DSL vs Cable

Just curious what people think of DSL? My current ISP is Wave Broadband, I am paying for a 4mb connection and most of the time my download speed is about 1mb. I am thinking of switching to DSL they offer a 5mb package. I have never had DSL before and was hoping for some feedback from users.

 

i have SBC Yahoo! DSL and it was a tremendous improvemtn over dialup. I hear cable is often faster tho. anyways for setup u get a modem, the power cable, ethernet cable, phone line cable, dsl filters and the software cd and some booklets type stuff. the cd will guide u thru the entire process. also remember to install the dsl filters on all ur phone jacks for the line or u will get static on the phone and ur dsl speed will be decreased (at least according to the modem).

 

I used DSL for several months & it was quite good. Then I had a minor problem with slow DNS lookups, so I called tech support. I got a "press 1 for this, press 2 for that" machine. When I finally got past the "press this number" stuff & reached a live person, I discovered they had outsourced tech support to some place where the telephone system sounded like low quality CB radio, & it was next to impossible to understand the tech's accent.

Next day I called Cable Tech support -- a test call to see if their support was any better than DSL's. I got a live, clear-spoken techie on the second "press this number." I switched over right away.

As to quality & speed: quality is about equal; cable is usually a hair faster (depending on where you live & time of day). I do suggest that you check the tech support angle before deciding.

 

Cable is usually much faster and dependable than DSL. I would not go back to DSL if I had the choice of cable.

 

Tech support is coming out today to check the line. It used to be much faster. I think they have to many people on my node now, it slows dramaticly in the evening and Sundays.

 

i have adsl too - PPPoE, which means broadband dialup but you can only use it with a standalone PC because the PPPoE means there's no router it was slow so i complained, now it's faster then their cliamed speed - 1Meg. i've never had any slow downs or disconnects. i think it depends on the wiring in your country, where you live - city or country, and how good your ISP is.

 

Actually, almost all current home cable/dsl routers provide built-in support for PPPoE. In fact, built-in PPPoE support is one of the advantages of a home router because it allows you to get rid of PPPoE driver software / connection managers off of your PCs.

As to your, "it varies" comment... I agree. Both dsl and cable can vary fairly significantly in quality depending upon who the ISP actually is. Most people think they only have to worry about the connection from their house to the central office or cable "headend", but really the ISP's backhaul connections and peering agreements matter too, especially if you are concerned even a little bit about latency or "ping" for things like online gaming or streaming media connections.

Honestly, present day dsl and cable are fairly evenly matched, IMHO. Cable used to have a speed advantage, but cable is dependent on how many subscribers they put on a neighborhood hub point... and some providers are pushing that number on a hub sort of to the limit. The hub sharing point is also why cable tends to vary in speed due to time of day, etc. somewhat more than dsl in my experience. DSL used to be slower, but there are now higher speed versions of DSL that are reasonably priced that pretty much match cable's down/up speeds. Whereas cable has the hub-sharing problem, dsl has the distance from central office (CO) problem. Attainable DSL speeds decrease as you get further from the CO, although this problem has been mitigated to some degree by the higher speed and newer DSL equipment. Still, though, DSL can't really go beyond somewhere around ~14,000 to 15,000 feet from the CO, as I recall.

The cable supporters will also say that DSL also has a "shared bandwidth" issue in that dsl subscribers begin sharing bandwidth at the digital subsciber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs) in the CO... but that is sort of a red herring because at some point all ISP access becomes "shared," virtually by definition of the fact that you are accessing a shared resource we call the public internet. So, yeah, again you have to worry about the DSL provider's backhaul connections and peering agreements, but that applies to cable as well. The real issue, though, is that cable shares bandwidth with neighbors whereas dsl doesn't, and this can be important (or not) depending upon if the bean-counters at the cable company are being too aggressive in allocating subscribers to hub points.

I, personally, now tend to prefer DSL because it is often provided by the likes of SBC and Verizon which tend to have the best backhaul networks because they are the major telcos and they own the nationwide (and international) data network assets of the former core internet providers AT&T and Worldcom (respectively). The cable companies probably have to lease their backhaul capacity from one of these telco providers. Moreover, the DSL "Pro" offerings are now just as fast as cable and often DSL is cheaper (even the "Pro" version) than cable high-speed internet. My SBC Yahoo DSL Pro costs only $26.95 a month, as I recall; whereas last time I checked Comcast cable would have charged me something like $39.95 a month for around the same speed (and that is with being a cable TV customer as well, they charge more of course if you are not).

 

lol, i was wondering if anyone would say anything about PPPoE i had a feeling i was talking rubbish as i wrote it but couldn't be bothered to check.

 

Well I have had both Cable and DSL and my vote goes to DSL. Altho the past 3-4 weeks I have had a dramatic slowdown in speeds. They sent a tech to my home who set me up with a home-run, but it did not help. Im still in the process of working things out with Verizon, but Im at my wits end and ready to drop them.

I would go back to cable but with all the slowdowns and dropoffs I had with Comcast, I highly doubt I will go back to them. At the moment Im trying to look for a decent ISP in my area who offers DSL service.

 

i probably shouldn't have posted in this thread - i just lost my connection for the first time

 

I use DSL, my ISP is great ... they've never complained about about all the bandwidth I use ... and I've only experienced service issues twice over several years, which were do to network upgrades. It's a 3mb connection, but I usually average 4/4.5mb. There's no slow down in peak hours, unlike my brief experience with cable. The only issue with my ISP is they tend to have issues with their mail servers a couple of times a year, with the service being intermittant for a week or so - Which is extremely annoying as I have to route all my outgoing mail through their servers as they block direct access on 25 outside of their network. But all in all I couldn't be more pleased really. There is a cable provider in my area that offers a 9mb connection for the same fee I currently pay, but I reluctant to switch because of the pain of notifying everyone of email address changes, and not knowing their position on heavy bandwidth usage.

 

I've always used DSL, starting with AOL (at about $55/month) about 7 years ago - the only DSL service ofered in my area at that time.

Subsequently switched to SBC Yahoo! and SBC Yahoo! Pro 1.5-3.0 Mbps - currently offered at $17.99/mo. on a one-year commitment.

Very satisfied with service and tech support upon occasion.

Rob

 

I am going to give DSL a try. I have been getting 0.5mb connection during peek hours from my ISP wave broadband I pay for 4mb, I have called my ISP they sent out a tech who said there is nothing wrong on my end and nothing he can do for me. I think they have hooked up too many people in the area to support the advertised speeds. I never had this problem over the past 2 years but lately it has become worse.