Cable or DSL

[Darth Revan]

I was looking around at posts and couldn't find an answer I needed. What are the differences between dsl and cable. Some say DSL is best for online gaming some say it isn't. And I was wandering if there are types of of games that work best for one type of connection or is it just preference. And my other question is how is each installed do you get a PCI card intalled to use these connections. And I am still a bit uncertain about what DSL is exactly. Any help or posts to other threads would be appreciated.
Thanx

[RJ]

DSL uses the phone lines, cable uses the cable television lines.

Whether you use DSL or cable doesn't matter at all for online gaming. What matters is the speed. There are different transfer speeds for both DSL and cable, for different prices. After all, it's preference, and also depends on what's offered in your area.

The installation is pretty easy. You can get an external modem, it'll usually plug into the NIC, or a USB port. Or you can get an internal modem, then it'll plug into a PCI slot.

RJ

[carlmccut]

As RJ said DSL and Cable are similar one uses telephone lines and the latter uses the cable line. The important thing is bandwidth. Some providers for an additional cost will give you a connection with greater bandwidth.

I have heard that cable has a shared bandwidth and will slow down when more users are on the system. I have never encountered this phenomenon with my cable provider. I am however purchasing the highest bandwidth they provide. I have had little experience with DSL I do know that there is a DSLA and DSLB what the difference I could not tell you. I have a friend who is an engineer for our local phone company and has a dedicated 8 gig (bandwidth) DSL line. Unbelievable speed also he hosts several servers from his home. This is way beyond the conventional user.

As far as a NIC card if your system does not have an ethernet connection either on the motherboard or an ethernet card installed your provider can "rent you one" You can buy one fairly inexpensive. I perfered to buy all of my own equipment rather than renting from my provider. One advantage to renting the equipment is if something goes bad they will replace it, buying it your self you will be responsible for the hardware. Check with your area providers for the details of what they provide. Either works really well.

[TwoRails]

I went with DSL. In my area, several people I know with cable have complaints with slow down in the evening when everybody else comes home and gets online.

Also, at least in my area, the cable company is behind the times and is way too controlling. I was having trouble with my ISP and was considering switching to cable several months back. I called the cable company and they wanted the same $$ as my DSL but that was for one computer!! Plus, they would not turn it on without coming out to my house to inspect my setup and see how many computers I had. Totally unacceptable.

[carlmccut]

Whoa thats nuts. Once the cable is hooked up hooked up a wireless router with a 4 port switch and run several computers on the same line. My wife can be downstairs browsing and I can be online gaming and someone else on the network and you don's even see a hiccup!!!!! But I guess it depends where you are.

[dsl boy]

the advantage of cable is obviously the higher download speeds. however like your television it runs off of a node sharing bandwidth. the higher the number of customers on the node, the less bandwidth you get per your share. like if you have tvs split from one node you'll get a noticeably fuzzier appearance.

dsl, running through phone lines which gives your guaranteed bandwidth on your copper wires. if you don't have good phone connection, obviously the dsl will reflect it. also, you should definitely inquire how far you are from your central office before signing up. the farther away you are from it, the slower the speeds. if you live right next to your phone office you could possibly get speeds comparable to cable.

in some places, with verizon i think, they are starting to offer fiber to prem service where they plug the fiber optic line directly into your nid, giving you blazing download and upload speeds comparable to ds3's.

you should definitely evaluate your needs before settling for either.

[carlmccut]

Dslboy You're right I also spoke to a friend and he said the same thing.
One other item many cable companies are going fiberoptic. I know that ours her has done it about 6 months ago for this area.

[spyder003]

Originally Posted by dsl boy in some places, with verizon i think, they are starting to offer fiber to prem service where they plug the fiber optic line directly into your nid, giving you blazing download and upload speeds comparable to ds3's.

Yeah, I hope they make this widely available soon. They are offering some crazy bandwidth for CHEAP!!!

Check it out

[Darth Revan]

Thanx for the posts and info guys. It helps a lot.