What's better : DSL Line or Cable Modem

[medjuck]

I'm fine with my DSL line but the local cable company keeps running adds saying their cable modem system is much faster. My tech guy tells me otherwise. What is the truth? (I'll get to what is the meaning of life on my next post.)

[Dan Gould]

I'm fine with my DSL line but the local cable company keeps running adds saying their cable modem system is much faster. My tech guy tells me otherwise. What is the truth? (I'll get to what is the meaning of life on my next post.)

A friend of mine has had a cable modem while we've stuck with DSL and whenever we talk about connection speeds and go to whatever website it is that you can run a test, his cable connection blows our DSL out of the water.

(I'll get to why we stick with DSL in my next post. )

[Claude]

The speed of the line depends on the service you buy, it's limited by the ISP, not by the technology (DSL or cable). Usually you can choose beween different speeds/prices from the same ISP, but it's in fact the same line whose speed is limited depending on what service you ordered.

[rostasi]

DSL here in this house.

Have friends that are on cable (JSngry?)

and I hear about somewhat better speed,

but the price and sometimes the problems

with cable keep me away.

Technically, I'm supposed to be at 6.0 Mbps downloads,

but it's closer to 5 and that's fast enuf for me.

On uploads, it takes about 10 minutes for every 50MB file.

I think your best bet is to ask your immediate neighbors

because I hear that distance from the hub has something to do with quality.

[Dan Gould]

The speed of the line depends on the service you buy, it's limited by the ISP, not by the technology (DSL or cable). Usually you can choose beween different speeds/prices from the same ISP, but it's in fact the same line whose speed is limited depending on what service you ordered.

This may be so, but my friend's experience with "cable DSL" vs my experience with "DSL" from the phone company has consistently favored cable.

FWIW, in the US, your average household is simply offered "DSL" with no delineation of different speed options. Its in businesses where you may choose to upgrade to a T1 or whatever. But I've never heard of household options where you can get "fast" or "super fast". You can stick with dial-up or go with DSL and then you typically have a choice of cable vs phone company service.

[rostasi]

SBC/AT&T offers different levels of DSL speeds -

Basic (1.5), Express (3.0) and Pro (6.0)

[JSngry]

DAn, in hte DFW area, customers do have the option of differing speeds of DSL. Some ISPs advertise the options more prominently than others though.

I had DSL and was disappointed, to put it mildly. Speeds were only marginally better than dial-up, and large downloads would frequently timeout. The problem was between my ISP & the phone company (Verizon). Both of them blamed the other, and I finally tried getting them both in on a conference call. The ISP rep presented his evidence (quite convincing live test results that showed the problem to be w/the Verizon line between a relay station and my house) to the Verizon rep, who then proceeded to excuse himself "for just a second" . Thirty minutes later he had not returned, so that was that. I switched to cable (Comcast, now Time-Warner) the next day.

Cable has been great speedwise, ranging from exception to reasonably excellent. The only problem is that I have to power cycle the modem more than I'd like to, anywhere from 2-5 times a week during weekdays (and 1-3 times a day on weekends). This is apparently a quirk of cable's, and can be annoying when time is tight, even though it's only a 30 second procedure. But on the whole, I'm quite pleased. Downloads are as fast as anybody could expect out of anything less than a T-x, and surfing is mostly effortless.

A new kid on the block is FIOS (FIber Optic Service), which is really tempting. Our cable service provides fiber optic lines up to the house, but from the house into the modem, it's regular cable line. FIOS provides fiber optic line all the way to the modem, and the promised results look to be spectacular, as they theoretically should be as a result of eliminating that last "bottleneck". It's just a tad pricier than cable, but if the performance delivers to spec, hey, it would be worth it. Problem is, it's only being offered by Verizon, them of the "cut and run" DSL episode. To say that I am more than a little wary of resuming service of anything Internet-related w/Verizon is putting it mildly.

Realistically, anecdotal evidence seems to suggest to me that there is no "absolute" answer to the cable vs. DSL question. There are any number of variables, all of them related to local sevices and local technologies. A service/package that works great in one town might suck in another. The only advice I can give is to not settle for service that is not personally satisfying. There's too many options out there (in most places, anyways) to do that, even if getting what you wnat might cost more than you're now paying.

[Dan Gould]

Well I guess I stand corrected.

Guess I shouldn't have said anything considering that its my wife who has always handled the ISP stuff from choosing a provider, a package, to installing the modem.

[Claude]

I had DSL and was disappointed, to put it mildly. Speeds were only marginally better than dial-up, and large downloads would frequently timeout. The problem was between my ISP & the phone company (Verizon). Both of them blamed the other, and I finally tried getting them both in on a conference call. The ISP rep presented his evidence (quite convincing live test results that showed the problem to be w/the Verizon line between a relay station and my house) to the Verizon rep, who then proceeded to excuse himself "for just a second" . Thirty minutes later he had not returned, so that was that. I switched to cable (Comcast, now Time-Warner) the next day.

It looks like they took too many risks with your DSL connection. If a user is located too far from a telephone "knot" in the street (I don't know the technical term), the DSL connection is not reliable and normaly the DSL company would not accept to connect the user. Here in Luxembourg, most people can now have DSL, but in some villages or streets it is not available because of the distance problem.

If it works correctly, DSL is 10-20 times faster than a modem connection. As I wrote above, the speed is limited artificially by the ISP so he can offer different speeds at different prices.

In Europe, DSL is generally more popular than cable. Technically, both solutions are very reliable and more than fast enough for home usage.

Edited October 7, 2006 by Claude

[rostasi]

If FIOS came here (and if it wasn't Verizon), I'd probably make the jump.

I'm pleasantly surprised by my AT&T service.

They even bumped me up from 3.0 to 6.0 and didn't change my price of $24.99!

I'm not sure I understand the "power cycle" idea.

Are you saying Jim that you have to turn off and on your modem

for some reason? I do that, but only when I want to change my dynamic address

to trick a download site -

Maybe I get good results because of the nearby hub - about a quarter mile away.

[7/4]

I'm not sure I understand the "power cycle" idea.

Are you saying Jim that you have to turn off and on your modem

for some reason? I do that, but only when I want to change my dynamic address

to trick a download site -

You have to unplug it for a minute or so. It's Comcasts first reaction to any connection problem. It's been a while since I did it.

[JSngry]

I had DSL and was disappointed, to put it mildly. Speeds were only marginally better than dial-up, and large downloads would frequently timeout. The problem was between my ISP & the phone company (Verizon). Both of them blamed the other, and I finally tried getting them both in on a conference call. The ISP rep presented his evidence (quite convincing live test results that showed the problem to be w/the Verizon line between a relay station and my house) to the Verizon rep, who then proceeded to excuse himself "for just a second" . Thirty minutes later he had not returned, so that was that. I switched to cable (Comcast, now Time-Warner) the next day.

It looks like they took too many risks with your DSL connection. If a user is located too far from a telephone "knot" in the street (I don't know the technical term), the DSL connection is not reliable and normaly the DSL company would not accept to connect the user.

Well, that was the thing - the relay station was/is less than a quarter mile from my house! The ISP tech's test was able to pinpoint the problem as being between the relay station and my house, possibly even with the wires in my house, which would be Verizon's issue. That the Verizon rep walked out of the discussion after being presented with this evidence told me all I needed to know about DSL as it pertained to my house and Verizon as it pertained to my future needs outside of basic local telephone service.

[JSngry]

I'm not sure I understand the "power cycle" idea.

Are you saying Jim that you have to turn off and on your modem

for some reason? I do that, but only when I want to change my dynamic address

to trick a download site -

You have to unplug it for a minute or so. It's Comcasts first reaction to any connection problem. It's been a while since I did it.

Yeah, that's how it works. Supposedly the dynamic address occasionally gets "lost" somewhere between the ISP & the computer, so you have to power off the modem for 30-60 seconds and then power it back on, which results in a totally "fresh" connection/dynamic address for the computer, and it's all good. Really, a very minor inconvenience (except when a lenghty post here gets lost and has to be retyped...)), but we all want/expect our internet to work perfectly every time out, don't we? Maybe Honda or Toyota should get into the game...

Nobody's been willing/able to explain to me why this addressical discombobulation occurs in the first place, or why it seems to occur more on weekends. But I suspect that it's a function of higher traffic causing a bottleneck that the ISP's internal routing system is unable to effectively handle. I'm guessing that it's a totally avoidable issue, but that it might require an investment that they're not willing to make.

Or not. I really don't know what I'm talking about here, not beyond the "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" stage.

[Chuck Nessa]

I have the same "modem recycle" deal with Charter cable. Sometimes I go a month and sometimes I have to do it 3 or 4 times in a day. Not a huge problem the walk 5 feet and do it but it does become annoying.

I still prefer my cable to my neighbor's dsl. Last week I received an offer of more speed from my cable company but didn't absorb it 'cause I didn't want to invest more money.

[rostasi]

Yeah, that's how it works. Supposedly the dynamic address occasionally gets "lost" somewhere between the ISP & the computer, so you have to power off the modem for 30-60 seconds and then power it back on, which results in a totally "fresh" connection/dynamic address for the computer, and it's all good.

Ok, I see what you're talking about now.

In order for me to do my "rodcasts", I have to have an IP address that doesn't automagically change,

so I have a little piece of software called JIP_DYNDNS (no comments Clem ) that makes adjustments

if ever it's changed enroute. So, I suppose this means that I have the same thing happen here,

but I'm blissfully unaware of it (because the software takes care of that).

[Tom 1960]

I run off a cable modem and honestly have very little to complain about. I pretty much have the computer on 24/7 most of the time and rarely have to make any adjustments with the modem. I have Road Runner with Time Warner Cable and costs are $45/mo. No reason for me to switch.

[trane_fanatic]

Here in San Francisco, I had SBC Yahoo DSL for 2 years and the constant dropout was a nightmare, to say the least. Apparently, I lived close to the border of the service area. Switched to Comcast last year and after the six month promo offer of $20/mo., they upped the price to $45/mo. After my threat to cancel, they let me keep the promo rate of 20 bucks for at least another year. IMO, cable absolutely blows away DSL speedwise and also in terms of reliability.

Edited October 9, 2006 by trane_fanatic

[rostasi]

What kind of speed are you getting with cable?