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OT ~ DSL or cable connection? Arrggghhh!

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Depends on what your willing to spend... there are several qualities of DSL available although that depends on how far from a relay station you are and if your area has a few different throughput choices. I have the lowest throughput Verizon DSL & shudder to think what life would be like with less.... Cable is traffic is dependant with regard to draw from it throughout your neighborhood... so while it might be faster than DSL during low usage times (like 4 in the morning when everyones asleep) when the draw on the line is heavy there's a noticable drop in speed but that drop still might be faster than what I have. My DSL never fluctuates & has only gone down once in over a year and that was only for a day, supposedly due to a problem in PA. I'm not even all that impressed with my cables TV signal due to signal leakage & heavy draw just within my own house & I've installed my own signal booster & chances are that might prove the same for an internet connection too. You might want to check what DSL throughput choices that are available in your area. the uplink of DSL is rarely the same as the downlink speedwise at the lower end but it gets faster & more equal both ways depending on what's available & what you're willing to pay for it.... DSL is a direct signal on your existing line that is shared by noone in your neighborhood so it's steady no matter what time of day. And so far has been extremely consistant in my neighborhood. At one point my server was live for something like 1700 hours straight. The only reason it wasn't up longer was my need to shut down for upgrades. I would suggest checking to see what DSL deals are available in your area and "IF" they don't insist on a long contract obligation (Usually a year). Try it... You might, however be subject to some initial start-up costs & or reconnection cost should it not be to your liking & should you have to get the cable company to reconnect your cable link. Depends on if thier are any DSL promotions going & you might get like a month to opt out without penalty.
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...
--
'Happy Shootin' !!!
'UZ'P'Shoot'ERS'

http://www.pbase.com/rrawzz http://www.pbase.com/uzgroup/root http://www.pbase.com/otfgallery/uzpshooter

Me & My UZI, Strollin Down The Avenue. Me & My UZI, Focusin On Somethin New. To 'UZe' Or Not To 'UZe'? That 'IS' The Question. c2100uz/e100rs (in that order) & a B-300 & C-210 (in that order)

 
We've had Comcast for a couple of years now, and it has been okay most of the time. When they switched from @Home to Comcast.Net, we were out for a few days. They also had to send a guy out here once to get the cable modem working again. Never had a problem with the cable TV signal.

The speed is usually reasonable, especially during non-peak times. We did have some delayed e-mail deliver on and off a few months ago, but it seems to have been okay since then. There have also been a few multi-hour cable modem outages, and a few times we had to call to get it fixed.

If you're having so many problems, you might want to switch to DLS. I don't have that option, and the cable has been good enough most of the time. Fortunately our problems have been somewhat limited so far.
--
 
WIlla,

If your cable company cannot get your connection to work right, then by all means change!

I have a cable Road Runner connection here at home and it has always had good speed. I have had only one outage in the past two years and that was very short. At work we have DSL 768k up and down and it too works just fine. If you have a decent DSL provider and you are close enough to the CO you should enjoy the DSL.

Too bad the cable company cannot fix the problem.

Gary
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...
--
Gary
C-700
 
Willa, after reading through all the posts for this thread, I thought I might as well share my experiences.

I had DSL from Qwest (Portland, OR). We were guaranteed "650" kbps access speed. Despite trying various different things at the suggestion of tech support, we were never able to get the speed up past 350-400 on a consistent basis. I finally mentioned to tech support the guarantee of "650" kbps . . . and was told to go read the fine print. There they point out that they really only "guarantee" 256! So, I looked around and decided to try cable. The only option for cable here in the Portland are is AT&T. I am now connected to the internet through them. The price is $3-$4 dollars per month less than it was through Qwest DSL, and the download speed is 3-4 times faster with cable. I just did a check on " http://www.dslreports.com/stest " and I'm getting 1447 kbps download and thats not including the TCP transfer overhead. If you add that, I'm getting about 1650 kbps. I've had lots less downtime with cable than I was getting with Qwest DSL. When I called Qwest to tell them to terminate my service, they wanted to know the reason why. I told them that for less money than they charged, I was getting 3-4 times the download speed. They just said "OK", told me they would terminate the service in 2 days, and hung up. At least here in Portland, they can't compare with cable...

One thing about DSL you need to be aware of and that is how far you are from the phone company's central office (CO). If you are more than 17000-18000 feet from the CO, you probably will not be able to get service. There is a place on the internet called 2Wire.com ( http://www.2wire.com/ ) that will allow you to put in your address and it will tell you what companies service your area with DSL.

I do have a friend here in the area that has Verizon DSL and he is fairly happy with his service. But he is paying about $25/month more for his Verizon DSL than I am cable and getting less speed. The charge for cable internet service for me is about $48-$49 per month.

Sooooo . . . a lot depends on where you are located and how much you want to pay.

BTW . . . I haven't had to call the cable company once since I've had the service installed, which was about 1 year ago. Couldn't say that when I was with Qwest DSL.

Best of 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

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?
Willa
http://www.pbase.com/willa
Click to expand...
--
Duane
(Life is what happens while you're making other plans!)
 
I'm going to try that tweak test and see what happens. I am definitely interested in a trial run of DSL though. A few weeks ago, a Verizon rep called offering me a $35/month for LIFE deal if I switched to DSL, but that was never my intention. I'm disgusted with Comcast, so I'll do that tweak test and then decide from there, I guess.

Thanks so much for reading and responding to my post!

;)
Willa
Happy Holidays, Everyone!

http://www.pbase.com/willa

 
Well, if my computer gets any closer to the amplifier, I'll have to hang it from the ceiling!

What a PAIN it has been. And can you believe those CREEPS are trying to charge $75 for that dumb amplifier (which, as you stated, does nothing and never did, so let this be a warning to any potentional 'suckers' out there who believe that nonsense when the cable company tells them they need one). I told them to come and GET it!

Anyway, I'm going to try that tweak test and then see what happens. By the way, did YOU switch to DSL, or are you tolerating what you have?

Thanks so much for reading and responding to my post, Bill.

;)
Willa
Happy Holidays, Everyone!

http://www.pbase.com/willa

 
My problem could certainly just be heavy usage in this area. It is very congested. I just can't believe that I pay all this money for this cr@ppy speed! I'm going to try that tweak test as suggested and then decide what to do next.
Thanks so much for responding to my post, 'P'!

;)
WillaHappy Holidays, Everyone!

http://www.pbase.com/willa

 
Well, certainly ANYTHING is better than (groan!) dial-up. I'm going to do that tweak test thing and then decide on what to do.
Thanks for your input and for reading my whining post in the first place!

;)
Willa
Happy Holidays, Everyone!

http://www.pbase.com/willa

 
All I know is that I am paying $49/month on top of my premium channel cable bill, and enough is enough, LOL! I am starting to feel like the sucker I know I am.

Anyway, thank you SO much for those links and the input, Duane. I really appreciate it. I knew I could get some direction/information if I asked questions over here!
To be continued, LOL ...

;)
Willa

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

http://www.pbase.com/willa

 
You're quite welcome. The only reason I have DSL is, it beat cable getting to my house. The relay station is right down at the end of my street & I jumped at the chance to get anything better than a normal phone hook-up. The Reviews on http://www.dslreports.com in my area weren't good either & at the time my nephew was training the DSL support team for Verizon here & he didn't even give me much hope... Said Verizon was doing it all wrong. I can't say the reviews or he was right cause it's been very good. Pretty coincidentally... I went against some pretty worrysome reports with both my DSL & Uzi & have made out well IMHO....The reports of SDS as well as the greymarket scare were two unfavorable things I sweated with regard to my Uzi.
Willa said:
My problem could certainly just be heavy usage in this area. It
is very congested. I just can't believe that I pay all this money
for this cr@ppy speed! I'm going to try that tweak test as
suggested and then decide what to do next.
Thanks so much for responding to my post, 'P'!

;)
WillaHappy Holidays, Everyone!

http://www.pbase.com/willa

Click to expand...
--
'Happy Shootin' !!!
'UZ'P'Shoot'ERS'

http://www.pbase.com/rrawzz http://www.pbase.com/uzgroup/root http://www.pbase.com/otfgallery/uzpshooter

Me & My UZI, Strollin Down The Avenue. Me & My UZI, Focusin On Somethin New. To 'UZe' Or Not To 'UZe'? That 'IS' The Question. c2100uz/e100rs (in that order) & a B-300 & C-210 (in that order)

 
if you have the choice? go CABLE! much faster! My dsl connection is much slower in upload and also slower in download than the cable connection that I had @home

I also have cable connection in Montreal and it is intentionally limited to 15k in upload but it could go much faster...that is just some sabotage from the stupid Videotron company...

DSL on the other end cannot go much faster than 15k upload. They advertized us 1.5gh but we can barely get 75k in download.
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...
--
Daniella
http://www.photosig.com/viewuser.php?id=26918
http://www.pbase.com/zylen
C700 FORUM: http://www.c700uz.com
 
I've got Covad DSL. 100% operational for the past 2 years. Zero maintenance or problems. I pay the $10/mo extra ($59 total) for their highest speed. I can download as high as 162 Kb per second with this setup - and my speeds don't vary during peak hours like a cable modem setup does. I've got a cable modem at my vacation home (Charter) and also pay for their highest connection speed. Best download speed I can get with them is about 152 Kb per second. I've not had any problems with that cable modem setup either. They have Comcast Cable in our neighborhood and I've heard people around here complain about their Internet service, too. It may be that Comcast just sucks. Don't know.
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...
--
Mike Flaherty
http://imageevent.com/mflaherty/mikesgallery
 
The speed of DSL and Cable are both locational. On average Cable offers higher speeds because the distance limitations are higher. DSL however is capable of far higher speeds then most people believe. Here in Lansing, Michigan we have a DSL service through Michigan State University that actually offers 3Mbit/sec upload and download. At the same time however we have a specialized cable service (at 90 bucks per month) called TCI MET (a by product of old TCI Cablevision that was bought by AT&T) that offers 5mbit/sec upload and download. DSL speeds relate to your provider and distance from the switching station. Cable relates to distance and number of users sharing the line. Cable can offer greater distances however which is why on average you see higher cable speeds.

I was on TCI MET and had what I would call the best cable service in the US. We got personalized service due to a very small customer base. I would call in and say, "Hey this is Mike" and they would know instantly who I was. I never had to go through the BS of tech support. The only reason I had to call is due to the regular and inept AT&T techs that would work on other apartments and screw us up. Comcast however recently aquired AT&T and decided to terminate TCI MET. My roomate and I decided not to go back to a regular Comcast modem because we gave them 4 months before getting TCI MET to get our modem working and they never did. Now I'm on Ameritech DSL and haven't gone down since.
 
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