DSL vs Cable Modems

I now have the option to get DSL and I currently have a cable modem.  The service I get from my cable company is practically non existant.  So my question is which is better DSL or cable and why?

Depends on the speed I\'d guess?

Personally I\'ve had both and have no complaints with either. I\'d just get what\'s fastest - or more stable, if that\'s a concern of yours.

Should the speed be the same I think I\'d prefer DSL because it\'s bandwith isn\'t limited by other users as cable can be (though I suspect that the cable solution would be faster overall?).

I think having consistant latency is the prime concern.  I don\'t think there is too much of a difference between the speeds, but when others in my neighborhood get on their cable modems I can tell my bandwidth takes a hit.  Not only will this change save me money... because I have to pay for their stupid cable service which I don\'t use (I have DirecTV) - so $40 a month savings isn\'t bad.

cable > DSL

if you notice drops in speed on your cable, you have a shitty ISP

get DSL, sure cable might be better but ADSL speed is not governed by how many people are online, if the isp says 1mb, then thats yer bandwidth no matter how many are online (btw some might consider this a disadvantage).

I have had cable for about a month now and am very happy with it.  But I do notice a small decrease in download speeds during peak times of the day, which I guess is the one positive with DSL...you don\'t share the line with your neighbors.

I have had both, and my current DSL service is far superior to the Cable service I was formerly using.  Cable is usually theoretically faster than DSL, but there are problems with it in the real world.  My main issue was latency, as you mentioned.  The connection would completely hang for about 6 seconds every 5 minutes.  That would probably be unnoticable to the average sheeple browsing websites, but for online gaming it is useless.  Also, the cable modem would occasionally drop it\'s connection to the ISP for hours or even days at a time.

The DSL service I\'m on now might have a lower upper limit, but it is utterly rock solid and reliable.  This ISP has great customer service also.  Check out http://www.broadbandreports.com to choose a provider, and read other\'s experiences.  My ISP is speakeasy.net.

when you DSL guys ever see over 1MB/sec download, call me.  oh yeah, you won\'t

you guys downloading video\'s from gaming sites or demo\'s from download.com have no idea how download speeds are affected by ISP\'s.  download some 4GB images and get back to me.

UNLESS you live right next to the local repeater, DSL service = teh suck

i just read a article in the paper how DSL companies around the country are lowering thier prices to be able to compete with cable

i had DSL for two months cause this was before cable was around,and i quickly cancelled it.  

i won\'t be satisfied untill wireless WAN technology rolls out.  i feel silly somtimes carrying my laptop around just so i can play vice city when i\'m bored

DSL quality varies as widely as Cable quality.  Cable users don\'t often attain these wonderous 1 mb/sec download speeds either.  I\'ve had both, and I remember what it was like.  The bottleneck is quite often the load on the server you\'re accessing, and the number of hops to that server, not the speed of your own connection.

The difference is in the quality of your ISP.  When you go cable, you usually have one choice, which is quite often shit.  When you go DSL, you have a large number of ISPs to choose from.  You don\'t have to pay these cut rate prices and get inferior service.  You can choose to pay a little more and get a high quality service.

but you don\'t have several DSL ISP\'s to choose from

you absolutely HAVE to pick one that has a repeater hub geographically near your house.  the signal attenuates amazingly the farther away you live

I don\'t know how it works for those who live in the distant suburbs or among the cornfields, but in central LA, I had a choice of 20 or more DSL ISPs when I selected mine.  Some parts of the city are served by SBC (Pacific Bell) and other parts are served by Verizon.  Your location in these regions funnels you down to ISPs that are aligned with whichever of the two big carriers, but then you still have a choice of many many ISPs, products, and price points.  That\'s not the case with Cable, where specific regions of the city are served by one cable company alone.

Originally posted by mm
cable > DSL

if you notice drops in speed on your cable, you have a shitty ISP

He\'s right.  Although if you\'re ISP is crap there\'s not a lot you can do about it.  A lot of times your ISP will put a download/upload limit on your line to try and accomodate more users instead of adding more bandwidth.

If you do decide to use DSL though, don\'t choose SBC.  I wouldn\'t do business with them.

Well the cable company I have now is a "local" company and as I said before they REQUIRE you to have their cable tv as well if you want their internet service.  I don\'t need it since I have DirecTV.  The DSL service is with BellSouth and when I followed Core\'s link (thanks Core) they seem to have a good track record with their fast access DSL.  Granted I think cable "can" get me higher speeds when everything is running right - it is a very rare occurance when it does run smoothly.  If you look at my network thread you will see what I mean.  Also there are times when my latency is terrible when playing online games.  The highest speed I have ever gotten while downloading something is around 60kb a sec and that was a rare occurance.  Usually I average around 35k a second or less.

Yeah, i guess im a little biased, but i agree with mm. My cable experience far out does that of my dsl experience. With my cable modem the speed always generally continues to increase during a download and sometimes my dsl would just flat out below 100k so I think ill stay with my cable. I have had 2 services and at&t broadband bites the big one but my other one is great.

That\'s what I had.. AT&T Broadband.  What a pile of steaming feces.