Cable vs DSL

Which is "better"?

Our old ISP (Suscom) was recently taken over by Comcast. Both have sucked for us, with frequent downtime and sometimes very slow internet speeds for days at a time. We have Vonage, so whenever they have a problem we can't use the phone as nobody can understand what we're saying.

I was thinking about switching to DSL but really don't know anything about it.

We have a 3MB connection, my max download speed is about 500kbps on Usenet, about 350 on Torrents and about 250-300 from websites, with an upstream of 30kbps max.

Is there any difference in online gaming between Cable and DSL? My wife and I game a lot online, as well as download a lot.

+karma for feedback.

As far as comparing the two, I always heard that cable was better. I own cable internet service and I really have no complaints other than it's been going out lately because of high winds for some reason. I have Charter (now known as SuddenLink) so you might want to check them out if they are available in your area. My friend has DSL and anytime it rains or snows he loses internet for hours/days at a time (he has Verizon). I think they are around the same speed unless you have some special service as well.

My opinion is that cable is better unless you live close to the DSL station or whatever.. then DSL can be really fast.

I prefer DSL. There have been a few times (since I've been here) where the cable has been knocked out for the entire area and along with it goes the cable internet... Where as the DSL remains active because the phone lines are active.

I find that cable lines go out a lot easier than phone lines.

Also, DSL is a direct connection to your house. You're not sharing a pipe amongst your neighborhood... and I also find that DSL has better ping times than cable. (Which as you know, is crucial for online gaming)

But remember, your connection depends on how far you are from the Central Office. You don't have to live too close to the CO... But the closer you are to it, the better.

Cable is better. Faster speeds, don't have to worry about adding another phone line, and is pretty reliable (I have Comcast).

[quote1583767d43="johnjimjones"]Cable is better. Faster speeds, don't have to worry about adding another phone line, and is pretty reliable (I have Comcast).[/quote1583767d43]

You don't have to add another phone line for DSL... You obviously know nothing about how DSL works.

What makes matters worst is that you actually find Comcast to be "reliable".

Comcast blows, however when I have a problem they always come out for free. Last time my cable line under the ground eroded and they had to replace it. I would rather have DSL because Comcast is too freakinf expensive. Thank goodness I claim it on my taxes because I work on the internet as a contractor.

[quote3e3ba836c4="h3x"][quote3e3ba836c4="johnjimjones"]Cable is better. Faster speeds, don't have to worry about adding another phone line, and is pretty reliable (I have Comcast).[/quote3e3ba836c4]

You don't have to add another phone line for DSL... You obviously know nothing about how DSL works.

What makes matters worst is that you actually find Comcast to be "reliable".[/quote3e3ba836c4]

My house has had Comcast for years. No problems at all.

I also say cable is better, but if your cable service is that bad though, I'd give DSL a try.

There was some stuff brought up about cable's cons. Nowadays, cable bandwidth is limited and divided up in your neighborhood anyway so even if your neighbor is going at max all the time, it won't affect you. There were 'hogging problems' in the early days of cable internet but that's long gone. I also don't think you can say that DSL has better ping than cable, when I play online (w/ cable) I often see that I have one of the best ping times (but I won't generalize...). And as far as outages go, there seems to be plenty of DSL outages too. I don't think it's that easy to generalize these things. Your best bet is to take your experiences, and also the opinions of people living around you (look below on how).

If you read online, most people seem to say the quality of service is still better on cable. This thread also confirms its popularity.

You can go here to read the ratings on most of the broadband providers
http//www.dslreports.com/overview?v=r[]http//www.dslreports.com/overview?v=r

It's a bit tricky to browse around but you should just click on your state near the top and click one of the reviews for the provider you are interested in. You'll see an aggregate rating for them (the ratings do not seem per state, so for comcast the rating will be for nationwide). Verizon DSL scores lower than comcast. You can read up on people's experiences with both providers in PA though, should be helpful.

It seems FIOS is the best thing out there if you can get it. I'm happy to stay with my cable since I download a shitload and they don't hassle me too much.

TSJ, for your usenet speed you should say 500kB/s (which is 4Mbps) instead of 500kbps. wink

[quotec4456a5396="hehehhehe"]I also don't think you can say that DSL has better ping than cable, when I play online (w/ cable) I often see that I have one of the best ping times (but I won't generalize...). And as far as outages go, there seems to be plenty of DSL outages too. I don't think it's that easy to generalize these things. Your best bet is to take your experiences, and also the opinions of people living around you (look below on how).[/quotec4456a5396]

I didn't state it had better ping times as fact... I just based on my findings (experience) it does have better ping time... I've tried 2 cable companies and 3 DSL providers and all 3 providers (which includes my current provider) have shown better ping times than Comcast and GCI.

... and I'm well aware that DSL can go out as well. Again it's my finding (experience) that cable goes out more than DSL again based on the 2 cable companies against 3 DSL providers.

What it boils down to is experience. You (jump) aren't having a good experience with cable in your area. So why stick around? My advice to you is give DSL a shot. I think you'll like it and find it to be a pleasant experience. Though I am curious who would be your DSL provider. What telephone company is it?

Personally, I prefer DSL. Around here, latency with DSL liisli better than Cable. And cable here is notoriously unreliable.

Also, most cable companies, including ours, have strict rules that forbid running a server of any kind (web, ftp, game, etc.). They can revoke your service or back-bill you for a business account, and they routinely run port scans to find servers. My DSL provider lets you run as many servers as you want, and the upstream offered by our local DSL provider is faster than the upstream offered by the cable company (on basic residential accounts). I run several servers, so that's a show-stopper for me.

Well I don't run any servers of any kind so that's a moot point, but I do download a lot and play online games a lot, so if the speeds are much slower than Cable, then I think I'd rather stick with Cable.

I wish this shithole had FIOS but it's not even in the works. (

The only ISP's in my area are Comcast and Verizon. There are other smaller local companies, but they're shite.

Would Vonage have to be dumped?

I'm a huge proponent of DSL for numerous reasons.

#1 Price. $19.99/mo for 3 meg. Can't beat it.
#2 Marketing. If I see one more comcast commercial that calls 1.5meg DSL slow when compared to 12meg cable, I'm going to burn down the local comcast office.
#3 Personal experience. Never had a problem with DSL. I have way more issues with my cable than with my DSL.
#4 Did I mention the marketing? Man they piss me off.

I'm sure there are plenty of cable proponents out there, but they must have bottomless pockets. I've never had issues with gaming on DSL. I play with my 360 online quite often. Used to play a ton of PC Halo online also with out problem.

My vote. DSL. Fugger tested and certified.

I agree Fugger, I hate those annoying Comcast "we're better than DSL" ads. I'm another person in strong favor of DSL over cable. We tried doing cable internet for a while, but the service fluctuated too much, wasn't reliable and was more expensive than DSL. I get really fast speeds (for me, at least) on torrents. I use all my bandwidth on popular torrents (~150kbps). One of my friends asked me if DSL gets slower the further you are from the CO. I in turn asked my dad (both my parents work for Qwest). He told me that distance shouldn't have an effect on speed.

[quote2cdab9385c="ajasax"] One of my friends asked me if DSL gets slower the further you are from the CO. I in turn asked my dad (both my parents work for Qwest). He told me that distance shouldn't have an effect on speed.[/quote2cdab9385c]

Distance shouldn't affect the speed within your speed package but distance can make a difference in what speed packages are available to you. The maximum distance for 1.5 meg DSL is a little over 18,000 feet. DSL speeds of 6-8 meg are available but you have to live around 6000 feet to the CO or repeater. I live about 2000 feet... I'll upgrade one day just to have a little bit faster speeds. Currently have the 3meg speed and it's faster than comcast! (when ranked against comcast 1.5 meg package, your experience may differ.)[/size2cdab9385c]

Also, this 10 speed bike is faster than a 2007 Mustang! bike was attached to an rocket ship. Mustang has no engine and was pushed up hill by pre-schoolers missing body parts[/size2cdab9385c]

What's up.

Latency tends to be the foremost factor in choosing an internet service provider. In my area we have (2) cable ISP's, which is

Timewarners (Roadrunner) , which has a light package (768kbps/128kbps) for $19.95 a month for the first 12 months, a standard package of (5Mbit / 384kbps) for $44.95 a month (This can be lower if you have their phone and television package as well) , and a higher (8mbit/1mbit) Premium Package for I believe $84.95 a month, which can vary with services.

AOL also has a small client base that has cable service under their name, although you are still utilizing roadrunners, routers and datapaths.

Earthlink Highspeed, they offer similar packages to that of Timerwarner, but each package is about $6.00 USD less, (most of the time, you are utilizing roadrunners datapath and routers, timewarner bought the majority of earthlink, and has some control of it, so I believe you will be utilizing the same routers and datapaths as the above two.

With that said, if you live in a capital region area like myself, internet speeds can definately vary. I use to actually get 5Mbit when the standard was 3Mbit years ago, because all of the lines and equipment were brand new, (devlopment home area) would be my explanation.

I then (when i got older moved out into a college apartment district) LOADED with a bunch of kids who I know torrent and download all day, and probably have a mass of computer viruses eating bandwidth to do all that dirty work, and my speeds were less than the advertised 5Mbit, not by much so I didnt complain.

Cable also has an internet gaming advantage (to a degree), because of its widespread infrastructure. You can reach your final hop with low latency.

(cable internet in my opinion is the choice selection if you are looking for high download speeds and overall satisfaction with gaming latency).

DSL

Has a wider range of packages and prices. That I cant even mention, because they can be as small as 112kbps/56kbps to as large as 20mbit/20mbit (commercially speaking).

DISTANCE DISTANCE DISTANCE, is your enemy when looking for DSL
the further you are, the less packages available to you, and the slower your speeds will be (in some cases), verizon for example has a newer technology called (interleaved) which can keep your line attenuation lower and your dB margins where they need to be at higher distances to keep your advertised speed, is what i mean.

DSL has a small advantage if you live closer to actually have EXTREMELY less latency , then cable, if you are on a FastPath datapath, which can lead to poor routing in some circumstances and backfire. I wont get into DSL as much as cable, because there are certainly more factors that go into getting a DSL internet connection than a cable connection, which is probably why DSL Internet Connection tech support is a joke.
But, the telephone infrastructure was brought up before the cable infrastructure, so coverage is wider, but the technology is older, and I can guarantee will die off sooner or later as copper reaches its maximum output, and data demand increases, fiber will replace it all.

Again this is my opinion and personal experience,
I hope this helps when you are choosing a provider.

-hecriedlove

EDITED, I had to get up and poop, and some of the words were off, and still may be

I have Earthlink DSL, love it, so much better than Comcast.