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Cable vs Dsl

R

rigmah

Senior member
Im thinking of getting a broadband connection and i cant seem to choose between DSL and cable. Im in NYC so road runner cable service and almost all the DSL services are available to me. The road runner service is 40 dollars a month and i believe the DSL service is about the same price. Please help me decide

rigmah
 
It really depends. I'm in a college town so cable modems sucks cuz all the college kids around be sucking up all the bandwidth hosting web, FTP and who know whats. So I switch to DSL a few months back and never look back.
 
Depends what you want to do. There are several reviews out there. They came to the conclusion off

DSL-Gamers delight, Low ping and no ping fluctuations

Cable- Downloaders dream, fat pipe is generally always bigger then DSL. Downside is uploading might be more restricted then DSL.
 
It really depends on the companies in your area (even the same companies in different areas can be different). Some cable companies have crappy connections and some don't, same for DSL.

The best way to decide would be to try them both... see if they will give you a month free or something. Maybe some people from NYC here will be able to relate their experiences in this area... 🙂
 
Since there are probably alot of people on the cable there, I would go with DSL. The more people on cable, the slower cable gets. Not the case with DSL. Also, if you're into gaming, DSL is MUCH BETTER. Besides, you'll get kickass download speeds either way, so I would go with DSL. Shop around, though.

-RSI
 
As pointed out, DSL is steady but cable may at times be faster (and is generally faster at uploads, I believe). You might want to check with other people in your neighborhood.

See:
http://www.fast-mhz.com/articles/cable_vs_dsl/index.html

http://www.gamepc.com/guides/printguide.asp?guide=internet

I have DSL from Ameritech @ $40/month complete with installation and hardware fees waived, and I download @ 896 Kbps vs. 50 Kbps with a dial up modem (those are the practical max speeds for the line from my home to the central office, I believe). This is actually cheaper than when I paid $45/month for ISP + dedicated phone line!

 
Opinions from us are really to generalized for you to make a decision based upon them, however. All these opinions are generally true, but not always. However, if you can tel us what DSL provider you're looking at I'm sure some people who have that specific provider (and maybe even in NYC) can tell you how their experiences have been.

It also might be beneficial to try one and then try the other. For instance, my RR was free installation and I rent the equipment from them. So you could try RoadRunner and then if you're not satisfied switch to DSL and you wouldn't be losing money from a startup/installation/hardware fee.
 
If you are in NYC you are better off with RR. For 40 bucks you will get the low level dsl service from Bell Atlantic and you will probably have grief getting it set up. I have RR and it's been a dream. I got the linksys router and have it running on all of my PCs without any problems. Downloads are fast, I usually get around 1MBPS, sometimes better when I'm dealing with a site that has fast downloads. My IP address seems to be constant, hasn't changed in 3 weeks, although changed once a week the first few weeks. Basically, after having nothing but trouble trying to get a dsl for several months, I called up TimeWarner and ordered RR and in 3 days it was running. No connection charges either. BTW I'm in manhattan, in the "Southern" area of TimWarner map.
 
It totally depends on the service you can expect from your DSL and cable providers. Ask friends in your service area. Also, realize that the further you are from a switching station for DSL, the slower your connection.

Packet loss is a big concern with cable modems, however, so keep that in mind as well.

I'm also thinking you DSL guys mean 500 KBYTES/sec, right? 500 Kbits/sec is only ~63 KB/sec, which is pretty bad!

[edit]Duh, can't use calculator 🙂[/edit]
 
Shazam, you have to divide by 8.

Thanks for all your help. Here is the price quote

Road runner(cable)
$40 dollars a month. Installation is free but the modem is rented. Its $35 a moth if you dont rent. I dont know if the speed is capped. Anyone know if there is a crack where you can uncap the speed restraint? i dont think there is a contract for rr

Earthlink/Mindspring(DSL)
$50 a month. Includes FREE modem/NIC/installation. The speed is 1500/128. 6 month contract

Please more input

Rigmah
 
More input? What else can really be said. The best way to go is to test both out and decide for yourself, or find people who have used both services in your area. The first option might not be feasible and you may not have much luck with the second.

So your down to cable being $15 dollars cheaper a month, though DSL prices are dropping. (If you go with cable, I'd buy the modem, dont rent one...not worth it). I am using Bell-atlantic dsl for $39 a month now, price just dropped last month. I used to use cable but found it to be somewhat slow at peak times. Again, this really means nothing as I am not in your area.

I have found DSL to be very consisent, but then cable wasn't all that bad in this area either. Again, try to find those who use the services your looking at in your area and it will most likely be an easier decision. Most likely, you'll be happy with any choice you make, if you are still using a dial-up isp🙂
 
I don't get much packet loss at all on my @Home connection, so either I'm lucky or cable modem networks don't lose too many packets. Considering my luck in other matters I doubt it is the former.🙂
 
Depends on the area. I can hit 800k/sec sustained with multiple threads going in leechftp on cable. To get that kind of dsl bandwith it would cost me $190 a month. I pay $40 for cable. I can only upload at 16k/sec, but it's still worth it. Pings in Quake3 are <75, and sometimes as low as 20-30. In my mind, unless there is some huge congestion problem in your area (I live in a town of 50,000 in New Jersey), go cable.
 
I'm on cable and most of my friends are on DSL. In my opinion the two are very comparable. I agree with what was said above... cable modem download speeds are generally faster than on DSL - although YMMV depending on the other users in your neighborhood (your node). In my case, I typically get between 800kb/s -> 1.2Mb/s downloading compressed files from fat-pipe sites like Microsoft and Download.Com. My friends get around 600kb/s. Our latencies are very comparable... generally within 10ms of each other pinging the same sites and virtually the same time.

Uploads are a clear win for DSL in my area. @Home limits me to 128kb/s while my friends are up in the mid 300kb/s.

Reliability is a close tie. I've had very little complaint with the service of my @Home connection. During the day I've been running a perl script under Linux to ping various sites and upload and download a small file to record latency variations, downtime and bandwidth. (AT&amp;T@Home will reimburse for downtime, so it pays to check). There have been some wild fluctuations in latency, but bandwidth has stayed above 800kb/s consistently downstream and 118kb/s typically upstream. One of my friends does this with his DSL connection (same script, same files) and has recorded similar results. I had one day of bad packet loss, but other than that I've been running clean for over a month now.

If you go DSL, check out www.dslreports.com - they generally have better deals that your local Telco will offer.
 
i got pacbell dsl i pay 79 (bussiness grade enhanced ADSL) i dont pay it, my dads company does. The contract says 384/128, i get about 1536/400, my download speeds average 190k/sec, and the highest i get is 250k/sec (has to be realy good server). uplodes (i dont do much uploding), i get around 150k/sec (ive only uploded like 4 things, realy small so im not sure)
 
From &quot;speedus.com&quot; I received a score of 2401Kbs. I am on cable. I don't trust that too much. None of those devices work right anyway. A real test would have to take real time. With broadband, remember, downloads can start off faster and then slow down:|. Oh well though. Neither cable or DSL is as good as Tx/OCx😉. Druellll...

Il say what the rest have. If you can try them both, do. Im sure itd be a pain though. Just check with people in your area. Good Luck!!😀
 
I have Bell Atlantic DSL, and now that it is finally up and running with no problems, I love it. I ordered it as soon as it was available and I felt BA's growing problems. They just could not get the line up and running for more then 2 days at a time. When they improved, I could go 1 week at a time, but then I would be down almost another week.

Finally I am up and running with no problems now (over a month) and I love it. My buddy only a couple blocks away got cable, and it was up and running the same day with no problem. If I were doing it now in my area, I would go cable just to avoid any problems. Now that my DSL line is running though, I will keep it.
 
I have Southwestern Bell DSL, which is 1.5/128 for $39.95/month with a 1 year commitment. My downloads seem to max out at 140 kbytes/sec, though, and I only live a mile away from one of swbell's routing stations. Can the other parts in your computer be a limiting factor to your download speeds? The computer I have DSL on is only a P133.
 
Aaah! Just stay away from the phone company. Don't get DSL for the love of god. They are evil and will devour your soul throught the very DSL line you download with. Every experience I have had with them has been horrible, from leaving a big thick DSL cable in my backyard for a month that I finally was forced to remove myself because of repeated failed attempts at getting them to remove it, to burying a cable and ripping up the stone walkway in my backyard (that was HARD to put back!). They seem to operate with many different departments which have no idea what the others are doing. They are 100% incompetent and ignorant to your needs. Beware!
You may not have problems at first but when you do only the almighty bandwidth god can save you.
 
MediaOne/Road Runner Cable Modem here. I have had it since it first became available in April of last year. Never had any real outages, and it has been very conisistant and fast. 🙂
 
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