Cable Modem vs. DSL

[KidKasha]

I have been told today that my DSL connection will not be possible because of distance. I can install a cable modem for about $59 per month on a month to month basis. What will I gain or loose if I choose the cable. I am currently running at 56K w/ my modem

 

[FOOL]

It all depends on the service in your area. I know that where I live, cable modems used to be horribly slow (down around the same speed as a 56k modem during peak hours) b/c they threw so many ppl onto the same segment. I can say that now they have alleviated much of this problem. One other problem is that a large number of cable modem service providers are severely restricting ppl's bandwidth to something around 100-200 KiloBITS per second, or around 12-24 kilobytes per second. Just make sure you check what their actual service rates and maximum throughput are. Also make sure there is no charge for high usage rates (which I have seen before). DSL has the problem of being severely distance restricted, but you usually get pretty close to the xfer rates that you pay for.

Hope this helps some,
FOOL

 

[obenton]

With cable you'll get much faster file downloads, and web pages with many frames will load faster. But, $59 is rather higher, so whether it's worth it or not depends on what you do on the internet.

 

[0div0]

you'll gain a cable modem, network card, and faster download speeds. cable is faster than dsl in most cases, but it depends on how many cable modem users your isp has and how many are online when you're on. I have dsl and I'm happy with it.

 

[Packet]

Actually, cable vs dsl in terms of speed and loading all depends on the services in your area.

In my area the fastest cable available is .5mbit up/down were DSL has 1.5mbit down/386k up.

DSL has dedicated bandwith, so you won't get slowdowns durring peak hours.

 

[HannibalX]

Yeah Cable wll slow down, prolly to about the range that DSL is on average, thats if you have a good provider.

 

[PCAddict]

Get the cable. You won't regret it. Anything beats dialup. I have DSL and my brother has cable. My DSL's speed is more constant. Things such as DNS lookup and loading of pages seem to be faster on my DSL than his cable. But, his file download speed seems much higher. The advantage I have is that if I experience a DSL outage, my ISP (Bell Atlantic) lets me use dialup. It also comes in handly when I am mobile with my laptop. My brother has had a few service outages with his cable ISP and he's dead in the water when that happens.

Like others have said, it all comes down to how good the actual provider is.

 

[Rob9874]

I had DSL at my old apartment last year, and enjoyed a 256K-400K connection. However, when I moved, DSL is not available in my new location and I had to get cable. I was a little worried at first. But with downloads at over 1megabit/sec, I'm happy. I think most companies are addressing the shared bandwidth problem. With DSL as their competition, they have to.

Rob

 

[IsOs]

I have both GTE DSL and RR cable. Depending on the time of day, one would seems faster than the other. But overall, they both gives me good connection speed. DSL service cost more than RR.

 

[Ulysses]

For your reading enjoyment:
http://www.gamepc.com/guides/printguide.asp?guide=internet

Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought you said you can't get DSL. If you can't, then cable is a good practical alternative. Check with people in the neighborhood to see what the service is like. And look for installation specials.

I get DSL for $40/mo. + no installation or HW or ISP or phone line charges. Download is 896 Kbps compared to 50 Kbps with a dial up modem. As must have been mentioned, cable can be faster but the speed is not consistent and depends on how many people are on-line at the same time. I think upload speeds are generally faster with cable.

 

[Dean]

I find it wierd that the dsl isp's in the States don't have speeds competitive with cable. You would think they would stay on par. Here in Canada it's typical to find a 2.5-7 megabit connection at competitive prices with cable(around $40 a month)..seems to me that the DSL suppliers in the States are stingy

 

[pdo]

I've have had both. For me DSL seems to be better for gaming and cable is faster with downloading.

 

[pm]

PCaddict's synopsis matches my (limited) experience.

My download rate is typically much higher than my friend's with DSL, but it's not as consistent. Last night I downloaded a compressed 50MB file from download.com at 1.2Mb/s, the night before the same file at approximately the same time downloaded at 800kb/s, two nights before that everything it was 2.38Mb/s. So the rates are higher than the 600kb/s or so that my DSL friends get, but they are not consistent.

Latency is extremely low on my cable connection. Yahoo, USWest.Net, and several other sites all ping at 35ms. Latency fluctuates slightly. I wrote a Perl script to ping various servers and record them in a log to check for outtages during the day (AT&T will reimburse you for outtages) and I've noticed that latency goes up during the day, and drops later at night).

DNS lookup seem slower on cable than DSL... I have no clue why this is so, but it does seem to be true.

Overall, I'm thrilled with my cable modem. I can download files in minutes rather than hours (50MB takes less than 10 minutes, rather than hours). Mine, however, costs $40 per month... not $60. I still think I would get one at $60 - although it'd be a much more difficlt decision.

 

[Prodigy^]

I hear cable sucks VERY badly for some people when it comes to online gaming......and I've personally got enough time on my hands to wait for any download to finish, so I'll go with DSL

 

[pm]

I suppose that it depends on your provider, the game, and, of course, where the server is. I have played TFQ, UT and a fair amount of D2 in the last few days on BNet and I haven't had any issues at all. UT seems completely identical to playing on a LAN at a LAN party. TFQ worked fine as well. D2 has some problems, but I figure that most of those are caused by BNet itself and not my connection or computer.

I don't think you can make a blanket statement like "Cable modems suck for games" (not that you did this, Prodigy, since you said "some&quot. Definitely the latency is low, and the bandwidth is high. Packet loss on my connection is essentially non-existant. All of these should give me an excellent game connection and this has been true in my situation. Whether this will hold up in the future as more people are added to my node is uncertain, but USWest is having problems with it's local DSL servers as well due to high demand so I don't think that the DSL people are completely immune either.