Speedball Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 We have Comcast Cable for our online service and it's pretty quick and works well. Due to the fact we are forced to cut back on expenses we are checking into DSL which is also available. Does anyone have an opinion on the quality, especially speed of DSL service? Happy Holidays Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 They can't be much worse than SBC. All of these utilities SUCK in Indy. But there's a speed issue between the CATV route and the Phone route. I forget which is which. WIth one, it's like you have your own private line (I think it's the phone company way), and your speed remains the same no matter what. When you're using on the cable system, your speed depends on how many 'packets' are travelling on your leg of the CATV wire at that given time. Which means, when all the kiddies come home from school and PM their friends, steal music, waste time, your internet speed will slow to a crawl and you'll want to do any intensive work in the middle of the night when no one's on the system. Of course, neither service will be able to give you accurate readings on your 'anticipated' speed, because it varies so much from neighborhoods. I'd stay with Phone company if you can swing the bucks or use it a lot. ALthough it took the SBC idiots a full week to hook up my house and I had NEW cat5 cable everywhere my network was going. The old wiring in the house messed up the impedence I guess, and it took some genius from Dayton Ohio to finally figure that out. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSport Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 I have SBC DSL and it is okay...not as fast as Comcast but I pay about $26.95 as opposed to $49.95... Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Spinner Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 I had DSL for 2 years ... fine ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedball Posted December 14, 2005 Author Share Posted December 14, 2005 Thanks for the information guys... Michael, I know what you mean about the kids hogging the service in the evenings after school, that's when our Comcast slows waaaaaay down. Happy Holidays Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Spinner Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 i have cable now .. Time Weiner ..don't ever notice a slowdown, it's blazing fast ... in the country , no cable there ..previously i had DSL..... really, probably 2/3 as fast as cable fast enuff, that you weren't frustrated anyways ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooting_monkey Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 DSL will tend to be quite a bit faster when you are within a quarter mile of the DSLAM, which is sometimes hard to locate. Its not uncommon to be able to reach 6 Mbit. Too bad the phone company limits this. It is expected within a few years to be able to get 50-60Mbit VDSL within a half a mile of the DSLAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Happy Holidays Pat, I have Verizon DSL and it works well. They have a lower tier DSL For 14.95 a month that isn't strongly advertised.........don't know if you can get this in Indy, but its worth checking out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelerFan Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Happy with my Verizon DSL also.[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAS Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 DSL will tend to be quite a bit faster when you are within a quarter mile of the DSLAM, which is sometimes hard to locate. Its not uncommon to be able to reach 6 Mbit. Too bad the phone company limits this. It is expected within a few years to be able to get 50-60Mbit VDSL within a half a mile of the DSLAM. If you can pull 6Mbits out of your DSL then you've got a jewel of a connection or you're fused to it by an umbillical. Cable seems to be the only viable option around here at about 5Mb/s for $40/month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 An internet connection through Comcast or other cable subscription service works the same as old ethernet. The more people who are on it, the slower it gets. It is initially faster than DSL, but depending on wehre you live and the number of internet users, the speed can drop substantially with cable. Our DSL throuh Alltel has gotten faster over the past couple of years as they have upgraded their service (with no increase in cost to me). We are close enough that our speed is not bad, and I haven't tested it for a while. We don't have cable, don't really want it. You can get an approximate idea of how fast your connection is by running one of the tests at: www.dslreports.com Go to the tools page (off left hand menus) and then down to Speed Tests. They have some reviews and compare different services. And yes, in some cities, you can get 6 Mbits with DSL. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Though cable may have a larger bandwidth, dsl sends the data down the line faster...so depending on what you're doing you will notice one being faster than the other. For a while we had both of them side by side, (SBC and Comcast) and it was interesting to switch back and forth to see which was faster. It's actually pretty hard to find 100mB files around to download and test out, lol. If I were to choose between the two, I would go with DSl because you don't have to worry about the networks getting busy and slowing you down. At my girlfriend's house (she has cable), she was downloading files at 1.1MB/s. Yes, a 100mb file downloaded in a little over 90 seconds! Oh the joys of living in the middle of nowhere with nobody in the area using the internet. Really, if money is an issue then just go with the cheapest option available...a second difference here and there really isn't going to make a huge difference. heck, half the time the servers you're trying to access are the bottle neck...not your own connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 My wife's got comcast in her house. It is screaming fast, but it is $50 per month. They offer three speeds, I think her's is 5mp. Whatever, the middle of the pack. The faster connection was not worth the extra bucks. Anyway, I think sBC offers DSL for $15 per month in her area now, so the comcast is definitely pricey compared. Don't know what kind of service SBC turns out there. Where I live, out in the country, there is NO DSL, NO CABLE, only dial up. I am at least good for a laugh when I call to sign up for DSL. When asking "well when will there be service in my area." The customer service rep laughs and says, not in your lifetime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Dee, your wife has a separate house? wots wid dat? Yeah, I used to be in Rush County In. Barely had cell phone towers, they will never get DSL out in the country. Costs too much when there's like 10,000 people in an entire county. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedball Posted December 17, 2005 Author Share Posted December 17, 2005 I am at least good for a laugh when I call to sign up for DSL. When asking "well when will there be service in my area." The customer service rep laughs and says, not in your lifetime. WOW...We have had cable for so long I forgot it is a pleasure in itself to be on the phone & online at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 I am at least good for a laugh when I call to sign up for DSL. When asking "well when will there be service in my area." The customer service rep laughs and says, not in your lifetime. WOW... We have had cable for so long I forgot it is a pleasure in itself to be on the phone & online at the same time. Yup, when I told my wife that we wouldn't have to miss calls and we could be online at the same time, she said we needed to do it. Took another year before we had the DSL in our area. I had forgotten to mention that DSL is slightly more secure as well. Now you will ask me why and I will have to go look it up. [:$] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedball Posted December 17, 2005 Author Share Posted December 17, 2005 Yes Marvel, Why would it be more secure?[] ....less garbage and spam floating around I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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