DSL or cable? What's your choice??

Yours Truly | June 25, 2003 | Yours Truly

[Tennessee_Bob]

File Size: 600.005 KB
Time Elapsed: 4.203 seconds

---

1.115 Mbps
(142.76 KBps)

[knews_hound]

Maybe I just have this flame itch tonight, but here goes my group therapy thing: "My name is Batavia. I still use dialup." "Oh, by the way,...er, um...I'm an AOL subscriber"

We feel your pain,

Cheers,

knews hound

[Burkeman1]

I pay 60 a month for my DSL service which also includes all telephone calls within Massachusetts. It is a great deal. But the provider is literally a three man operation. The high rise towers I live are about half their revenue. I have never had a problem with these guys. The same guy who set up the connection handles my billing!

[Spirited]

Had dial-up, then RR cable and now Cox Cable. RR cable was superior. Cox Cable has settled down now and has been working adequately for the last while.

I agree with those here who say the prices are too high, however.

[kylaka]

I think its retro to May 9th Pardek. Keep checking your bill.
I was told I would recieve a credit since May had already been billed and paid.

[KCmark]

Regarding satellite, realtime is a problem. Strategy games are impossible. I would think Voice over IP (VoIP) would suffer as well. The lag is real. Satellite also has a large outlay for equipment and the monthly fee is higher than cable and DSL.

I've seen ADSL and cable downstream speeds vary around the country. 384K was the fastest available on the coast in MS (where it was available and then it was costly). In Las Vegas, my friend is getting 3MB at a reasonable price. We get 1.5MB (DSL and cable) here in KC, and that is also what my buddy gets in Chicago ($40-60 ala carte, depending on the special offer you sign under).

ADSL for consumers is limited on the upstream from 128K to 384K. But the 384K is much more expensive. If you never trade large files, that isn't a problem.

I've seen upstream speeds for cable range from 384k to the whole 1.5 meg. But the 'too many subscribers' problem is real. You should talk to your neighbors to see how bad the problem is. I didn't have any problems in KS, but over here in MO I have lags in the evenings.

Having said all that, look for packages. In the KC area, I highly recommend Everest. Fully loaded phone (including call notes and call waiting Caller ID), full regular cable and two movie channel groups (that you can change anytime), and 1.5/384 ISP; all for $110.00. I think that is exceptional.

If satellite is the only alternative to dialup, well, I would starve before I would give up broadband.

[CobaltBlue]

952.4 Kbps (119.05 KBps) using RoadRunner. It's probably faster during the day. Right now all four computers connected to the Linksys router are smokin'.

Verizon DSL is more expensive, and admits to being slower.

[umgud]

I use a laptop. At work I have DSL, at home I have cable and on the road I have dialup.

Cable wins hands down. I pay $85 per month for basic cable (tv) and the highspeed connection. I use a router at home so I can use my laptop and the desktop for the same connection.

[PAR35]

My cable bill seems to go up every few months, so I figured the cable company would do the same with DSL. On the other hand, my DSL bill seems to go down. (Plus, cable told me that I would have to upgrade to digital cable service to get DSL, with set top boxes and rented remotes - and higher prices).

On the other hand, if speed is your only criteria, Cable is MUCH faster than my DSL connection.

[KCmark]

I am not sure it is a shame to still be on dialup...

But to admit to still using AOL in public is truly a cry for help.

---

Heehee. No kidding.

[Quigley]

I've used Starband for at least 3 years and I haven't had any problems. I like it and it is the only service available way out here in the sticks. You will lose the signal during heavy cloud cover but usually only lasts for a few minutes. Expensive at 69.99 a month but there is no other choice.

[UB355]

I'm at 175.4 K bytes/sec with that test. I'm on SBC ADSL I'm about 6 blocks from the switching station. Very satisfied with ADSL. Time Warner call suck dates for all I care.

[CobaltBlue]

I never got spam until I posted using my real email address on a newsgroup. After that, spam city. On AOL, as you know, you can set up several aliases. The ones that I never posted on newsgroups get zero spam.

Same for my RoadRunner email accounts.

Be careful who you email, also. One email account got added to an email list and collected some pretty vulgar stuff involving farm animals and women who love them.

[Mannaggia l'America]

What are your upload and download speeds?

DSL Reports says 971 Kbps download and 242 Kbps upload on my Comcast connection.

I'm not sure how much it affects speed, but that's going through a SMC Barricade Firewall/Router which sits between my PC and the cable modem.

[ArcLight]

I got DSL from Verizon. $35 a month, 1.5 meg download, 128K upload, and so far flawless performance. I'm totally satisfied.

[2111USMC]

Cable.

[Cultural Jihad]

In general, then numbers seem to favor cable.

DSL has faster ping times than cable, but not as large of a bandwidth. If half the ping times are more important than getting twice the bandwidth, then DSL makes sense. It could be a matter of life or death! ;-)

http://www.planetbattlefield.com/potd/index.asp?id=421350

[lawdude]

I use QWEST DSL. For a couple reasons.

1) Had COX cable but switched to QWEST Digital when COX told me that FOX News was too far radical right wing so they would NOT carry it.

2) Due to working conditions, I need two telephones.

3) I get QWEST digital + phone on one line.

4) I get DSL + phone on the other line.

5) DSL has proven to be vey reliable albeit somewhat slower than COX Cable.

6) Diamondbacks won their 7th straight today. This has absolutely nothing to do with the question but I sure feel good about it!

[Right Angler]

I've been on Road Runner for two years now, and I couldn't be happier. No problems with outages and absolutely smoking speeds. Web pages and images open like changing channels on TV. After incrementally acquiring RR, two digital boxes and a HDTV box, my service is over $130 monthly. How the hell did that happen?

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

WHaaaaaaaaahhhh! File Size: 150.005 KB Time Elapsed: 36.36 seconds -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 33.04 Kbps (4.13 KBps)