dsl or cable?

[signrios]

quick question
i have dsl at my home office the speed used to be decent but lately the speed has declined a lot.
i'm thinking on going with time warner cable, right now they are running a special of 29.99 per month, i'm paying $25 for dsl.

my only concern is my e-mail address, it is under sbcglobal.net.
anybody know if my e-mail account will shut down after canceling my att dsl?
will i still have access to it?

i have used goggle but i'm getting mixed answers,

i wanna get a real input from my friends at signs101!

 

[TheSnowman]

DSL makes me want to hang myself. Cable is worth whatever it costs to get it. As far as email...I don't really have a webpage, but I bought a domain name so that when I'd switch providers, I would still have the same email address. You may want to look into something like that.

 

[MachServTech]

Host your email with someone besides your ISP (cable or DSL provider) this allows you more flexibility if you want to switch services in a couple of years (which you will)
I find more ease of use with the cable, but opinions vary...there will soon be more types of ISP's coming with the advent of companies like http://www.clearwire.com/ and WIMAX.

Try to find the cheapest deal with the best service...I chose an informal poll of the local businesses in my local chamber to find the best fit for me.

 

[signrios]

DSL makes me want to hang myself. Cable is worth whatever it costs to get it. As far as email...I don't really have a webpage, but I bought a domain name so that when I'd switch providers, I would still have the same email address. You may want to look into something like that.

yeah big mistake i did not get an e-mail domain, i have had this e-mail add. for the past 5 years.
thanks

 

[choucove]

It is very hard to flat out say "Choose cable over DSL" as really it all depends on many other factors. What plans are both ISP's offering for you in terms of speed, bandwidth usage, reliability, and cost? Generally speaking, DSL isn't any faster than what you get with Cable as it all comes down to how much bandwith your ISP allows you through that connection, but a cable connection IS capable of handling higher bandwidths if you get the highest-tier internet speeds.

There are probably many other factors in why your internet seems to be slowing down lately. External factors may be the number of people in your same neighborhood that are also online at the same time. Or your ISP has instituted a bandwidth throttling plan based on your internet usage (such as P2P traffic) which is actually illegal now to throttle your plan like this. Internal factors (which are more likely) are additional applications or services on your computer that are accessing the internet constantly and causing everything else that you see to run slow. Do a very thorough system cleaning and check for viruses and malware before you go hopping over to a different ISP only to have the same problems follow you.

 

[Dice]

If your speed has decreased you should call and get them to check it. It could be your signal quality has degraded.

Check: http://www.speedtest.net/ or http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ and get some hard numbers for you to work with. Tell your DSL provider that your supposed to get X and your getting Y.

I prefer Cable over DSL, but even Cable Still sucks. The bandwidth greatly varies throughout the day.

You should look to see if Fios or UVerse is in your area yet. They are Fiberoptic connections way faster than DSL or Cable.

 

[Mosh]

I have dsl at the shop and cable at the farm. Cable is ten times faster, and about the same price.

 

[choucove]

I have dsl at the shop and cable at the farm. Cable is ten times faster, and about the same price.

This is generally the case because cable connections are used for higher-speed tiers of internet service, but it is not ALWAYS the case.

Back a few years ago we had switched from a local ISP to AT&T because of flaky service and their unwillingness to give service at our location since we were in an apartment. The local ISP had internet through cable connection only, and when we switched to AT&T it was through DSL only. While I wanted to remain with a cable connection because generally they are faster, I was happily surprised by a noticeable speed increase in our AT&T plan without any service difficulties at all. The two plans were supposedly identical speeds (1.5 Mb/s) but AT&T was noticeably faster and half the cost.

So again, it more comes down to many other factors than the actual physical connection. The speed between both can in theory be identical, but there are lots of other contributing factors like the signal quality, distance, number of other users in the neighborhood at the same time, and especially what speed plan you have and your ISP's stability.

 

[signrios]

great info choucove, i will do a speed test to see if am not bein short taken by att.

There are probably many other factors in why your internet seems to be slowing down lately. External factors may be the number of people in your same neighborhood that are also online at the same time.

this might be part of the problem, last month i could only detect 2 wireless connection, now i can see 5!
i know the neighbor is on cable.

 

[Air Art Girl]

well, we have had issues with cable. We have had the house re-wired and still cable drops on us all the time. We even had to reset the router to get it back on.

So we switch to DSL and it has never dropped. Is it faster? don't know, don't care. It's fast enough and less headaches for us.

 

[Techman]

If your dsl is getting slower,, you have to call the office and ask them to reset it. They will say everything is fine. However, suddenly you will see an increase.

But you have to give them numbers. Simply complaining that it is slow will not get them to move. For example. Your down loads is around 16. and you are supposed to be getting 150. That will make them move. How do you find your download speed? It will tell you on your download window. If it says 16.5 then it is way too slow. If it is around 100 then it is approaching what it is supposed to be.

 

[smdgrfx]

We use cable at home and at the shop. I have business class at work which guarantees at least 6mb down and 1.5mb up. I usually get about 2mb up and at least 8mb down. At home I get up to 10mb down!!! I have a friend with a higher tier that gets 6mb up and 16mb down...talk about fast.....

DSL at my shop only guarantees 1.5mb down and 56k up. Talk about slow....

It all depends on your area.

 

[choucove]

It all depends on your area.

This couldn't be more true in America right now. There's an overwhelming variation of network speeds that consumers can get based on their location. For instance, out in Denver our family friend has a cable internet package for the same amount we pay currently ($40 per month) but receives around 8 Mb/s speed. In contract out in Northwest Kansas I'm in the middle tier of internet speeds paying $40 for DSL and only get 1.5 Mb/s DOWNLOAD.

Hopefully the FCC will be able to get ISPs to offer better structured internet speeds throughout their networks. I have talked with several other colleagues around here that are very close to having to set up our own ISP out of necessity and being priced way over what we are getting fair share.

 

[TheSnowman]

Only 8MB down with cable seems wicked slow. I've never had any speed tests under 16MB down with Comcast. It's normally 20+.

 

[choucove]

Only 8MB down with cable seems wicked slow. I've never had any speed tests under 16MB down with Comcast. It's normally 20+.

Yeah, imagine a 20th of your internet speed and that is the average internet speed for broadband in our region. It's something that needs to be addressed and hopefully remedied by the FCC's Broadband Plan to call for a minimum of 4Mb/s speeds.

 

[smdgrfx]

In my area, you can get much faster speeds with Comcast - over 25mb, but you have to pay for it. Business class is made up into 3 different tiers. I am paying for the lower service - and it's $69 plus taxes. And that doesn't come with TV....

 

[jhimes]

To answer you question about the sbcglobal.net email address. No you wont be able to use it, they will turn it off 30 days after you end your service. I jst dumped them myself and went with commspeed.

 

[ddarlak]

this might be part of the problem, last month i could only detect 2 wireless connection, now i can see 5!
i know the neighbor is on cable.

do you have a wireless router that is unsecure???

 

[CanuckSigns]

quick question
i have dsl at my home office the speed used to be decent but lately the speed has declined a lot.
i'm thinking on going with time warner cable, right now they are running a special of 29.99 per month, i'm paying $25 for dsl.

my only concern is my e-mail address, it is under sbcglobal.net.
anybody know if my e-mail account will shut down after canceling my att dsl?
will i still have access to it?

i have used goggle but i'm getting mixed answers,

i wanna get a real input from my friends at signs101!

I wish our internet prices were that cheap in Canada! if you want a good laugh, check out what we pay here http://www.cogeco.ca/web/on/en/residential/internet/packages.php

this is what happens when 2 companies control all the media in 1 country!

 

[njshorts]

I wish our internet prices were that cheap in Canada! if you want a good laugh, check out what we pay here http://www.cogeco.ca/web/on/en/residential/internet/packages.php

this is what happens when 2 companies control all the media in 1 country!

your prices are normal... this thread is old and these guys are talking about slow connections in the boonies.

we pay 65$/mo on a 3-year for 15/5.