Cable modem? Is it worth the price?

[agent1]

I have an opportunity to get a cable modem for 39.99 a month for service. Is the speed that much better than a 56k. Is it worth the price? Thanks everyone.

 

[Dulanic]

Lets see 20x the speed or more.... 2 times the price.... even less if you have your own phone line.... so YES

 

[BoberFett]

Depends on the provider, but cable will generally be at least 20x as fast.

 

[Mutilator]

Get it, get it, get it!
I had a cable modem since about April and never wanted to go back to 56k again... then about 2 weeks ago I moved and couldn't take my cable modem with me since the cable company wasn't on my side of the street... so I'm stuck waiting for UPS to bring me my DSL modem (should have it in 3-5 days)... but let me tell ya... once you've seen the speed broadband brings you you'll NEVER go back to 56k again... willingly anyway.

 

[ERJ]

Yes.

When you consider the price of 56k ISP + an extra phone line charges a cable modem doesn't really cost that much more. And it is a TON faster.

ERJ

 

[billyjak]

I just got cable yesterday from Time Warner. $39.95, can get rid of second phone line which is about the same as I was paying anyway.
This Rocks, downloaded a 10 meg file in 1.2 minutes
I will never go back to a Modem
By all means get it, You'll be amazed
I'm blown away at the speed it loads pages, been waiting for over a year since I signed up.
It was worth the wait.

 

[pm]

Downstream bandwidth on mine is about 35x a 56k connection (2.1Mb/s down).
Upstream bandwidth on mine is about 25x a 56k connection - which is actually 33.6 (810kb/s)
Latency on mine is about 10-20% of what it was on my 56k modem (pinging the gateway).
I have noticed only minor fluctuations in these numbers depending on time of day.

I was paying $18/month for a second phone line and $20/month for unlimited access, so it was a no-brainer to switch to cable for $2 more per month.

Downtime is more than my old ISP (about 6 hours per month with cable vs. about 6 hours per year with my old ISP). You will have worry more about hackers (they seem to target cable modem IP numbers), so you'll need to invest in a firewall or a NAT router. Other than that, there are no downsides that I can think of.

 

[Mutilator]

I think I read this before somewhere but can't remember exactly where...
You can always tell someone who just got cable or dsl because they're the ones that have a smile on their face non-stop for atleast a week.
Get it and you'll find out that's pretty much the truth.
I was shocked when I first got my cable connection up and running... the only bad thing I can really say is that if you're a gamer.. and have your favorite servers... you may have to change them. I did... got use to it tho.. found a couple servers near by that gave me a 20ms ping or less
200+ vs 20... hmm let me think...

 

[Radboy]

Yes! Yes! Yes!

You will think you died & went to bandwidth heaven.

 

[dolphins]

Just got mine this week and it absolutely toasts a stupid dialup you won't regret going with it. make sure you uninstall file and printer sharing from your nic card and then if you want that additional safety just install this free software firewall called zonealarm from zonelabs

 

[bigjon]

I've had mine for almost 2 years now and would give up computing if I had to go back to 56k It smokes the shared T1 at work, and just having an always-on connection and being able to disable Dialup Networking in Windoze is enuf of an advantage for me!

 

[pdo]

Cable is like dope once you've experienced it you can't live without it. I get about 3.5-4.5 Mbps on my cable. That's like a T-3 line. And upload is a mere 128kbps. They're smart for capping upload otherwise I would suck up all those bandwidth.

 

[Noriaki]

obviously the land slide is for get cable, and I'll just add my vote.

i prefer DSL, to cable, but if you are comparing cable to 56k, well..there's not comparison.

 

[idgaf13]

Cable is nice IF you do not live in an apartment building.
If you live in a private residence, it is terrific.
If you live in a high rise the cable may be distributed thru a junction box,you would be sharing line capacity with all those
connected to that junction.Thhat may not sound bad,I did not think so.
But it will affect speed depending on quantity of users
at that time.
Good Luck

 

[GeoffS]

Hi... my name is Geoff <Hi Geoff!>... and I'm a cable modemaholic... I tried out the free two month trial thinking I could quit any time I wanted... now I am hopelessly addicted... the thought of a 56k modem connection gives me the shakes... HELP ME!

 

[dadx2mj]

Yes, Yes, Yes, with out a doubt it is worth it if you spend any time online playing games or downloading. I have been on Road Runner for about a year and even though the speed goes up and down some even at its slowest it is much faster than dial up. Loading web pages is like turning pages in a book. It is also nice not to be tiying up the phone line or having to log on if yo just want to check mail real quick or something.

 

[Bignate603]

same thing happens in a neighborhood, you still got the junction, it's just out on a line some where. When more people in my town got cable mine moved from freakin tear your skin of speed to mere slap in the face wicked speed. I'll still never regret it.

 

[formulav8]

My cable coooks. I wouldn't go back to dial-up or get dsl unless i had too.

 

[GQ]

If you get cable or have it, this site can speed it up for you. Try out the tweek patch, my speed went from 200 - 300k to 600 - 800k

http://www.speedguide.net/index.shtmlspeedguide.net

 

[Zilldian]

39.99 a month! I pay $45. 39 is acually a good deal! Go for it.

 

[Ben]

<< It smokes the shared T1 at work >>



Ya, funny thing is, that T1 costs an arm and a leg and it isn't very fast by today's standards.

I'm sure your Cable modem is faster, and if you knew how much they were paying for that T1 your mouth would hit the floor.

 

[PliotronX]

The concept of bandwidth actually takes meaning when you get broadband. By all means, get the cable, it's incredible.

 

[SSP]

I had to pay 30 bucks for internet call manager (Didn't want to miss my calls), and 23 bucks for Sprint internet service. So naturally, I went with Cable after having the above setup for like 8 Months. BTW, we didn't have free internet access back then.

Cable is nice IF you do not live in an apartment building.

I live in an Apartment Building and I don't notice and slowdowns. The people in my Building are too stupid I guess.

 

[Yzzim]

I'm getting my cable installed on Tuesday, November 28th between 8 and noon I can't wait!! Getting it through Mediacom for $29.99/month plus $10/month for the modem rent and $10.50/month for cable TV (it's required). Needless to say, I can't wait!!! However, I live in an apartment though, hopefully there aren't many people hooked up

 

[Looney]

I guarantee you that after using Cable for any length of time you'll never want to go back to 56k. And at $40 a month, that's not that much more expensive than unlimited dialup and a phone line.

Definitely get it. I've had it for over 4 years and love it.