Cable internet vs DSL

[SouthernHockeyChick]

Anyone here had both? What do you think of DSL? I'm really sick of my cable provider so I'm considering switching to Direct TV and DSL.

Anyone have any insight on how DSL compares to cable?

Opinions on Direct TV are welcome as well.

Thanks for your help! :spin:

[JaroFan]

Well, we've had Direct TV for 4 years now and LOVE it! We didn't really have a choice since my husband had to have NFL Sunday ticket and digital cable doesn't offer it. I have no complaints. We pay $20 less a month than my sister who has Time Warner for the same amount of channels. And if it goes out, it's only for about 5 minutes at a time in a nasty storm. Last year after the ice storm my brother's road runner didn't come back up for 2 weeks due to cable lines. I highly recommend it!!

[Kat]

I would like to know this as well... have to decide between DSL and Cable modem. Does having a phone make a difference for DSL? I don't plan on getting a home phone...

-Kat

[talkingcanes]

Keep in mind that I am a computer ignoramous, but here goes........when I had DSL I did have to have a functional phone jack. With my kit came splitters so I could be on the phone and the computer at the same time. It worked beautifully. I now have a cable connection and it is just as good. It does go down when the cable goes down, but so far that has only been for very brief periods and then I use my dial-up connection.

I had just bought a new computer when I changed to cable so it is much faster, but I believe that is the upgrade in the computer not the difference between DSL and cable.

Both have worked really well for me.

[JaroFan]

I remember when we were deciding between DSL & Cable, we were too far away from the "hub" (whatever that it) and wouldn't have had a faster connection than cable, which is why we chose it.

[roy boy]

DSL and Cable are both fine- some of the local dsl providers around the raleigh,apex,fuquay,holly springs ETC are OK. It depends which plan you get. Road Runner is about the fastest ISP in the area , at a decent price. Sprint cost around 50 a month for speed of 1.5mbits which means you download around 140-150 kb/sec. Bell South is about the same as far as speeds go. You can pay more for more speed but Road runner speeds are capped at 2.5mbits which is around 240-250 kb/sec downloading and it's only 43 a month. Of course that all depends on were you live. I live in a place were not many people have cable so your not shareing it ,which means i get the fastest speeds possible. A positive for dsl though is the upload speed, which means if someone is downloading off of you or you are uploading a file somewere your speed will be much more better then road runner. Road runner's upload speed is about 35-40 kb/sec and the local dsl providers are around 100 kb/sec upload or less than that, it depends how much you pay for a plan but none the less the upload is faster than road runner. Not many people upload that much and all you do is download everything so road runner is about the best for downloading speed. In my opinon (a good one) the best ISP (internet service provider) to get is road runner, but please remember if you get slow speed with road runner its prob. because many people in your 'hood have it. There are also many "tweaks" you can do that will make your cable more smoother if you will as in better ping times and what not. I know my spelling is off and I know i didnt give all the info of course , please forgive me :D. If you have any question just respond to this thread and let me know.

[SouthernHockeyChick]

OK....so those who know something apparantly need more details. I have had Charter Cable internet since I moved here. It started out great....lately it seems more like a dial-up. I don't know if that is because more people around here have gotten it too or what but we're paying a lot for something that isn't always providing the speed we've become accustomed to.

Charter sucks in every sense of the word, which is why I am considering a change. The only DSL that I know of being available here is Sprint DSL which goes through Earthlink. Our options are 512 Kbps download for $39.99 per month (the 1st year...then $49.99) or 1.5 Mbps download for $54.99 per month. We currently have 1.5 Mb down/128Kb up (that's what we subscribe to....I don't know how to tell you the actual performance) with Charter. The 512 Kbps is more in line cost wise with what we are paying now when you add it to what we'll have to pay for comparable programming on DirectTV, but it's a bit of a downgrade.

What do we do online? We have two (fairly new...one with a Pentium III chip and one AMD Athlon XP...forget the MHz on both) laptops on a wireless network and one desktop that pretty much just sits there. We use e-mail, MSN IM, we surf news sites, hockey sites, etc, download music and play BASIC games online (like the Yahoo games stuff) and download a movie trailer once in a while. We don't play any graphic intensive games or have a website that we upload to or anything like that.

I just want decently fast service and don't want a huge disappointment if I switch from cable to DSL.

Thanks guys!

[MeanGene]

You can now get broadband phones. They are hooked up the the cable outlet instead of a phone jack.

http://www.vonage.com/

[Kat]

I can't really help you there, SHC. I have cable right now, but as you know I need to establish new service in the next week or so and wasn't sure which route to take. I will probably stick with cable (TWC-Durham)since it winds up cheaper (I think), at $34.95/month for 6 months. I don't think that I am going to bother with cable TV right now, especially since I don't have a TV yet...

-Kat

[Guyute]

use www.dslreports.com for info. great resource.

cable is hugely dependent upon how many people in your immediate area use it, because the bandwidth is shared. not the case with DSL.

personally, our Bellsouth DSL smokes. blows the crap out of our LAN at work, and reports consistent speeds bettering most friend's Cable (with several PC's, and a PS2 going non-stop).

but, YMMV. it's kinda a crapshoot.

[SouthernHockeyChick]

Great website! Thanks Guyute!

And now I know how to get my speed tested too.....yes, I'm a moron. :roll:

[roy boy]

hey GUYUTE, test your dsl against my cable. Let's see who wins :)

[SouthernHockeyChick]

Well, I have cable and from the online speed tests I've done today I'm getting anywhere from 382.8 Kbps down/ 15 Kbps up ( :eek2: ) to 965 Kpbs down/42 Kbps up. It looks like the true average value is around 400 Kbps down/ 30 Kbps up. That sucks (if it's accurate) since I'm paying for 1.5 Mbps down/128 Kbps up.

The pain in the a** I've had online today just about has me convinced to switch to DSL. :mad:

[Guyute]

we avg about 1425 down.

that's with the base Alcatel modem that comes with most providers. drop some dough on a high end modem, and you can get WAY (in some cases, an extra mbps) more speed from your line, regardless of who your ISP is (in almost all cases). I've seen speeds over 4mbps, when they should only be getting 2.5.

oh, and ROY BOY.. those #'s never change. maybe 200kbps one way or the other... but never any lag like when the whole neighborhood feels like playing games. :p

and like I said, that's with 2pc's and a ps2, all running apps online.

but, I didn't chime in here b/c I felt like having a pissing contest. if you're happy with TW, good for you. personally, I gave up giving them my hard-earned money about 4 years ago, and refuse to go back.

[Shell]

If you want my genius insight, I'll say we have DSL, pages load fast, concerts download quickly in shn form, and my pages come up quickly *shrug*

[roy boy]

hey which test did you do, i'll go do it and post my results. none the less i download at 240 kb/sec.

[Kat]

240? Yikes. I just tested my cable and it is 1267/12. So the download is pretty good, or at least close to advertised, but the upload sucks. It is also 2AM so that is probably a factor...

-Kat

[Guyute]

I did both of the active tests here:
http://www.dslreports.com/stest (one of them was down for maintenence last night).

btw, my upload was about 220.

[roy boy]

Hey Kat you tested at 1267/12, which means your download would be around 130 kb/sec. and when i test it's at 2832/35 so there ya go. learn the bytes mbits bites etc people

[hyena]

wowie. i use cable, and i just got 1747/361 :D

[Alicia]

Mine's only 1154/232.

[Turbulence]

I would check mine...but I have yet to be able to download the Java plugin for Mozilla... (does anyone know where I can get this? Every time I download the plugin from the site that Mozilla gives me, I get a java program instead of a working plugin...and you don't realize how much you use java until you don't have it! Help is greatly appreciated...)

I have TW and it is always lightning fast...

[SouthernHockeyChick]

Hey Kat you tested at 1267/12, which means your download would be around 130 kb/sec. and when i test it's at 2832/35 so there ya go. learn the bytes mbits bites etc people

If I'm not mistaken Kat has a Masters in Computer Science from Duke. I think she's cool.

BTW, most of the tests I saw do the conversion for you so 1267 IS Kbps.

[Kat]

I do, actually... but in this case RoyBoy is right (arrogant and a bit mean about it, but right nonetheless). I wasn't thinking clearly when I posted that... my life is a bit crazy right now and division was the last thing on my mind.

I have noticed in the last week or two that my cable modem has gotten REALLY slow... I wonder if some punk moved in next door and is downloading porn... Maybe I will go for DSL after all when I move this week.

-Kat

[Guyute]

learn the bytes mbits bites etc people

Next time try and speak without the condescension. nobody here likes it, least of all me.

TIA

[roy boy]

SORRY ABOUT THAT GUYS :D I LOVE EVERYONE.