Posted: 6/11/2007 5:02:42 PM EDT
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Currently have cable for my high speed internet. Thinking of switching to DSL because of the high price and poor service of my current provider. Have a couple questions. First, what do I need for a DSL connection? Standard phone line? Or do they have to install some special equipment. Second, are there any performance issues I need to consider? Obviously this will depend on the individual provider, but in general, is their any difference between DSL and cable that are advertised at approximately the same speed? For instance, my cable is advertised at 3M down/256k up (whatever that means). Lately it has been very slow, so I started doing online bandwidth tests and am averaging about 300-330kbps. That seems pretty low to me. Not sure why it has slowed down so much lately. |
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Hoo-boy.. This is gonna get fun. DSL can be fantastic if you're within spitting distance of a telco central office. If you're out in the sticks, don't even think about it. The telco can't push the signal past a certain distance from the CO. Depending on your telco, they may be using completely arbitrary distances without accounting for things like the age of equipment or real world signal loss. It may work on your current phoneline, but there are lots of reasons why it wouldn't. Phoneline wiring is frequently a nasty hodgepodge of duct tape and bubblegum. A standard analog voice conversation doesn't need a pristine connection. DSL really likes it though. I fucking hate DSL. Your cable company likely needs to string you some new cable, or they're saturated. More likely the cable though. Just a guess 
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I used a couple tests I found on google: one on cnet.com, and another one http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/, and got similar results. I just used the site you recommended and got the results: 561 kb/s down 447 kb/s up |
Not sure about my distance. I live in a major city though. Regarding my phonelines, it is quite a mess. My home is about 80 years old, and I think some of the wiring is original.  Honestly, my biggest issue is my cable company are major c@&k suckers. The only reason I stuck with them this long is the internet connection used to be very fast. Now that the speed has taken a dive, and they have consistently been raising my rates (without good explanation) I was finally ready to ditch them (have phone, internet, and TV through them). I swear, it's almost as if they are intentionally screwing with me to see how long I'll put up with them. I can picture it now, a couple assholes are sitting in their cubicles laughing their butts off: "Hey Bill, I raised this guy's rates 3 times in the last few months, and he's still with us. Heh heh, let's cut his internet speed by 300% and see if he calls and threatens to drop our service again." |
That's why they have the equipment set up in OPM (Outside Plant Modules) in most neighborhoods. Rarely does you DSL line go straight to the CO.
I love my DSL, it works great.
Cable is a common feed and your speed depends on how many are on it. The more people, the slower it gets, especially if you are at the far end. |
Which service/rate plan from them? |
Until about 3 months ago I had a 5mb downstream connection through Charter. The service got to the point where it was utterly unreliable. It would be down for most of the weekend and the latency in the afternoons was horrible. I finally told them to shove it and switched to a 1.5mb DSL connection through Bellsouth. I can't really tell a difference for general web browsing, although it is a little slower when downloading large files. Overall, I am much more satisfied. |
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I have DSL from AT&T and It works just fine. I have no problems with it and it is half the cost of cable. All I had to do was hook up a router to the phone line, install a filter between each phone and the phone line to filter out the DSL signal and run the installation software. I was up and running in about half an hour. |
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I changed to cable because although my dialup worked great when it worked something happened and I would get dropped a lot. I called the company and they found a problem with the phone lines and fixed it and I was back in business. Then it started happening again so I went to comcast high speed internet. All was fine for years until just a few months ago. The modem lights would blink as they should (most of the time) but service was slow and i would get disconnected. I would call and they would say I was online even though I would get an error. THis went on for weeks until I spoke to my neighbor who also had problems but thought it was her computer. SHe called and it was majically fixed. Since then I have had episodes where my modem was not getting a signal, I would call, they would set up an appointment, then I would majically get a signal again. Last night they suggested I swap modems so today when my lights were not all on I did just that. Brought the new cable modem home, hooked it up, same old shit. Discusted I took a nap. When I woke up all the lights were on so I thought yea, I can check my email. Couldn't connect. I just spent over 2 hours, a lot on the phone troubleshooting, and am finally on the web but had to bypass my router and desk computer. I don't know what the problem is, I think there are multiple problems. I am thinking of going to DSL. I cannot access the web half the time anyway, so what if I get kicked off, at least I am on to get kicked off of. Comcast sucks shit through a straw. Everytime I am down and call they tell me how 98% of the people in my hub are on the web and I cannot possibly be out. Sometimes they tell me there is an area outage. It's difficult for me to troubleshoot because it will come and go with no action on my behalf so I cannot rule out an equipment problem on my end. There was a letter in the paper about comcast sucking in my area so I know it's not just me. The worst is when they send someone out, usually they say they have to "send a tech out". WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU DO AND WHY DID THEY SEND YOU!!!! |
Here's what $18.99/mo buys in my neck of the woods. It's usually testing between 2400 and 3200 kb/s, depending on what speed test utility I choose. Network uptime is currently at 99.8% -- Just under 3 days down in five and a half years. Two of those days were because my DSL modem crapped out last month. The other day was a couple of times they took the network down for a few hours for upgrades. ETA: Damn, look at the rates to LA. 
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| I had Cox cable here in OKC & my speed never was "Blazing" fast like they claimed. I changed to AT&T DSL & even though the speed dropped a little bit it wasn't noticeable unless I'm downloading a big file. If I was getting the high speeds like some here are getting with cable I'd of never left Cox. DSL works fine for me >2 meg/s at times closer to 3 |
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My DSL was no better than dial-up so I dropped them after a year and went with cable. I have decent speed most of the time because I live in an area where most people don't have computers, yet alone a cable modem so I don't have to share my connection with hundreds of people. Here's my result with Cablevision as my provider... 
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i prefer dsl over cable. @ least here the modem functions as a router and has a excellent firewall, with 4 different levels of security. you can login to the modem and check uptime/downtime. and if you have difficulties you can call tech support login to the modem and give them the info they need to troubleshoot. cable internet here is 10mb down 1mb up. during non peak times i have seen it go above that around 1.2-5 megabytes per second. cables prices are 49.95 a month peak times downloads are usualy cut in half dsl : speed will vary depending on how many people are hooked up to a particular dslam. but i've never seen it vary as bad as cable ANYWHERE The following Windstream products are available in your area. Please contact us about availability at specific locations. Broadband 6 Mbps$39.95 per month Download Max. Speed of 6.0 Mbps, Upload Max Speed of 384 Kbps. This pricing available for new customers only. Broadband 3 Mbps$34.95 per month Download Max. Speed of 3.0 Mbps, Upload Max Speed of 384 Kbps. This pricing available for new customers only. Broadband 1.5 Mbps$29.95 per month Download Max. Speed of 1.5 Mbps, Upload Max Speed of 384 Kbps. Broadband Lite$24.95 per month Download Max. Speed of 256 Kbps, Upload Max Speed of 128 Kbps. This pricing available for new customers only. |
