DSL or Cable?

Steve Paul

We are still using a 56K dail-up modem. We want to switch over to the 21st century. We can get either Verizon DSL or Comcast cable. What are the pros and cons of each. Speed, reliability, relative cost, features, security etc.

Firedragon_4

Cable,

had DSL, cable is much faster, you get what you pay for!

ScottMP

I have DSL

I had 56K and it is Light Years ...

I can not get a coble to my shop, they told me they don't do commericial property. Maybe that has changed.

I have no problem with the DSL. I can't imagine its that much faster.

I clic, I go.

JMHO

Scott


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Unknown

DSL is DEDICATED

Cable is fast depending on how many users are using the cable at one time.... on your entire trunk!

Where as the DSL uses your phone lines that run direct.

That means that DSL is ALWAYS the same speed. Cable can be fasst and slow. I have seen cable VERY slow AND very fast in my area. My DSL is always the SAME speed and at 1.2 the cost.

I love DSL and VERIZON.

Steve

Mike T., Swampeast MO

I use both regularly in different locations. Cable can be blazing fast, but it can also be comparatively slow in peak hours. As others have said, the DSL is fast and stays fast. Believe it's still true that the closer you are to the local central telephone office, the better your DSL performance.

Both are wonderful compared to dial-up, but DSL is more consistent in my area. Local cable company (Charter) has really been pushing the cable service recently and performance has dipped somewhat as more subscribers are added. Cable companies seem a bit deceptive when advertising their speed--their "guarantees" really aren't guarantees when you read the fine print.

michael_15

You'll find people who swear by both

And realistically, they're both fine. I would check if it's an office about the cable -- I don't think they'll generally serve commerical offices. I've had both.

Speed:

The big issue, usually. Both are fast. DSL's speed is more or less fixed but depends on how far you are from the phone company's central office. Cable depends on the limits set by your provider but is also more or less fixed (plus a "shared" concept in theory, but in practice almost never matters).

In practice from what I've seen, DSL is about 300-700kbps, or let's say around 10x dialup. My local provider (Comcast) for cable provides for around 3000-4000kbps, or around 60x dialup. This may vary by locality, but in general cable is a whole lot faster than DSL.

So cable is faster than DSL. So what? Really, unless you're downloading huge files on a regular basis, they're both so fast you won't notice a difference. It's like the difference between driving 10 feet at 60mph and driving 1 mile at 600mph. One is ten times faster, but they both take less than a second, so who cares? They're both faster than crawling 10 feet.

Upload speed isn't a big deal for most people. Both cable and DSL have roughly equivalent, but slow (2-3x dialup) upload speeds. With Cable, you're stuck, but with DSL, if you're willing to pay a fortune ($100s a month) you can increase that to maybe 10x dialup.

Reliability:

Pretty much the same, in my experience.

Cost:

DSL is usually a little bit cheaper (with exceptions about upstream as above). Both usually offer bundle discounts, either with phone service or cable TV service.

Features:

DSL tends to have better terms of service -- meaning you might have a static IP and are allowed to run things like postfix and/or sendmail in your home. If that sentence didn't make sense, than this bonus feature isn't worth anything to you.

Some cable companies (not my local Comcast) also prohibit VPN connections which some people might need to work from home. Again, if that didn't make sense, then it doesn't matter.

Security:

Both offer the risks of an "always-on" connection. Cable used to have other security flaws having to do with the shared connection, but nowadays you need to know what you're doing enough to do something stupid and mess things up to be at risk there. I'd say the risk differential is negligible.

Another note on speed:

People like to harp about the "shared bandwidth" concept for cable modems and how if a lot of people are on the internet, your connection gets slow. I've never noticed this and believe it is blown way out of proportion. Here's an overly simplified example.

Your neighborhood (200 people) shares one cable trunk which is 600x dialup. (Your provider might cap it at 60x per person). You're engaged in worthwhile activities like reading this forum. You click a link and then read for 100 seconds, then click another link and read for another hundred seconds. Pages load in 1 second.

You're using your bandwidth 1% of the time (1 second per 100 seconds). So let's say that on average, your usage is 60x dialup * 1% = 0.6x dialup. (It will be less than dialup unless you read faster than your current dialup can put words on the screen). So is the rest of your neighborhood of 200 people. So total usage on average: 200 * 0.6x dialup = 120x dialup. But your trunk is 600x dialup, so you've got plenty of space. And heck, not all 200 of your neighbors are on the internet at the same time anyway, unless you're in some really weird neighborhood. Last I checked, Comcast limited the amount of people sharing one trunk to 100, too.

If you all happen to be online simultaneously and all downloading the entire US legal code, complete with bonus illustrations and movies, you'll notice a slowdown with a cable modem, of course.

Most of the slowdown people notice in peak hours is not due at all to the cable modem download speed, but rather the sites you're visiting which have limited upload speed. For example, when Delta announced they were slashing fares, Delta's website became slow -- not because I ran out of bandwidth, but because Delta did. If they're on a cable modem, they think to themselves "darn that shared bandwidth!", but if they're on DSL, they think "I guess Delta's website is slow today."

---

Well, anyway, that being said, I've got a cable modem. Where I live, DSL would only be roughly 2x-5x dialup (depends on where you live), so it's not worth it for me, otherwise I would consider that, too. The extra speed isn't a big deal for me, and I'm always up for saving 10 bucks a month since DSL is cheaper here.

That's just my two cents.

-Michael

Firedragon_4

Mike's right,

location, location, location.

Try this:

http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/results.php

steve_88

dsl

I use Verizon DSL. The monthly charge is $29.95 vs $49.95 for cable.

Because I am close to a switching station I was able to get my service upgraded for free from the standard 0.7 megabits/sec to 1.5 megabits/sec. I can't think of any times when I felt that 1.5 megabits/sec isn't fast enough. Usually the connection is limited by the websites I visit, not my connection

Since getting the upgrade connection speed has been very consistent. Before the upgrade I sometimes saw speed dip to 100-200k, but usually I could fix that by rebooting. I had trouble one day with an erratic connection (both phone and DSL), but Verizon quickly traced the problem to moisture in a switch box.

Glenn Harrison_2

Here's my experience

About a year ago, I had (and still have) Comcast Broadband, and my brother who lives about 20 miles away, had Ameritech DSL.While my broadband ran flawlessly with minimal slowdowns at peak times, while my brothers DSL could not even be used at peak times. It literally bogged down and you could not open web pages or even his mail. He switched to Comcast Broadband and is surfing the web faster than he ever could on DSL.

Now I'm sure this varies from area to area and one provider to the next, but it sure sucked for him when he could not use what he payed for at times

Steamhead

I was one of Verizon's first DSL users in my area of Baltimore

They had a few teething problems in the first year or so but got them straightened out, and now I generally see speeds of 500-750K all the time. It's faster than the Net usually is.

Cable TV in my area was so bad, it gave me another reason not to subscribe. Comcast acquired the network but I haven't heard anything about improved service, so I wouldn't recommend cable broadband in this area.

For those of you contmplating broadband, the best thing to do is talk to current users in your area. If all providers offer good service, go with the provider offering the best price.

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Nick_16

No doubts!

Go with DSL. I have had both and DSL is by far the best. Especially with Verizon! Cable is a bit faster but down more than it's up!

Jim_35

dsl is 29,95 a month and cable is 44.95 a month

and I have diretv ,so cable would be 49.95 a month

My saying is, whaever you can get to work at the best price is what you should do.

Having said that, for me dsl is all I need, I dont download huge files, generally websurf, check emails and I get 1.5mbs down

cable is faster in most areas because of reasons stated above, but depending on where you live it can slow down at night and after school. Freind of mine said cable is fast until 3pm when all the kids get home from school and then it sloooows down to a crawl.

Dsl is a direct connection from you to the central office
cable is a shared connection of you and your neighbors