DSL or Cable what do you prefer and why?

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alex.barylski
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DSL or Cable what do you prefer and why?

Post by alex.barylski »

I originally had DSL years ago when it first came out (shortly after an improved modem increased my speed from 14k to 28k) :P

Anyways, just got conned into switching back from Cable to DSL...I always under the impression it required your computer to have software installed and required you to "login" before browsing whereas Cable has always been "ready to go out of the box".

What are some of the pros and cons of each that you know of?

I've googled, but still interested in hearing what develoeprs have to say, seeing how we likely use the net more than anyone and can actually notice little differences...

DSL is provided by the local telephone company and as I understand, they own the single major backbone in the province, whereas my current cable company is Shaw and they connect through my tele company backbone...

Thoughts?
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

Cable: party-line, wildly varying speeds.
DSL: confusion over variant of name and the implications thereof, wildly varying speeds, some providers require login (which some routers take care of)
nickvd
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Post by nickvd »

The max throughput for cable is theoretically faster, however you share the bandwidth with your neighbors. DSL is direct to the house, so you get all the bandwidth you pay for, at all times of the day.

As for the "always on" problem... You should already be connected through a router, which takes care of the connecting for you...

(and if you're not behind a router, it should be the next purchase you make... seriously)
alex.barylski
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Post by alex.barylski »

You guys sound like you work for my local DSL :P

Thats basically what I was told and read...although I'm guessing not many cable users where I am, cuz I always have screaming fast Internet...when I download something from Limewire with a T3...it's literally seconds for massive files...or um....media and such :P
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

As I said, wildly varying speeds.

In certain areas the infrastructure is more conducive to cable, others DSL. Even differing providers in the same area can have wildly different performance.
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AKA Panama Jack
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Post by AKA Panama Jack »

Actually they are both about the same because you are still sharing bandwidth. :)

With Cable it is the node for your neighborhood.

With DSL it is the switch for your neighborhood.

Both can either be overloaded with too many clients or underused. The one plus with DSL is they usually offer faster upload speeds than Cable.

Here locally you can get DSL with 6 Mbps download for $35 a month with no contract through AT&T. You have to have an existing phone service. That is usually about $16. So it costs about $51 a month.

You can get 5 Mbps download through Mediacom Cable for $61 a month. If you have cable TV of any type the price is $46. And with the basic cable at $15 you pay $61 a month.

The DSL give 1.5 Mbps upload while the Cable only gives 256 Kbps upload.

I have been using cable for many years and it is fast with low latency but the cost goes up every year. They raised it $5 this year. Dropping cable and going to DSL is looking damned attractive since it is overall cheaper and you get better upload speeds.

Heck, AT&T has some great prices on DSL right now. http://www.att.com/gen/general?pid=7709
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

My cable line is pitiful, but the UK is hardly renowned for being inline with modern (home) internet speeds. I have a 2Mbit downstream but only about 128k upload and as soon as anyone in our house uploads something we all have to sit and wait before we can download again (I'm talking just normal browsing here). My (technically slower) ADSL was heaps better.
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Jenk
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Post by Jenk »

In London cable is better than DSL, simply because of contention ratios.. my ISP tells me it is currently 50:1.. but my friend who works for BT (British Telecom, the people who 'own' the UK Internet back-bone) tells me that is BS, it is more like 100:1 :(

Cable is around 33:1 iirc, and also due to the old telecom framework we have around here, DSL line quality can be a major issue. Though I don't stop hearing of complaints from friends on cable - and most of those complainees are employees of their ISP (NTL/Virgin)!
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Kieran Huggins
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Post by Kieran Huggins »

ADSL all the way Hockey! Cable sucks in the t-dot, up and down like a toilet seat. DSL however has been rock-solid for me for years.

You can get some pretty sweet resold Bell packages from 3rd parties, but I just went with Sympatico's 5 Mb plan.

Grab a WRT54GL from your local computer haunt or online from tigerdirect.ca / canadacomputers.com - should run you about $50-60 CDN and is worth EVERY PENNY! The only router I'll ever buy, you can flash it with a linux firmware from WRTrouters.com (I use thibor's hyperWRT). It's rock solid as well!

I heard most CDN cable companies are starting to cap again?
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John Cartwright
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Post by John Cartwright »

Yea I got Rogers up here in Toronto too.. never been so dissatisfied with a service before in my life.
jabbaonthedais
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Post by jabbaonthedais »

In my area, cable download speeds are much faster than our DSL service (we have limited choices :( ). The only problem I had when I switched to cable is I got a call from Comcast saying I used 300x the ammount of bandwidth of the "average internet user" and if I didn't reduce my usage they would terminate my account. :(
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AKA Panama Jack
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Post by AKA Panama Jack »

jabbaonthedais wrote:In my area, cable download speeds are much faster than our DSL service (we have limited choices :( ). The only problem I had when I switched to cable is I got a call from Comcast saying I used 300x the ammount of bandwidth of the "average internet user" and if I didn't reduce my usage they would terminate my account. :(
That stinks. I have a 5Mbps cable connection with Mediacom and download terabytes of data from newsgroups every month and they have never said a thing. A friend of mine has a 10Mbps cable connection and hasn't had any problems.

With DSL or Cable one is not better than the other. What comes into play are the number of connections to the Cable Node or DSL Switch. If you have an overloaded DSL Switch you will see a drop in bandwidth and higher pings. The same thing if the Cable Node for your area is overloaded.

The bad thing is you can't determine if the Cable Node or DSL Switch for your area is overloaded before you signup. You only find that out after you get it installed. Most cable companies require a 12-18 month contract so you get locked in even if the connection stinks. The same is true for many DSL providers. AT&T is one of the few that no longer require a contract and you can signup for a month to month.
alvinphp
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Post by alvinphp »

In my area Cable is consistently much faster then DSL. The pro to DSL though is it is $15-$20 cheaper a month. You get what you pay for.
jabbaonthedais
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Post by jabbaonthedais »

Luckily for me there are no contracts required for either service in my area. If that is the case for you, I suggest you try both. Also, you get an idea of how a company's support is when you use them. I had BellSouth DSL for years and had constant problems. The phone lines in my area are poor quality and my connection would often be out for hours, even days. With cable, I have only had a few outages and when I call they usually jump right on the problem.
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Post by impulse() »

I'm living in the UK and I am working on an 8128kbps downstream 448kbps upstream ADSL connection and I've never had any problems with it. I worked in technical support for an ISP for the best part of 2006 and we were taking 400 calls a day from a 35,000 userbase. About 60-70% of those calls were ADSL related and were mainly due to the quality of the BT phone line. An intermittent connection was the usual suspect along with unexpectedly low speeds. I'm not sure how well ADSL works in other countries but I don't believe ADSL is a good service in the UK. I've heard nothing but praise for cable users, praising the 24Mbps download speeds which ADSL is unable to get.
From what I've heard, I've never researched it, cable in this country runs through fibre optic cable whereas the ADSL service runs through the copper BT phone line which isn't greatly suited for high internet speeds.

My area isn't cable enabled but I would switch to cable if I had the opportunity. Mainly due to the higher download speeds but also because I don't hear cable users complain about their service.
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