (Bellsouth) just cut the rate for my DSL connection, so that was a nice little bonus.
A computer geek friend of mine tried DSL but ended up returning to cable. Apparently there were certain things she couldn't do online because of the way the data was sent.
What about Wireless, my brother uses that for his business and likes it very much, and as a bonus he can generally go anywhere he wants and continue to work..I am no expert but I am sure there are some here though.
When we switched from cable modem to DSL we had to install a small filter box on each of our phone cords. Not a big deal at all and the phone company told us what to do.
I find DSL to be just as fast and much more reliable than the cable modem. Plus, it was less expensive and we were able to tie it in with a package of local service and long distance from Verizon.
Some DSL modems are sensitive to garbace on your power lines. Specifically if you have any devices, such as electronic light dimmers in your house, they can kill your DSL connection.
DSL is generally slower than Cable, but not always.
I hate the cable company, have DSL, and am happy with it. I can move my computer to any room in the house without worrying about a cable connection.
I don't watch videos over the internet, except for the occasional movie preview or Freeper link, so I don't notice any speed lag. I do a lot of file downloading, sometimes 100 meg files, and haven't been concerned about speed.
That's really weird. Is the problem with the Cable Co. or at your location? Are you the only one who experiences this? Have you queried the Cable Co. about this?
I work from home. I have BOTH Adelphia cable and Bellsouth DSL. I pay the extra for the fastest of both. Adelphia blocks some of the ports that I'd like to surface a server on (ftp and http for example) so I have my servers on the DSL connection ( 3 Mbps down / 512 kbps up) and leave the Adelphia connection for most other uses ( 4 Mbps down / 768 kbps up). I have the routers through which each is connected hooked up to my main switch and addressed in the same \24 subnet so that by changing default gateway addresses I can change which internet connection is used.
I find both work well, sometimes dsl dies, sometimes cable dies, but I'm always online.... except for when the pole on which power AND cable are connected was decapitated... but then I can use the cellphone as a modem too.
Cable (I have RoadRunner) has shown itself to be faster and more reliable than DSL. End of argument.
I was running a similar setup (real-time data, trading). Dialup worked just fine as a backup. The amounts of data are small, delays in the data can happen at any point in the routing so the slower dialup adds a small amount to the risk of data loss/late that already exists. When using dialup the data/order entry was as reliable as cable, but we could not use other web apps (actually we could but at the risk of slight delays in data).
We never lost trading time to a connection failure, a bigger risk was systematic failure outside of our control.
Your cable provider probably provides a "free" 20 hours per month of dialup for when you are away from home or in the case of cable access failure.