A queston for you computer weenies

[Mike Poore]

:confused: I now can get DSL through my ISP, and can drop the cable, and go back to DSS Tee Vee. It would be cheaper, and I'll be able to hook back up to the satellite, which is much better, programming wise, than my local cable guys.

Is DSL as good as cable? Security issues? Speed? Any thoughts? :dunno:

[Hotrauder]

Mike, down load is fast but upload is ssslllooooowww by comparison at least that is the report from my brother in law who has DSL. I hope that poop is correct. Dennis..if upload is slow-more time for a cool one??:beer: Oh, I am not a computer weenie. I AM JUST A WEENIE!

[Blackened300a]

Is DSL as good as cable? Security issues? Speed? Any thoughts? :dunno:

I had DSL for 3 years and it was nothing compared to the speed of cable. Its definitly better then dial up though.

[DEFYANT]

Any details on Fiberoptic connections?

[MM03MOK]

Is DSL as good as cable? Security issues? Speed? Any thoughts? :dunno:What are your current cable speeds? What are you being told of your future upload and download speeds? DSL speeds degrade the further away you are from the DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) in the C. O. (central office / wire center) or out in the field (18,000 ft. range). Is your ISP the phone company or reselling the phone company lines? It does come down to your desire for speed vs. price.

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

[Mike Poore]

What are your current cable speeds? What are you being told of your future upload and download speeds? DSL speeds degrade the further away you are from the DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) in the C. O. (central office / wire center) or out in the field (18,000 ft. range). Is your ISP the phone company or reselling the phone company lines? It does come down to your desire for speed vs. price.

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

I just brought something up that says 400MB/sec. I don't know what my ISP's offering with their DSL service, but can find out. The DSL just came on line for my area, although I like the blazing speed of the cable, and may not be interested in something that's much slower. At this stage in our lives a few bucks a month is not the issue, it's just that I had to sign up for cable Tee Vee (programming sucks) to get the 'puter modem, and get off dialup, although we kept, and are paying them, as our mail server, but using the Cable Dudes (Adelphia) to, somehow hook up to the folks at innernet.net, and no longer use the dialup modem, but we could. I have no idea why this works.

Weird huh?

Just checked Mary's link.

To Seattle download 515 Kbps, upload 431 Kbps
To Washington DC it pegged the meeter at 4,554 Kbps download and upload was 436 Kbps.

Is that good?:dunno:

[MM03MOK]

My speed test below.

Last Result:
Download Speed: 6089 kbps (761.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 356 kbps (44.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

You want to pick the location closest to you. That sounds better. Now you know the numbers to use to compare the DSL service. Note they will say "up to" for speeds, which may not be the speeds at your house.


At this stage in our lives a few bucks a month is not the issue, it's just that I had to sign up for cable Tee Vee (programming sucks) to get the 'puter modem, and get off dialup, although we kept, and are paying them, as our mail server, but using the Cable Dudes (Adelphia) to, somehow hook up to the folks at innernet.net, and no longer use the dialup modem, but we could. I have no idea why this works.

Weird huh?If your email is AOL, they have a service called "Bring your own Access" or "AOL for Broadband" which means you're not using their phone lines to connect in. If this is what you have, I hope you're not paying full price for AOL. "AOL for Broadband" is $14.95 a month.

[CRUZTAKER]

Mary and RF will steer you right as far as cable in concerned.;)

I can safely say that cable (coax) will always be faster than copper (dsl).

The big difference is that one using cable may experience a slow down in speed as a result of too many folks using too much bandwidth in a particular area of a ring. This won't happen with dsl as your subscriber line is indeed just that, yours. Straight to the switch in your local central office.

[Mad1]

I've had cable, then DSL, then cable again, so I hope I can give you a little perspective on both.

You don't say what you primarily use your Internet access for, so I'll give you a few pointers. If you're only using it to look at Web pages, pick the cheapest one that gives you "high-speed" bandwidth on the downstream (to you end) and don't worry about upload speed. You'll see Web pages fine and even be able to download streaming video fine.

If you're playing games online or connect to a work server and upload big files regularly either to the Internet or other places, then pay for as much upstream (you to the Internet) as you think you'll need.

As for service.

Cable is the simpler of the two IMHO. It is always on and does have faster speeds (Up/Down stream) in general than DSL. However, your speeds could vary depending on how many other people in your neighborhood are on your connection too.

If you life in an affluent neighborhood, assume that all the teenagers are downloading gigs of music after school until 6 a.m. In one neighborhood, I had a horrible time during peak hours 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., because "everyone" was online at that time and you're all sharing the same pipeline to the Internet. More users equals less individual bandwidth until it reaches a point were the cable company feels compelled to "pop" for another connection node in your area.

With DSL, you have to manually dial into your ISP when you want to use the Internet connection and it can be more technical in trying to get various DSL modems to work. (Especially if you go with an internal DSL modem compared to a USB version.)

The speed is generally slower on DSL, but you're the only person using that connection. This means your speeds will be steady for whatever use you have in mind. You will also pay more for faster-levels of DSL connections, but it will not ever equal cable's total speed.

Also, DSL is dependent on your phone service. I disconnected my BellSouth voice phone service while moving and they automatically chopped off my DSL account, despite telling me it would remain active. I'd wanted to continue using my DSL account to host files, even if I couldn't access it from my old home's phone line anymore.

You'll also have to put special filters on all of your phone jacks to prevent them from interfering with the DSL service when you use the regular phone to make calls. (They usually provide you with some during initial setup, but if you have a lot of phone jacks in your house ... you may have to buy more.)

Currently, we have a cable modem through Comcast and have been using Vonage as our sole phone service provider for well over a year now. (I loved telling BellSouth to take their service and shove it ... especially after they screwed me around while I was in the midst of moving into my new house.)

I hope this helped in your deliberations.

Jeremy
Mad1

[dwasson]

With DSL, you have to manually dial into your ISP when you want to use the Internet connection and it can be more technical in trying to get various DSL modems to work. (Especially if you go with an internal DSL modem compared to a USB version.)



Huh?

I have Earthlink DSL (although SBC is owns the cable) and my DSL is always on.

I have Direct TV and I prefer to it to Comcast.

One other good thing about having separate DSL and TV providers is that they don't go down at the same time. Think about it. If they are both down you are left talking to the wife.

[Mad1]

Yes. DSL is always there, but at least for BellSouth you had to "log in" by providing a username and password to connect. I had a simple icon that I clicked to log in whenever I wanted to use the DSL line. It was more akin to joining a network, similar to an ethernet connection on a computer network.

In contrast, cable modem is always logged on through Comcast's servers. I don't have to supply any passwords or click anything to tell the computer the "service" connection is active.

Try having your phone, cable and Internet all on one line. If that happens, we switch to DVDs and watch movies or better still TV episodes without commercials. :beer:

Of course, I have my battery backups to provide Internet, computer and phone service even if the main electricity grid goes out. (I was forced to buy one at my last aparment, since my computer was on a breaker that constantly got tripped if the the landlord used his washer/dryer and the stereo in the garage at same time. (I had a 2-bedroom apartment over their 2-car garage ... just like the Fonz. Heh!)

[bigslim]

Mike, I just got rid of my "Roadrunner" high speed cable modem. I now have SBC DSL. The reason I change was that I got tired of the huge cable bill from my provider. They are the only cable company in my area so they dictate what everyone should pay. I got a deal with SBC that it will be $14.99 for six months and then is goes to $29.99. I also get the first three months free by showing them that I had the high speed service. To answer your question, I can hardly tell the difference in the speed between the two. I never have to dial up before I get on. It is on as soon as I log on to the internet.

[JMan]

One other good thing about having separate DSL and TV providers is that they don't go down at the same time. Think about it. If they are both down you are left talking to the wife.

Oh man! You're gettin' cut off any time now . . . :stupid:

J

[rayjay]

Any details on Fiberoptic connections?

One of my people has it. He claims faster than cable modem.

[Mike Poore]

Here's what they offer: 512/128K for $35 a month, and 1.5mb/348k for $55. $55 a month is what I'm paying a for TeeVee and Cable in one single packag. I guess, all in all, they're not offering much, huh?

[MM03MOK]

Here's what they offer: 512/128K for $35 a month, and 1.5mb/348k for $55 a month. $55 a month is what I'm paying a month for TeeVee and Cable in one single packag. I guess, all in all, they're not offering much, huh?For Broadband, you're much better off where you are now with Adelphia, which will become Comcast this year.

[Mike Poore]

For Broadband, you're much better off where you are now with Adelphia, which will become Comcast this year.

Hey thanks, everyone, that made it all very easy.

Lessee, Mary, now, whenever there's a problem with my Adelphia service (maybe once a year) I call and get the nice lady in Bangladesh who wants to know my Social Security number and bank routing information. So, when Comcast takes over for the jailed former owners of Adelphia, when I put in a trouble call, it'll be you that answers? :lovies2:

[MM03MOK]

Hey thanks, everyone, that made it all very easy.

Lessee, Mary, now, whenever there's a problem with my Adelphia service (maybe once a year) I call and get the nice lady in Bangladesh who wants to know my Social Security number and bank routing information. So, when Comcast takes over for the jailed former owners of Adelphia, when I put in a trouble call, it'll be you that answers? :lovies2:I draw the line for my customer service at moving to Bangladesh, though I am extremely fond of the food from that region of the world. To the best of my knowledge, Comcast Internet calls are answered in North America.

[Dr Caleb]

Any details on Fiberoptic connections?

Are you rich? To run fiber to a home, your going to look at thousands per month. You can get speeds from DSL (T4) speed (5Mbit 2.5MBit up & down) to OC-192 which is 40Gbit (20Gbit each way) all depending on what you want to pay. *Plus* data charges (usually).

At my old job, I had installed 6 pair of Fiber for OC-48, to a tier 1 provider. The cost was $50,000 for installation of 2km of fiber, around $3500 per month in service plus (IIRC) $.50 for every megabyte over a certain limit.

Where you live might offer cheap fiber access, as there is a lot of 'dark' fiber left over from the dot com era. But it will need relatively expenensive equipment to be installed.

[BruteForce]

Are you rich?

Verizon, among others, is rolling out fiber to the curb. For those markets that have it, it is very competitively priced (http://www22.verizon.com/FiOSforhome/channels/FiOS/root/package.aspx) like 15 mps at less than $50.

[CRUZTAKER]

Those curious about fiber...

Fiber will provide more bandwidth than cable, yes. But the world is already cabled to almost every home. I have a cable tied off on my home that hasn't been used in years. I do not have fiber.

Sure, there is umteen millions of miles of fiber out there. The problem is, most of it is of old technology, and been in the ground too long, and taking up space. Yes, even fiber has improved, and still does daily.

My company (ADC) is one of the pioneers in FTTP interfaces, and fiber manufacturing. Fiber To The Premise. The equipment and technology is there. The cable, the desire, and the money to renovate is not.

Many of those new half million dollar homes in those frugly side by side every other home looks the same 1/4 acre property developments (sorry if you own one) already have the capability of FTTP.

Eventually, we will go to primarily fiber. But for now, COAX has massive bandwidth capabilitys, and it's already out there ready to use.

[dwasson]

To the best of my knowledge, Comcast Internet calls are answered in North America.

But maybe not by Americans.

[Dr Caleb]

Verizon, among others, is rolling out fiber to the curb. For those markets that have it, it is very competitively priced (http://www22.verizon.com/FiOSforhome/channels/FiOS/root/package.aspx) like 15 mps at less than $50.

Sweet. But there is no such infrastructure where I live. :( Although Verizon owns 20% of Telus, there are no plans for this here ethier.

I'm too far from the telco for DSL, so I'm stuck with Shaw cable. But it isn't so bad. $39.95 a month, 6700Kb/s down, 976Kb/s up. No, that's not a typo. 6.7Mbit per second download speed. I pay an extra $10 a month for the higher bandwidth.

[martyo]

Verizon, among others, is rolling out fiber to the curb. For those markets that have it, it is very competitively priced (http://www22.verizon.com/FiOSforhome/channels/FiOS/root/package.aspx) like 15 mps at less than $50.

FIOS in use at my house. Adds redundancy to cable and speed is impressive (4.9mbps down and 1.8mps up) for 30 bucks a month. Its about 5 times faster than my office DSL, 3 times faster than my old at home DSL connection and less than half of the cost of my office.