DSL vs. CABLE

[Toolman35]

I currently have a cable connection. I was looking into DSL that just become availabe in my area. The DSL is less but in this case does less = more?

[doctorgonzo]

What are the speeds? Are they comparable? Usually, cable is faster but more volatile, as you are sharing the bandwidth with more people and it can change. Personally, I have 3 Mpbs cable and wouldn't change to DSL for two reasons: one, it is slower, and two, I use VoIP for my phone, and so I don't even have regular phone service. Without a phone line, it's hard to get DSL.

[edfair]

I have DSL. Neighbor has cable that I support. I would have cable if I had any other use for it. But both are subject to the support that they get from the supplier. About equal in northeast Atlanta.

[Toad_1]

I personally like DSL over cable. I have SBC Yahoo DSL and it is cheap, steady, and very reliable. The only bad thing about DSL is that speeds seem to vary depending on how close you are to the phone company's switching station. DSL services have also released new speeds that match cable speeds and beat them for a reasonable price. When it comes down to it, it depends if you want quicker speeds with little reliability or semi-quick speeds with great reliability.

[Hi Ho]

I have cable. My actual speeds are 5.6 MB/s down and 1.6 MB/s up. My speeds aren't capped. I get it from the local phone/cable company for $35 a month. They have uncapped DSL as well but it is slower than the cable.

[kram 2.0]

I use ADSL. There are definately ups and down to each though. Cable is a shared service so generally speaking, peak hours can show excrutiatingly slow speeds. As previously mentioned by doctorgonzo, it's more volatile. I chose DSL and it's fast enough - I would never switch from it. It's consistent and is a huge jump from 56k.

Can't choose and have money to spare? Go T1 .

Hope that helps,
kram

[hobey19]

Originally Posted by kram8806 Can't choose and have money to spare? Go T1 . Hope that helps, kram

heck with that. why not get a T3 if you are going to be spending all that money anyway.


in all seriousness, tho, i have SBC DSL and i HATE it. we have cable in our area that is amazingly fast but i can't switch because my mom needs to keep her email address for her business. that is my personal experience with SBC, tho, and should not become a factor for you, especially if it is a different company. just look at the speeds and see if it is what you need

craig

[TeenPcknowit]

DSL requires digital filters.
Cable is pretty much plug and play.
You can get stuck with a horribly low connection speed with DSL.
DSL is a hassle to set up with your phone company. Line spliting, availibity, all this junk. They will ride you around on a pony for months saying "its gunna be availible soon" . "Oh our system shut down.". "your line is split."
All this crazy crap that you don't need to bust your brains out for.
If you can get cable TV, you can get cable internet, which is ALOOOT of people.
The dude will come out 3 days later and set you up. No questions asked.
Cable providers realize you are sharing the bandwith with other people. They don't let the bandwith on one line get split over enough people to make it slower than DSL. Cable will most always be faster, no questions asked.

[Big Weapons]

I have cable. I had it back in 2000 when it was still relatively new technology. The speeds were excellent because not many people had it back then. A few ISP mergers later, the bill was just too high. That's when I switched over to DSL. I noticed that my bandwidth was nearly cut in half. Honestly, it depends on what you need it for and what you're paying for. I've since then switched back to cable and it is a much more enjoyable experience.

[glc]

You can't categorically state that one is better than the other. They both have their advantages and disavantages, and the quality of service varies greatly in different locations with different providers. Evangelize all you want about one or the other, but what may be working well for you may be garbage for someone on the other side of town, much less someone in a totally different location.

[Strider]

I just switch to Cable from DSL, I'm getting 3 to 4 times faster. I had nothing against DSL; however, my service kept going down on me, I don't blame my ISP (XO) but the local telephone company (SBC) for not caring to fix the problem I was having. I agree that you can't categorize one being better than the other, you'll just have to find out which one works the best (performance and money wise).

[Toolman35]

Well I just did a speed test from this site
http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/
and it shows my connection at 5.2 megabits per second. seems good.

I guess I will just keep this cable it works well for me.
Thanks gys for the help.

[glc]

If you are getting those speeds, you would be crazy to switch - I've never seen a residential DSL package anywhere near that fast.

[Toolman35]

well how about cable that fast? Thats what I have.

I just checked again and only connecting at 1.9 per sec. guss thats the flucuation with cabls?

[deadman.inc]

talk with your dsk or cable provder. with dsl (bellsouth in my area), see how close they are located to your house/home. with cable (charter is wht i have) ask them how many users do they have in your area. . .http://compnetworking.about.com/libr.../aa111200a.htm

[TeenPcknowit]

3.3 megabits per second
Storage 406 kilobytes per second

Just tested my cable in PA. Says i'm faster than T1, and above average cable speed in PA.

Sometimes i see more than 406kbs down...depends on the site...but hey, for what it is .....its better than my buddies DSL ^_^.

[Toolman35]

Thanks for the link deadman. I am staying with cable. As for how far I am away from the station is about 12000 ft. I called alltel a few days ago and ask this question. I also asked if I would get better speeds or service if I was 50 ft. away instead of 12000. She said no, that I should get the same service as long as I am in range. Any truth to that? Not that I am going to switch, but just wondering.

[deadman.inc]

dunno. . .1200ft, is like around 2 miles, a bit more. shouldn't make much of a difference, as long as you are within 5 miles. when you are more than that, than you have a problem

[Toolman35]

around here I guess the max range is 18000 ft. Thats what she told me...so I just thought maybe the farther away may have some implications on speed. But then again I don't know much on this topic.

[12yearoldnoob]

My DSL connection is 10 MBPS wth is that? Is it fast?

[Byte 2.0]

Originally Posted by 12yearoldnoob My DSL connection is 10 MBPS wth is that? Is it fast?

Trust me, your DSL connection is not 10 MBPS. That is the connection between your PC and your Modem or router over the ethernet cable.

I do support for ADSL (until my job moves overseas next month) and I use cable at home.

Things to consider.

1. Package verse package oftered.
a. Not all companies offer equal packages.
I. ADSL comes in different speeds as well does Cable.
2. Shared bandwidth.
a. DSL providers tell you about the shared bandwidth of Cable.
I. ADSL is also shared bandwidth just in a different place.
a. ADSL is a deicated line from the DSLAM to your home. But once
you are on the Backbone at the DSLAM you are on shared
bandwidth.
b. Yes cable is shared bandwidth all the way to your home.

Subsection, I am tried of outline form.

3. Compare the cables, look at a telephone wire coming down from the pole to your D-Mark. Compare that with the Standard Coax your Cable TV uses.
The Gauge of the Wire provides more available bandwidth on the Coax.

Coax cable can carry up into the 50,000 kbps, while the best phone lines can only carry up to about 10,000kbps for very short distance.

4. Phone lines are in twisted pair to provide some shielding against EMI, RFI.
Cable Coex is naturally sheilded by the design and type of cable.

5. When you compare packages you have to look at both downstream and upstream.
5000kps down would be bad if only 128kbps up.

6. where I work, we have 3 tiers of ADSL
lite 256 kbps down 128kbps up
ultra 1472 kbps down 256 kbps up (limited t0 18,000 feet, closer you are to the max distance the less you get)
extreme 3008 kbps down 384 kbps up (limited to 12,000 feet, closer to max distance less you get, if over may lose sync)

The Cable I have access to is comes in 2 tiers.
Silver 3300 kbps by 256kbps
Gold 4300 kbps by 384kbps (I use this one for the extra upload)

Where I live I could get both, and get a slight discount for the ADSL but I get the cable GOLD package slight cheaper then the ADSL extreme.

One thing, with both you have about 5-15 percent TCP overhead in the connection. ADSL makes the customer eat that but advertising 1500kbps, then provisioning at 1472, then minus the over head, customer do good to test at 1.3. Cable on the other hand normally over provisioning slightly and they eat the overhead. Notice they provision 300kbps faster then the advertsed speeds. I know, i read the dosis in my modem (not recommended, not ilegal as long as you don't make changes. Note if you do change that the cable company will now and may put a perm BAN on your physical street address to all cable).

For me, and my local chose is cable. However there are times and places where DSL will win out.

As for support, there are good and bad apples in the barrel. Most of the companies hire support though contractors that have hired off the street.

Myself, I was a laid off IT tech and took the job as a chance to better my understanding. But most of the people I work with where down on their luck and hired in off the street. To which many of them excelled at tech support and moved up to Product Specialist.

Myself, I moved up to Product Specialist and have been working in the support of ADSL for over 3 years now.

I am used to getting a customer at the end of their rope and ready to cancel. I can normally keep them from cancelling, but sometimes even I lose one. Today I too my first call of the day and barely got to say 10 words and he was IRATE and is going to report me of all people to the ADSL company. Nothing I did but he has been though 12 people before me and didn't want me to do anything.

Next call, I finished an issue I have been working with one man for over a week and kept him from cancelling service.

So it is a give and take. Where I work, there are people that hate cable they believe it totally sucks, others hate DSL. Mostly based on a bad experience.

With any business it is impossible to make everyone happy. No matter what you are going to have good or bad service. it is normally the luck of the draw as to who answers the phone when you call in.

I will admit when I first started this Job, I was a total newbie to DSL and was not very good. I worked at it until I got to where I am. I am not the greatest by any means but I feel there is no call that comes in I should not be able to answer and if I can't fix it I know where to take it.


unoffical RANT off.

[TeenPcknowit]

Byte 2.0...great, stunning description.

[Byte 2.0]

Thanks.
When you work in the business you better be able to sum it up. I cut short, didnt' feel much like writing a paper on the subject.

That is about the size of a set of notes I take per escalation. When I handle an issue, there is no question about what I did or did not do to help a customer.

[kram 2.0]

Bravo. Nice job there Byte - took me a while to read through the description you wrote, can't imagine the amount of time you spent to write this description to help Toolman35 on his decision on Cable or DSL

kram

[Byte 2.0]

Guess I got a bit carried away. But too much info is better then not enough.

I know It seems weighted toward cable a bit, but Like I said, there are people that have bad support with one company or another. That doesn't mean the technology is bad.

I will say this, calling up the tech guy that is working for tech support and start off yelling about how much money(the higher the number the better, thousands comes to mind) you are losing in your business because your residental account is not working, that really gets you on thier good side.

Matter of FACT, I really hate that. First person I talked to today is going to cancel over that reason. He couldn't be home to meet a tech because he would lose thousands of dollars. He yelled the whole time on the call, I really hope he writes that letter to Corp he threatened too. I can document enough that I have went over the lines to assist people. He stated He was going to do whatever it took to get me fired because I could not promise a tech by 9am tomorrow morning. I am not worried about that, since I didn't do any tech at all with him, he was in his car driving. I can image at his temper he was all over the road.

[kram 2.0]

Originally Posted by Byte 2.0 Matter of FACT, I really hate that. First person I talked to today is going to cancel over that reason. He couldn't be home to meet a tech because he would lose thousands of dollars. He yelled the whole time on the call, I really hope he writes that letter to Corp he threatened too. I can document enough that I have went over the lines to assist people. He stated He was going to do whatever it took to get me fired because I could not promise a tech by 9am tomorrow morning. I am not worried about that, since I didn't do any tech at all with him, he was in his car driving. I can image at his temper he was all over the road.

Can you say unreasonable . I'm not quite sure how he expects your business to get to his house by 9AM while his business doesn't start until after that - seems illogical to me.

kram

[Byte 2.0]

Funny thing, he was demanding I agree it was our problem with out trouble shooting.

The problem, his Ethernet Light on the westell modem was going out. The modem had already been replaced. He was not losing the DSL light or the internet light, just the ethernet light. I told him that was probably the cable, or his router. He then yelled he didn't have a router. the notes talked about his linksys router. so I then told him the ethernet light on that modem only comes on when it detects a signal from the next device weather it be a router or PC. Since the modem had been replaced and he was still having the problem it much be something other then the modem. That is when he said I was not trying to help and demanded a tech be there and done by 9am or he would cancel. told him I could not promise that, he then demanded I disconnect his service that minute, advised him I could not do that. For a cancel he would have to speak with billing, he said he would call them later. he took my name, office, then wanted my email. I told him I could not give out my company email address, that it is on a company network with no access to the outside. He then said I was refusing to give him my contact info. He wanted my direct number, advised he would have to call and ask for me, since I have no direct number, again I was refusing to give him info.

He was yelling so loud, I took my headset off and other techs could hear him.

After the call, I had a laugh, talked with those around me about it, emailed management to give them a heads up on a customer complaint about me. Then I called my next customer that I have dealt with for a week and finished. Funny customer number 2, a week ago hated me and now wants me to go fishing with him after all the work I done for him.

So customers are a grab bag. I can't believe or see that I am horrible to one and great to another, but fixing problems is a 2 way street. They have to be willing to meet half way or nothing works.

I have the Magic fix it button on my desk, but it doesn't ever work. I push it when customers demand I push the magic button to fix their problems. (I really do have one)

[Toolman35]

ok...so Cable it is...lol

[TeenPcknowit]

Whenever I call tech support, which...I don't like to do often...and because some people on the line don't know any better about their product and windows operations than I do, we'll get no where. But I do have a good time talking to them! ^_^. Some geek talk over the line.

One time I was on the phone with HP, for an issue that wasn't being solved with my microsoft wireless card.
The card would never ever connect to the network.
Every time a loading period or software instalation occured I would get into conversation about favorite OS...or...where are you located...how is canada..haha.
I ended up being on the phone with this guy for 2 hours trying to get this thing to connect, trying different browsers, network identifications, zero config, everything in the book he could bring up. We finnaly reached the bitter result that this was a incompatibilty with the laptop, and could not be resolved. (We got the card to work on another laptop of mine.)

I think maybe he was expecting a demand or explanation of my rights or something near the end.

But after he said "i'm sorry". I quikly responded. "Ahh, no problem, i'll get another card, if you guys need me to answer any questions and give you the product information on the card, anyway I can help you out, just call. I've had a good time anyways, God bless."

Bought a d-link card, the thing connects ^_^.