Any real difference in DSL vs Cable? How is MSN DSL?

[Joyride]

I mean other then how you connect the modem?

Are there any speed differences on average?

I have cable now but I would like to get MSN DSL and get a $200 shopping spree. There is a little thing in Iowa where you can't be held to a contract for over 4 months. So I could cancel any time after that

 

[acejj26]

y in the hell does microsoft offer that deal there then?? i'd definitely take advantage of that.

as far as i know, if you live far from your phone company, then dsl is out. the speed depends on how far away you are from the main switches. cable doesn't really have that problem, though cable has a few security risks (read: install firewall software if you get cable). i have cable and i love it. no filters to install on the phone lines, no worry of crosstalk. but i'm sure dsl is good, too, especially with that deal. if you don't like it after 4 months, opt out with all the goodies you bought with your shopping spree 🙂

 

[OpalFrost98GT]

I've had both. Cable is faster where I live. I average 2mbits down and 384 up. DSL can't touch those speeds.

 

[Barrei]

Cable is alot faster , in Canada where I live 🙂DSL runs up to 150 kps , cable up to and beyond 400 kps.

 

[xfiles69]

I would not go with MSN DSL regardless of what they offered. I don't like their support. I have had nothing but headaches dealing with them. That is of course just my opinion and you can take it as you wish.
Cable is faster depending on how many others are sharing the line but in a lot of cases you have to go with what is available in your area.

 

[SteelCityFan]

Add me to the list of horrer stories with MSN's support.

I purchased the Dell Laptop below and elected for the MSN Dial Up free for 6 months (over 6 months free AOL). I figured I would sign up for it just for the free months, and I would use it in the rare case I was away from a broadband connection.

As soon as the PC arrived, I formatted the Hard Drive, so I lost the code Dell entered in the sign up program. I called Dellnet (by MSN) to find out what could be done, and they directed me to MSN's support. MSN told me to simply fax them over a copy of the invoice showing the 6 months MSN, and a letter of explanation and it would be taken care of in about 2 weeks.

In the 2nd month (1st month free by standard offer), I noticed they billed me when I got my bank statement. I called to complain. They credited that months, and told me it just takes a little time to get the offer through the way I had to do it. I sent the information again since he said I probably should just in case.

About this time, I called my bank to get a new Visa Check Card (Strip not working well)... thus changing the expiration date. It turns out that they continued to try to bill me on that card which obviously was denied. I assumed that they had fixed the account for the free 6 months. They neither called or sent a regular letter. They simply sent me an email to the MSN account I only signed into about 5 times during a vacation I took a month earlier. Nothing else. No phone call, nothing.

About the time that the 6 months were over, I called to cancel the account. This is when I found out the real reason for not seeing the money deducted from my account. I had to be transfered a couple times to someone more skilled than the pressure sales people they put in their cancelation department. It turns out, that my account has been locked with an outstanding balance of $43. In a month, they would have turned the account over to a Collection Agency!! All this without first contacting me by mail themselves. They told me I had to contact the "Investigative Billing Department". Do they have a phone number I ask? No they reply.

I had to type up a letter and fax it to them, and wait their response. I gave them a fax to remember. I sent them everything. A cover letter which contained an index of the pages to follow, a detailed explaination (pretty much what you see above), the original letter I sent twice, the invoice I sent twice. I even sent the two Fax confirmation pages I got when I sent the stuff originally.

About a week later there is a message on my machine that they took care of the account, and told me to call back if I wanted to sign up again (Yeah, right).

All this headache for something I used 5 times over 6 months. I knew I should have just signed up with NetZero...


Sorry for the length.. lol

 

[txfirefighter]

By far cable is the way to go. Faster speeds, NO CONTRACTS, and the best part is no having to deal with the phone company. Afer having both I can defnitly say cable is the way to go!

 

[Joyride]

Yea I have 2 firewalls actually on my cable connection (router and Zonealarm)

I am just thinking of going with MSN for like 4-5 months to get the $200 then switch back to cable

 

[FluxCapacitor]

Unless you're renting your cable modem (in which case I would have to ask why) you'll be stuck with a cable modem gathering dust in a corner somewhere.

I don't know anyone who's DSL service is faster than cable, and even during heavy usage times my cable modem still gets better download speeds than DSL in my area.

Another thing to consider is that your rocking MSN DSL is probably going to be the slowest speed service they offer, quite possibly limited to 128k or 256k down and up. Better ask before you switch.

 

[SteelCityFan]

I am considering a switch from Cable to DSL.

I have Comcast. When it was Comcast@home, I got 3500Kbps down and about 1000 up. I even hit over 6000 on some late nights, and could download at 500KBps from some sites. It slowly went down hill, but I could still pretty much always download files at 200KBps or more.

Comcast came along. Their first order of busniess was to Cap everyone off at 1500/128. Then, they installed a transparent proxy server with no apparent way around. Not only that, it would not look for new versions of the page until the old one was there for an hour. Try editing webpages when you can't see the live version for an hour after making a change. I was able to get around this by entering a bogus IP in IE for a proxy, and it (for some reason) would skip Comcast's. Not only that, but they lied about it being there. I emailed their support a number of times, and they all assured me there was no proxy ... until it came out in the news a couple months later. My beef was not with the proxy, it was being forced to use it, and the 1 hour delay it had. Oh, and they raised rates by $5, cut webspace in half, cut email boxes in half, removed VPN ability, removed News Group ability.

I don't see the 1500/128 even though the day before comcast took over I was in the 2-3MB range, so I know my Node can handle it. I see about 1200/100 MAX and as low as 700/70. As long as you are close to your DSL station you see what they advertise, and from dslreports, some people get slightly higher telling me they cap just above what they advertise. I have light packet loss causing me to blink out for a second once inawhile in Nascar 2002.

I canceled Comcast Cable awhile back in favor of DirecTV when they ran the free 4 months of all their channels with the NFL package purchase. I'll never go back to cable TV now.

I get calls from them all the time wanting to sell me cable. The last time they called, I was informed that my non-cable TV Internet price was going up to $60 a month. They used this as a bargaining chip to sell me cable. Trying to sell me their TV channels by informing me they are gonna raise my internet prices 50% if I don't. Since I was a former Cable TV customer, they have not yet begun charging me the non-TV price for some reason. I was supposed to have started paying the $60 this month. I'll wait and see. If they do, I am going to strongly consider the 1500/128 $60 package from DSL. I'll probably run both side by side for a month, and then keep the one I like better.

Oh, and now Comcast is offering roughly what we had with @home in a 3500/384 package for $95 a month.

It's nice to have a monopoly on cable internet. I could only imagine what they would do if DSL was not available.

Man I am long winded today...


So, in summary, it depends on where you live... Cable has the ability to totally wipe the floor with DSL for a lot less if managed well... as mine used to do, but now they are pretty even.

 

[JellyBaby]

I have cable now but I would like to get MSN DSL and get a $200 shopping spree.

But after you eat the groceries you're still stuck with MSN. I've heard quite a few bad things about them.

My advice is to go to a smaller DSL provider, one who will listen to your needs and fight to keep your business.

 

[Joyride]

That's a $200 shopping spree at Best Buy or an XBOX

I guess its like $40 a month for 600kbp speed and $50 for 1.5mbps speed

 

[JellyBaby]

Just be mindful that if it takes special incentives to make products appear attractive, there could very well be something lacking in the product.

 

[Joyride]

Thats true

But that's not the only plan that MSN offers