So I've been a dial-up user for most of my internet life, and after spending a year at school with their blazing fast ethernet connections, I can't go back to just simple dial-up anymore. So my question is, what do you guys feel is the best high speed internet service available? Taking cost, speed, and reliability into the equation. DSL or Cable? And which company with either one? Also, I need it to work for two separate computers in two separate rooms of the house...so I suppose I'll need two modems. Thanks in advance for the help...
Ive had DSL(TXUCOM) and Cable(Road Runner) at different times.. the Cable was a lil faster but wasnt as dependable as DSL was I would pick Cable take from that whatcha will
Most people I know have cable. Roadrunner Cable. It is much faster than 56k. I really appreciate it... Last year...there were a bunch of connection problems. This year...it was just fine.
Just get Road Runner wireless, i would say get cable, dsl only goes as fast as road runner if your close to the place giving you the dsl, or at least thats what i hear.
I had SBC DSL for a while and was pretty happy with it. However, Earthlink came along in my area and it was $10 cheaper a month so I switched. Turns out, its faster than the DSL was.
I have cable and love it --- but as far as the 2 computers I bought I external cable modem, a wireless router, and two cards (one for each of my pc's) all for around $300. It was very easy to set-up (took around 15 minutes and I had both pc's online). My cable modem and router are now hidden in a closet and I can move my pc's wherever I want and be connected. Which is really nice for my lap top. I can sit out on the patio.
I don't know if the offer is still up, but I got Earthlink cable last month with free installation and first 3 month at 29.95/month. After using DSL for over 4 years, cable definitely blows dsl away in term of downloadin speed. I get get up to 250k consistenly while with dsl, i would be lucky to get 100.
DSL speeds depend on things like how far away from the a "CO" you are. Reliability varies based upon location as well as provider. I have a DSL connection through Verizon that gets about 1.2 mb/sec. I have a cable modem connection via Comcast that gets about 1.4-1.5 mb/sec. The DSL is $29.99 for me while the cable modem is over $40. The cable modem isn't as reliable - as a matter of fact after Comcast took over, it's downright unreliable in my area. FYI, Comcast is supposed to up the max throughput for their service from 1.5 mb/sec to around 3 mb/sec by the end of the year. Some areas have already gotten this speed. I hope this doesn't mean a rate hike. I have cable and DSL both because I know that cable is unreliable for me, so I thought I'd try DSL out to make sure it wasn't just as bad or worse before I cancel cable modem service. In summary, your speed will vary as well as your reliability. It's more than just cable modem vs. DSL. It's location vs. location, ISP vs. ISP, etc.
Just to follow up on what DoD said, you might want to do some research and here is a great place to start: http://www.dslreports.com/ (for DSL and Cable) I believe ROCKHEAD was the one who originally pointed this out. You can type in your ZIP code and it will give you speed reports (and general comments/reviews) on what others are getting with any given company in your area. I used this when I made the switch from cable to DSL. Several in my area were getting 2M down and 1.5M up with Earthlink Cable. I made the switch and found their speeds pretty consistant with mine. Hope that helps.
I have RoadRunner on fiber optic out in SW Austin and never have any problems. My download time varies from 1mb/sec to 2.5mb/sec. Just depends on the time of day and other factors, I guess. I used to consistently get over 2mb, but there are more people in my neighborhood using it now, which can slow it down. I could never go back to dail-up. I'd go nuts!
I'm drooling while I'm reading this thread. In my area, we can only get dial-up. I'm lucky to get 15kb/s. All this talk about MB's makes me shiver. My school has a microwave tower or something, so they can get real good internet. (school's like 6 miles away.) Also, one of my teachers was talking about her cable modem and how she could never go back to dialup. One of these days, I'll reach the zone where it doesn't take an hr to download a 5 minute clip. (I think I exaggerated a bit....more like 5 hrs. ) edit: Oh yeah, forgot to mention that sometimes my internet will go out for no apparent reason.
I have DSL and I love it. I have never had cable, though, so I dont know what to compare it to. My DSL is very consistent.
which ever you decide on, be sure to go to http://www.dslreports.com and do their tweak tests, they can help you get max speeds out of your connection!! Trust me. I went from 600Kbps to 1.2Mbps!!
I had pretty bad cable modem service when I lived in an older apartment building. The cable wiring within the building was substandard, and it would cause the modem service to go out at least once a day. Right after that, I moved to a new apartment (in a different city with a different cable company), and it worked great. Only downtime I had was when @Home kicked all the AT&T Cable subscribers. I have DSL now (no cable service available at my current apartment thanks to one of those 'Exclusive Cable Deals' the apartment community set up in order to give its residents substandard cable that hardly works at all), and it works just fine. I haven't noticed a downgrade in the download speed from the cable from next door, though the upload speed is considerably slower (it's limited to 128K upload). Personally, I liked the cable better. If I had the choice, I would go with cable (and, boy, it was sure easier to get cable installed. Got it hooked up a day after I ordered it. DSL took a month this time around).
RR has very slow upload speeds, but there is no contract, you can bail the service at anytime if you are not happy with it. I got my RR installed for free too, which included a new cable outlet drilled into my cpu room. Now I can watch cable tv in here too. Sincerely, Douchebag
One good thing about DSL if you care about is that in most cases you don't have to be home. They just send you the equipment via mail. Cable guys expect you to be around I believe.
