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OT ~ DSL or cable connection? Arrggghhh!

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Willa

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I presently have a comcast cable connection for my internet provider. For the money, I think it stinks! It's certainly NOT what they advertise it to be, and I've been using it for two years! Every three months I have to have a guy out here to 'check', and last time he put in something called an amplifier, which they charged me $75 for! It did NOTHING. I've been fighting with Comcast for six months over this, and they are not at all sympathetic or helpful. I guess they figure they have their die-hard internet customers by the cajones (sp?) if you know what I mean.

I'm tempted to switch to Verizon DSL, but wonder if I won't REALLY regret THAT! Any opinions here? If I knew cable was going to be this slow, I suspect that I could have saved myself a LOT of money! Maybe it's just Comcast that's terrible?

Employees of Verizon or Comcast need not respond, LOL! Thanks for your input, everyone!

;)
Willa
http://www.pbase.com/willa
 
Willa, I've had Comcast Cable Internet since about March and have not had any real problems. The connection went dead once for an afternoon (I was at work) and the email has been very stable. The speed does slow down some at busy times but nothing to really complain about. Last week while I was on vacation I had to use a dial-up backup connection. THAT was sssssllllloooooooooooooowwwww at 28.8!!!

The ONLY problem I have is the price (not really since (for right now) my company pays for it). I started with a $29.95 intro rate for 2 or 3 months. It then went to the normal (non-TV) rate of $44.95. That lasted for about 2 months then it jumped to $54.95 (non-TV).

We're going through a transistion right now at my company so I don't know if my Comcast will be paid for by my company in the near furture. If they stop paying, I might switch back to cable TV from SAT-TV and get the Internet for $39.95.

FYI, I'm in the suburban Philly area.

--
John M
 
Willa,

I have had DSL for three years from my local phone company I pay only 41.95 for that and my ISP (also local phone co.) I have been mostly happy with the service.

My son in Atlanta had cable, when he moved he went with Bell Souths DSL and is much happier with it than he was with Cable.
Willa said:
I presently have a comcast cable connection for my internet
provider. For the money, I think it stinks! It's certainly NOT
what they advertise it to be, and I've been using it for two years!
Every three months I have to have a guy out here to 'check', and
last time he put in something called an amplifier, which they
charged me $75 for! It did NOTHING. I've been fighting with
Comcast for six months over this, and they are not at all
sympathetic or helpful. I guess they figure they have their
die-hard internet customers by the cajones (sp?) if you know what I
mean.

I'm tempted to switch to Verizon DSL, but wonder if I won't REALLY
regret THAT! Any opinions here? If I knew cable was going to be
this slow, I suspect that I could have saved myself a LOT of money!
Maybe it's just Comcast that's terrible?

Employees of Verizon or Comcast need not respond, LOL! Thanks for
your input, everyone!

;)
Willa
http://www.pbase.com/willa
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/delbert
Delbert...just hangin around
C-2100, C-3000, D520
 
http://www.dslreports.com has a lot of information on all of it.

There are a lot of things that can be causing your problems. Network card, registry settings, operating system, the modem itself, how many TV's your cable goes to(reason they tried the amplifier), are you using the USB connection of the cable modem, how far your computer is from the main lead for cable coming into your home, the way they setup your installation(cable routing etc), etc.

Things to go along with the above-

Some brands of network cards don't run as fast.
Some chipsets(on motherboard of computer) cause slower connection.

Updated drivers for network card, chipset, etc. can increase speed and get rid of bugs.
Bios update of the computer system can help.
Windows Me is slow with cable connection by default.

The more TV's on the line, the more the signal loss..... giving less speed for connection.

The farther away from the main feed of the cable coming in, the lower the signal is to the cable modem. Better to have the cable modem close to main feed and run a network cable to the computer, if possible.
Firmware updates to the modems sometimes take care of speed and other problems.

Old cable can make it slower. Some of the tech's don't want to go through updating your existing cable with better stuff to help with this because of it being more work.

Do you know the specifics of your computer? chipset, brand, model, bios date, network card type, operating system, cable modem model/brand, etc.
 
Willa,

Maybe it will help if I give you the Electrical/Computer Engineering view on the subject. There are 2 aspects to the kind of internet service you are looking at.

1) Internet service - What I mean by this is the networking that goes on as in IP addressing, backbone connections into the internet, etc...

2) The physical connection that they provide from their office to you - For a cable modem this is the coax cable line and for DSL, you're phone line.

As far as number 1, its hard to say where you are better off. I can't tell you whether or not Comcast is going to have better Internet service then Verizon. This aspect however is very controllable. By purchasing more trunks into major backbones they can provide higher speeds and higher capacity. Assuming both Comcast and Verizon have acceptable management and money invested this component should be relativley stable.

Now, here's the problem. Aspect number 2, the physical connection. I beleive this is where your problem is. Cable (or coax) was never intended for the use its been assigned. When sending and recieving a signal on coax you are concerned about 1 thing, signal strentgh. This is measured in dB. A cable modem can only send and recieve when this signal strength is within a certain range of operation. The problem however is that EVERYONE shares the same coax line. Why does this affect you? If you are in a highly concentrated population area (I.E. an apartment complex), then chances are the whole complex shares one line. Everytime someone is hooked up or unplugged from cable your signal strength either goes up or down. With lots of people sharing a line you can see that this will result in you often going outside the tolerances of the cable modem, requiring a tech to come out and adjust your signal strength back into an operable range. This isn't usually as much a problem for people in houses as not as many people share the lines, and people don't move out and move in as often. This is where DSL has a physical advantage over cable. With a phone line, physically, you are establishing 1 straight connection to your cable company. There are NO signal strength issue to worry about. In this regards, DSL is a much more stable medium then cable. When more people have phone lines hooked up your signal strength to the phone company is not affected. Its not a shared line. Thus for DSL your primary concern is only aspect number 1.

What you should do is have your line tested to be sure you can get DSL (there are requirements in regards to distance from the phone switching station and having all copper lines). Assuming you can, the advantage of DSL is that there will be fewer variables to control. Odds are that I believe you will find DSL provides much more consistent reliable service. Anything however thats poorly managed can suck however, so don't consider anything a sure bet.

Anyways, I hope this helps you to understand some of whats going on and let you make an informed decision.

Mike
 
Bradly said:
http://www.dslreports.com has a lot of information on all of it.

There are a lot of things that can be causing your problems.
Network card, registry settings, operating system, the modem
itself, how many TV's your cable goes to(reason they tried the
amplifier), are you using the USB connection of the cable modem,
how far your computer is from the main lead for cable coming into
your home, the way they setup your installation(cable routing etc),
etc.

Things to go along with the above-

Some brands of network cards don't run as fast.
Some chipsets(on motherboard of computer) cause slower connection.
Updated drivers for network card, chipset, etc. can increase speed
and get rid of bugs.
Bios update of the computer system can help.
Windows Me is slow with cable connection by default.
The more TV's on the line, the more the signal loss..... giving
less speed for connection.
The farther away from the main feed of the cable coming in, the
lower the signal is to the cable modem. Better to have the cable
modem close to main feed and run a network cable to the computer,
if possible.
Firmware updates to the modems sometimes take care of speed and
other problems.
Old cable can make it slower. Some of the tech's don't want to go
through updating your existing cable with better stuff to help with
this because of it being more work.

Do you know the specifics of your computer? chipset, brand, model,
bios date, network card type, operating system, cable modem
model/brand, etc.
Click to expand...
I'm on a cable modem and my speed is between 2.5 to 3 mb down. try going to dslreports and do the tweak test maybe your settings are wrong,that has alot to do with speed problems.
--
chuck p
olyc4000
 
I couldnt agree more...do the speed test, then the tweak test....do what it says to do in the tweak test (email me if you have any questions) and then run a speed test again at dspreports.com . My username at dslreports.com is "enjoyingmy3mbps" and for good reason.
chuck p said:
I'm on a cable modem and my speed is between 2.5 to 3 mb down. try
going to dslreports and do the tweak test maybe your settings are
wrong,that has alot to do with speed problems.
--
chuck p
olyc4000
Click to expand...
--
http://www.daryl.com/2002 - photo calendar
http://www.pbase.com/daryl - pbase supporter

Was shooting with an Olympus C4040. Had to make
the move to the C5050, and glad I did.
 
I live in my own home, so it's not a problem of sharing a line, and, as I said, they have recently installed an 'amplifier', and the service is still SLOW. It's SO slow that I'm having trouble justifying the cost. I mean, how big of a sucker AM I, anyway? Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to try out DSL. I just hate all the B.S. that goes along with switching. What a D R A G. Of course NOTHING is worse than dial-up! It's an abomination fer sure! I own a beach house that I only have dial-up in, as we spend just a few weeks there every every year. Most of the time, I don't even bother pulling out the laptop, because it's just torture for me. And I don't have to tell YOU, that if one is doing this on-line photography stuff, dial-up is the ultimate pits.

Anyway, thanks for your intelligent and informative response, Mike!
;)
Willa

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

http://www.pbase.com/willa

 
Lucky you that your office pays for your service. I pay approximately the same thing, and every month, when the bill comes, added to our premium cable cr@p, I heal my husband swearing from his home office downstairs! Poor guy; brat wife needs cable! Of course I wouldn't mind if the damn thing worked right. Having these men walking around my downstairs for two hours every three months make me very cranky and uncomfortable, especially since it appears they never improve anything about the service, despite amplifiers, etc.

In any event, I thank you for the input! I saw we rebel! I saw we all, nationally, have a MORATORIUM on using the 'net, to protest these awful rates! Yeah, right!

;)
Willa
Happy Holidays, Everyone!

http://www.pbase.com/willa

 
Hmmm.. .well, let's see... I know a LITTLE about my computer. I know I have windows XP. I know that I have 512 mb of RAM and a 40 gig harddrive ... um.... how 'bout you coming over for a cup of tea and we could discuss this? Ah, only kidding! Good information though and stuff to ponder before doing anything drastic. I just wish the cable company would help me get it straightened out instead of just sending some guy over to kill time for two hours and never make any improvements.

Thanks so much for reading and responding to my post!

;)
Willa

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

http://www.pbase.com/willa

 
I've had Cable modem for almost 4 years now, Shaw Cable in Canada, and I haven't had any problems so far. I usally get around 380 -450 k/sec downloads. I tried ADSL for one month, a free trial, and I found it was slower than cable. It capped out at about 128 k/sec.
--
END OF LINE.

C-4000z, Commodre 64
 
I will definitely try that! However, you'd think that Comcast would try to help me straighten this out instead of spending MONEY sending guys out to people's homes and never accomplishing anything!

Thank you so much for reading and responding to my post!

;)
Willa
Happy Holidays, Everyone!

http://www.pbase.com/willa

 
Willa I have had cable for 3 years - but when they installed it they left with it not working and said I would have to take it to a shop to make it work - jerks!- well I had it going 5 min after they left and since then it works great 99% of the time. I cannot get DSL and if it was now offered I dont have a reason to change. A friend of mine just got rid of dsl in favour of cable - so go figure.

But do the tests and at that web site that was offered- been there done that - it cant hurt.
Gotta go BBQ a steak.
Bob
Willa said:
I presently have a comcast cable connection for my internet
provider. For the money, I think it stinks! It's certainly NOT
what they advertise it to be, and I've been using it for two years!
Every three months I have to have a guy out here to 'check', and
last time he put in something called an amplifier, which they
charged me $75 for! It did NOTHING. I've been fighting with
Comcast for six months over this, and they are not at all
sympathetic or helpful. I guess they figure they have their
die-hard internet customers by the cajones (sp?) if you know what I
mean.

I'm tempted to switch to Verizon DSL, but wonder if I won't REALLY
regret THAT! Any opinions here? If I knew cable was going to be
this slow, I suspect that I could have saved myself a LOT of money!
Maybe it's just Comcast that's terrible?

Employees of Verizon or Comcast need not respond, LOL! Thanks for
your input, everyone!

;)
Willa
http://www.pbase.com/willa
Click to expand...
--
Bob WB7SBW
Olympus C2100
http://members.cox.net/robert.myers1/
http://members.cox.net/robert.myers2/
 
Willa

I have been through this with my DSL provider. We had a problem that took 3 month for them to figure out. Everything is back to normal now, I download and upload at lightning fast speeds. On my P2P music network I can download from 12 people and upload to almost as many, at the same time I can be on the internet, which doesnt slow down at all.

After all those years of dial up DSL is a pleasure. In certsin situations DSL can be faster than cable. Your cable provider "overbooks" bandwidth, assuming his network will never run at 100%. When the network is overloaded connection speeds can really lag down.

A responsibly operated cable network will outperform any DSL network, but that is only in a perfect world.

The cable mentality seems to stem from cable TV. More subscribers, no proplem. Not so with data, but so many cable providers dont care about this. They jam as many subscribers on the line as they can, and things do have a way of slowing down.

IMO DSL is usually run in a more responsible way, many DSL subscribers prefer it to cable.

Why not see if they'll give you some kind of no cost trial period.

Good Luck
Willa said:
I presently have a comcast cable connection for my internet
provider. For the money, I think it stinks! It's certainly NOT
what they advertise it to be, and I've been using it for two years!
Every three months I have to have a guy out here to 'check', and
last time he put in something called an amplifier, which they
charged me $75 for! It did NOTHING. I've been fighting with
Comcast for six months over this, and they are not at all
sympathetic or helpful. I guess they figure they have their
die-hard internet customers by the cajones (sp?) if you know what I
mean.

I'm tempted to switch to Verizon DSL, but wonder if I won't REALLY
regret THAT! Any opinions here? If I knew cable was going to be
this slow, I suspect that I could have saved myself a LOT of money!
Maybe it's just Comcast that's terrible?

Employees of Verizon or Comcast need not respond, LOL! Thanks for
your input, everyone!

;)
Willa
http://www.pbase.com/willa
Click to expand...
--
rich
c-700, d-510, DSC-F707
'it's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got'
http://www.pbase.com/iceninevt
 
Those amplifiers don't help. The only way I got mine to work better was to put my compuster closer to where the line comes into the house. If you have long cables or lots of spliters it reallly weakens the signle
Willa said:
I presently have a comcast cable connection for my internet
provider. For the money, I think it stinks! It's certainly NOT
what they advertise it to be, and I've been using it for two years!
Every three months I have to have a guy out here to 'check', and
last time he put in something called an amplifier, which they
charged me $75 for! It did NOTHING. I've been fighting with
Comcast for six months over this, and they are not at all
sympathetic or helpful. I guess they figure they have their
die-hard internet customers by the cajones (sp?) if you know what I
mean.

I'm tempted to switch to Verizon DSL, but wonder if I won't REALLY
regret THAT! Any opinions here? If I knew cable was going to be
this slow, I suspect that I could have saved myself a LOT of money!
Maybe it's just Comcast that's terrible?

Employees of Verizon or Comcast need not respond, LOL! Thanks for
your input, everyone!

;)
Willa
http://www.pbase.com/willa
Click to expand...
--
C-2100 UZI
 
Willa said:
I presently have a comcast cable connection for my internet
provider. For the money, I think it stinks! It's certainly NOT
what they advertise it to be, and I've been using it for two years!
Every three months I have to have a guy out here to 'check', and
last time he put in something called an amplifier, which they
charged me $75 for! It did NOTHING. I've been fighting with
Comcast for six months over this, and they are not at all
sympathetic or helpful. I guess they figure they have their
die-hard internet customers by the cajones (sp?) if you know what I
mean.

I'm tempted to switch to Verizon DSL, but wonder if I won't REALLY
regret THAT! Any opinions here? If I knew cable was going to be
this slow, I suspect that I could have saved myself a LOT of money!
Maybe it's just Comcast that's terrible?
Click to expand...
For whatever it's worth - I too had continuing cable Internet problems (AT&T, northern Colorado), and switched to Qwest DSL. No problems at all with DSL, certainly not compared to cable modem. It IS slower, officially, but except when I do huge downloads (50 MB or more) I don't really think it makes a real-world, perceptible difference.

I suspect that this is one of those "your mileage may vary - ENORMOUSLY" situations. If you're located just right, either solution may have problems, or work. It may not even be the technical prowess of the two vendors.

Doug
 
Willa said:
I will definitely try that! However, you'd think that Comcast
would try to help me straighten this out instead of spending MONEY
sending guys out to people's homes and never accomplishing anything!

Thank you so much for reading and responding to my post!

;)
Willa
Happy Holidays, Everyone!

http://www.pbase.com/willa

Click to expand...
Anytime just glad i was a little help good luck
chuck p
olyc4000
 
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