whats the difference between a dsl modem and a cable as for spped?

Originally posted by slickrick i had the dsl modem and i was impressed. is a cable modem quicker and if so, is it that much more expensive? i was paying 50 bucks a month for the dsl modem through my local phone provider. so whats the difference in speed and price? thanx. slick $50 a month? Where do you live? Here in Ohio you can get SBC Yahoo DSL for $26.95 a month. Cable is generally going to be faster, but they have caps on how much downloading you do, granted it is probably in the 45 gig range, but I know people who have gone over it and had their service cancelled. SBC Yahoo DSL I believe is 1.5M/256k, that means 1.5MB per second downloads and 256k uploads. Lately cable companies have been rasing the connection speeds to counter DSL price slashing. Cable I believe is currently up to 3MB/384Kbps. If cable and DSL are the same cost in your area, go for cable. Do you know how close you are to your nearest CO, that will affect your DSL speed as well. Cable prices more then likely will not go down anytime soon, they will probably just up speeds, lose the caps and add different services that DSL can't. Cole

man 45gb cap. i do more than that a month! hopefully comcast doesnt start!!

slick I have a cable modem through bight house/ time warner cable, not sure whats over there, but it works great. total cable bill is 135, but only 45 is cable, free aol, earthlink or some other account free. theogre

I pay $110 for digital cable and cable modem through Comcast. I have never heard of anyone having a subscription cancelled for exceeding a download max. dex

If you live in a large city or town and most people have cable, you may want DSL. I have cable and it is great, but at certain times during the day the connection will lag severly, as the entire neighborhood is sharing one connection, it is generally still more then fast enough for my uses, but it is noticeable. DSL on the other hand is a dedicated line from your house to the gateway at the phone company. It may sometimes be more expensive but you will have constant speeds, no major fluctuations. But like I said, the cable does okay for me, if you demand constant service though, you may want dsl.

With 1.5M/256k xDSL, you'll generally see downstream speeds of around ~160KB/sec and upstream of about ~30KB/sec, tops. I have cable myself; I typically see 600KB/sec downloads (works out to be around 5Mbit) and uploads at around 80KB/sec. I pay $30/month. Of course, all of the speeds noted above are going to be under ideal conditions.

Originally posted by Goanna DSL on the other hand is a dedicated line from your house to the gateway at the phone company. It may sometimes be more expensive but you will have constant speeds, no major fluctuations. But like I said, the cable does okay for me, if you demand constant service though, you may want dsl. I've never understood this theory, yes you have a dedicated line to your nearest CO (Central Office), but once at the CO it goes out a pipe with all the rest of the lines just like cable. I'm not saying your wrong, but I don't know how true it is. My networking teacher also doesn't believe it, he broke it down into much more technical terms then I am capable of. 😀 Cole

Originally posted by Shaan With 1.5M/256k xDSL, you'll generally see downstream speeds of around ~160KB/sec and upstream of about ~30KB/sec, tops. I have cable myself; I typically see 600KB/sec downloads (works out to be around 5Mbit) and uploads at around 80KB/sec. I pay $30/month. Of course, all of the speeds noted above are going to be under ideal conditions. Actually the average downstream of DSL is over twice that. And on average cable is twice as fast as DSL. That is a good deal you are getting on cable. There is nothing below $40 around here, while DSL is down to $27. These were the average speeds from Feb of this year. Cable Modem Provider Speed (Kbps) Variance vs. Industry Avg. Cable Average - Home - 708 - N/A Cablevision Systems - 800 - +13% Comcast Cable - 794 - +12% Cox Cable - 688 - -3% Adelphia Cable - 575 - -18% DSL Provider Speed (Kbps) Variance vs.Industry Avg. DSL Average - Home 467 N/A ATT WorldNet - 762 - +63% SBC - 584 - +25% Earthlink - 369 - -21% Qwest - 240 - -48% Cole

I have roadrunner (time warner) cable.. I did a speed test at this site and here are the results.. http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/results.html 3 megabits per second Your raw speed was 2953611.44 bits per second which is the same as: Communications 3 megabits per second How communication devices are rated. Kilo means 1,000 and mega means 1,000,000. Examples include 56k modem and 10Mbit Ethernet Storage 360.5 kilobytes per second The way data is measured on your hard drive and how file sharing and FTP programs measure transfer speeds. Kilo is 1,024 and mega is 1,048,576. 1MB file download 2.8 seconds The time it would take you to download a 1 megabyte file at this speed. Rating Compared to all connection types worldwide, yours is fantastic

Originally posted by Cole Kingsly I've never understood this theory, yes you have a dedicated line to your nearest CO (Central Office), but once at the CO it goes out a pipe with all the rest of the lines just like cable. I'm not saying your wrong, but I don't know how true it is. My networking teacher also doesn't believe it, he broke it down into much more technical terms then I am capable of. 😀 Cole Yeah, makes sense but all in all that means cable is susceptable to bandwith fluctuations in your neighborhood and at the central office. DSL is only going to have fluctuations in one area. Plus, I would assume the flucuations are less noticable after the signals reach the pipeline since you are then averaging out a lot more users then if you where to do the same for a single neighborhood.

Originally posted by Wide I have roadrunner (time warner) cable.. I did a speed test at this site and here are the results.. http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/results.html 3 megabits per second I just ran the test there and it is saying I have 2.5 Mbps Downstream. That is faster then a dedicated T1 line! I dont know how accurate that is. This is the test that is recomended to use on TechTV and in PC magazines. http://www.dslreports.com/stest?loc=1 According to them my line is just under 1 Mbps Downstream with 356 upload. That is what my ISP is supposed to be providing.

thanx alot everyone. i had the dsl modem from bellsouth.net which is my local phone provider. as i said, 50 bucks a month. we have bright house in this area as well. im going to look into yahoo dsl if its that cheap. thats great. im going to stick with the dsl i think. thanx for all the input. if someone could test the dsl from bellsouth i would appreciate it. of course, if anyone here is running that. slick

oh and also, does anyone have that site that was posted awhile back that compared all the internet compnaies and their prices for service? you typed in your address and they should what was available in your area.

Originally posted by Cole Kingsly $50 a month? Where do you live? Here in Ohio you can get SBC Yahoo DSL for $26.95 a month. Cable is generally going to be faster, but they have caps on how much downloading you do, granted it is probably in the 45 gig range, but I know people who have gone over it and had their service cancelled. SBC Yahoo DSL I believe is 1.5M/256k, that means 1.5MB per second downloads and 256k uploads. Lately cable companies have been rasing the connection speeds to counter DSL price slashing. Cable I believe is currently up to 3MB/384Kbps. If cable and DSL are the same cost in your area, go for cable. Do you know how close you are to your nearest CO, that will affect your DSL speed as well. Cable prices more then likely will not go down anytime soon, they will probably just up speeds, lose the caps and add different services that DSL can't. Cole the sbc yahoo said its 26.95 for the first 3 months then its 50 bucks a amonth like bellsouth.