rx7mike
join:2004-01-23
West Bend, WI | reply to Julio
Well lets see here. I have seen a lot of cable sucks, or dsl sucks, I personally have both services in my home. I have 2 cable lines from charter and one dsl line from covad. Side by side my DSL from covad kicks the cables ass. Im at just over 10,000 feet from the CO and have a 3.0/768 package. My charter lines are the biggest home package's they offer 2048/256, in my area. Heres the pros and cons.
CHARTER CABLE
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Pros:
1. Always on. (I have never had a service outage)
2. Fast downloads (I have never had net slowdown at peak hours)
3. Great service techs/support.
4. Easy install
Cons:
1. No server hosting
2. Download caps (30 gigs down 15 gigs up)
3. Ip changes whenever I reboot and they dont offer a static IP package for residential accounts. Even if they did see no. 1.
4. Rediculously slow upload. 256k??? Come on now I know it can go faster, I had a buisness line from them last year that had a 1mb upload. Why not offer some higher upload packages.
5. Heavy downloading means account termination with no warning. Been there done that. Got the T-shirt.
6. Very high latency issues. My 1st hop is over 100ms.
In conclusion cable is great for someone who likes to surf the web and may want some speed for downloading game demos or streaming media. Gaming absolutley blows (see no.6) If your a power user cable is not the way to go. If your an average web surfer dont waste your money on a 2mb/256 package. Get the lower package.
Covad DSL
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Pros:
1. Can host servers
2. No data caps
3. Numerous tiers and packages.
4. Great for gaming, latency is not an issue, 1st hop is 16ms.
5. Always on (I have never had a non scheduled outage)
6. Many static IP options
7. Most people can upgrade if they need more.
Cons:
1. Initial install can be a pain when you use a DSL provider thats not your POTS provider.
2. Installation can be difficult if you have wiring problems.
3. A lot of things affect DSL more then cable. (cellphones,microwaves,tv's, ect.........)
4. Most phone systems are old and outdated.
5. Distance issues.
In conclusion of my DSL thoughts, while I have yet to have a bad experience with my service, I have read about many who do. This is the same with cable as well though. Each has its benefits and downfalls. Choosing the service thats right for you is up to you. I have both for several reasons. My dsl is great for gaming and hosting my servers. My cable is nice for just downloading and surfing. So its not as simple as "CABLE SUCKS & DSL RULES!!!", its different for everyone.
It is however very apparent that DSL is pushing its way into the cable market share. Since covad started offering service out of my CO a lot of people are switching to dsl. And with sbc's new price reductions the cable company here has been hit hard. I have a few friends who work at charter and they have seen a 30% drop of cable HSI since sbc did the new pricing. Thats a big chunk of customers. But anyway choose your poison. |
