Which one is faster and better. DSL or Cable.

I have DSL, but from what I've heard cable seems to be faster, with some annoyances. As more of your neighbors log on, the performance per user in that area will decrease. Not everyone has the choice of DSL or Cable, so get whichever is best for price/performance. Also you might be able to get a break on the price if you're a cable subscriber from the same company offering cable modem.

Cable sucks- esp. for onlines gaming. Well, in my area anyways... I live in Seattle. I've got DSL and it connects at 640kbps- i pay $30 a month for it. DSL is consistent in speed. Also, DSL is scalable- you can always opt for a faster connection (with a price tag of course) where as Cable requires booko upgrades in equipment and hardware (for the user and cable company). The cable companies say "up to 10BMbps"- whatever. Fiber Optic is coming online in some areas to- like Atlanta. Heh, that's the ultimate connection.

-MP Jesse

I think I agree with everyone hear when I say that it depends on your situation. I have DSL. Why? It's the only thing available in the city of Portland (OR). Of course, if you go to the suburbs you can get cable. The maximum download speed I've gotten is 60kB/s (Kilo-Bytes/sec). I think that translates to about 480 kb/s (kilobits/sec). 8 bits for every byte.

I've heard of others getting 100KB/s, but not through the same ISP as I have, so that might suggest that, yes, it depends on the ISP. The guys I know who have cable that live fairly close in to the metropolis routinely get over 100 KB/s, but I have heard of those guys having outages. I've never had an "outage" with DSL. So for speed in Portland, it looks like Cable is still the winner. Cable is about the only thing you hope to get too if you live out in the country.

Pricing on Cable tends to be about the same as DSL, and plus, there's no contract required with our cable company. With DSL I had to sign up for a year. The company that I recieve the DSL from, does however, off a service where instead of an always on connection, you are allowed 2-hour chunks of time at one time before getting kicked off your connection. This is perfect for people who know they won't be spending that much time at one sitting (more than 2 hours), and they can save an extra $10 a month. As far as I know, Cable charges you a flat rate and they don't offer any different rate plans.

One more thing that might not be a big deal, but in playing LAN game parties, the guys with the cable internet always seem to have trouble restoring their connection to it when they get home. The networked settings always seem to get screwed up switching from a Cable configured network setup to a LAN setup and back again. So as long as you don't fool around with these settings a lot, that shouldn't be a problem.


- Every private citizen has a public responsibility

I believe ping time will be better on a dsl connection compared to a cable connection (something to consider if you're an avid online player). ADSL has better ping times than SDSL as well... For the price (speed for what you pay for) cable is still better for fast downloads (depending on your neighborhood).

I don't know about that ping thing- my cable often has the lowest ping on any givin online game- never above 60.

"Are you saying that I can dodge bullets?"

I have DSL. On my line I get up to 1.5Mbs. Usually runs between 600-800kbs. I have no complaints about the speed.
I do notice consisted and frequent hangups, though. I will be going along fine when all of a sudden it stops for up to 2min and then runs fine again. I think my net connection passes through a bad or overloaded router. Haven't decided if I will recommend it to my company yet, but it is OK at home. Cable is notoriously bad in my area also so DSL is the best choice for me.
I would suggest asking people in your area what they have and recommend.

James

Cable in my area I get about 180kb a sec dl and that is after it spends some time in the 400-600kb sec dl range. I pay 39 a month and I get a static ip. I think cable is godly also I never used dsl. I really think it depends on where you live the type of service you get.


In the immortal word's of Bob Marley, "Let's get together and feel alllright..."

Agreed, using the standard: KB = KiloByte, and Kb = Kilobit (1KB = 8Kb) would be much less confusing.

well, the modems come marked in megaBITS, i.e. us ADSL guys will have 1.0,1.5 or 3.0 megaBIT modem (or the old 56.6 kBIT modem etc)

Plus you used kb (usually used for kilobits) instead of KB...

I fully realize most people here know what the difference is, but most also seem to use their own wildly varying personal way of displaying that difference

just saying there's always room for confusion and it'd be nice to try to avoid it

>> if I was getting 180 kilobits I would say
>> shove the modem up the cable co a$$.

he he, granted, and you'd be justified in doing so