DSL or Cable?

[ninahbear]

Is there anyone who has had or used both DSL and Cable? Which do you prefer? Also, if you get DSL do you have to sign up with MSN or Yahoo on top of the DSL?

 

[Christine]

I have had both.

First I got Comcast Cable. It was about $40 per month. VERY pricey for surfing the net, huh?

I then switch to DSL for the cost savings ($19.99) per month. I was expecting a decrease in speed and there probably is but it is nothing that I can detect.

If you get Verizon DSL, you will get MSN premium with it. But I ended using the Verizon netmail that comes with it.

 

[ninahbear]

Thanks! It seems like there isn't too much of a difference.

 

[airhead]

cable on my computer(LOVE it!),DSL on my partners computer(HATE it!)

 

[mickeyfan2]

DSL is safer. You have a dedicated line. We have DSL and would never get a cable modem with the present open forum.

 

[Christine]

cable on my computer(LOVE it!),DSL on my partners computer(HATE it!)

So what's the difference because I certainly can detect nothing different about either of them? Believe me, I was just *looking* for a reason to keep my $40 per month cable because I hate changing.

 

[liamandcaili]

I used to have DSL and it was barely better than dial-up at times. Cable is much faster.

 

[Christine]

I used to have DSL and it was barely better than dial-up at times. Cable is much faster.

Hmmmm...well I guess then it would be dependent upon where you live and who your service is with.

 

[mickeyfan2]

For DSL the distance from the first station is critical. A maximum of two miles. The closer the less loss in speed. We are lucky and very close to ours. The DSL company measured and we have no speed loss at the computer. For cable there is a set amount of bandwidth for all who are logged in. If you are the only one, then it is all yours. If there are 100 people then you get 1%. So at certain times cable modems will be fast and other times not. BTW DSL will not change speed. It is your own dedicated line. Also on cable modem all people logged in have access to all computers logged in. You need a top notch firewall with cable modem. Most people do not have a firewall or have not activated it, so they open their computers up to hackers. This cannot happen with DSL. The DSL has a built in firewall (still should have your own) and nobody else is on the line with you.

 

[Melrosgirl]

cable is much faster than dsl. DSL can come in different speeds (ask your "operator" for details). Cable is the way to go for me. I used a friend's computer with dsl and I thought it was dial up. zzzz

 

[Charade]

DSL is safer. You have a dedicated line. We have DSL and would never get a cable modem with the present open forum.

Huh? I don't understand the relationship between open forum and cable modem.

 

[mickeyfan2]

Huh? I don't understand the relationship between open forum and cable modem.

When you are logged onto the cable modem your computer is open (ie accessable) to all other users logged into the cable modem with you. To prevent this a good firewall is needed and not the one from Microsoft. Everybody that I know that uses a cable modem does not have the firewall. They think all is a OK without it. Well if a hacker wants he has full access to your hard drive and can delete, alter, put a virus, put a trojan horse, access your personal informatin (mining), use your computer to sent out a virus, whatever he wants and you will be happily surfing the web. You may not know for sometime that this has occurred.

 

[CLynnJones]

I have DSL. My sister has cable. I don't notice a difference between the 2.

 

[Kimberle]

We just got DSL from Earthlink a few weeks ago. It's so fast! Almost as fast as the LAN I used to have at work. Dh said it was pretty easy to set up. We have 3 computers in the house, not all accessable to a phone line. Dh set them all up as a wireless network. He did put in a top notch Firewall.

He did say if you just have 1 computer, it's pretty easy to install.

 

[Christine]

When you are logged onto the cable modem your computer is open (ie accessable) to all other users logged into the cable modem with you. To prevent this a good firewall is needed and not the one from Microsoft. Everybody that I know that uses a cable modem does not have the firewall. They think all is a OK without it. Well if a hacker wants he has full access to your hard drive and can delete, alter, put a virus, put a trojan horse, access your personal informatin (mining), use your computer to sent out a virus, whatever he wants and you will be happily surfing the web. You may not know for sometime that this has occurred.

When I had Comcast Cable, I was having all kinds of problems with viruses. I had the firewall and virus protection offered by Comcast plus I went out and purchased my own Norton Internet Suite (which was a yearly subscription). I still spent a lot of time getting warnings of attacks and what not. And one time, everything went haywire with my cable and I had to take off Norton for 20 minutes and you would not believe the amount of "attacks" I got in that short of time. It was very scary. I just felt like I had to be too "on top of things" with cable. When I changed to DSL, I did it strictly for the cost difference. I figured that I was still going to have to deal with the virus crap AND lose a bit of speed, but it was worth the $20 per month savings to me.

Well, lo and behold, the virus management has been nothing (Verizon comes with McAfee) and I have not detected a loss in speed. I must be very close to the originating line.

 

[Nancy]

We had AOL dsl and I hated it, it wasn't much better than their dial up and the cost was not cheap. You paid for AOL and also for the DSL service. We know have cable, we have the package with internet and full cable for the TV. It's a bit pricey, but I love the speed and I am a TV junkie so I love all the channels too. A good firewall that never gets shut off is needed with cable.

 

[luvsmickeymouse]

I have dsl because it is cheaper than cable.

 

[PrincessKitty1]

We used to have DSL, but after all the hurricanes in Florida, I think our telephone lines got whacky and we finally gave up--too many outages, even after everything was supposedly fixed, and Bellsouth could never explain why we would be without service for an hour or two here and there.

We love cable! No outages!

 

[Art Vandalay]

Fiber optic DSL... faster than cable and cheaper

 

[floridafam]

We have cable. Very fast.

If you're worried about security, just shut your cable modem off when you're not using it.