Posted: 12/29/2009 6:58:02 PM EDT
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I find myself needing to change my internet provider shortly after the first of the year. I currently have Verizon DSL and it's performance has been very much meh.
What sort of options are there out there these days? I'm in unicorporated Snoho-co. Is there a chance to upgrade to fiber optic? How would I find out? What about satelite? We don't have cable TV by choice, BTW. Is cable internet a lot better than DSL? I'm a scientific sort, but not a gadget guy. Humor me.... |
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Is cable internet a lot better than DSL?
I liked cable better for its inter-web/browsing/post whoring speeds. I have DSL now because I have too, I would go to cable carefully though, I hear to many folks on the same line (or whatever) can lag the service during peak hours. I don't know if there is any truth to that. my .02 |
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Quoted:
Is cable internet a lot better than DSL? Those who tell you simply yes are oversimplifying to the point of inaccuracy. Cable tends to have a higher peak speed (if noone else in your neighborhood is on it) but it doesn't have a set minimum speed like DSL because cable is shared. DSL works by giving you a guaranteed fraction of any period of time, and if someone else isn't using their fraction, sometimes you get to use that fraction in addition to yours. ETA: spelling |
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I believe that by the end of 2009, verizon was scheduled to have all it's lines (or whatever you'd like to call them) switched over to FIOS. I know that when I went from cable to FIOS, I didn't really otice a big difference as far as speed (your pc will eventually be the limiting factor), but the reliability was incredible...I can probably count on one hand the number of outagtes there has been in 3 or 4 years
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Quoted:
I believe that by the end of 2009, verizon was scheduled to have all it's lines (or whatever you'd like to call them) switched over to FIOS. They currently have no plans to upgrade our copper wires out here on the Tulalip Rez. 
 isn't doing too bad for over (at least a half mile of) Cat3 cable.
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ouch! how far out in the boonies are you? |
| i have had verizon fios for years as well. no outages (knock on wood). At this point, their TV service is available now too, so i 'm tempted to switch from comcast to them to have one less bill to pay. i don't think its really any cheaper for what we need, but i'm sure there's some kind of bundle discount we could get...i think something like 25 down / 15 up. |
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http://www.speedtest.net/result/666719221.png
Ouch. Thank you Key Peninsula. |
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i have had verizon fios for years as well. no outages (knock on wood). At this point, their TV service is available now too, so i 'm tempted to switch from comcast to them to have one less bill to pay. i don't think its really any cheaper for what we need, but i'm sure there's some kind of bundle discount we could get...i think something like 25 down / 15 up. be sure you read the fine print: my ex signed up for "the bundle"..ended up being quite a bit more once the "introductory period" was up & she was still in her "contract"...$350.00 later & she's back with comcast |
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Just remember, .7 Mb/sec = 700K/sec....my first Internet hookup was 28.8K, which was upgraded within a year to *gasp* 56K/sec..... |
| DSL Reports will tell you what your options are where you live. (Dial-up, DSL, cable.) |
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