Best Residental Broadband Acccess

[monsoon]

Which is the best Internet connection for residential use? Recently most of the cable companies have been boosting their speeds significantly and in many areas cable is up to 3-4x faster than DSL.

[Mobuchu]

DSL may be slightly more reliable, but not enough so to compensate for the speed of cable. Unless the phone companies start running fiber closer into neighborhoods, there's only so far they can go with tip and ring. The thick coaxial cable has endless possibilities and the technology for cable is getting better everyday. Many cable companies like the one here in Charlotte are doing alot of upgrades to their plant, so hopefully we'll see the benefits in reliability...

[Topher1]

I agree... Cable is just about as reliable these days and much faster. I'm currently a DSL subscriber. 2 weeks ago I called Bellsouth to cancel my DSL, so I could switch to cable, but they offered me 6 months service at $9.95 a month (compared to my current $45 a month), with no additional contract, so needless to say, I'm sticking it out with DSL for 6 more months before changing.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

cable has been much more reliable then DSL and I am getting speeds of up to 5 Megabits a second . That is disgusting for only $40 US.

[blueize74]

Around this area - the Time Warner Business Class really moves! Seems to be reliable too

[Spartan]

DSL has the 5 megabits as well. I find that DSL is just as reliable, and slighly faster depending on where you are. The dedicated line is a major selling point for me. That said, I would choose which ever one has a better rate.

I know that both are faster than a T1, which sucks majorly.

[DigitalSky]

DSL... partly b/c Cable [TV] sucks... and really once you go past speeds of 2MB you can't really tell a difference in the downloading. Plus it's more reliable... get a bundle with DirecTV and BellSouth DSL or something. Satellite TV > Cable TV.

[monsoon]

My biggest complaint against DSL is that it is expensive in most territories because the phone company insists on making you have local phone service which ends up being quite an addition to cost. For example just to have a dial tone in Huntersville is almost $27/month after all of the fees and taxes are added, and it is long distance just 5 miles from here! Add the cost of DSL and this bill exceeds $75/month and that is the minimum it takes to have DSL here. And it simply isn't as fast as cable. This is for service that ends up being 1M/130K or so.

In comparison, I can get 5M/512K service from Adelphia for a flat $51/month. (I use Dish Network for TV) I decided to add Packet8.net VoIP phone service which is a flat $19/month and I can call anywhere in Canada and the US for no additional fees. And it come with a bunch of features that would have cost me $45/month at BellSouth.

At least for me, it was no contest between the two.

[Neo]

I know that both are faster than a T1, which sucks majorly.

Yes, but for downloads only. T1's are really bought for their upload capacity for housing servers and whatnot for companies. When was the last time you obtained a 1500k upload rate?

[Cotuit]

I've never had DSL, but everyone I know who ever has had it had no end of problems with it.

[Spartan]

Yes, but for downloads only.  T1's are really bought for their upload capacity for housing servers and whatnot for companies.  When was the last time you obtained a 1500k upload rate? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But on the other hand, how often do I upload things? Maybe a few times a week to photobucket, which is less than 250k... When the entire campus is using the internet (around exam time) things get really sluggish or unresponsive. I like my dedicated line with DSL back home.

[I-275westcoastflorida]

I used to have DSL and now i have cable you can see which one is better, lol