Cable and DSL Modems

LWilson250 · Dec 6, 2001

I was just wondering who here used a cable modem? I have Houston Road Runner for my cable provider and it’s always going down. Whenever it gets “cold” (I am in Houston...) the cable doesn’t work anymore. How many people here use cable or DSL and do you like it or not?

Lee W.

spanky250 · Dec 6, 2001

I use a cable modem (Charter Pipeline) and love it. The speed is phenominal, and the service never goes down. I think I have lost my service 3 or 4 times in 4 years. I did have to do a little tweaking when I first got it to get the best performance, though, because Windows 98 doesn't optimize itself (is that an oxymoron? ;) ) for Boadband like it does for dial-up. The most effective tweak I did was to increase the packet size in the registry, it made an enormous difference.

bike5 · Dec 6, 2001

I wish I could even answer that. They don't provide cable or dsl or anything but dial-up where I live. Up in the sierra mountains :(

P.S. to Lee- Get on yahoo real quick

razorhead68 · Dec 6, 2001

I have DSL with Verizon. They get a bad rap sometimes but I have not had a problem. Depends on the cable but the cable modem I had at my last house was faster than this but not by much.

fatty_k · Dec 6, 2001

I have cable (Shaw) and like it a lot. Ive had maybe 2 or 3 times when it has been down since I got it in March but nothing too major. Fairly cheap too; only $40 CDN a month, unlimited access.

Greg M · Dec 6, 2001

My Earthlink was on occasion, top notch. I say that because my max download rate was 150kbps. My 56k dial up was lik 5kpbs. That is 30 times as fast!

The problem is that there is/was a lot of noise on my line and occasionally my connection would break. Occasionally meant about every other time I used it.

To solve this issue, Earthlink has added some error correction to my line and now I can't download faster than 80kbps. That is still a big improvement, but not what I am paying for.

A friend of mine who has cable literally gets 1mBps. That is one megabyte per second! In other words, about six times as fast as my best Earthlink download speed. With cable you have to share bandwidth, but I don't know of anyone who has seen performance drop to an unacceptable level.

For a spee test, go to dslreports.com. Click on tools and then speed test. When working properly my Earthlink DSL would test at 1,300 download and 360 upload. If you look at the chart, you will see that that is pretty darn fast. Now if I could get them to fix the noise on my line without error correction!!!!!

Greg M

singletracker500 · Dec 7, 2001

I have Cox "@home" at least for the next couple of months. They're going out of business. Cox is working on their own. Hopefully, it will be up before @home goes down.

But I love it. It's extremely fast, and never goes down. It's not uncommon to download at 250kbps.

Anssi · Dec 7, 2001

I have ADSL(512kpbs). Works great for games, very consistent, although not as fast at peak as cable (had that too but too many users on one node and it gets really slow).

Milquetoast · Dec 7, 2001

Cable modem from RCN, it works some days and doesn't work other days. Today it doesn't so I have to use a dial-up backup number. I have their tech support on my phone's speed-dial. Oh, and it's not much faster than a dial-up. (although it used to be blazing fast when I was the first in the area to have it)

keith500r · Dec 7, 2001

1mbps is not 1 megabyte per second, its a little over 100kilobytes per second

if i remember correctly kbps stands for kilobits per second, a modem is 56kbps or 5 kilobytes per second ( kb/s).

I have cable and charter has me capped at 365kbps, speed sucks but its reliable

yarbonwick · Dec 7, 2001

Ahh the power of the bit I'm mean byte. 1megabyte/ps sure would be nice!!

MX265 · Dec 7, 2001

I am going to call up AOL soon and say "Byte Me!" and go with Acworth Cablenet. Acworth Cablenet is at $24.95\mo now whereas AOL has jumped to $29.95 after surcharges, fees and blah, blah, blah!

MXP1MP · Dec 7, 2001

I have verizon for adsl I've had it for the last two years I've had it gone down a total of 3 times in 2 years. Otherwise my speeds have been fast and consistant I'm usually faster than most cable modems. Its great much better than a dail up anyday I'll never go back to a dail up. What sucks is verizon won't let you split up the bandwidth between up and down. right now its at 768k down and 128k up. On average its 600-700k range and the up is usually 90-128k on average.

CR80 Red Rider · Dec 7, 2001

Bellsouth DSL

I've got DSL through Bellsouth and I've got nothing but good things to say about it. It's ALOT faster than the 56K that I used to be on. It has yet to disconnect on me. Its speed is 1148 down and 217 up. I would definately suggest it to anyone who is looking into getting DSL.

LWilson250 · Dec 7, 2001

Thanks for all the replies. I was wondering just one more thing... If I got a satellite ISP would I have a static IP? I play a lot of computer games online and it’s important to me to always have the same IP so my friends know what IP to use when logging on to my server. I wish I could get DSL out here but the phone lines are just too crappy. I guess I will stick with my cable...

Lee W.

spanky250 · Dec 7, 2001

Originally posted by keith500r
I have cable and charter has me capped at 365kbps, speed sucks but its reliable

Why are you capped so low? I have Charter, and my upload is 365k, but my download speed is supposedly capped at 800k. But, I have gotten speeds much greater at times. My average download speed is around 450k.

gibbs_6 · Dec 7, 2001

I have cable.Its alot better than dialup, but the stupid router will not let me send stuff over certain chat things...say msn and stuff like that.Firewalls are blocked and I sure do not know how to fix that.We have a router because we got 2 computers hooked up on the same cable line.:think

kingriz1 · Dec 7, 2001

I have both.

Cable at home and DSL at the store.

Cable rules by far at least here.

And if you have a problem you can actally get help. DSL customer service sux. They send you back and forth "oh that is an ISP issue" and the isp says "that is a hardware issue" the way I figure it whoever bills me is the one who needs to fix it.

I have had zero problems with Cable!! Except for the 3 days I was down when all this happened. I use AT&T.

I have problems fairly regularly with my DSL but i dont even call anymore. its not like they will help you anyway.

Sincereley,

kingriz

JimmyD2 · Dec 7, 2001

Two weeks ago, I would have raved about AT&T@Home, but since I've been down for a week due to the @Home - AT&T fiasco, I'm sorta POed right now. I had great service up to that point. I was only down 1 time for 2 days in a year and a half before that.

yarbonwick · Dec 8, 2001

I think it's important that we remember that AT&T is NOT @home. @home, as much as I can tell, is Excite. It's not AT&T's fault that Excite went belly-up with a Billion dollar debt. Everybody who used Excite's networking is effected by this. AT&T "tried" to buy them, but when you're that much in debt, the bondholders refused. Trying to build you own network AND move 2 million customers to it, is NOT going to happen overnight, or even in 10 days. There are a few options available to you.
SAT - Benefits

"Always on" Internet service: Unlike analog Internet services, where you have to log off the Internet in order use the phone and vice versa, satellite service is always on, enabling you to have Internet access 24x7, even if you are using the telephone.
Wireless: Unlike analog dial-up, cable, or DSL services, satellite service is provided via a satellite in the Earth's orbit. Because it works like satellite television service, no extra wires are required to gain access.
Accessible: In the United States, the only limitation to satellite broadband is that your location must have a "clear view" of the southern sky. If your area is not wired for cable or DSL service, you may be able to get broadband through a satellite.

Drawbacks:

Like cable service, satellite service shares its bandwidth with the number of users using the service at any time. So, access speeds may vary depending on the time of day of usage. Also, because the signals are sent to a larger satellite in the Earth's orbit, access speeds may vary depending on weather conditions, such as rain or snow.

ADSL - Benefits:

Fast: Because DSL modems are much faster than analog modems, downloading and uploading Web pages takes a fraction of the time.
"Always on"
Depending on the level of service offered, download speeds can range up to 8 Mbps; and upload speeds can range up to 1Mbps

Cablemodem - Benefits:

"Always on"
Fast: Cable modems are capable of transmitting data downstream at rates up to 27 Mbps and 10 Mbps upstream. This number is much higher than the average capacity of the Internet today. Thus, cable modems can usually carry data faster than the Internet. Though you're routinely capped at 1.5mbps.
Flexible in Bandwidth: Cable providers can add more bandwidth in a neighborhood.

Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS)- or Known as "Fixed Wireless"
Benefits:

"Always on"
Wireless: Because fixed wireless only requires a short cable from your modem to your computer, you can throw away that extra long telephone extension cord that is freely lining your hallway and bedroom floors.
Weather proof: Because fixed wireless travels through the air as radio waves, it is unaffected by various weather conditions, such as snow or rain.
Net Shared: Unlike cable or satellite services that share bandwidth from the user to the ISP, broadband fixed wireless has a designated signal to the ISP.
Fast: Broadband fixed wireless can download data up to 5 Mbps; however, the upstream is slower, running at 256 Kbps.

I've thought about the wireless myself even though I have all options available to me. But to me, it was price and currently, cable was/is the more bang for the buck. Atleast here.

LWilson250 · Dec 8, 2001

Wow, thats just what I needed to know. Thanks again everyone.

Lee W.

Cable and DSL Modems

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spanky250

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bike5

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Greg M

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MXP1MP

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LWilson250

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gibbs_6

kingriz1

JimmyD2

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LWilson250

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