dsl vs cable

[CurlieQCarrie]

Okay, so I have dial-up service. I am looking to change to either DSL or cable modem, but am not sure which is safer against viruses, etc. What would you all recommend? BTW, we have 2 computers in the house that we want to use...does that really matter?

*Please excuse my computer ignorance..... http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/wink.gif

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Live for today because yesterdays are over and tomorrows may never come.

[PN]

Hi Carrie:

Cable is faster than DSL and, in some cases more reliable. If the price is the same for both of these services; then, I suggest you go with cable. If you decide on DSL, find out how far you are from the CO (Central Office). Two miles or fewer is OK.

By the way, you will need to purchase a router which costs around $60 and this will be your firewall along with allowing you to connect your second PC to the network. Good luck!

www.dslreports.com/ (http://www.dslreports.com/)

PN

[teyrn]

Cable is offering higher speeds, though it is at a higher price. DSL is a technology that works but isn't perfect. Calbe is proven and depending on providers more solid and stable. Broadband Reports, or DSL reports (http://www.broadbandreports.com) has the largest database of of high speed internet providers and rankings. You can look in your area to see which is the most reliable, fastest, and cheapest. In the end it mainly comes down to quality and reliability. Speed but poor quality isn't worth more then slower speeds but a reliable connection to the web, regardless of the price.
No internet connection is better/worse for getting infected with a virus or trojan. Broadband is a larger target and more desired for DDOS attacks, but the trojan and virus developers really only care about numbers of infected machines. Using a reliable antivirus program and firewall are the biggest steps one can take to secure their computer. Dissabling services such as Messenger, and DCOM and blocking ports with the firewall from 135 to 139 will protect your computer even further. A router will be needed to connect more then one computer to the internet and will also provide a NAT (Natural Address Translation) firewall. This gives the computers on your local network a private address that can't be seen online and making the router handle all the "bad" traffic keeping your computers relatively safe.
Switching from Dialup to Broadband is a life changing experiance. Most people wonder why they waited so long to make the change. Regardless of what you get, DSL or Cable, the change compared to Dialup is enormous. Good luck with your decision and happy surfing http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

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[Shantanu]

Hi Carrie,

Cable is much faster than DSL sometimes by a factor 2 or 3 depending on your service provider. DSL is cheaper than Cable. The cable net cost can come down if your cable company is providing some goood deals like cable net and tv combo deal. Sometimes it also depends on your area and if the apartment building to be ready for DSL or cable or both. But given the choice between cable and DSL I prefer cable.

Depends on what you choose, the service provider will give you cable or DSL modem. You will need to connect your Cable wire ( telephone wire in case of DSL) to the Cable (DSL) modem. If you want to hook only one computer than just connect your cable modem CAT5e wire to the ethernet port of your computer and your computer will go online. But if you want to connect more than one computer to internet you will need a router that is connected to your cable or dsl modem. You can buy wireless routers so that you dont need cat5e ethernet wires running around the home. To use wireless router you need to have wireless cards in your computer. setting it up is easy.

[Wise Young]

carrie,

The risk of virus, etc. are about equal in both cable and DSL. They come mostly from email and your email service provider (aol in your case) will screen most viruses. So, your decision should be mostly based on speed and stability of your internet connection, and of course price.

At home, I use Optimum Online cable. It is quite reliable and fast (1-2 Mbytes/sec) but expensive ($50/month). Unfortunately, they are the only choice in this area of New Jersey. Because multiple users may be using a cable (from the same building or area), the speed may depend on the amount of traffic but I have never noticed any problems with speed. I don't use the Optimum online email service to receive mail, only to send out email. Yes, the cable is occasionally down. The price is the only major drawback.

I agree with Shantanu. Wireless has many advantages, particularly if you have more than one person in your household that is using internet. Most laptops (and all Macs laptops) come equipped with wireless these days. I just plug an Apple Airport into the cable modem. On most evenings, my wife and I use it simultanouesly and I do not notice any loss of speed.

Wise.

[Cappy]

Here are a few facts...

Cable
Quicker that DSL. However, can be slow @ peak periods because the cable line is shared between homes. This means that more people downloading in your neighborhood the slower the speed.

DSL
Can be faster than cable @ peak periods because it is a "dedicated" line. That means that you are service by a single line that is NOT shared between homes. But there are a few things that influence this. One is how far you are away from a switching station. The farther you are the slower the connection AND the poorer quality. The other is the quality of the electrical signal. If your neighborhood has old lines that are not kept up then this can influence the quality of the electrical signal.

But...Cable does cost more that DSL. Sometimes double depending on your area.

A third option is satellite. However, latency and upload times happen to be the biggest deterrent to this.

[Brad_D]

I don't have cable where I am, but my DSL is rated at 3000/384 and I usually run at 2500/350. My ISP, Netrox charges $29/mo for 256/128, $49/mo for 1500/256 and $54/mo for 3000/384. I have 2 Mac's, a PC, Tivo and Vonage (VoIP) on my home network both wired and wireless. Everything works great.

[BobSaid's Wife]

I have cable internet and use a wireless router. We have up 4 computers online all the time and have had no problems or issues, but all have good anti-virus, anti-spam and firewall software on them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Juli

[jimnms]

Originally posted by Cappy:

Here are a few facts...

Cable
Quicker that DSL. However, can be slow @ peak periods because the cable line is shared between homes. This means that more people downloading in your neighborhood the slower the speed.

DSL
Can be faster than cable @ peak periods because it is a "dedicated" line. That means that you are service by a single line that is NOT shared between homes. But there are a few things that influence this. One is how far you are away from a switching station. The farther you are the slower the connection AND the poorer quality. The other is the quality of the electrical signal. If your neighborhood has old lines that are not kept up then this can influence the quality of the electrical signal.

But...Cable does cost more that DSL. Sometimes double depending on your area.

A third option is satellite. However, latency and upload times happen to be the biggest deterrent to this.

Just to clear some things up, the DSL line is direct from your house to your ISP. With cable, the line from your house to the ISP is shared by others. If the ISP is set up correctly they wont overload the lines, so you shouldn't ever see a problem during peak hours.

However bandwidth for DSL is still technically shared. If your ISP only has a 12Mbit connection, and they have 100 DSL customers, then those 100 customers are sharing that 12Mbit connection. The bandwidth and line quality with DSL varies depending on the distance from you to the CO. If you're just barely in range, then you may not be able to get the full bandwidth they offer, and the latency (lag) will be greater. That is why gamers prefer cable.

If you don't play games, and if both are available, go with the cheapest. Alot of DSL and Cable providers offer a "lite" package, usually 256/256 for about $20/month. They do that to compete with dialup ISPs, that's alot more bandwidth for the same money, and you don't tie up your phone line. If you just want an always on connection for browsing and email, and if you don't play games or download large files, then you might want to go with one of the "lite" packages.

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

[PN]

If I recall correctly, when cable first became available in Silicon Valley, there was an article in the L.A. Times talking about how slow the cable internet had become because of more users. Today, they resolve that problem by placing a limit or what's called a "node" and after it reaches a certain number of, say, 300 (for example) users, then they just purchase new equipment, and the system should not slow down.

PN

[Cappy]

Try this for some more info...

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6536_7-726601-1.html

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/dslvscablemodem/

[Salimacatwoman]

I have had internet by Cable for more than 5 years and it's better than dial up.

www.wheelsforindependence.biz (http://www.wheelsforindependence.biz)

[mattblan]

Cable is way better than DSL. Don't let anyone tell you any different. The only thing DSL has on cable is availibility. If you can get cable, go for it and never look back.

[jimnms]

Originally posted by mattblan:

The only thing DSL has on cable is availibility.

It's exactly the opposite here. Cable coverage is much broader than DSL. Very few places here can get DSL. The cable company knew that and was charging outrageous fees for little bandwidth. We don't have a large name like roadrunner, it's some small local run crap. They charged over $50 for 512k service, and almost $70 for 1Mbit. Those lucky enough to get DSL could get 1.5MB for $45.

The phone co. has been upgrading it's lines and extending their DSL servie, so now the cable co. is starting to be more competitive. First the phone co. started offering a 3Mbit service for $45 and lowered the price of it's 1.5Mbit and lower speeds. The cable co. upgraded to 1.5Mbit as the standard service for the same price, and started offering the 512Kb service for less.

Starting in March they upgraded us to 3Mbit and lowered the price finally.

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

[Wesley]

I just switched from dial-up to fiber optics. Verizon just started offering it in our area. When I checked the band with speed, it made a big difference which browser I was using. AOL was about half the speed of Mozilla. Any idea why that would happen? FYI, they offer 5mbs for $40 a month and 15mbs for $50.

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" Henry VI Part II

[teyrn]

Originally posted by Wesley:

I just switched from dial-up to fiber optics. Verizon just started offering it in our area. When I checked the band with speed, it made a big difference which browser I was using. AOL was about half the speed of Mozilla. Any idea why that would happen? FYI, they offer 5mbs for $40 a month and 15mbs for $50.

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" Henry VI Part IIDiffrent browsers handle http diffrently. Some are more efficiant. I haven't ever used AOL but I am guessing with their security and filters and what not it can get pretty slow. They do have AOL that is optimized for broadband maybe you were using that but if not it might have handled web pages more efficiantly.

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[jimnms]

Originally posted by Wesley:

I just switched from dial-up to fiber optics. Verizon just started offering it in our area. When I checked the band with speed, it made a big difference which browser I was using. AOL was about half the speed of Mozilla. Any idea why that would happen? FYI, they offer 5mbs for $40 a month and 15mbs for $50.

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" Henry VI Part II

Is that a typo? They offer an extra 10Mbit for only $10?

What did you use to test your bandwidth. The only ones I use are Java based, so it wouldn't matter what browser you use.

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

[Wesley]

posted 03-15-05 12:25 AM
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is that a typo? They offer an extra 10Mbit for only $10?

What did you use to test your bandwidth. The only ones I use are Java based, so it wouldn't matter what browser you use.



It's no typo. Verizon also offers 30Mbps service but it costs $140 a month. Go figure

I used bandwidthplace.com to check my speed. I'm on a wireless router so maybe there's some fluctuation in speed due to that. I don't know that I could really tell the difference between 2-3 Mbps and 5mbps anyway.

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" Henry VI Part II

[jimnms]

I use the speed tests over at BBR:
http://www.broadbandreports.com/stest

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