Internet connection options

[KLD]

Ok, first I have to say, be gentle with me! I am a nurse, not a computer geek. I need to know some information in a way that I can understand it.

I currently only have a dial-up connection at home. This is both slow and interferes with my use of the phone while on-line. I am getting a new iMac soon (within the next 2 months) with the Panther OS to replace my older iMac, and plan to look at a new connection method/service at the same time.

What are the pros and cons of each of these?

Accelerated dial-up (like NetZero)
DSL
Cable Modem
Wireless
Any others I should consider?

I don't want to spend buckets of money. I currently spend $21/month with earthlink as my ISP. I live in a condo, so extensive installation requirements can be a problem.

I mostly do internet surfing, on-line banking and e-mail. I do not download MP3s or other huge files other than occasional photograph jpgs in e-mails.

Thanks for any help with this.

[chasb]

Noticed you are from CA. Here is the best deal I have located. SBC DSL 26.95/Mo

http://www.sbc.com/residential_customers/0,,,00.html

[bigbob]

DSL uses your telephone line. But while you are online your phone will still ring and you can answer it. You can also make outgoing calls on your phone while you are online. So, it has no effect on your telephone service. It is much faster than dialup. 26.95 sounds like a great deal.

[Andy]

Originally posted by KLD:

Accelerated dial-up (like NetZero)
DSL
Cable Modem
Wireless
Any others I should consider?
.

Accelerated dial-up is still dialup, slow.

DSL, that is a good bet depending on how far from a CO or RT you are. To see if the line you are on is short enough, type in your phone # here (http://www.dslreports.com/prequal), if you are below roughly 16K foot, you are good to go. I am assuming your phone co is SBC if you are in CA, the next step is to go here (http://www02.sbc.com/DSL_new/content_new/1,,18,00.html?pl_code=MSBC245C8952P192180B0S0&pl_code=MSBC245C8952P185794B192143S0) to see your options. At the lowest crappiest connection that you can get depending on line conditions you will get 384 synch speeds, which is about 6 times faster that dial-up assuming you are getting close to the 56K modem standard currently. If you have a shorter line/good conditions, you will get a currently marketed by SBC synch speed of 1.5, which translated into real speeds is really close to T1 speeds (downstream only, but for internet use it is all that is needed) There are limitations as far as if you are on pair gain, loaded pair, etc. if your line qualifies for DSL, but if you are in a fairly urban area, you shouldnt worry too much about it.

Cable modem is good too, there are some really fast options available there, but this can be pricier than DSL, and reliablilty can be questionable as well.

Wireless is interesting, I have a neighbor that is using Sprint RF based internet service, I manage to hop onto his service for big downloads as he has an unsecured wireless router, it is pulling close to 5 times the speed of my DSL. I checked their website for this and it seems they are no longer starting new subscriptions, only supporting existing ones, so I dont know if this might work for you. You have to see what is available in your area.

After all this mumbo jumbo I posted, which do I think is best? I'd say DSL if you can get it.

[jimnms]

DSL is usually cheaper, but you have to be within a certain distance to a CO in order for it to be in your area. If you want raw speed, cable is faster, but can cost a little more. Your phone company should have a website where you can put in your phone number to see if DSL is available in your area.

If all you're worried about is the phone line being busy while online, get a modem that supports v.92 and get call waiting. While you're online and you get a call, you will be able to put the internet on hold and answer the phone.

IMO those accelerated dialup services are a joke, stay away from them.

_____
Learn from the mistakes of others, you won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

[PN]

KLD:

Cable Internet is faster than DSL and DSL is faster than dial-up. Also, cable Internet and DSL will not tie up the telephone line. Cable Internet usually costs more than DSL; I would suggest that you consider DSL Extreme, at $24.95 a month. It is also my understanding that DSL Extreme, has very good tech support. If you have more than two computers or a laptop in your home, then you would probably want a wireless router. The dial-up acceleration may not be any faster than what you are currently using. Go to DSL reports (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/33366).

http://www.dslextreme.com/dsl/

PN

[This message was edited by PN on 01-19-04 at 08:46 PM.]

[SCI-Nurse]

Thanks for all the advice! I will follow up and let you know what I eventually decide.

(KLD)

[Lewis]

I couldn't be happier with my cable modem (Comcast Broadband)! Once you go cable, you'll never go back http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

-Lewis

[SCI-Nurse]

Well, I got my new 17" flat screen iMac yesterday and ordered SBC DSL today...but cannot get it until 4/15 http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/frown.gif

I am keeping my old computer on-line with my dial-up ISP until I can get the DSL installed (myself).

I LOVE my new iMac! Set it up in 20 minutes, did my taxes with TurboTax in another couple of hours with no problems. Still learning Panther, but I think so far it is great. Can't wait to get on-line with it!

(KLD)

[Brad_D]

You can easily get online with your iMac, providing that you aren't using an ISP with proprietary windows software like NetZero. If you plug your phone line into your iMac and click "Network" in the system prefs, all you have you to do is input your username, password and access # to get online. Who is your dial up ISP?

[PN]

KLD, congratulations! Let us know if everything goes okay with you DSL high-speed connection.

PN

[SCI-Nurse]

I currently have Earthlink, but I am fine with waiting until I can get going with the DSL line. I want to use the new iMac "cherry" with DSL instead of dial up!!! http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

(KLD)

[PN]

KLD, you will notice a "big jump" from dialup to DSL.

PN

[Andy]

Sounds good on the DSL. When you install it, leave the DSL modem turned on for at least 10 days, or just leave it on all the time. Reason being is that ASI (the 'D.B.A.' SBC DSL) uses a ramp up algorithm to set the final synch speed for your service. The final speed will depend on the distance from the CO your house is, the closer you are, the faster it will go, but you have to leave the modem on for this to happen. If you are fairly close, you will get near T-1 down speeds http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/wink.gif After about two weeks, do a couple of these tests...Speed Test (http://support.sbcglobal.net/dsl/speedtest/) and let us know how fast it is. Good luck!

[Cappy]

Ok..nobody seemed to have given you the low-down so here goes.

Accelerated dial-up (like NetZero) - Dial-up any more is just not worth it. Too slow. Once you have a T1, DSL, or Cable you will understand what I mean.

DSL - carried on your home phone line. Not shared(I will explain this in the cable description). Speed depends on what you can afford to pay. I think that 384 is the standard (middle tier) which is fine for most folks. Received speeds are faster than transmit speeds. That means ... a receive speed of 384Kbits/sec with a transmit of 128KBits/sec. So upload a file or sending email takes longer that receiving the email. Unless you pay for the faster services (which tend to even this out). Also..as was said below. You have to be within so many feet of a switch station where with cable it doesn't matter.

Cable Modem - Cable is a shared line. This means that ALL folks on your block share the same cable line. Therefore, if everyone on your block is using the internet at the same time then it will slow down no matter what the speed. It is a little faster than DSL however DSL's speed does not change depending on the usage (it is a dedicated line).
Tx and Rx speed configuration is just like DSL.

Wireless - To use this you have to have a broadband hookup anyway. But the caution here is that it is not secure. However, security depends on the band protocol that you are using. 802.11 G can be set up for encryption so therefore if somebody is using a receiver in your area then they will see garbage otherwise (no encryption) anybody with a receiver can pick up the web page you are on and the information that you transmit and receive. So far courts have said that if you transmit over the air that it is fair game for interception. Not too sure about the cell phone but I do know that cell phone transmissions can be picked up with the right equipment (sorry off subject). So unless you set up encryption for wireless, I would stay with the CAT5 hard wire (called "patch cables" and "networking" ).

Cappy

[This message was edited by Cappy on 04-09-04 at 10:50 AM.]

[Scott Pruett]

Cappy is pretty much correct, but the DSL & cable speeds are increasing as time goes on. I have a cable connection that runs at 3mbps... & that's a heck of a lot faster than a "middle-tier" DSL line @ 384kpbs.

I've never had a problem with cable being a "shared" connection. Most residential users aren't going to be sucking a ton of continuous bandwidth anyway.

[Andy]

Originally posted by Cappy:

That means ... a receive speed of 384Kbits/sec with a transmit of 128KBits/sec. So upload a file or sending email takes longer that receiving the email. Unless you pay for the faster services (which tend to even this out).

KLD, dont worry about this, the base package which you probably have will go up to a 1.5mbps synch rate, line conditions permitting. If you want to pay more, you can go to a 1.5/6.0 speed package for cheap (at least compared to before) with SBC's new promos, which is screaming, but lets wait to see what you synch up to when you get your DSL first http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/wink.gif

And guys, remember advertised synch speeds are not necessarily the speeds you will have, there is transmission overhead which reduces the actual speed.

And shoot, while I am at it, I thought I would throw out some more corrections...Cappy, 802.11G, or B, or A for that matter is just a transmission protocol. Encription is generic across any of these formats be it WEP or WAP. While WEP can be cracked with enough packet samples/time, WAP is tougher. But for typical home use, most 'wardrivers' really will not be interested in what you are doing. Ok, enough technobabble for now http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[jimnms]

It doesn't matter if it's cable or DSL, you're sharing bandwidth somewhere down the line. You can usually get more bandwidth for less $$$ with DSL, and thats good if you just browse. As for speed (latency) cable will be faster, even if you have less bandwidth available. If you're gaming, cable's the best way to go.

The only broadband avalable in my area is cable. They're ripping me off @ $50 for 512Kb download and 256Kb upload.http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/mad.gif A friend of mine has a DSL line and gets 1.2Mbps download and 384Mbps upload speeds according to broadbandreports.com's bandwidth tests, but I get better ping itmes when playing online games.

_____
Learn from the mistakes of others, you won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

[SCI-Nurse]

OK, I have been on SBC DLS now for 1 hour and am just getting on to moderate (my first few posts). It sure is noticably faster than dial-up! I will have to play with it a bit more, but I am stoked to have my new iMac fully on line, faster and also be able to use my telephone at the same time.

(KLD)

[PN]

KLD:

I won't be the first to say this but once you have a high speed connection, it is very difficult to go back to dial-up.

PN