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Thread: cable or dsl

  1. #1
    Titanium Member
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    cable or dsl

    Will you guys help me make a decision.
    I got an advertisement from ATT broadband cable. They are giving away the modem plus save 50 on the premium install. (after mail-in rebate). They told me generally 1.5 DL and 256 up. They said I will not have the connectivity issues like DSL has with line noise and such. And there is a 30 day money back guarantee.
    So.......what is better? DSL or cable? I'm really sick of dial-up.........

    Oh yea, it's 50 a month

  2. #2
    Hardware guy Super Moderator FastGame's Avatar
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    Cable wean yourself completely from that line....but what do I know I'm still on dial-up

    Cable...Cable

  3. #3
    Techzonez Governor Super Moderator Conan's Avatar
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    What is the DSL speed?

  4. #4
    Bronze Member xsivforce's Avatar
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    IMO Cable. Here is some reports on dslreports archives from Roadrunner Cable which is what I am on.

  5. #5
    Titanium Member
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    Originally posted by Conan
    What is the DSL speed?
    Prolly not very speed. I live in the country - sort of. There is only one DSL provider , and it's not even the same company that services the regular phone line here. (verizon)

    what about ATT itself - are they a good broadband provider?

    As it is, i'm spending 50 a month on the other phone line and Internet access.
    Last edited by lynchknot; November 8th, 2002 at 01:33 AM.

  6. #6
    Precision Processor Super Moderator egghead's Avatar
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    in my overpopulated area

    bc canada

    cable is uptp 3mb d/l
    adsl 1.5mb

    29.95 month
    free modems and unlimited bandwidth

    not metered at the moment
    should be 5gig d/l
    1gig u/l

    cable has been very bad for reliability when it started up

    people had been out for weeks sometimes with features about the problem service in the tv news

    cable is also shared with your neighbourhood and i have seen reports of hackers intercepting outgoing info to look for passwords and credit info
    you 3mb is also shared with some neighbours
    if everyones at 6 it could get very slow

    adsl uses the phone system and a special filter
    it see's a path straight to the phone company so its not shared with your neighbours
    once setup it has been very reliable and works everyday

    its been down for the odd minute sometimes but when i reboot its all is good so it could be computer related

    i personally would get either one as this makes surfing the net fun
    you can surf 10 pages in the time it takes 1 to load with dial-up

    you will never go back once you experience the speed and time saved with high speed

    btw
    lynchknot

    your sigs been out for a few days
    no pic
    http://www.boomspeed.com/lynchknot1/KENOSXP.jpg
    cheers
    egghead
    Last edited by egghead; November 8th, 2002 at 02:10 AM.
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  7. #7
    Super Moderator Super Moderator Big Booger's Avatar
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    The only thing about cable is them over-taxing the node in your area. They tell you those high speeds upfront but when you go to reality and try to download you realize that it is just not so.
    I would go with whichever is most economical for you. Try one out, providing their is no contractual obligation, and if you don't like it, try the other.. Or try both, and drop the one you don't like or that doesn't meet your expectations.
    I have had both, and honestly can't tell the difference, other than the upload speed of cable generally being much faster, but that all depends on the node and area in which you live. If there are hundreds of people on the same node, then your download and upload will creep to a crawl at peak hours..
    Notice also that they don't guarantee you'll get those fast connections all the time...
    They told me generally 1.5 DL and 256 up.
    Generally being the key word... What does generally mean. Does generally mean that when no one else is on the line you will get those speeds? LOL

    It will be faster than your dialup but soon you will adjust and want faster speeds.. as I have done. I am now looking at the possibility of a 12Mbit service to increase the speed a notch or two.
    I don't think the US has those faster DSL services like here in Japan. I believe we have in larger cities anyway up to a 100Mbit service provided over DSL... I am dreaming about that..
    let us know what you ultimately decide.
    BB

  8. #8
    Titanium Member efc's Avatar
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    Another option is satellite

    There is a $600 equipment and installation cost to get up and running, then I am paying $59 a month for internet with Direcway. I had to go to satellite, because I live in a remote area, far from cable and dsl.

    It is not fluid for browsing, because there is a delay when you click on a link or hit enter. That is because the signal goes from your antenna to the satellite to the ISP server. The result is a 2 or 3 second delay before things start to happen. The uplink is usually less than 56K. The downlink however, can be truely exciting. I just ran a speed check at quake.iland.com and got a result of 1953 kbps/sec down. Large downloads, that used to take a couple of hours with dial-up, now take three or four minutes.

    Don't get me wrong. I would not recommend this to anyone that has cable or dsl available.

  9. #9
    Precision Processor Super Moderator egghead's Avatar
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    Re: Another option is satellite

    Originally posted by efc

    It is not fluid for browsing, because there is a delay when you click on a link or hit enter. That is because the signal goes from your antenna to the satellite to the ISP server. The result is a 2 or 3 second delay before things start to happen. The uplink is usually less than 56K. The downlink however, can be truely exciting. I just ran a speed check at quake.iland.com and got a result of 1953 kbps/sec down. Large downloads, that used to take a couple of hours with dial-up, now take three or four minutes.
    i always thought the digital satellite boxes could not transmit
    only recieve

    you had to have your phoneline connected to the sat reciever and when you surfed the net it was dialup for the uploades and the satellite for the great d/l speeds

    thanks

    i would be happy for the d/las i never upload much and url info is a small amount of info
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  10. #10
    Super Moderator Super Moderator Big Booger's Avatar
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    Recently there has been a move to two-way satellite.
    DIRECWAY® Offered Through DIRECTV is very secure, very fast two-way satellite Internet access. Two-way means this system will send and receive data from the web via satellites. It also means no more waiting, phone lines, or cable companies. Always on and available - what used to take an eternity to download will now take just moments - including web pages, MP3 music, email, attachments, and streaming media.

    DIRECWAY satellite Internet systems also have the ability to access all 225 digital quality channels of DIRECTV® programming including local over the same satellite dish. It's called DIRECDUO and it requires the purchase of additional equipment, a set top receiver, and a DIRECTV programming package. DIRECTV and DIRECWAY programming packages sold and billed separately.
    THE 2 WAY SATELLITE SITE

    BB

  11. #11
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    Well, this is a relatively newly developed area- in the country. There is only one DSL line available. I'm not within walking distance to anywhere, however the straight line distance falls within the maximum allowed for DSL.

    ATT said they would have to add this address to the database. There is only one neighbor, down the street, that is hooked up with ATT.

    BB, they are both the same price.

    My sig is off because I violated the rules of boomspeed. I guess I'm not allowed to post SS's. - using too much bandwidth. Netfirms shut me down yesterday too, because they said I had 600 visitors - they shut it down for 24 hrs.
    Last edited by lynchknot; November 8th, 2002 at 02:44 AM.

  12. #12
    Titanium Member Tinker's Avatar
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    I have cable (Comcast.net). 1.5 Mbps up and 128 Kbps down. So it sounds like you should be twice as fast on uploads which can make a difference if you do a lot of file uploading. I see on average 1.2M down and 128K up. I have seen it as low as 400K down but that only lasted for a short time. The best I have seen is 2M down and that as well was for a short time. One question I would have is who will the ISP be with cable? I know you said that ATT cable company but they may not be the ISP.

    I pay $50 for broadband and basic cable TV..........

  13. #13
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    I don't know. They said the emal address would be something like
    @att.bb.......

    I know MSN uses Level 3 and/or UU net. for my dial-up here.

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