Do you have dsl or cable?

Question

should i go for dsl as alternative to cable internet? my dsl provider offers a good price on phone + internet package.

Answer 1

Cable for the win!

Answer 2

I have a cable modem and vonage VOIP phone.  That cost me $74.00 per month.  I have a medium speed upload and download.  With DSL, that low cost you are talking about is also a very low broadband speed.

Usually the voip phone that is offers is more expensive that Vonage or other carriers.

With ATT DSL, you still have to have a phone at home, so consider that cost.  So really it is not cheap overall.  You cannot get DSL without a direct wired phone.

Oh, I forgot, if you been reading the news, you will see that the telephone companies want restrictions on bandwidth use.  They want to charge you for how much bandwidth you use.  It has not been approved by the government.  But at least you will have an idea where these phone companies want to go in the future.  So if you want to download a large file with DSL, you may have to pay a large fee in the future.

It is true that Cable is a shared service, but loading the service by others has never affected me.  As far as the phone companies having backup power for their equipment when there is a power outage, big deal,  You DSL modem will still be down.

I used batteries and an inverter in case there is an outage so I always have power for my computer and phone in case of a power brownout.  Those batteries will last me six hours of continuous usage.

Answer 3

I have DSL and have no problems. If I do they have good customer service. Not the cable company's. They fill the bottom of the list for service. Comcast ranks one away from dead last.

Answer 4

Personal preference (and availability in your area!) I have cable because DSL is not in my neighborhood.

I have friends who has DSL and to me, it's just as fast as my cable connection. But we all do typical web surfing, watch You Tube videos, iTunes downloads and email. But if you do major downloading/uploading or online gaming, then cable may give you an edge on speed that will satisfy the demands of streaming data.

Answer 5

The problem is DSL is narrowband because it uses your telephone line to connect to the internet verses Cable which uses cable to connect to the internet. In terms of speed Cable is faster but go with what you can afford

Answer 6

Hello,,dsl,,only because this side of town didn't have cable here when I moved in,,now 2 years later,it's here and I'm ready to go back to Roadrunner. Those package deals are fine,,for a little while then they always change the deal an s***w you.

Answer 7

Cable, in relation to DSL, has more bandwith and connects faster.

However, you should go with what is best for your budget. Cable, most of the time, is more expensive in the long haul, but it offers better service.

Just go with whatever you are more comfortable with.

Answer 8

Ok first there really is little difference between them at first look. If you get 5 megabit service that is the upper limit you will be able to use. You may see as low as 1 megabit but their contract has no lower limit only an upper limit for speed.

The real difference is this. DSL is a direct connection to the phone company central office where is it connected to the main internet trunk lines. So you have no contention with other users on the line.

On the other hand cable is a shared protocol and as more and more users get in a specific link of the cable you will see degradation. For instance in my case I see my internet speed slow down about 3 pm as the kids get home from school and start to IM with their friends. (I do not have DSL available).

What is really important is the quality of the service and the response time for a trouble call as well as cost. I think that you will find that in the US that telephone companies are more responsive than cable companies. One other thing is that cable phone service is locally powered and they have no legal mandate to have emergency backup power in their central offices. Telco phones are powered from the central office where they have battery back up as well as backup generators. So if you get cable or IP phone service there is no guarantee that your phone will work if there is a power outage like I had last night. Even if you have a back up UPS power system to keep your home system running there is no guarantee that the cable provider will have UPS power in their central office.

If you are getting a better deal on DSL, then go for it. As soon as my telco gets DSL service out here in the Northern Wisconsin woods cable is gone.

Answer 9

Go to www.speedtest.net and see what you get w/ cable, and ask if the DSL company can get you the same speed.  I am sure they can not.  I get 28mpbs download with my cable, and 6mbps is the max DSL will promise.

Also, if you give up cable internet, your cable TV rates will likely go up.  The phone co. will offer you a discount on satellite TV, but satellite sucks so bad that I know people who got it, are paying for a year contract, and STILL had cable put back in.