Which should I get DSL or Cable for internet?

[OlafSicky]

A friend of mine is moving and he asked me which to get prices are the same but cable is a bit faster but it has a slower upload. I had DSL years ago and I had nothing but problems line going down high ping so I switched to cable and ping has been low and no problems ever. I'm a little confused about what to recommend how is the new dsl tech these days? Which would you recommend?

 

[purbeast0]

i would definitely get cable. i had 3mb verizon dsl for 5 years when living in a condo and it sucked ass. consistency was an issue as was gaming on xbox live or psn, and i hear latency is a major reason why.

it also depends how far from the hub you are for dsl to work better or worse.

i'm on 75/35 fios now and i couldn't be happier now.

 

[OlafSicky]

That is what I'm thinking but they have new tech these days and high upload speeds

 

[seepy83]

Just to give you a completely opposite view from purbeast0...DSL has been the only broadband connection I've used at home, and I've really never had any problems. For the past few years, it has been a vDSL service (ATT UVerse), and I get somewhere around 30Mbps down.

Get whatever has the better prices, and then switch if you aren't satisfied.

 

[drebo]

I use 12mbps ATT UVerse (ADSL2+ in my case, but I've had the VDSL version before)...it's rock solid and works great.

 

[frowertr]

If you can get UVerse I'd go with that. Otherwise, it has been my experience that basic ADSL sucks. I get 25Mbps at home with Knology cable and 30-50Mbps at my business with Comcast cable.

 

[kornphlake]

The customer service is probably as important as the type of service. I'm sure the quality of customer service is regional but in my experience AT&T was pleasant to work with Qwest on the other hand was nothing but hassle. I haven't had any issues with Comcast so I haven't had reason to call customer service, which sounds good, but I'm sure if you google "comcast sucks" you'll find thousands of customers who have had issues. I consider myself an outlier in this instance.

 

[serpretetsky]

meh, i've had basic ADSL for 10 years now, 3mbps down. Rock solid, nothing to complain about here.

I hear most of the new dsl connections (including adsl) have interleave turned on, that might be something to read up on.

Which companies are in your area? I would probably recommend by company, and not by the tecnhology.

 

[OlafSicky]

Thanks guys I talked to my friend and his new house is older with older phone lines so i told him to get cable.

 

[owensdj]

It really depends a lot on the individual ISPs and also your location. You might want to try both for a month just to see how well they really work in practice.

In general you can get faster speeds from cable than with DSL. On the other hand, cable speeds tend to be much more inconsistent. They can drop to almost dial up speed during peek usage times in an area that's oversold. You'll find DSL speeds to be lower, but very consistent and low latency.

 

[Sonikku]

I went the cable route with Time Warner and it still sucks.

Probably a crap shoot either way.

 

[Emulex]

uverse - 1 packet dropped per day here. except when raining (above ground cat3 @ 2200ft)

comcrap - about 400 packets per day as the modem retrains docsis 3 with 4 down/3 up it takes about 10-30 seconds to retrain, during which you get nothing for a long time. the old D2 modems with 1up/1down would retrain in 5-10 seconds tops. vpn's and RDP do not like long timeouts and neither does ssh - it will drive you crazy.

if you telecommute you will appreciate a more reliable connection all day long.


comcrap knows about this problem and its partially bad wiring and partially d2/d3 mixed floor noise and partially bad firmware (if any one channel drops out of spec, entire retrain). the retrain process will drive you mad if its happening all day long.

 

[chimaxi83]

I have 24 meg Uverse DSL in Chicago, and its been absolutely solid. Consistently speed tests at 23-24 down and 5 up, and I've had it a little over a year and have had no issues.

 

[Lemon law]

All I can say is that it must be nice to have many broadband internet options in higher population density areas.

As many of us in lower population density have zero hardwired broadband internet options. At least I am close enough to a 4G capable tower to get fairly fast 4G wireless internet broadband, that is really expensive and capped at 10GB/mo. Other further from any cell phone tower can maybe rely on wireless satellite service that tends to be slower and with pings above one full second. And the really unlucky can only get dial up or nothing at all.

After that, my other comment, is that even if I network in my wife, as long as I can get
700 kbits/ sec down, faster speeds do little to improve our broadband internet experiences. But if my wife and I were gamers, regularly downloaded movies and streaming videos, or engaged in high broadband internet uses, such a statement would not be true.