Cable vs DSL

Freds · Nov 25, 2005

From first hand experience:
If you call the phone co., it was Verizon in my case, make sure they don't do a thing without your approval or you may never get your DSL back.
I had a business and a residential line with the DSL hooked up to the res line. I called to ASK about switching different service plans and what would this cost... just general questions. Next thing I know my DSL is turned off. It took the phone co. over a month to reconnect it and they would not do so on my res line, they said the line had become too long to support DSL even though it had worked on that line for over three years.
So now I have it on my business line at residential price and I cancelled my residential service with them. It was a big mistake on their part and they said they didn't know why the girl put in an order to disconnect and reconnect me in the first place, but admitted she did not follow proper procedure by making sure it could be reconnected to the same line.

I guess what I'm saying is if you cancel your DSL or it accidentaly gets cancelled, you may not be able to get it back because of an increased line length since when it was first installed. Your other line may be too long right now to support DSL, so you want to make sure they can hook you back up if you drop the second line. You may even want to keep the second line and have it changed to your primary line to simplify things for them, if that's possible /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
If you switch to cable you may never be able to go back to DSL.

MikePA · Nov 25, 2005

Thanks for all the great replies. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

To answer one of the questions...

Why a second line? Answer - The company I work for reimburses employees, who have to be on call, for related expenses. Back when I had to be on call (years ago, before DSL), it was much less complicated to simply install a second line. No hassles with reimbursement, but more importantly, no hassles with the rest of the family for monopolizing our home phone line with work related responsibilities. When our phone company began offering DSL, I had it added to the second line. My job no longer requires me to be on call, but I have not changed the line DSL is on.

I knew that cable was a shared media technology (you and your neighbors share the same pipe), so I did a search of Google newsgroups and, as might be expected, there are complaints about the cable company for enforcing their FAP (Fair Access Policy), i.e., bandwidth hogs get penalized. There were also reports of bandwidth being plentiful during the day, but speeds drop when people get home from work and school. I realize that people are more likely to post complaints, but there were enough of them that I decided to stay with DSL.

Perhaps once we switch over the HD TV (which will 'force' changes to our cable service), I will reconsider changing our broadband service. Additionally, I've been reading that broadband over power lines is once again being touted as 'just over the horizon'.

dbelisle · Nov 25, 2005

I had cable for many years and switched to DSL this fall.

I kept both services for a month to compare.

Cable is faster but unless you do a lot of mega downloads and I mean mega ,(( I download stuff all the time .))you won't see much of a differance.

I ended up getting rid of the cable all together,( I put locals on the satilite ) I you have DSL now cable won't seem that much faster, and as was stated before as more users come on line at the peak hours cable can slow. I have seen it go down to dial up speeds.

DAVE IN NH

Bird · Nov 25, 2005

( bandwidth being plentiful during the day, but speeds drop when people get home from work and school )

Yep, as a matter of fact that did happen to me. I wasn't thinking about that before.

Wiens · Nov 25, 2005

Mike,

I have had cable at home since Sept of '99. I have DSL at my office. Between the two I will choose cable. Page downloads are faster 99.99% of the time with cable as opposed to dsl. We have not noticed a slip in service speed in the evenings. I pay my cable company waaaaay too much money each month but the HD-TV and DVR is great! Watch MNF or NASCAR in HD and you won't ever watch in anyother way.

Back on topic. Cox charges $35 per month for 4mb bandwidth. Within the last two years dsl became available at home, however, we elected to stay with our Cox Cable. No problems what so ever.....

Choose which one works for you and is most cost effective. You won't go wrong with either, expecially compared to dialup!

Kevin

mudcat · Nov 25, 2005

Had cable. Moved. Now have DSL. Miss Cable. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

thatguy · Nov 25, 2005

( ( you will need to buy filters for every phone that is connected to the line )

When I signed up for DSL, my phone service, etc., the lady asked how many phone jacks in the house. I told her we had 5. She said 4 filters were included in the normal installation and I could pay for an additional one if I wished. However, she also said that you only need the filter if you want to connect both a telephone and computer to the same phone jack. I didn't, so I didn't ask what they cost. So I have 4 filters they sent and have no use for any of them. )

That is quite interesting.. When we had DSL hooked up, I only put the filter on the line with the computer.. But if you picked up any other phone in the house it broke the DSL connection. I had to put filters on every phone so it would stay connected..

I originally wanted to use one filter mounted outside for the entire house, but the connection in the outside phone box was not compatible. they just had a telephone connection to 'test' the line.

thanks

b

BobRip · Nov 25, 2005

One thing that DSL has in it favor is operation during power outage (if you have a generator for your computer). Our cable is out when the power is out and they are both above ground. Our telephone line rarely goes out and it is underground. During Hurricaine Isabel we still had Internet service (at that time it was dial up) and we were without power for a week. When you are cut off from the world it sure is handy to have Internet.

Bob Rip

Marlowe · Nov 27, 2005

I currently have both. DSL at work, and cable at home. Cable kicks butt. If I have anything really complicated to download, I just wait till I get home. Cable is that much faster.

To be fair though; if I were comparing DSL to a phone line; the phone line is archaic. It's hard for me to believe there are still folks out there suffering through dial up.

Tom

MikePA · Nov 28, 2005

It's hard for me to believe there are still folks out there suffering through dial up. 
The last figures I saw were 50 million people have broadband while 70 million have dialup.