Which Service Do You Have DSL or Broadband?

[luvsvacation22]

With all the specials going on all the time, I get confused with all the information each provider gives. So in your opinion, which one is faster? which one do you prefer?

 

[Dave M]

In theory, the broadband connection should be faster, but there are a number of real-world reasons why that speed advantage might or might not be there for you. See this article for the reasons why.

 

[Passepartout]

We live in a fairly rural area, though in town. When we moved here in 1999, dial-up was all there was, and I spread the word that whoever was first was getting my business. Turned out to be the cable company. DSL and other options are available now, but I stick with cable.

Jim Ricks

 

[dioxide45]

By definition I think DSL is broadband just as cable internet is broadband. Your comparison should be DSL vs cable.
Unless you are in to online gaming, downloading tons of files or using streaming video either one would meet most needs.

 

[Icarus]

With all the specials going on all the time, I get confused with all the information each provider gives. So in your opinion, which one is faster? which one do you prefer?

There's virtually no difference between DSL and Cable. Pick the one that works better for you. Neither is faster or slower or better these days. DSL is available in several different speeds for most people.

I had cable modem, but switched back to DSL because the cable company did a piss poor job of fixing problems. When I had a problem, the cable company scheduled an appointment some time out in the future. Before they arrived, I had the DSL modem from the phone company delivered to me and installed, the line provisioned and working. In most cases, the phone company is a lot better at providing 24/7 service than a cable company is.

-David

 

[Kal]

There's virtually no difference between DSL and Cable. Pick the one that works better for you. Neither is faster or slower or better these days. ..

Why don't we do a quick test of the various systems and compare the speeds. Go here: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

My results were as follows with cable -
Download = 19527 kbps
Upload = 1050 kbsp

 

[TUGBrian]

cable/broadband here

its so ridiculously faster than DSL here there really is no comparison.

 

[Icarus]

I get what I pay for, 7Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, which is one step up from their base offering. If I pay more, I get more bandwidth. I get that same speed all the time, no matter who else is using the network.

Plus my connection has to go 2500 miles under the ocean, so it's not only how fat the pipe is, but the length matters also. Cable has to use that same pipe. My ping times to common servers like yahoo and google are probably 3x - 4x longer than what yours are. That makes more of a difference than the volume of the pipe.

It's roughly the same overall speed as cable. Yeah, it's possible that the bits between my house and the cable co might move faster with cable, but it really makes no difference to the end user.

You can run that speed test and convince yourself otherwise if you want to, but it's really not all that different.

At the end of the day, I can watch HD streaming content just as fast as somebody next door that uses a cable modem.

-David

 

[NJCOBRA10tha]

I have 30mb/5mb with Optimum Online DSL doesn't compare. FIOS can achieve that speed or faster.

I had DSL and it was good but my Cable is better.

However I have friends with a different cable provider in a nearby town and theirs is pretty bad.

Read the reviews of the offerings in your area on dslreports.com

 

[Mosca]

I have DSL and it's plenty fast enough; I don't get any bottlenecks. More important for me is that I don't get any downtime. If the electricity is on, the connection is there. I have a Verizon bundle, with everything but TV through one bill (no Fios in my area, yet). When I signed up, I got a one price guarantee on my internet service for life. It was $30/mo, but I paid the extra $10/mo for the faster connection, I think it's 3mb/1mbps, but I don't remember; what I do know is that it is plenty fast enough.

 

[AwayWeGo]

Signed Up For D. S. L., Then They Canceled The Order (Without Letting Me Know).

At the time, DSL service was not available in my neighborhood.

Why not ?

Who knows ?

Some geeky technical reason, no doubt.

It would have been nice if they had let me know, rather than just canceling the order & leaving me to wonder what was going on till eventually I found out after a half-hour or so on hold with customer service. I mean, shux, if the service wasn't available in my neighborhood, whey did they even sign me up in the 1st place ?

So we went with Internet service from the cable TV company, which is pretty good. Not only that, cable Internet + basic cable TV service was cheaper than cable Internet alone. Go figure.

Meanwhile, our son & daughter-in-law, who live just a mile or so from here, dropped cable Internet & cable TV & signed up for fiber-optic TV & Internet from Bell Verizon. I think their telephone service also migrated from conventional Verizon telephone lines to Verizon fiber-optic telephone service. What advantage there is to that, if any, I can't begin to guess.

Verizon's contractors were stringing underground lines for that a couple of years ago around here, so I suppose fiberoptic TV & Internet services are available here, too.

No reason to switch, though, unless fiber-optic service is lots better or lots cheaper than service over the cable TV lines.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[philemer]

Why don't we do a quick test of the various systems and compare the speeds. Go here: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

My results were as follows with cable -
Download = 19527 kbps
Upload = 1050 kbsp

I have the slowest level DSL thru Qwest (formerly partnered with MSN)-
down = 1342
up = 655

It's plenty fast for my needs.

 

[luvsvacation22]

In theory, the broadband connection should be faster, but there are a number of real-world reasons why that speed advantage might or might not be there for you. See this article for the reasons why.

Thanks Dave for the article! It covered everything you would ever want to know about cable, DSL. I appreciate it!
Dorene

 

[luvsvacation22]

Why don't we do a quick test of the various systems and compare the speeds. Go here: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

My results were as follows with cable -
Download = 19527 kbps
Upload = 1050 kbsp

Cool test! Thanks!
My results with cable:
Download = 13938 kbps
Upload = 1957 kbps

 

[AwayWeGo]

Speed? Who Said Anything About Speed?

7,583 down.

2,183 up.

So it goes.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[luvsvacation22]

My dilemma is : I have a bundle with cable right now- Internet, digital phone, cable T.V. I have decided to try Direct T.V, which will break up my bundle and my cable Internet will know cost $66.00 a month. I used to have DSL through AT & T and when I switched over to cable I do not remember there being a difference in speed, but I could be wrong. My son now uses ( since we got cable Internet) Xbox Live, and it runs great! I also use a video phone which is Voice over IP and it works great too!
But now since I have to change from cable to AT & T Elite DSL ( their fastest DSL) $35.00 month, I am wondering if it will be as fast or somewhat comparable to cable and if the Xbox Live and the Video phone will work just as well. As you can see there is a big cost difference in my opinion. Maybe it just too much trouble to switch to Direct TV, having to figure out the other services I need. Thank you everybody and for your great information!

Maybe I will start a new thread about Direct TV vs Cable. My installation is Friday morning, so I can still cancel depending on what the response is. Thanks again!

 

[beanie]

is fios from verizon available in your area ? they have a pretty good bundle for $99 (internet ,phone , and tv ) we took there double pack which is $66 for phone and internet as our cable bill is included in our maintenance fee . we originally had DSL and home phone for around $85 a month so the switch to fios was a no brainer and there price is not a 1 yr teaser rate ,it is good for as long as you own the services . although we didn't get the tv part the people in our development who did ,rave about the picture .

 

[Icarus]

But now since I have to change from cable to AT & T Elite DSL ( their fastest DSL) $35.00 month, I am wondering if it will be as fast or somewhat comparable to cable and if the Xbox Live and the Video phone will work just as well. As you can see there is a big cost difference in my opinion. Maybe it just too much trouble to switch to Direct TV, having to figure out the other services I need. Thank you everybody and for your great information!

You will be fine with that package, and you maybe don't even need the Elite package, which they rate at 6Mb/sec download. The next one down at 3Mb/sec download would be fine also, but it's only $5/month difference, so if it were me, I'd go with the one you picked, which is similar to what I have from the local phone company. (Though, I think I pay less than you, since I have it as part of a bundled package, but, yeah, the delta for me for the speed bump was also $5 a month.)

Once you have a reasonable speed, the raw rate doesn't matter that much unless you are downloading a ton of huge files or viewing multiple hi-def media streams at the same time.

-David

 

[Charlie D.]

Well, guys, when you live out in the country and far from DSL or cable you have a little satelite dish installed. The quick test showed 359 kbps but that rocks compared to the 35-40 kbps with dial-up.

Charlie D.