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DSL vs. Cable
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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by satchmo on Mon Oct 17th at 4:36am 2005

My brother is thinking about upgrading to high-speed internet (he currently has modem access). I believe DSL is superior, but I want to get the opinions of the fellow SnarkPitters on this topic. You may be the only people who are more tech-savvy than me, and I trust your opinion.

In case it's region-dependent, he lives in the United States as well.



"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by Crono on Mon Oct 17th at 4:48am 2005

Cable is faster than DSL. No opinion about it.

However, if he has access to fiber optics, that'd be the way to go, since it's the fastest available.

Averages:

DSL (1.5 Mb/s - 5 Mb/s)
Cable (6 Mb/s - Uncapped)
FiOS (15 Mb/s - 30 Mb/s) No uncapped option as far as I know.


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by Addicted to Morphine on Mon Oct 17th at 4:52am 2005

I have Optimum Online as a Cable provider at home and the service and performance has been excellent. I always ping 10-20 on the fastest servers for CS.

I download really fast as well. Almost never get interrupted service.

I haven't had DSL before, but I'm definitely very happy with Cable.




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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by omegaslayer on Mon Oct 17th at 7:13am 2005

? quote:
Cable is faster than DSL. No opinion about it.

Yup.
Downlaod speeds:
DSL 1mb/sec (if your lucky)
Cable 3mb/sec (for a majority of the time)



Posting And You



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by Gaara on Mon Oct 17th at 10:13am 2005

What advantages does ADSL have over cable?


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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by Andrei on Mon Oct 17th at 10:20am 2005

Erm...it's cheaper?




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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by Dark|Killer on Mon Oct 17th at 10:57am 2005

I have DSL, that is 512kb/s..But now, where i live, Dubai, upgraded the 512 DSL to a 1MB/s , with the same price <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif">
and 1MB/s users got 1.5 or something similar, with the same prices <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif">

The problem is 1MB/s, is about $170 per month =
And DSL 512kb, is about $70 per month, which is so expensive, that made them upgrade to what i mentioned earlier <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">



.::Dark|Masta::. - One name. One legend.



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by wil5on on Mon Oct 17th at 12:29pm 2005

The fastest my ISP can do is 512 <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/sad.gif"> However, there is an ISP here that says theyre bringing in ADSL2, which supposedly gives a 24Mb max transfer.

Compare plans where he lives. Consider his usage and determine the best option.




&quot;If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?&quot;
- My yr11 Economics teacher



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by Underdog on Mon Oct 17th at 12:35pm 2005

? quoting Gaara
What advantages does ADSL have over cable?

DSL's major advantage over cable is you do not share bandwidth with anyone. Whatever you have is all yours. No peak times, nothing.

DSL's disadvantages are, its lack of availability, and you need to be within a certain distance from the nearest hub. (something like 27,000 feet or less)

DSL is preferable assuming you have the option of both.

Prices are usually comparable to each other. In most cases DSL is cheaper cause you only need an active phone line. (which most every house hold has)

With cable, you need an active cable line. (which many houses do not have) and you will need to add in the cost of the cable to the bills total.

I prefer DSL.




There is no history until something happens, then there is.



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by Dred_furst on Mon Oct 17th at 5:41pm 2005

I find ADSL better, and it can offer speeds up to 24Mbps when they decide to offer such packages.


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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by Wild Card on Mon Oct 17th at 5:53pm 2005

You guys fail to realise the difference between throughput and bandwidth. Here, DSL is faster than Cable. Sure cable is theorically faster, but we dont care about the theory. We care about the practicle applications.

As far as I understand it, ADSL means your bandwidth is devided so that you get more download than upload. And when you get DSL, it is usually ADSL.

Fiber would be nice, but when the rest of the internet works on broadband and modem, its not always worth it. Fiber's also expensive and hard to work with to boot.




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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by satchmo on Mon Oct 17th at 7:00pm 2005

Thanks guys, for all the input.

But the poll result so far is a dead heat. Ten votes casted, split evenly between cable and DSL. Any tie breaker wants to contribute?




"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by Underdog on Mon Oct 17th at 7:18pm 2005

Breaking the tie wouldn't help much. This question is akin to asking the ATI/GeForce preference.

In the end, its more a preference and what kind of service you receive in your area. I had faster cable than DSL, but it was down 1/2 the time. Faster doesn't work if its offline that much. Some like cable better only cause they had better service than I.

I recommend DSL simply because out of 3 years it was off perhaps 1 day total. That day wasn't all at once either.

Good luck with your choice.




There is no history until something happens, then there is.



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by rs6 on Mon Oct 17th at 7:30pm 2005

Other: http://www22.verizon.com/fiosforhome/channels/fios/HighSpeedInternetForHome.asp]fios

Assuming your are eligible:

30up/5down = $200
15up/2down = $50
5up/2down = $40

The values are in megabits. The 30 plan would download a gig in 4 minutes to give you an idea of how fast it is, 15 plan would be 8 minutes. (assuming you were downloading from a good server.


Sorry I went and put other and didn't break the tie <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by satchmo on Mon Oct 17th at 8:25pm 2005

Unfortunately, FiOS is current unavailable to where we live.


"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by Wild Card on Mon Oct 17th at 8:27pm 2005

The only problem with that is, as soon as you leave the Verison network, you're back down to average internet speeds.

You have to look at it this way:

Your computer
|
(Lets say Ethernet @ 100Mbps)
|
Your router
|
(Lets say Verison @ 30Mbps)
|
Your ISP
|
(WAN cabling @ 56Kbps to 145Mbps, lets say 145Mbps)
|
Some backbone router
|
(WAN cabling @ 56Kbps to 145Mbps, lets say 56Kbps)
|
Some other backbone router
|
(WAN cabling @ 56Kbps to 145Mbps, lets say 1.45Mbps)
|
Yet another backbone router
|
(WAN cabling @ 56Kbps to 145Mbps, lets say 145Mbps)
|
Server's ISP
|
(lets say DSL @ 1Mbps)
|
Server's router
|
(lets say 802.11g @ 54Mbps)
|
Server's computer

Then your bandwidth between your computer and the server drops to 56Kbps. Once again, if we stick to simple stuff. So it doesnt necesarily mean you can download faster, at 30Mbps. It just means your bandwidth to the ISP is a 30Mbps link. The rest of the internet works between 56Kbps and 145Mbps. And dont forget that speed is shared by thousands of users. Just like a 4 lane highway might be faster than a coutry road, but the traffic is much larger.




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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by rs6 on Mon Oct 17th at 10:07pm 2005

Even with that, you still notice a incredible speed increase with the 15mbit line.



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by Tracer Bullet on Mon Oct 17th at 11:04pm 2005

Having experienced both verizon DSL (1.5 Mb), and comcast cable (3Mb), I'd say that for most applications you really won't notice a difference. In my case the cable option was cheaper because I don't want a land line telephone. Cable service seems marginaly faster, but it isn't that big of a subjective change.


Some people are like slinkys...

They aren?t really good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one tumbles down the stairs.



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by satchmo on Mon Oct 17th at 11:13pm 2005

However, with an existing land line and no cable service/wall jack, my brother just might go with DSL.


"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge



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 Re: DSL vs. Cable
Posted by Crono on Tue Oct 18th at 12:32am 2005

I'm not going to read all the stuff that you guys have posted, but I caught glimpses. I was speaking of my area.

Cable is the most expensive option here. Fiber Optics is cheaper, because it runs through digital phone lines (which have been installed in my area for about five years).

No extra installation required, just a new modem to interpret everything.

Of course, you can always get T3 type stuff if you're a business which uses some multiplier techniques.

But, strictly speaking in the US. Cable is the better option. If you can get Fiber Optics, by all means, do it. Of course, if it's simply not available, you can't get it, can you?

When it's activated here I'll get it ... it's cheaper. At least Verizon will do one good thing, right?

Tracer, Comcast is twice that speed now. When it was AT&T it was much faster, since it was all uncapped. Was pretty nice.


Blame it on Microsoft, God does.




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