DSL vs Cable Modem

[crazelion]

What is the pro and cons DSL vs Cable Modem. I'm looking into going to high speed internet service. Right now I have bellsouth.net which is fine but I really won't high speed internet service. I looking at things this way. Do I have to buy a modem for cable modem or DSL. How much is cost me.

Please tell me how like the service. What extras that had to buy.

Thanks in advance.

 

[KathyFP]

I have DSL and the set up and equipment was free. I pay 40.00/mo.

 

[nativetxn]

I have a cable modem and when I signed up the modem was free and installation was free. I pay $40/month.

I don't know the difference in DSL and cable except that one uses a telephone line somehow and the other one doesn't. I've been absolutely no help at all, have I?

 

[mrsv98]

We have a deal with Comcast, $19.99 for 6 months, $23.99 for 3 months and then it goes to the reg price which I think is $45 with the rental of the cable modem. Installation was also free or really cheap. When we were looking to go high speed, I did a google of cable vs. dsl and found some good articles and basically, the speeds are the same. The biggest thing with DSL is that you need to be within 15000 feet of a central office. Other than that, they are pretty much the same in terms of service. We were too far to get DSL so there wasn't much of a choice, but I love the speed of the cable modem.

 

[floridafam]

I'm not sure on the specifics regarding the differences but they are different. First, DSL is over a phone line and a cable modem is over a cable line.

My DH explained it to me once. He said the DSL companies cap your throughput and only advertise the download speed-which is higher than the throughput-making them look better.

He said the cable co.-at least in his case-gives you both the throughput and download speeds. I think he said that you can get a faster throughput with a cable modem.

I really don't know so I'm going to shut up now.

 

[aunt lissa]

I have had both DSL and Cable modem...I personally prefer Cable modem! One reason being DSL is not a constant connection and you still have to wait for the sign in. It's not nearly as long as lets say AOL dial up sign in but you do still have to sign in. Also another reason I didn't like it was because lets say you are downloading something (this is just my experience w/ it) and you leave the comp for to finish letting it download..and you leave your comp idle for 5 mins you are automatically disconnected. Now granted there may be a setting to change that...but w/ cable modem you are never disconnected. I do suggest that if you get cable modem..to ensure you have a firewall to protect your comp. I pay 40.00/mth for my cable modem. Here's another pro for cable modem..you do not have a telephone line connected to your comp in any way at all! A little history on that, I had a friend who had DSL, thought she was completely safe, well her daughter was on and she clicked on a pop-up (oh how we love those things) and low and behold her modem was disconnected and went straight thru the telephone for a porn sight. Her phone bill was 900.00!!! She never knew and she didn't authorize it but still had to pay it!! With cable modem no telephone line no way for them to disconnect your modem and go thru your phone. Oh and the speed the speed is great! I know I'm gonna get reamed for saying this but here goes....I download music (not so much anymore) but w/ dial up it took me almost an hour to download one song...about 15-20 minutes w/ DSL...and 30 seconds to a minute w/ cable modem! Ok so that's my oppinion!!!

 

[crazelion]

Thanks for the help. I still trying to make up my mind.

 

[ohanafamily]

aunt lissa, with all due respects, I don't think you have the complete story. The only way that the technology would allow the scenario you stated would be if they had a modem plugged in to the computer as well as the DSL. The modem could be made to dial the number. The regular modem has nothing to do with the DSL, and they are totaly different technologies coming over the same phone line. IOW it could have happened just as easily over a Cable Modem.

I have DSL, and I have never had a cable modem. Here is a link that is simplified, but describes the basic differences. http://www.cablemodemhelp.com/compare.htm

I have a commercial connection, and pay about $200/month.

The question I ask is, who are your neighbors on your cable loop. There are security issues with a cable modem, and the more people on your loop, the slower your connection.

In DSL you have a garanteed bandwidth.

DirectTV also has a new satellite service...

I wish you luck!

 

[Grog]

I've had both for about two years each. I currently have a Cable Modem and wouldn't go back to DSL unless I absoultely had no other choice for high speed internet. The connection was spotty and would go down about half a dozen times a day. Usually it was only for a few seconds, but it seemed like it was always during a download where I had 99% complete. The cable connection has been consistently fast, much faster than my old DSL connection. Also, where I am, DSL required a contract. Cable is month to month with no contract.

 

[GeorgeG]

I have DSL but will soon switch to cable. I haven't really had much trouble with the DSL, but the satelite TV is very sensitive to weather conditions.

We had a tree take down our telephone line (as well as cable and electric) over a week ago and it took the phone company 8 days to get out to run a new line. No phone, no DSL. I'm a supervisor with the electric company and my crew was there in 15 minutes. The cable company had our neighbor back in business in 3 days.

This a no-brainer... Cable gets the nod and the telephone/DSL can go scratch.

 

[floridafam]

Here is a link to an article that I printed out for my DH.

Thought some of you might want to take a look at it.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/976818.asp

I think what this means is the cable company will pay to do a rebuild of a system or an upgrade-to enable it to offer HSD and then they will be required by law to lease their lines to competitors. Maybe they won't do upgrades as fast. Who knows.

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

We have had TimeWarner's RoadRunner(cable modem) for about 3 years. In that time I bet we have been down 1 time for 20 minutes.....thats all. It is very fast. It costs $39 month............but we pay only $29(DW teacher).

When we signed up for RR the modem and instalation were free.
I would "NEVER" go back to dial up.

 

[Alex]

I think everybody is right...and wrong
The problem is that DSL and Cable quality can vary WIDELY depending on where you live. In one spot the cable may work much better than the DSL and 2 blocks away the situation could be the total opposite. There isn't any way you can advise someone on which to get unless you know their local area.
I would approach it like this:
Talk to my immediate neighbors, if they had cable or DSL and it worked well I would go with that... If some neighbors have both find out which works better.
If that didn't help I would see which one allowed me to cancel the cheapest! I would try that one first so if I had to switch it wouldn't cost too much.

 

[Geoff_M]

Check out www.dslreports.com for reviews from users of DSL and Cable in your area. Like Alex said, all DSL and Cable providers are not equal. Some cable providers don't keep enough bandwidth on the neighborhood loops and things can slow down. I have Charter Pipeline. The service (except for some problems when they first launched here) has been very close to excellent. We have an occassional "slowdown" here, but they are short lived and aren't a big deal. However, I know there are some parts of the country where Charter is the pits.

DSL also has it's own set of quirks. I live well within the bounds of our city, but I can't get DSL where I live. SBC placed the local switch in the southeast corner of the city and we live in the northwest section. We're not close enough for DSL. Also, often times technical difficulties can be hard to resolve because the DSL provider is a different company than the phone company that owns the lines and switches. All too often there's a good deal of finger pointing between the two companies when a problem is reported and the time to fix your service can stretch to days. With cable, one company owns all of the infrastructure.

 

[jfulcer]

Every person that I know (not just in my area but others also) that have had DSL has switched to Cable modems after a year or so.

Why?? Poor service, finger pointing when problems arise, and slow speeds because they weren't close enough to the central office.

Yeah, with cable companies you share bandwidth with your neighborhood but I have yet to hear anyone complain about not having 'enough' bandwidth - even during load times. For me it's hard to consider this as part of the arguement.

Good luck with what you choose!

 

[~Sparkly~Zoe]

I have DSL and have had no problems and I have yet to get "signed out" for anything. I have Verizon and pay 29.99 a month. The modem was free too.
When I turn the computer on I am automatically signed in and have no waits.
I am very happy with my service.

 

[Alex]

Come out this way Jfulcer, I can show you some places where cable is horrendous!
We had a customer who's speed during the day tested out at less than a 56k modem.

 

[Geoff_M]

Alex,

Sounds like a classic "bandwidth oversell". Charter had that problem here for a couple of weeks when they first opened their doors. It was due to the fact that they grossly underestimated the popularity of their service when they launched it. After the installation of a couple DS3 lines... no problems!

 

[Alex]

almost surely the problem...getting them to do anything about it is another story!

 

[ohanafamily]

My saga...I had an ISDN line. 128K up and down. It worked, I was happy. I tried for a couple of years to get DSL. My house was as far away from the CO as you can get without being in the next CO's territory. Since I have a commercial account and I was looking on the commercial side, someone at Earthlink set me up with an IDSL connection. IDSL is ISDN over a DSL line. This is also what is called an Alarm Line and was through COVAD. I got 196K up and down, and it was about $50 cheaper. I was quite happy with this service, but I wanted more bandwidth. Finally SBC put a RCO (Remote CO) about 2 blocks from my house. I called up and signed up for all that they would give me. DW said that it isn't that much faster than the IDSL, but it is. Every 3-4 months it goes out for 10-20 hours.

At work we have a service called T-Speed. We have a micro-wave link to their base and get from 6mbps - 20 mbps. They gave us a very sweet deal for the access because we signed up when they were just starting out. Again this is a commercial connection for our network. When they first started it went down off and on for a couple of months. They changed bands and we haven't had the problem since. We were then getting 1mbps - 6mbps. They changed our antenna last year and upped our bandwidth and reliability.