DSL or Cable?

[chuckbradley]

I have been given a proposal by ATT to set us up with DSL 6.0-512 which will only cost me about 40.00 a month compared to 99.00 I am paying time warner for cable. I understand Cable is a shared bandwidth and the DSL is dedicated. So in some of your opinions which is better? If neither is better than the other then I have to go with lower price. Downtime is a major concern also. With cable we have only been down a couple partial days over the past 1 1/2 years.

I have never had DSL and just dont know how to compare. I know some of you have had both. This is a business level service.

[Greg Bell]

I have that service at my apt. you have to be pretty close to their equipment to get top speed. I get on average 5 meg down, 384k up and the equipment is maybe 200 yards away? I had intermittent connections issues as well that took awhile to get solved. If I could get cable internet at this apt I would but DSL was my only choice. I had both cable and DSL back when I was in Michigan and had no issues with either I switched to DSL based on price.

Edited December 4, 2008 by Greg Bell

[bbbean]

I have been given a proposal by ATT to set us up with DSL 6.0-512 which will only cost me about 40.00 a month compared to 99.00 I am paying time warner for cable. I understand Cable is a shared bandwidth and the DSL is dedicated. So in some of your opinions which is better? If neither is better than the other then I have to go with lower price. Downtime is a major concern also. With cable we have only been down a couple partial days over the past 1 1/2 years.

I have never had DSL and just dont know how to compare. I know some of you have had both. This is a business level service.

It is going to heavily depend on your local providers. Nationally, Cable beats DSL hands down.

From http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/life-tech...-below-average/

"The battle between cable and DSL (digital subscriber line) companies seems to have ended, and cable has been declared the victor. According to our results, the average cable service provider gets you online at 688 Kbps, while the average DSL lets you surf at just 469 Kbps—cable connections, on average, are 47 percent faster."

YMMV

[Flexmoney]

I did do a search Kyle.

Thanks for thinking of me.

[davidwiz]

Are you going to use it for Internet, TV, Phone, some, or all?

We have Comcast Triple Play at home (phone, tv, and internet) which is via cable and not too many problems. At my office, we get our Internet via Verizon DSL and never had a problem.

For the price you were quoted, I think you are going to have a hard time finding a better deal.

[chuckbradley]

Thats how I am getting the price. Its a bundled deal with the phone lines and long distance. I was just unsure of the level of service and the reliability.

[Graham Smith]

The fastest and cleanest available at this point is Verizon FIOS, if it's in your area. It's also very well priced as they are trying to lure customers.

Cable is next fastest, but it's only as fast and as clean as the cable and in a dense area with a lot of users, speed drops fast.

DSL is generally the slowest and the further you are from a hub, the slower the signal.

Basically, it all depends on what you want to use if for and how much you want to pay. If you just want general internet access, the cheapest option is probably the best. If you want to play online games or stream video, DSL will quickly get on your nerves.

In any event, check to see if the rate ATT quoted you is an introductory rate as a lot of the rates being quoted today are for 6 - 12 months and then the price goes up.

Also, if the DSL looks good, call sales at Comcast and tell them you are thinking of switching. You'd be surprised at how fast they can find some kind of discount incentive package to get you to stay.

[Nik Habicht]

I'm on Cable, my parents (where I do tech support) are on DSL. Cable's noticeably faster. For business I'm also in favor of a backup connection --- speed will have to depend on need. If cable goes out very occasionally and you can manage with dialup backup for cheap, that's a great solution. If adding DSL back up in would only run $480/year and potentially save you $ during a daylong outage --- well, you have a decision to make. You're the only person able to judge how much an outage will affect your business.....

[chuckbradley]

But NIk, a one day outage wouldn't be a problem. We could just ship all the orders the next day. You know nobody cares that they get their order fast.

I am considering taking it to compare and have a back up.

[CSEMARTIN]

I did do a search Kyle.

Thanks for thinking of me.

Most of us, me included, are afraid of you.

[lcs]

Thats how I am getting the price. Its a bundled deal with the phone lines and long distance. I was just unsure of the level of service and the reliability.

Chuck,

I have had residential DSL for years. Excellent service and minimal downtime. DSL speed is dependent on the phone line. If you live in an older home (or your business is in an older building) you will probably not get the highest speed they advertise. You need to ask the DSL provider "how far am I from the DSLAM?". Don't let em BS U, they know by your phone number. If you are close enough to the DSLAM for the advertised speed your cool there. The more users who jump on DSL in your area, can and will degrade your signal. If the area is saturated with DSL users and you get the advertised speed after install you are good to go from there on. DSL does not "throttle" the bandwidth as cable providers do, but additional DSL users can degrade your speed. Information is direct from an ATT DSL technician and my own experience.

If you are doing this for your business, I would get an SLA (Service Level Agreement) for my business side. The SLA would spell out things like speed and service availability and what happens if an outage is the fault of the provider. Your business depends on the internet. There is a lot more to an SLA, but I think you get the high level picture.

[Chris Keen]

I did do a search Kyle.

Thanks for thinking of me.

Made me laugh before I even opened the thread!

[Nik Habicht]

But NIk, a one day outage wouldn't be a problem. We could just ship all the orders the next day. You know nobody cares that they get their order fast.

I should have tried that line on my former boss --- who once told me that if I couldn't pictures in on deadline I was no good......

Hmmm, can't we just run them in the next days paper? After all if we don't report the game results in tomorrow's paper, won't they still be news the day after? :roflol: