Serious Discussion...Cable or DSL

what's your experience?

[toolman]

I recently have been through an ordeal with Time Warner/ RoadRunner that has really opened my eyes to a few issues.

A little background info:

2 weeks ago Time Warner **REMOTELY** disconnected my cablemodem for a TOS violation. Upon calling their security guy, he figured out within **1 minute** that a mistake had been made. This was after they had sent out a certified letter and disconnected my service.

The reason: I alledgedly had set up some sort of IRC chat room on my own server and offered a dvd movie for download. **THE MOTION PICTURE ASSOC** promptly notified **TIME WARNER** of said violation (or perhaps vice versa). You see the connection here? It makes me wonder if the TW/AOL thing was such a good idea for us little people.

I have a lot of trouble with my cable modem service. Everytime it rains it goes out. Some days it's no faster than a 56K modem. The technicians they send out are of questionable technical knowledge about their jobs (one even accused me of stealing a modem).

Not to be subdued by a mediocre internet provider I signed up for DSL from Verizon...They'll be here in 17 days. 17 days. I told them if they could lessen that time a little that would probably be good for business.

I have helped a lot of people set up networks for their businesses and I've seen a growing chasm between DSL and Cable.
Dsl seems to have the edge I think because it's run by the phone companies...they already know a lot about networking. Cable on the other hand, although cheaper, is an inferior product that promises but doesn't deliver...especially if you're in a high density population area where there are lots of people on the service.

The point is, as webmasters, we need reliable internet access without retentive admins or companies on the other end of the line monitoring and/or throttling your access and trying to control how many computers you access the internet with.

I for one, am now becoming increasingly concerned about the conglomeration and mergering between communications companies. These monopolies have the potential for great abuse. Time Warner/AOL is an obvious attempt to control the entertainment coming out of your TV..from start to finish.

This is what I think. What do you think about the difference between Cable and DSL?

[toolman]

I know one thing DSL providers could do...install the stupid thing before a month goes by. This is ridiculous. I have to wait until the middle of September now. You wonder why DSL isn't selling. DUH!

[JK_Bowman]

Here is what I understand. Perhaps this will help.

Cable
Speed: 3Mbps to 10Mbps
Cost: About $40 bucks a month

It's super fast, but the con side to it has to do with the fact that it is shared. Since many households may be on your hub, connections can slow dramatically during peek hours.

Also, cable connections are not known for their security.

DSL
Speed: 600Kbps to 26Mbps
Cost: typically more expensive than cable

Typically it will be faster than cable, but there is a catch. The farther you are away from the central hub at the telephone company, the slower the it will be.

A pro side, however, is that it is more secure than cable.

Hope that helps.

[Navarone]

I have cable (NEO Road Runner). My experince has not been as I have expected. Sometimes I see higher than 200k but average is about 50 or 60k. I agree with some of the comments above and wonder if there isn't something as a customer we can do. After all, the advertizing and the reality are very much different. For my $40 a month, I am not getting what they advertize. I emailed RR once and asked them what my $40 bucks guarantees me. But I have never heard back from them.

[GWJ]

Navarone,

If you are on the Windoze platform check this site [speedguide.net] out as it has a few tweeks that might help you.

Brian

[crash]

I have Road Runner at home (about 2 yrs now) and Pac Bell DSL at work - my dad has it at home.

Both have problems.

I was ?lucky? enough to be one of the first in my area to get RR. WOW was it FAST - and consistant! Not a problem for months.. until after the "big promotion", needless to say I was already spoiled.. and thought DSL was a joke considering all the probs we were having at work and my dads house.

Saturation is an issue.. I have had slow downs (similar to trying to log on to AOL right after work - good luck) But overall it has not been bad.. I just try to avoid any 'work' activity at those times.

DSL has settled down.. but it took along time.

Overall - they both have prob's as any system will. The cost difference for DSL does not make it an attractive option for me. And honestly PacBell DSL goes out more than RR does.

[Marcia]

I've just had a DSL modem delivered from PacBell - trying to decide whether to go ahead with it. The whole neighborhood around (West Valley) has Time-Warner cable, but this building has Adelphia cable service, which I hear is very good.

I'm wondering about what distance is involved with users sharing the line. There are only 250 households in the immediate area who have access to this cable company (that I know of) and most likely most of them don't use the cable service for connection.

I'm also wondering about the difference in the customer support between the two. I use MSN dialup now, and have for quite a while - not the greatest support, and I'm not too crazy about only one email account. PacBell gives 11, even with their dialup service.

[mnw]

Marcia- While this may seem like a strange question - Adelphia (at least here in the Philadelphia, PA area) was purchased by Comcast. Realizing that it might be a 3,000 mile co-incidence that two cable companies would have the same name, Is it the same Adeplhia Cable? Comcast is using Excite@Home until the contract runs out in June 2002 or Excite@Home runs out, which ever comes first.

[crash]

Marsha:

I am in the same area (Chatsworth). I don't know about the cable co your talking about (eh, thought I knew them all!) My dad still swears by Pac Bell - but the biggest issue is the line - how far are you from the hub? The farther you are the more difficulties you will have. Ie: In Simi we are towards the outer edge (in an industrial complex) we can go for quite awhile with no probs - but then bam - noting but probs. One of our neighbors (in the same building) got PacBell after we did, He has problems constantly (for about a year now) - they state it is because of the lines but that they cannot fix it.

[bigjohnt]

Just got DSL at home, via verizon/earthlink. Much afster than Cable I have at work. The delivery date was September 18. I had a hookup the same day the modem arrived, three weeks early. The speed is fantastic. I guess it all depends on the proximitiy to the CO and the number of people wating in line. I guess I was lucky.
Oh, it was a self install <minor gripe coming..> There was no CD, and tech support assured that their should have been. The manual indicated there should be one, packing list did not, Had to download software via dialup (no biggie, just admin prob>
All in all, I really like the DSL difference. Lets see how it goes when the nieighborhood chimes in...

[txbakers]

I adore my DSL line, it's been nearly 2 years now. I ordered when it first arrived so the wait was only 4 days.

A friend has Cable, and the TV commercials are true - you need to plan around the heavy traffic times.

Back to the top of the thread - I agree that letting AOL/Time Warner merge was a bad idea. The same with Exxon/Mobil. Hp and Compaq need to merge only to keep both of them from dying a painful death.

My ISP certainly knows a lot more about the computer end of things than Verizon, and they are the ones sufferring at the hands of the phone company. But they didn't have the billion or so dollars to install phone lines...