Ditch Cable for DSL?

[dkauf2003]

I've been living in an apartment for a few months now. I have Time Warner for internet and pay $35 a month for 7mpbs-rated service. In the evening when everyone else in the building is using the internet, there is a noticeable performance hit. I use netflix instant a lot from my PS3 and it often buffers 3-4 times during just a 20-minute sitcom.

The odd thing is bandwidth tests from my PC usually show 2-4mbps, which you'd think are good enough (same from PS3). However, even on my PC, web browsing isn't all that great and streaming video from sites like youtube, etc can be slow.

I can get 3.0mpbs DSL for $40 a month from AT&T. Do you think it is worth switching, since I'll have a dedicated line back to the ISP? It seems like that is my issue, the shared line with everyone else. This is a huge apartment complex, something like 40 buildings altogether with 12 apartments per building.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Chapbass]

I would contact time warner. Do you live in a college town? Mediacom screwed the whole western side of Ames, Iowa (iowa state university) with internet problems a few years ago (they decided to add a bunch of new services and channels because they had tons of extra bandwidth....in the summer when no one is around.... then when students came back our nightly ping jumped from 30-80 to around 1200ms and bandwidth dipped to .5mb/s).

I switched to Qwest DSL and was super happy with it. Granted, mine was 8mb/s instead of 3mb/s...3mb would be tough for me to stomach personally, but if its that bad and they can't fix it, maybe switching would be a good option.

 

[bobdole369]

THe upload side of DSL is a dealbreaker for me. Uploading a days worth of photos to flickr on "DSL Extreme" (aka 6mbit/384k) takes over an hour. The same amount of photos takes 4 minutes on Comcast's 12mbit/2mbit w/ powerboost.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Despite what they advertise, they are actually running an ADSL setup (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line). In a standard DSL setup the Upload/Download bandwidth would be the same.

Also keep in mind that AT&T probably advertises UP TO 3Mb/s. It is unlikely that they are able to offer that to every home on their network. More than likely if you request it, they will go out and measure the line quality and report back to you what your actual peak bandwidth will be.

Also keep in mind that ADSL uses a circuit switched network. In other words, the advertised bandwidth for your particular connection is guaranteed upon connection.

On the other hand, there is 0 room for upgrading the line (Not to mention DSL's theoretical limit is far below Cable's as it uses a standard UTP instead of Fiber or STP). Finally, keep in mind that ADSL's upload speed is much more limited than Cable's.

-Kevin

 

[Binky]

The odd thing is bandwidth tests from my PC usually show 2-4mbps, which you'd think are good enough (same from PS3). However, even on my PC, web browsing isn't all that great and streaming video from sites like youtube, etc can be slow.

The speedtest figures you see on time warner may be artificially boosted by their "turbo boost" thing, or whatever they call it. Essentially, they might be letting you draw more speed for a brief period (i.e. enough to fool a bandwidth test). My time warner cable modem in Los Angeles used to read up to 15mb/sec on speedtest.net, but my true (sustained) download speed was about 6-8mb/sec.