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Broadband: DSL or Cable?
Re: DSL or Cable?
by dsconst - 11/26/04 7:07 PM In reply to: DSL or Cable? by Carrie72I have had dsl (qwest), and I now have comcast cable. I definately prefer cable. It is faster, and I have never had any problems.
Re: DSL or Cable?
by jim44 - 11/26/04 10:47 PM In reply to: DSL or Cable? by Carrie72Depends on the supplier I've had both. dsl to cable back to dsl. And cable is fast, but cost more and in my case during Ivan cable was down two or three weeks were my dsl stayed up! Check pricing and speed you are offered. Then pick.
Cable is Better than DSL, read on...
by Retheesh - 11/27/04 10:38 AM In reply to: DSL or Cable? by Carrie72You will hear arguments about DSL being better than cable and vice versa. But the truth is: Cable is better simply because of the line quality. DSL uses a standard phone cable to connect the DSL modem to the phone line; if you noticed, the phone cable is thin. Compare that cable to a 75-ohm cable that is used to plug into your television. IT IS FREAKIN THICKER! If you want to pass more current or data through any wire, THICKER IS BETTER, ALWAYS!! So cable does not suffer the limitations of melting the wire as DSL does. In the future, Cable will be able to beef up their signal to something way higher while DSL will be limited to that small phone wire. Oh yeah, if you live in an old house or a house with bad phone cabling, or if you hear slight noises in your telephone conversations, those are signs that DSL is gonna slow down on ya 
Some users might argue that cable sort of "shares" a single line to multiple users, but hey, if you feel like they are giving you slower performance than they promised, THEN COMPLAIN TO THEM! I have in the past and had to do it a few times, but now I am going on 2.5-3.5Mbps easy.
But of course, if you are just gonna browse the internet and not watch any movies or download big files, then DSL will be sufficient, since it's cheaper. Cable is for power users and to me, it's worth it!
Re: Cable is Better than DSL, read on...
by r_rayjr - 11/29/04 4:33 AM In reply to: Cable is Better than DSL, read on... by RetheeshAs someone with an Associates degree in Electronic Engineering you do not know what your talking about. If you cut into a cable line you will see one small thin wire. And round that is a white plastic like cover with a wire mesh round that. And then another cover around that. which is the black or what ever other color you may have. I have seen black, white, and blue. I do not know if there are other color for coaxal cable or not. In fact most that I have seen are either black or white. But as I have said I seen blue once. Anyway if you take this little wire and compare it to the size of one wire in the main phone line going into you home it is smaller than the that phone wire. The wire mesh is used as a ground just like the second wire that is used in the phone line in you home. The size the othe cable wire is not from the size of the actual metal wire it is from the the cover that helps protect and insolate it from what is called in the electrical field as noise. This noise can come from many things. The thicker this cover or as some people call it the shielding the less noise that get to the wire to interfer with the communications. And from what I am now learning in classes I am taking for my Bachelors degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering Technology Phone lines are getting up to the speeds that cable has. In fact for this reason my local cable company (COX COMMUNICATIONS) a few months ago has raised their speed on the cable. I am not getting 4000 Kbps and they also have a premier service of 5000 Kbps. When these phone companys get the fiber optics all set up like they have been talking about doing but have been having problems in many areas cross the country for various reasons. they can get up to speed as fast if not faster than todays modern cable. But even that will change. Because Cable Company's will also be using fiber optics. And I have heard that some companys are using it now in some area. Right now cable is staying a step or two ahead of the DSL. But there may come a day that this will no longer be done. And when this day comes DSL and Cable with be the same speed. So then the only thing that they will be able offer for you business is price and options for other services. When will this happen. I don't know. How ever an instructor I had when I got my Associates degree, he said that he would be willing to bet that is will happen in the next 10 to 20 years. And that was in 2000 or 2001 when he said that. So if he is right you have some were between 6 and 17 years left to find out. And He is usually pretty close. Maybe because he is a retire Navy Officer who worked in this can of area while he was in the Navy. And as someone myself who was in the Navy for over 11 year I have seen and/or heard about the stuff that they (the Navy) were doing when I was still active over 7 years ago.
Re: Cable is Better than DSL, read on...
by HatTrick - 12/5/04 6:56 PM In reply to: Re: Cable is Better than DSL, read on... by r_rayjrI am currently in my 3rd and final year of a Computers/Electonics Engineering Technology program (3 year diploma in a Canadian college, we dont have associates degrees in Canada, so this is probably equivalent). Most of what you said is correct but the basic premise thicker is better, is basically true but thats because of the insulation, and for data communications coaxial cable is far superior to twisted pair (telephone cable and ethernet cable) but Twisted Pair is used for practical consiterations mostly. As for colours never seen blue, but most cables here are black (not used by the cable company), white, or beige/skin tone (usually cable company installed). In my digital communications class this semester Cable and Phone netwroks were just covered. As for fibre optic usage in the phone and cable networks, two way cable netwroks would not exist without fibre optics, in fact here most of the fibre optic lines that are buried are owned by the cable company and leased by the phone company, this is called a Hybrid Fibre-Coaxial network, and the phone network most of the newer sections are most likely coaxial. Cable currently has a potential of close to 600Mhz of unused (not for basic cable) bandwidth for digital cable and internet, theoretically this is split between 120,000 potential subscribers, but in practice in my area less than 100 houses (in my case probably around 50 houses), thats about 200MHz downstream thats shared and 37MHz upstreamed shared. Compare that to 1MHz up and down stream for DSL unshared, now when you calculate the bit rate you see a considerable difference in speeds and potential speeds, whenty eh day comes cable is no longer shared, basically a dedicated fibre connection, you will have hundreds of Mbits/s speeds available. DSL will never reach this without a bandwidth increase over and above the already expanded 1MHz (telephone line is 4KHz as human voice has a bandwidth of 4KHz). But by that time the voice network may not exist, and for that matter the cable netwrok may not exist by the time it would be capable of those suggested speeds.
Just so everyone knows neither cable or DSL is really digital, especially DSL, its just more advanced dial up modem technology with expanded bandwidth. And cable is utilizing unused analog bandwidth not used by basic cable. DSL still has analog to digital conversion (which creates possible errors) once it gets to the public switched telephone network, I do not believe cable has an analog to digital conversion in the same manner (as it is only modulated and demodulated not converted back and forth so no errors).
Sorry for the long technical eplanation. But it may help even those with a very basic understanding.
Re: DSL or Cable?
by wscott21 - 11/28/04 4:46 AM In reply to: DSL or Cable? by Carrie72DSL and Cable is like Apples and Oranges, all tho basicly the same,the big difference that no one talks about is that from the very start, DSL's Capability is limited to 8 Mbps, and Cable is 10 Mbps, so as you can see cable is faster, however, that 20% may be off set by how many folks are on your neighborhood network for cable. where DSL, your network lan, is going to be at the Digital switch at the phone company.At any rate both are better than dial-up Modeum.
Re: DSL or Cable?
by geralt - 11/29/04 10:20 AM In reply to: Re: DSL or Cable? by wscott21How would you explain 20-megabit advanced DSL connection in South Korea and even faster in Japan?
Read on:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_09/b3872049.htm
Re: DSL or Cable?
by JoshHendo - 11/29/04 6:44 PM In reply to: DSL or Cable? by Carrie72I would say that if they are the same price, same speed adn same bandwith usage. It really depends on how much you want to pay, how fast you want it and how much you use. I use ADSL.
Re: DSL or Cable?
by gmasters - 11/30/04 8:08 AM In reply to: DSL or Cable? by Carrie72Couple issues:
1) speed- usually cable faster, but depends on the system in your neighborhood and the usage on it. Note both uplink and downlink speeds- while downlink is usually faster and more important, uplink may be important if you send large eMails, upload large photo's/videos to a web/storage/printing site, or need to connect 2 sites together like a small business would.
2)price- there are good deals on DSL, cable is usually higher and is "monopoly" priced.
3) ease of install- DSL used to be very difficult install, but when we put in verizon dsl at my in-laws 6 months ago it went very smooth, so this may now be a toss-up
4) equipment- usually free w DSL, cable companies like to charge $5/mo, BUT if you order your cable at a store like BestBuy they usually have a free cable modem included- so again may be a toss-up. (the comment someone made about "don't get USB Only Modem" is accurate because USB does not lend itself well to expanding an "in-home" network and sharing the internet- make sure your equipment has an ethernet interface even if you plan to start with just USB and a single PC)
5) E-MAIL: you can't take your address with you if you switch from cable to DSL or viceversa- so either choose wisely now, go through a pain to tell everyone your new address again, or subscribe to a 3rd party service that allows you to create your own domain and/or eMail address and have your mail forwarded from it to your choice of providers....
7)Other features included- perhaps you want to create your own web page(s)or back-up some files/pictures to an off-site storage- what amount of storage does the cable co provide vs DSL company?
8) Yada Yada, the list could go on, bottom line is they are both good compared to dial-up. Unless you need blazing speed for something (about the only real reason is probably for something your not supposed to do on a residential account anyway) then price usually wins..... (I currently have cable because it was available 1st, now I kinda want to switch and save $10 or $15 / month, but I don't want to change eMail addresses)
Re: DSL or Cable?
by miwi98 - 12/4/04 9:06 PM In reply to: DSL or Cable? by Carrie72Find out if your "F2" has been replaced, by your phone company. F2 mean Facility 2 and are usually old cooper wires that will cause interference with your DSL service regardless if is with Verizon, ATT Covad because DSL is used with telephone cabling. Verizon or whatever phone company you subscibe to is obligated by Federal Law-FCC- to replace old wiring outside your home or apartment building. Verizon knows this and because the public is somewhat unaware does not insist that Verizon do so. If they have go with DSL otherwise go with Cable.
This little fact is often omitted but Verizon can be slick and get you to get DSL and after you begin to have problems they will not credit your bill and you may find that their F1 wiring is out of date.
A former AT&T and USA Army System Technican
miwi98
Re: DSL or Cable?
by zzmel - 12/5/04 11:51 PM In reply to: DSL or Cable? by Carrie72I have been using Verizon DSL for over 2 years and hear in So. CA the service is reliable, and quite inexpensive compared to other services. jI don't know where you are located but many areas differ. Just to get DSL is quite an achievement. I know cable is faster but not cheap. In a small town where you live, I would imagine it even be higher in cost, more so than a bigger city. I had cable one time but due to the rather large monthly cost, I opted for a cheaper DSL, Maybe your provider is SBC. The best thing to do is to check it out. Many services give you a discount rate for a month ortwo to see if it is for you. Personally, broadband is the way to go. That could be either DSL or cable. If I am not mistaken, I also believe satellite TV offers broadband. As long as the service is realiable, that would be a primary consideration. Once broadband, always broadband.
go for Cable
by susan_ling - 12/7/04 11:51 AM In reply to: DSL or Cable? by Carrie72go for cable, at least you dont have to worry about wiring problems, sync, NID and et all
i have both cable and dsl (which does not work half the time) and very happy with the cable service.
dsl or cable
by dhollingsworth - 1/11/05 2:26 AM In reply to: DSL or Cable? by Carrie72they are both good,but if you want real speed use cable.it twice as fast as dsl.down load time is way faster.my first choice wood be cale.
Cable vrs DSL
by unappliedtime - 1/11/05 3:29 AM In reply to: DSL or Cable? by Carrie72If you can't make up your mind how much does each cost? I sincerely doubt you or most everyone else out there can tell who is faster unless you measure your replies in nanoseconds. As a consumer - go for the one that costs less and lets you hook up a wireless router without problems and will suport it.
Cable here....but check the costs
by suejulene - 1/11/05 3:42 AM In reply to: DSL or Cable? by Carrie72We chose cable because it was faster here for my husband who is a musician to transfer music to collaborate with other musicians. You might need to check prices. Cable requires the cable modem and costs $40.95/month compared to DSL at $25.95/month.
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