It's about time I get moving and dump the old dial up. I live in a highly populated area (1.5 million, Las Vegas) and have access to both cable and DSL from reputable companies. After reading this article (http://www.pcmech.com/show/modems/292/ ) I am torn between cable or DSL. Both have positives and negatives, but I need some unbias facts and opinions to help me decide which would be better for me. If it matters, I am online about 6 - 8 hrs daily and my livelihood is based on the internet.

Thanks!

If there are a lot of people is your area go for DSL

I'd go for DSL...

I will also suggest DSL only.

I have used cable for over 2 years now and it's pretty reliable except when there are problems with someone cutting it or lightning knocking out the system. Sometimes there are technical problems, other that the above mentioned, but it's pretty rare.
I hardwired a LAN and I run 4 computers simultaneously and I don't notice any loss of speed.
I think that with DSL your distance to the central office has to be under a certain amount of miles and the closer you are... the better your service. I don't know the exact details but I know it has something to do with distance.

DSL tends to be consistent as far as available bandwidth. All, day long I can use the amount I'm paying for. My friends with cable tend to have their speed go down when everyone else in the neighborhood gets online.

Cable for me. I like being connected without having to dialup and hear noises.

Originally posted by gt3n
Cable for me. I like being connected without having to dialup and hear noises. Well, you're "connected without having to dialup and hear noises" with DSL as well.

Definitely DSL since you live in a populated area. I've heard of some places that are heavily populated people only download at like 5-10KBPS on cable during peak usage.

CABLE!! Your connected 24x7 Its beautiful.

Ran a game server from my house. Little if at all lag and total networking through your whole house.

I currently run 4 computers as well ones an email server. I find no difference in speed at any time of the day.

Cable for me aswell :)

Telstra cable that is :rolleyes:

You can't find a better cable ISP then Telstra..

trust me on this one...

Originally posted by JTY
DSL tends to be consistent as far as available bandwidth. All, day long I can use the amount I'm paying for. My friends with cable tend to have their speed go down when everyone else in the neighborhood gets online.

JTY nailed this one. As stated DSL is more consistant with speeds, you will get generally the same speed all the time. As with Cable, if more people are online, the slower it gets. During peak hours around here, my connection gets slow as hell. Go with DSL.

DSL all the way!

My cable gets 100% full speed all the time. There's TONS of people in my area.

Just the 12k/sec upstream hurts, so I'd go with DSL for that reason alone. Cable tends to have weak upstream unless you're with a local provider or optonline. hehe.

Cable vs. DSL

The age old saga :D...

Cable:
Pro: Pretty much 98% uptime, in my experience. My connection will stay on all day all night without a burp for days on end. Then occasionally there will be a 30min - 1 hour outage. This is usually late at night (4-5am) but, those are the times I do a great amount of work so, it usually pisses me off.

I get great D/L speeds. Never below 50k/s and usually around 180-210. Easily networked if you get a modem w/ a Ethernet out. Whatever you do DSL/Cable get one w/ an Ethernet out. A USB out will just ruin your day all together with networking.

Con: Yes. It's true. The more people are on the slower it gets. I live in a moderatly small town of about 20,000 people but, approx 11,000 have high speed access. It's a college town, you can't deprive us from our high speed access. I know the stats because a did a research paper with stats from my local provider. I rarley see a horrible slow down. The only real problems only occur during the times when we have to sign up for classes. This is when every student in the town attempts to hit one webserver (actually a load-balance of 6) to sign up for classes. My only other Con to cable is the downtime. As I said, it's usually always up but, there are some times when it goes down, it goes down hard. Obviously, during a storm; if your cable goes out, your internet is gone as well. I've had a few days of 5-7 hour offline time but, it's usually problem free...

DSL
-- When I go home to my family they have a DSL connection in Atlanta

Pro: I will admit, they get decently higher speeds. Usually steady around 150k/s and I've seen as high as 300. Not a shared connection, so no matter how many people in the area get it there shouldn't be a drop in bandwidth, although this is all dependent on how big of an out/inbound pipe your provider has obviously.

Con: The filters are a hassle. Yeah it takes like 20 minutes but, I didn't have to do it w/ my Cable :). When this thing goes down, it's down for the count. My family has been w/out access for a day+ a few times. DSL is a much harder service to provide then cable is. Many more things can go wrong w/ the connection just because of the complexity of the set-up to begin with. My family has a USB DSL modem which makes networking pretty much impossible barring installing a Linux NAT or DHCP server. As much as the providers would like to say it is, DSL is not an always on connection. It's just like dial-up. You double click your DUN icon and wait for server authentication and then your on. If there is any line noise or a long idle time, you get knocked off. Not really sure why but, the DUN connection they have is extremely quirky. Sometimes it will work flawlessly some days it simply refuses to connect even though the modem will show an all OK lights. One last thought; I hope this won't happen to you. Billing and instalation was a nightmare w/ Bellsouth. My mother ordered DSL service from them. They sent an installation box w/ Filters, modem, and very good instructions. My mother whose computer experience stops at opening solitare actually got all of the software installed correctly and installed the USB modem correctly the day she got it. No service. Call to tech support, 40 minutes hold; They said they'd flag the account for a look. No call back, 5 days pass, still no service. The monthly bill comes. Not only did they overcharge us for service (+$20 from the stated rate. Both from the CSR on the phone and All of the paper work sent to the house but, they also charged them $90 for the free installation kit). So after literally two months bitching at them, they got pro-rated for the second month (not the first mind you) and got a credit for the installation kit. I never liked the phone company. Ever since I've moved out I havn't had a physical home phone. Cell phone; same price, free long distance, and I can carry it anyway..... (Sorry OT rant)

Springer Style: Final Thought
What are you looking for?

-> Always on. Decent download speeds. Usually trouble free connection. Easy networking.... Get cable.

-> Quicker download. Don't really care about true always on connection. Willing to deal w/ the phone company in your area :).... Get DSL.


Oh yeah, great point.
Originally posted by jayjay
Just the 12k/sec upstream hurts, so I'd go with DSL for that reason alone.
Holy crap, I can't believe I forgot about this one. Upstream for Cable really does BLOW!!!!!.... That is a really pisser for me just waiting for a completed site to upload @ 10k/s really makes me mad. For a few big sites I actually drove to my school to use their labs because it was simply quicker to do it there at 260k/s including the drive.....


Hope I could be of some help.

cable, specially if they offer digital cable as well.. they usually add newer connectivity to their office and your connection from your house goes to a box in your neighborhood

Funny, I seem to have the opposite experience from most people. I have cable, and the speed stays consistent for me, but then again, I don't live in a big city. I also get much better speeds than all of my friends on DSL in various parts of the continent, including upstream. I get around 2 Mbps (250 KB/s) down and 384 Kbps (48 KB/s) up while my friends on DSL don't even get half that. I guess it all depends on where you live.

Originally posted by Studio64
Con: The filters are a hassle. Yeah it takes like 20 minutes but, I didn't have to do it w/ my Cable :). When this thing goes down, it's down for the count. My family has been w/out access for a day+ a few times. DSL is a much harder service to provide then cable is. Many more things can go wrong w/ the connection just because of the complexity of the set-up to begin with. My family has a USB DSL modem which makes networking pretty much impossible barring installing a Linux NAT or DHCP server. As much as the providers would like to say it is, DSL is not an always on connection. It's just like dial-up. You double click your DUN icon and wait for server authentication and then your on. If there is any line noise or a long idle time, you get knocked off. Not really sure why but, the DUN connection they have is extremely quirky. Sometimes it will work flawlessly some days it simply refuses to connect even though the modem will show an all OK lights. One last thought; I hope this won't happen to you. Billing and instalation was a nightmare w/ Bellsouth. My mother ordered DSL service from them. They sent an installation box w/ Filters, modem, and very good instructions. My mother whose computer experience stops at opening solitare actually got all of the software installed correctly and installed the USB modem correctly the day she got it. No service. Call to tech support, 40 minutes hold; They said they'd flag the account for a look. No call back, 5 days pass, still no service. The monthly bill comes. Not only did they overcharge us for service (+$20 from the stated rate. Both from the CSR on the phone and All of the paper work sent to the house but, they also charged them $90 for the free installation kit). So after literally two months bitching at them, they got pro-rated for the second month (not the first mind you) and got a credit for the installation kit. I never liked the phone company. Ever since I've moved out I havn't had a physical home phone. Cell phone; same price, free long distance, and I can carry it anyway..... (Sorry OT rant)

Odd, I start my computer and double-click on Internet Explorer or click once on my Mozilla icon (when in Linux) and I'm on. Hell, MSN (or Gaim) connects me automatically, I don't have to open or wait for anything. Also, USB modems aren't as common, their providor just sucks :) They do it for the purpose of not being able to network computers, because most of the time you have to pay for extra computers (we do, but we don't have a USB modem so that isn't an issue). It takes me less than 15 minutes total to get everything up and working on our home network. Hook everything up, login to router, set settings, reboot computers. Don't even have to set TCP/IP settings.

As far as all of your other complaints, they aren't really issues. You can't put in the "cons" that BellSouth sucks because it has nothing to do with DSL, your family's DSL providor just sucks. We don't have any of these problems. They came out and installed everything for us (exception of router and other things we added to put 5 computers on), I can talk to tech support in under 10 minutes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

My only complaint with DSL thus far (over 3 years of having it) also lies in my provider, and it's that they wouldn't acknowledge the fact that our modem was malfunctioning; insisted that it was our fault that our service was going out every minute for 5 minutes at a time (not constantly, but maybe for an hour or two it would do this). Sure enough, came out and replaced the modem the following Monday (for free) and we haven't had a problem since.

Costs us $49.95/month and 99% of the time we get 384/kbps down and 128/kbps up, and when we don't, it's going faster :)

Originally posted by punaboy
It's about time I get moving and dump the old dial up. I live in a highly populated area (1.5 million, Las Vegas) and have access to both cable and DSL from reputable companies. ...


Look here (http://www.broadbandreports.com/) to check out the DSL and cable reliability in your area.

Well, in my area, the only cable provider, Adelphia, just plain sucks. They cap you at 512/96k, not too mention it's down just about every other day as well.

I'm currently using Verizon DSL and haven't had any of the problems others have mentioned. I got a free home installation kit and a free ethernet modem (thankfully not USB) and everything was all set up in a few minutes. Drivers and software loaded without a hassle and I was up and running. I don't really mind going through the phone company as it's one less bill anway. They just add the DSL charge on to your regular monthly phone bill.

Also, about this always being connected bit, I've never had this problem with DSL. I've been connected to the net for the last 37 days with no interruptions. You probably just had a bad provider or something...

Well, in my area, the only cable provider, Adelphia, just plain sucks. They cap you at 512/96k, not too mention it's down just about every other day as well.

I get up to 750k/sec normally (i've seen higher and it usually is) with Adelphia. I do have 12k/sec upstream though.

(512/8=you're getting raped)

Originally posted by punaboy
It's about time I get moving and dump the old dial up. I live in a highly populated area (1.5 million, Las Vegas) and have access to both cable and DSL from reputable companies. After reading this article (http://www.pcmech.com/show/modems/292/ ) I am torn between cable or DSL. Both have positives and negatives, but I need some unbias facts and opinions to help me decide which would be better for me. If it matters, I am online about 6 - 8 hrs daily and my livelihood is based on the internet.

Thanks!


Cox in Las Vegas has great support.
I was a test customer. Now moved after 51 years.
Mr.Fountain is the head of the high speed internet(or was).
I also helped to upgrade many areas.
The sprint lines in parts of Vegas are old which will affect speed.
Take around Swenson and Flamigo Road, DSL was awful........
Based upon watching Vegas grow for 51 years, go cable.
Since Cox took over from Prime cable, they have spent BIG $$$ to improve and upgrade. Also got great cable speeds in Green Valley.(Warm Springs and Eastern area.)

Thank you for the overwhelming response! I appreciate all of your comments.

:D

Can't you only have DSL hooked up to one computer? Or can you route that? I know I route my Cable internet to about 4 computers.

Charter is my cable provider. I get a minimum of 500k both upload and download. The only negative is about an hour downtime almost every weekend. It cost me $40/mth. So why would I pay $50/month for half the speed? DSL is slower than cable.

Originally posted by phpcoder
Can't you only have DSL hooked up to one computer? Or can you route that? I know I route my Cable internet to about 4 computers. Well, I can share my DSL connection between computers. I have a Westell modem, though it could be different for others...

Webdude, if DSL is slower than cable in your area, then so be it. It just happens to be the exact opposite in my area, though cable is a bit cheaper.

Originally posted by phpcoder
Can't you only have DSL hooked up to one computer? Or can you route that? I know I route my Cable internet to about 4 computers.

Hardly :D We have 5 on ours.

With DSL you can use a simple switch (cheaper) to do this because you get unlimited dynamic IP's. Unlike cable where you get a static IP and most cable companies limit your IP usage. So with many cable providers, you have to use an actual router so as to be able to share a single IP among other computers..

Originally posted by Webdude
Unlike cable where you get a static IPNo such luck up here. Adelphia customers get dynamic IPs...

Punaboy:

It really depends on your area. In one area, cable might be faster and in another area, DSL is faster. You have to ask local people who have it to get a true feel.

In my area (tallahasse, fl.) , DSL is crap and Cable is awesome.

Cable gets 150-200k dl and 50-100k up
DSL is down a lot around these parts and gets about 50k down

this was about 6 months ago anyway. not sure about now.

basically, unless you have a technical question about the 2, asking for reviews on the internet can't give you an accurate picture as to the type of service YOU will receive in your area ;)