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General discussion

DSL or Cable?

Feb 21, 2004 12:49AM PST

After 6 years of dial-up, my town is finally getting DSL and Cable services. My question is which is better? I only know people who have DSL. They say it is great compared to dial-up but how is it to cable? Thanks in advance.

Discussion is locked

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DSL and Cable (East and West)
Jan 12, 2005 5:51PM PST

I've moved around a little and used both DSL and Cable. On the east coast (North Carolina, Raliegh-Durham) I used the Time Warner RoadRunner Cable internet. It was blazingly fast. I routinely saw around 45kilobyte uploads and 300kilobyte downloads (Note this was using bittorrent which is built for uploadly and downloadly and generally saturating your connection). I paid 45 dollars for that connection and there was a premium 60 dollar service that offered even greater connections but I never tried that out. Now I moved over to the West Coast and used the Adelphia Cable, and paid 60 dollars for cable internet and only saw 30kilobyte uploads and 180K downloads. So I was a little vivid and switched to SBC DSL. Now I have the Pro package on SBC for 40 bucks (they have an Express Package for less). And I am seeing the speeds I was used to. The installations were much different in each case for the cable they came and set everything up and made sure it was working, for the dsl the sent a package in the mail and I set up myself (had to talk to tech support, which wasn't unpleasant, but I don't much like calling tech support either). So for my experience it depends on where you are and who's serving you and it might just take a little experimentation to find out what's best for you (Kinda like different cell companies).

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DSL vs cable
Jan 13, 2005 3:19PM PST

I've had the opportunity to use both DSL & CABLE. I had numerous problems & down time w/ cable. The cost of cable in my area is more than double that of DSL. The speed difference for me is not really noticeable. I believe that my DSL performs as well if not better than my cable. I have not experienced any major or minor problems w/ my DSL.

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area and rates matter
Jan 13, 2005 4:15PM PST

In my area cable is better and rates are same

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"DSL or Cable?" = Cable is best hands down...
Jan 14, 2005 4:17AM PST

I've had both and Cable is best by far...

My telephone company, Verizon, cost me an additional $120-140 a month for telephone usage to the $29.95 for DSL,,,

I pay only $45.95 (includes $3 for modem) for Comcast Cable and rarely have any downtime for repair. Whereas, Verizon was down any time there was thunder and/or lightening!

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DSL or CABLE?
Jan 16, 2005 2:51AM PST

Hi,
Cable is faster. Remember though, you're online more often than not if your computer and cable modem are running. So, get a cable modem with a built-in firewall, and/or be sure to get a Firewall/Anti-Virus application installed. Lots of spyware,malware etc...comes with just about any connection to the Internet and I use Ad-Aware in addition to Norton SystemWorks/Firewall. By all means, you'll need to protect your computer no matter how you connect.
HLK

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DSL or Cable? Reliability factor
Jan 22, 2005 3:35AM PST

DSL is MUCH more reliable. I have had both. I switched (back) to DSL because when the TV or the phone goes out, so does your internet - and the cable TV goes out A LOT MORE OFTEN than the telephone does.

Not only that, but after a weather outage, the cable company cannot even BEGIN repairs until AFTER the phone company (and electric company) have finished with theirs. If my cable TV is out, I don't want to ALSO have no internet access.

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DSL or Cable? Speed Variable/Fixed
Jan 22, 2005 3:41AM PST

One other consideration. Your DSL speed depends upon your distance from a phone company "hub," but it is a dedicated line and a fixed speed. You may be able to find out the speed you will get before you sign up.

The Cable line may be faster at the beginning or at certain times during the day. However, the speed will degrade as more users come online during the day. Also, as more customers are added to the service with time, the maximum speed will be reduced.

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DSL or CABLE
Jan 22, 2005 4:07AM PST

One more thing... if your house lines are old and cause disruptions in service due to things like inadequate shielding, you can ask the phone company to install a "home run," which is a new shielded line directly from the service to your computer. I have had this done in two houses and there was no charge.

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Cable
Jan 22, 2005 7:02AM PST

I would reccomend cable. Despite the big add push of a few years ago trying to tout the superiority of DSL, as a Cable user I have never had a problem with "shared bandwidth", the upload and download speeds are higher with Cable, no lost connections due to the occasional phone call that dosen't work as it should, no forced dissconnects by a DSL provider that dosen't like "idle" connections.

I currently have bundled service from RCN and will have 10mbps downstream in a month as a free upgrade! Happy

-Eric

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DSL support is not the best
Jan 22, 2005 8:38AM PST

I've had Verizon DSL since it was first available in my area. When it works, it's great. But it frequently (almost daily) fails requiring reboots, troubleshooting and loss of time.

Verizon DSL support, beyond the simplest automated troubleshooting utilities is poor. I've phoned, used their webpage, their support utility, "live" IM support and email to open trouble tickets. They usually close the tickets within minutes, frequently with nothing more than a canned email to me, and sometimes not even that.

Since both my neighbor and I have had these problems, using different machines, various OS's and different modems, I recently attempted to get tier 3 involvement.
Their response? It's not their problem since the tests
on their end work. I'd believe them, except it's not just me.

Cable recently started offering IP in my area. Maybe that will be better.

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Bottom line cable
Jan 22, 2005 8:40AM PST

DSL only works up to 18000 feet from your home to your phone company's central office. Dsl is usually 1/2 the speed of cable. Go here to find out the distance to your central office - http://www.dslreports.com/prequal/distance
Go here to see dsl or cable speeds in your area:
http://www.dslreports.com/archive
Put in your zip (first 3 or 4 digits to widen area of search to get more results)

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Cable all the way
Jan 25, 2005 3:15AM PST

I originally had DSL and then switched to cable. I find cable much better. My cable company is RCn and they offer 7Mb bandwidth, far better than DSL. Moreover, most of the DSL offerings use PPOE (requiring a password everytime you want to sign in, and complicating networking).
I would tell you to go cable, and buy your own modem so that you're not paying $5 a month for it.

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DSL VS Cable
Jul 6, 2005 11:39PM PDT

I have been running SBC DSL for 5 years. I have had ups and downs with speed, connectivity, but never great support. MAny friends went with Roda Runner and thought it was an improvement, but they have the same issues that I have. It's a lot like an automobile; look in any dealership service department-they are all busy fixing their cars.

Look at DSL Reports for good and bad feedback, but be aware that some people have an axe to grind on any subject.

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we like our dsl- more or less
Jan 1, 2007 10:23AM PST

dsl suits our needs. although dsl is slower than cable, dsl is much faster than dial-up and much less expensive than cable. our only problem with dsl was (is) our local provider who can't seem to troubleshoot without sending out a technician for a fee and eventually finding out the problem is on their end. still, try dsl until you outgrow it.

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Don't go with Verizon
Jan 2, 2007 6:21AM PST

When my town first got Verizon DSL I signed up and I loved it but after two years they decided that instead of upgrading their equipment and keeping us on, they disconected me and others with out notice, I had to call Verizon tech support about 5 or 6 times before they gave me a straight forward answer. I don't like their tech support either, some of the hardest people to understand. So if I were you I would go with cable.

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5 or 6 calls?
Jan 2, 2007 6:50AM PST

that's nothing. i was on the phone with them for over 25hrs (time actually spent on the phone) trying to get the 1st problem resolved. months later it was nearly 10hrs.
good luck

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DSL Ethernet Modems
Jan 19, 2007 3:45PM PST

I have a question.

I'm looking to replace my speedstream 5100 because the connection keeps dying on me. What would be a good replacement. Everything I see seems to be 3 or 4 years old.

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You might want. . .
Jan 20, 2007 6:35AM PST

to start a new question. This thread is almost three years old. Take note of the day it was created.