Cable vs. DSL

[ChiTownZee]

What are the differences between cable and dsl connections? Price, speed, pros and cons?

 

[EROS]

In our area, cable access is $45 if "bundled" with a cable TV subscription (you can save more by also "bundling" your phone service). DSL is about $10 more.

DSL is more hack-proof. With cable access, your speed also depends upon the number of your neighbors with cable service who are on-line at the same time.

 

[TerryKitten]

I use Cable. My husband would rather have DSL but we cant.

One thing about DSL is you have to live w/ in 1500 feet (?) of the central station (at least around here you do), we live way outside of there.

My husband doesn't like the idea that we have to use AT&T as our internet provider (DSL you can choose your ISP), but I really dont' care.

Mail can be kinda a pain. I don't use my att address except for junk. My mom hates ATT&T mail because it was down half the time, but the internet was up. So she got a yahoo account instead.

Last time I price compared DSL was more than cable. I dont' know DSL cost but for cable is 55.00 for us. There is a speed cap but really I don't notice much difference between at home and the T1 I have at the university.

Hope I was a little helpful

 

[helenabear]

Honestly you will find it varies greatly by area. Around here our DSL is much slower than cable and less reliable. It is about the same price but wasn't worth it to us. I'd try to ask people in your area that you know of who have both.

 

[ChiTownZee]

So "generally" which one is faster?

 

[BobBrazeal]

Pretty unbiased review of both with clear pros and cons:

Cable vs. DSL

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I agree completely with Helenabear, the ONLY way to decided is to ask your neighbors. It doesn't matter at all which system has which pro or which con, both systems vary in quality GREATLY by area. Good cable is way better than bad DSL and the other way around. It's a very localized and even someone 3 or 4 blocks away may get better service. If I was new to an area and HAD to choose without being able to talk to neighbors i would see if one or the other didn't require a long commitment so I could switch

 

[ChiTownZee]

Thank you!

 

[Grog]

This is just my personal experience...... I had DSL and it wasn't too bad. Not as fast as I would have liked, but it was OK (I was at the farthest point from the central station, so that made my connection be not all it could be. When I moved about a year ago I was too far away for DSL and had to get cable. It has been great. It doesn't go out as often as my DSL (Twice in a year, compared to about once a month with my DSL). The tech support is better, and my download speeds tripled. As for security issues, the first thing I did was go out and buy a router to compliment my anti-hacker software. I wouldn't run cable without it.

Anyway, that's my experience. I know it varies from person to person and location to location.

 

[WDWHound]

Cable works great for me, but if you go with cable, a router is essential if you want to avoid being hacked. They are fairly cheap (around $50) and provide an excellent firewall against hackers.

 

[Shellie722]

We had DSL for a year and it was a HUGE improvement over dial-up but was NOT the "always on" connection it was advertised to be. We had to reset the connection at least once a day and often that required restarting the computer. We've had cable for four months and the only time I've had to reset the connection was when we changed computers. Our download times now range between 2.5 & 3.1 megabits/second and our upload around 125kb/second. A good place to check for reviews of the service providers in your area is www.broadbandreports.com they also offer tools to check how secure your system is, how fast/stable your connection is and tips on how to improve both of these. Hope this helps!

 

[ncligs]

We finally got cable modem(RoadRunner ) in our area 2 years ago.
I would NEVER go back to dial up again. For our area it is $45 month, but wife is a H.S. teacher so we get $10 off that price .
Also , a lot of people think that is a lot of money, but if yo have a separate telephone line for your PC, that is an extra $25 month.
So you can get rid of the second line($25), and get cable modem, and it really is only an increase of $20 a month to get a very fast PC.