High Speed Cable or DSL?

This forum is dedicated to the general computer related issues we all come across on a daily basis, such as e-mail/Internet/Operating System/virus/spyware, etc questions & problems.

As we are primarily a radio discussion group, your mileage may vary on the responses.

Moderator: Queue Moderator

Post Reply
User avatar
Jim2121
Batboard $upporter
Posts: 881
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:36 pm
What radios do you own?: A few! Most I sign out!

High Speed Cable or DSL?

Post by Jim2121 »

Hello again! I'm in an area where high speed cable & dialup is all we have. Qwest is comming to town with DSL. Next month.
So... I know how they work, the basics, I have people telling me to go with DSL, its better, on the other side of the coin several people now say DSL is 2-3 times slower than cable? I'm not uploading any big files, not watching TV. just emails, surf websites, nothing fancy!
any comments I would welcome so I can make a choice... Jim
User avatar
alex
Administrator
Posts: 5761
Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2001 4:00 pm

Post by alex »

I have never had a good DSL experience. I would recommend cable hands down.

Some people do have very good DSL experiences - where they actually get their rated speeds. Also, you have to put line filters on all the phones as well in your house....

However, I have found that in my 4 years of having a cable modem, I have had 0 downtime, and the speed has always been as expected. No problems.

Dealing with the phone company is always more of a pain in the ass over the cable company - though, they can be just as bad some days.

If you could get FiOs (fiber optic internet) from verizon - buy that - I hear it's absolutely awesome.
tvsjr
Posts: 4118
Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 9:46 am

Post by tvsjr »

I've rarely had good cable experiences. Most of my DSL installs have been flawless. I currently pay $74.99/mo for a 6Mbps down/1 Mbps up package here at home, including 7 static IPs, no port blocking, etc. Mine is through ATT/SBC/whoever-they-are-this-week.

I don't like cable because your bandwidth is shared... it's generally harder to get decent upstream rates... etc.

And yes, FiOS is tits, if you can get it.
User avatar
wavetar
Administrator
Posts: 7340
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2001 4:00 pm

Post by wavetar »

It varies greatly depending on the ISP. I know here in my area, cable wins hands down. I pay $49.99 a month for a 10Mb/s package. The system is well laid out, so I notice virtually no "sharing" load regardless of when I use it. My three neighbors across the street all have the local DSL service, and it is consistently running at 1/3 the speed of mine. Mind you, that's still quite fast, especially compared to dial-up, but I get much more bang for the buck.

Todd
No trees were harmed in the posting of this message...however an extraordinarily large number of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.

Welcome to the /\/\achine.
User avatar
HumHead
Moderator
Posts: 1769
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2001 4:00 pm

Post by HumHead »

Another vote for the cable modem.

Bonus points (and major cost savings) if you just tell the phone company to go away and use someone like Vonage for VoIP phone service too.

For the same basic cost that I used to pay for one POTS line and dial-up internet I now have rock-solid high-bandwidth internet, and more phone features than I would have had even if I doubled my old bill.
User avatar
Pj
Moderator
Posts: 5147
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2001 4:00 pm
What radios do you own?: X9000 thru APX

Post by Pj »

Its really going to depend on your area and company.

Back in SBC land (right after the SNET takeover) I got DSL. Worked great. No problem. I was also down the road from the CO, so that may have helped.

I never had cable internet, but the ones that I used seemed to work VERY well in limited use areas. If your in a mega development, cables speeds seemed to be "ok" as (at least in my area) the feed was a shared connection to the network. If 5 out of 100 houses are using cable internet, speed seemed to rock. If 95 out of 100 where online when people got home, it was slower. DSL didn't seem to have this problem as each line was direct to the CO, then out to the world. We also got free dialup connections which was convientant when not at home.

Right now I have Direcway/Hughesnet which is my only option. With the newer sat modems, I am typically getting decent speeds. The older stuff sucked.

In short, if you haven't had a broadband connection before, your not going to notice any difference. Go with who has the better package and rates that your not locked into for the next 2 years.
Lowband radio. The original and non-complicated wide area interoperable communications system
Image
User avatar
kb0nly
AKA: The Computer Doctor
Posts: 3370
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2003 1:15 am

Post by kb0nly »

Performance vs price is the biggest consideration. Right now i get a 5Mbps down, 384k up Cable connection for $9.95 a month, but thats the first year on the intro from my cable company. After that its $45.95 a month. I could go with the 10Mbps down and something like 512k up for more, but i don't honestly need the extra speed for now.

I was on DSL, $49.95 a month for 1.5Mbps down, 128k up. Which is the fastest DSL connection available in my area. There is a significant difference compared to the cable i now have. Especially when sending emails with attachments, uploading to my webspace, etc. The biggest problem with DSL is the puny upload bandwidth, no matter how fast you go on the download they are just out of proportion compared to cable.

I see a slight slowdown in the afternoon/evening hours, usually around 3-6pm. But it's still totally useable so it doesnt bother me much. DSL, while it shouldn't slow down due to it not being a shared network, can and will slow down if the number of users is increased without increasing the bandwidth at the CO. That's the reason i dropped my DSL, well one reason, after 3pm you could have just as well used dialup to get your email. It was suffering big time because the provider, Frontier, didn't want to further upgrade the CO. I talked to a few techs and found out there was far less available bandwidth than necessary after they ran a promotional where you get a few months free, free install, low price for the first year, and a coupon for a discount towards a new Dell computer.

They shot themselves in the foot, they gained a lot of customers that were originally on dialup, but in the process they choked the bandwidth available to all the customers on the CO.

The cable company on the other hand has been doing a lot of upgrades and the speed has been rather steady. I refused to go cable previously after seeing how dreadfully slow it was compared to my DSL originally. But after the upgrades even during the heaviest usage times its still rather fast. Now if i can just get the cable company to fix all the system leaks they have... Another story entirely.
Duct tape is like the force, it has a dark side and a light side and it holds the universe together.

"I Reject Your Reality And Substitute My Own!" - Adam Savage
kc7gr
Posts: 1030
Joined: Wed Mar 13, 2002 4:00 pm
What radios do you own?: Motorola, Icom, Sunair (HF).

Depends on many things...

Post by kc7gr »

The choice of DSL vs. cable depends on many factors.

First and foremost: Do you have even the slightest thoughts of going self-hosted? (as in running your own servers). If so, you need to go DSL. Period. The reason is that every cable company I've ever checked with has strict prohibitions against end users running servers off their pipes, and they will actively go after those who try.

On throughput: There is some truth to the statement that cable is faster than DSL on the download side. HOWEVER -- This is true only as long as there are relatively few users on the same cable hub that you're feeding from. If some airheaded teenager down the block from you starts streaming a whole slug of porn or something from YouTube, it's going to slow EVERYone else down, including you!

DSL does not suffer from this issue anywhere near as much because, as others have pointed out, the connection goes from you straight to the backbone router at the telco CO, as opposed to a neighborhood hub, possibly an area router, and THEN back to the cable company's head end.

A few words about security are in order. Don't even THINK of connecting ANY computer to the Internet without at least a software firewall. A hardware-based firewall is preferable, as it will not gobble up CPU and I/O resources on your computer as a software firewall will.

Last time I checked, the time-to-infection for a completely unprotected computer, connected directly to the Internet, was less than a minute. A friend of mine once made the mistake of forgetting to activate his own firewall, and his system was taken out in less than 20 seconds.

Don't take chances. There's no such thing as "too paranoid" when it comes to network security.

Happy tweaking.
Image
Bruce Lane, KC7GR
"Raf tras spintern. Raf tras spoit."
User avatar
HumHead
Moderator
Posts: 1769
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2001 4:00 pm

Post by HumHead »

My cable provider offers an upgraded service for an extra $15 a month. They open you up for up to 30MB down and 5 MB up. You can host any servers that you want, and they provide web space, and POP3 servers if you want to host your own domain.

I'm currently running a web server, FTP server, Windows Media server, VPN server,and a SlingBox, plus ReplayTV, VoIP, and a few other goodies. They're happy with all of it, as long as I keep giving them their extra $15 a month. I find it hard to argue.

Cable also frequently does not offer static IP addresses, at least officially. I was just using a dynamic hostname provider to work around that, although I ultimatlely figured out that they are using reserved DHCP. My IP address hasn't changed in a couple of years now.
440roadrunner
Posts: 236
Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2004 3:47 pm

Post by 440roadrunner »

I currently pay $74.99/mo
!!!!!WOW!!!!! I thought my cable service was "plenty" at less than 60/month

I've been reasonably happy with Adelphia, now "Time Warner" cable here, but I'm concerned that the Time Warner end of things will bring less service responce.

I have friends locally, who are on Verizon DSL, and most are happy

I 'spose it depends on where you are and the company that provides.
tvsjr
Posts: 4118
Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 9:46 am

Post by tvsjr »

440roadrunner wrote:
I currently pay $74.99/mo
!!!!!WOW!!!!! I thought my cable service was "plenty" at less than 60/month
It's biz class... and a business expense.

Think that's expensive? You should see what I'm paying for T1s, T3s, and OC12s.

Hell, one colo rack (2Gbps connectivity, 5Mbps average bandwidth) is $2K/month, and that's cheap. :P
User avatar
escomm
Queue Moderator
Posts: 5170
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2006 8:24 pm

Post by escomm »

So I guess the 3mbp/s DSL line I'm gettin from AT&T for 14.95 a month is not such a bad deal
tvsjr
Posts: 4118
Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 9:46 am

Post by tvsjr »

escomm wrote:So I guess the 3mbp/s DSL line I'm gettin from AT&T for 14.95 a month is not such a bad deal
Not at all, if it serves your needs.
User avatar
Andy Brinkley
Batboard $upporter
Posts: 376
Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2001 4:00 pm
What radios do you own?: FMR80D and a Motrac with Scan

Post by Andy Brinkley »

I've had both cable (Time Warner) and DSL (Bell South). In my neck of the woods they pretty much match each other's pricing.

We had Time Warner at our last house and had pretty decent service, but it did slow down in the evening hours. If the power goes out anywhere in the area, no internet.

Currently paying $32.95 per month to Bell South for 3 Mbps down / 384 Kbps up. (new house was to far out in the boonies to have cable service). Everythime I have checked my connection speed it has been 90 - 100% of what I am paying for, and have had zero outages after a minor issue was resolved (next paragraph).

If you can talk to the telephone line tech they can install a new box outside that splits the DSL signal and telephone signals at outside of the house and keeps from having to install filters all over the house. You will have to run a dedicated line to the DSL modem. I no choice but to do that after we found out that the previous owner of our house had left loops of phone wire everywhere in the attic that served as an antenna that would knock the DSL out any time an electrical storm was within 10 miles. I'm in the process of rewiring the telephone jacks with CAT 5 cable.
Andy / NC4AB
User avatar
Tom in D.C.
Posts: 3859
Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2001 4:00 pm
What radios do you own?: Progreso soup can with CRT

DSL, etc.

Post by Tom in D.C. »

I have two DSL "low speed" lines, one at home and one down
in the country, both run by Verizon. They both work well and are
costing $14.95 each per month for the first year. God only knows how
much they'll want when the first year runs out. My only real
complaint is the way the home line goes down whenever
there's even a threat of an electrical storm which is mostly
during the summer, but the outages never last more than
a half hour or so. Also, a lot of the startup problems when
my first system was new seemed to come from Verizon's
being in a near-Beta-test mode when they began sellilng
the service. They've gotten a lot better and their tech
service is still quite good, even using remote control now
for resetting when the Westell modem blows up for no apparent reason.
Tom in D.C.
In 1920, the U.S. Post Office Department ruled
that children may not be sent by parcel post.
User avatar
Jim2121
Batboard $upporter
Posts: 881
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:36 pm
What radios do you own?: A few! Most I sign out!

Post by Jim2121 »

Looks like I'll stay with the cable! (I'll wait & see what the rest of the people in town get for a DSL connection speed)
Thanks for all the replies...
_________________________________________________
have a merry christmas
and, a safe -- happy new year! Jim Reid
Jim202
Posts: 3609
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2001 4:00 pm

Post by Jim202 »

One point that no one has mentioned is that even
though you have a fast data connection, you probably
can't use the full capacity of it. Most of the time, the
connections to other sites is limited by the rate of the
other end.

You keep hearing about the great speed some people
have on their internet connection. Problem is they
very seldom get that full benifit of it. The distant end
will just crawl along at what ever rate they may be
using that day. I have seen some sites only provide
data at 26K speeds.

Think about your use and who you connec t to most
of the time. Let your use dictate what you connection
speed may need to be.

I just got back from a week up in Anchorage Alaska.
The network connections up there at the different
hotels and companies are far below what you get
here in the lower 48. Felt real good to get back home
where the speed maintained a decent rate most of the time.

Jim
User avatar
RESCUE161
Batboard $upporter
Posts: 2062
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2002 4:00 pm
What radios do you own?: Too many!

Clear Wire?

Post by RESCUE161 »

My vote is for cable. Too many bad experiences with outages with Verizon's DSL in Maryland (26 miles South of DC). My cable in Maryland was about 2/3 faster than DSL and we were in a highly congested neighborhood where most were using cable. The phone system there just plain sucked and when they tried to add DSL to the mix, it just got worse.

When we got to Spain, DSL was all they had, so we had to use it. The speed sucked and it was always out just like it was in Maryland. As soon as we got back to the States, we went back with cable and I never want to look back. We have never experienced outages with either cable service (Maryland or Texas). As a matter of fact, I never wish to have another land line hooked up ever again.

Has anyone used Clear Wire wireless service? They say on their commercials that it's faster than cable and DSL and you can take it anywhere the service is available (no wires - period).
Scott
KE4FHH
Religion: Kills folks dead!
User avatar
Jim2121
Batboard $upporter
Posts: 881
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:36 pm
What radios do you own?: A few! Most I sign out!

Post by Jim2121 »

so right now going by this test: http://test.lvcm.com/ and, (I've tested on toast, cnet, ect...) I have 990kbps down & 500kbps up... for $39.00 a month. should I been running faster? at least down anyway?
something does not add up here? correct me if I'm wrong?
User avatar
RESCUE161
Batboard $upporter
Posts: 2062
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2002 4:00 pm
What radios do you own?: Too many!

Post by RESCUE161 »

Using that test, I get 4.32 Mbps download speed and 369 kbps upload. I'm using cable here.
Scott
KE4FHH
Religion: Kills folks dead!
User avatar
Jim2121
Batboard $upporter
Posts: 881
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:36 pm
What radios do you own?: A few! Most I sign out!

Re: Clear Wire?

Post by Jim2121 »

RESCUE161 wrote:My vote is for cable. Too many bad experiences with outages with Verizon's DSL in Maryland (26 miles South of DC). My cable in Maryland was about 2/3 faster than DSL and we were in a highly congested neighborhood where most were using cable. The phone system there just plain sucked and when they tried to add DSL to the mix, it just got worse.

When we got to Spain, DSL was all they had, so we had to use it. The speed sucked and it was always out just like it was in Maryland. As soon as we got back to the States, we went back with cable and I never want to look back. We have never experienced outages with either cable service (Maryland or Texas). As a matter of fact, I never wish to have another land line hooked up ever again.

Has anyone used Clear Wire wireless service? They say on their commercials that it's faster than cable and DSL and you can take it anywhere the service is available (no wires - period).
Haven't heard of Clear Wire? I check what the townspeople are using the go to the list: http://www.thelist.com/ its not in my area ..
AEC
No Longer Registered
Posts: 1889
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:56 pm

Post by AEC »

I just dumped my slow cable modem from Cox, and now have Qwest DSL, and it is a lot faster than the cable modem I was using...by far.

Here's the speed results from Cox's own site:

Download 5,568,432 bps
Upload 701,832 bps

And now....the latest speed test results....

This is the second speed test I just ran, to verify a 'constant' upload/download speed, and the results are pretty steady.

Here's the latest test results as of 2 minutes ago:

Download 6,066,536 bps
Upload 749,136 bps
User avatar
kb0nly
AKA: The Computer Doctor
Posts: 3370
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2003 1:15 am

Post by kb0nly »

Jim2121 wrote:so right now going by this test: http://test.lvcm.com/ and, (I've tested on toast, cnet, ect...) I have 990kbps down & 500kbps up... for $39.00 a month. should I been running faster? at least down anyway?
something does not add up here? correct me if I'm wrong?
I just ran that test, and right now for me is the slowest part of the day normally. Here is my results..

MySpeed Results
Download 4,805,000 bps
Upload 247,968 bps

For a 5000/384 cable connection during the busy part of the day, at least for my area, i think thats pretty good. And considering i pay $9.95 a month i can live with it!
Duct tape is like the force, it has a dark side and a light side and it holds the universe together.

"I Reject Your Reality And Substitute My Own!" - Adam Savage
User avatar
RESCUE161
Batboard $upporter
Posts: 2062
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2002 4:00 pm
What radios do you own?: Too many!

Post by RESCUE161 »

kb0nly wrote:For a 5000/384 cable connection during the busy part of the day, at least for my area, i think thats pretty good. And considering i pay $9.95 a month i can live with it!
DAMN, 5 Mbps for $9.95??? Where do I sign up?
Scott
KE4FHH
Religion: Kills folks dead!
User avatar
kb0nly
AKA: The Computer Doctor
Posts: 3370
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2003 1:15 am

Post by kb0nly »

Well, its only $9.95 for the first year, but still!

After the first year its $45 a month. Mediacom offered it to existing cable customers.
Duct tape is like the force, it has a dark side and a light side and it holds the universe together.

"I Reject Your Reality And Substitute My Own!" - Adam Savage
User avatar
wavetar
Administrator
Posts: 7340
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2001 4:00 pm

Post by wavetar »

Jim202 wrote:One point that no one has mentioned is that even
though you have a fast data connection, you probably
can't use the full capacity of it. Most of the time, the
connections to other sites is limited by the rate of the
other end.

You keep hearing about the great speed some people
have on their internet connection. Problem is they
very seldom get that full benifit of it. The distant end
will just crawl along at what ever rate they may be
using that day. I have seen some sites only provide
data at 26K speeds.
'Tis true...but if you run things like Limewire or especially Bit Torrent, the more speed the better! Downloading a multi-GB file in hours instead of days rocks!
No trees were harmed in the posting of this message...however an extraordinarily large number of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.

Welcome to the /\/\achine.
tvsjr
Posts: 4118
Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 9:46 am

Post by tvsjr »

wavetar wrote:Downloading a multi-GB file in hours instead of days rocks!
Downloading one in minutes instead of hours really rocks. :P
User avatar
Jim2121
Batboard $upporter
Posts: 881
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:36 pm
What radios do you own?: A few! Most I sign out!

Post by Jim2121 »

how about upgrading my wireless Linksys router? its appx: 3 1/2 years old. A, 2.4gig on 802.11b.... will it make a difference in speed?
I read on a yahoo site that the more current routers run faster.?
_______________________________
then never finished article
had to go back to work.....
OX
Posts: 1321
Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2001 4:00 pm

Post by OX »

[quote="Jim2121"]how about upgrading my wireless Linksys router? its appx: 3 1/2 years old. A, 2.4gig on 802.11b.... will it make a difference in speed?
I read on a yahoo site that the more current routers run faster.?
[quote]

Depends on the router. Mine is a WRT54GV2.0, there are newer versions of this model out there, my dad has one and I don't "see" anything different. I think Linksys on their newer routers locked them down from hacking.

I run mine with modified firmware from http://www.dd-wrt.com/ and all of my problems have gone away. There's a very convenient setting that can be adjusted to change the clock speed of the router from the default of 200 MHz to 300 MHz in steps. I suppose it could affect your speed but it would have to be buggy firmware if it was your router, which Linksys was known for.
User avatar
Bruce1807
Posts: 1203
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:18 am

Post by Bruce1807 »

got to be DSL
I have 4 meg down and 1 up and it is flawless
User avatar
kb0nly
AKA: The Computer Doctor
Posts: 3370
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2003 1:15 am

Post by kb0nly »

If DSL was available here with more than 1.5mb down i would have stayed DSL. But thats the fastest i could get.

So i went to Cable, 5mb down now, could bump that up to 10mb if i needed to, which i don't yet.

Speaking of P2P apps, my downloads usually sit in the 400-500kb/s area. When i do some other things i see more than that. Your down speed is always dependent on the website or server on the other end anyway.

I can have Azureus downloading in the background and still web surf like it wasn't even going.
Duct tape is like the force, it has a dark side and a light side and it holds the universe together.

"I Reject Your Reality And Substitute My Own!" - Adam Savage
User avatar
Jim2121
Batboard $upporter
Posts: 881
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:36 pm
What radios do you own?: A few! Most I sign out!

Post by Jim2121 »

thanks for the replies & info...
User avatar
erchambers
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2003 8:34 am
What radios do you own?: xts3000, Astro Spectra

Post by erchambers »

My 2 cents....

I just within the last 4-5 months switched from Cable to DSL. Around here everyone gets a piece of the pie so to speak on cable. Most of my surfing would be done at night, and that seemed to be the most busy time. There were a LOT of times that I would download at under 1 meg!! This became unacceptable for me since I was shelling out 50.00 a month for what was suppose to be a solid 6megs of service.

I had a couple of phone issues(sbc, now AT&T) came out and handled the issues. The second time they came out they finally found the issue with the phone line and had to run a new line and everything because it had not been done. I questioned their internet and he gave me the information. I followed through with it, researched it and called and changed. To make a long story short, I get a solid 5megs of service 24 hours a day 7 days a week. With the phone lines and the DSL, it is dedicated right to my home, so if my neighbor has it he is on a different line and it has no bearing on my service nor my speed. I have been very happy with the DSL service from SBC Yahoo. I would love to go back to cable, but they would have to give me the same guarantee that DSL does now before I would switch back. Besides, SBC YAHOO lets me pay an additional $8.00 a month to run my own server for my website, with Comcast Cable that violates their TOS.

May not be good for you, but just letting you know my experience with both of them.
Hope that helps you in your quest for new internet!


Eric
KB8UYC
NEVER FORGET 9/11!
User avatar
kb0nly
AKA: The Computer Doctor
Posts: 3370
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2003 1:15 am

Post by kb0nly »

DSL can be far better than Cable for sustained speed during the busiest hours of the day in some towns. The problem here is the DSL isn't offered faster than 1.5mbps unless you sign up for a business account and pay twice as much, even then its only 3mbps.
Duct tape is like the force, it has a dark side and a light side and it holds the universe together.

"I Reject Your Reality And Substitute My Own!" - Adam Savage
techie
Batboard $upporter
Posts: 400
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2001 4:00 pm

Re: Depends on many things...

Post by techie »

kc7gr wrote:The choice of DSL vs. cable depends on many factors.

First and foremost: Do you have even the slightest thoughts of going self-hosted? (as in running your own servers). If so, you need to go DSL. Period. The reason is that every cable company I've ever checked with has strict prohibitions against end users running servers off their pipes, and they will actively go after those who try.
Agreed. and with cable, you have a choice of ISP.. Your cable company or Your cable company.

With DSL you have a choice of many ISP's, offering varying levels of service,
each with their own usage policies.

We use a locally (actually regionally) based ISP, with a excellent track record,
and a extremely high customer satisfaction rating, and would not consider
using anybody else except for a few other similar ISP's.
On throughput: There is some truth to the statement that cable is faster than DSL on the download side. HOWEVER -- This is true only as long as there are relatively few users on the same cable hub that you're feeding from. If some airheaded teenager down the block from you starts streaming a whole slug of porn or something from YouTube, it's going to slow EVERYone else down, including you!

DSL does not suffer from this issue anywhere near as much because, as others have pointed out, the connection goes from you straight to the backbone router at the telco CO, as opposed to a neighborhood hub, possibly an area router, and THEN back to the cable company's head end.
Very true. DSL is a dedicated pipe from your premises to the CO, at which point it is aggregated onto your ISP's feeder circuit. Cable is a shared pipe from your neighborhood to the headend.
A few words about security are in order. Don't even THINK of connecting ANY computer to the Internet without at least a software firewall. A hardware-based firewall is preferable, as it will not gobble up CPU and I/O resources on your computer as a software firewall will.
It really depends on your operating system. This is certainly true for Billware, but not as much for the Unix's and Unix based OS's such as MacOS. While acompromised system can ruin your day/week/month/year/life, not all OS's are as easy to crack as Billware, nor are they as insecure out of the box, or provided with attack vectors masqurading as programs..

I've been running unix boxes of various flavors naked on the net for many years now, and I've been cracked once, way back in 1992/1993 via an old sendmail hole. I don't take any real extreme precautions, except for standard best practices, such as not running an unneeded services, keeping track of security notifications, and keeping systems updated to recent patchlevels.
Last time I checked, the time-to-infection for a completely unprotected computer, connected directly to the Internet, was less than a minute. A friend of mine once made the mistake of forgetting to activate his own firewall, and his system was taken out in less than 20 seconds.
I don't think it's quite that bad, the last figures I heard were more like 20 minutes or so.. This assumes that you are running Billware, and have not updated to the latest security patches. ie: a virgin install before patching.
Don't take chances. There's no such thing as "too paranoid" when it comes to network security.
True.
Happy tweaking.
Hack>
-- Welcome My Son, Welcome To The Machine --
Bob Vaughan | techie@tantivy.net
AF6RR | P.O.Box 19792, Stanford, Ca 94309
-- I am Me, I am only Me, And no one else is Me, What could be simpler? --
User avatar
kb0nly
AKA: The Computer Doctor
Posts: 3370
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2003 1:15 am

Post by kb0nly »

Agreed. and with cable, you have a choice of ISP.. Your cable company or Your cable company.

With DSL you have a choice of many ISP's, offering varying levels of service,
each with their own usage policies.

We use a locally (actually regionally) based ISP, with a excellent track record,
and a extremely high customer satisfaction rating, and would not consider
using anybody else except for a few other similar ISP's.
Not here.. With the DSL you have a choice of Frontier or Frontier or no DSL at all..

They don't let any other provider in, i know this because me and others tried.
Duct tape is like the force, it has a dark side and a light side and it holds the universe together.

"I Reject Your Reality And Substitute My Own!" - Adam Savage
User avatar
Jim2121
Batboard $upporter
Posts: 881
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:36 pm
What radios do you own?: A few! Most I sign out!

Post by Jim2121 »

theres a few more ISP's on there way in town in 2007.. right now I can download a 1 meg file at home in 9 seconds. I gave this a try:
http://performance.toast.net/ also did the Upload Speed Test by downloading a 1meg pic of theres to a temp directory. Sent it back & that took 19 seconds... (at work we have T1) I have DirecTV at home, I was thinking about DirecTV internet, but I haven't checked into it yet. don't even know if they have it?

I'm breaking 1000kbps down right now with this test below:
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
and 475kbps goin up... using there LA, CA. server. so I guess I'll see what 2007 has to offer. I can live with this for now.

you folks have a safe, happy new year! I can see by Batdude's post from Houston...... he's going to have a good new year...
KG4LHQ
Posts: 642
Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:50 am

My 2 Cents

Post by KG4LHQ »

I just got DSL about 2 weeks ago after finally hassling the telephone company to try to install it. They kept telling me that I'm 2,200 feet to far and I been on them to try to see if it would work.

The installer came out ran a " home run " Cat 5 line direct from the filter at the box to the DSL modem. I got everything hooked up and going and wala it works

I pay $39.99 for 768kbps/down and 512/kbps up.

After running tests at numerous different times of the day for being 2,200 feet to far my tests are as follows.

Download: 650kbps
Upload: 500-550 kbps - Varies but never drops below 500kbps
Latency to google.com - 68ms

It suits my needs, I can do all my websurfing,downloading,uploading,video streaming, music listening I want and I have no problems with it at all.

Get what you feel will be sufficient with you and be happy with it.

I've been on dial up for 14 years so trust me when I got this I was astatic.
Not here.. With the DSL you have a choice of Frontier or Frontier or no DSL at all..

They don't let any other provider in, i know this because me and others tried.
I agree with you. My telephone company is the same way. They won't let anyone else in so if you want any telephone/internet service you have to go with the local TelCo
Post Reply

Return to “Computer/Technical Assistance”