CABLE vs DSL vs SAT

[RobertScorpio]

So..which of these three do you prefer. I have had all three of them at one point in the past few years. I liked my Direct TV, but the extra cost for local stuff was too much. DSL, which I havent had for many years, was okay. I might try it again. I am currently with Time Warner Cable, and I like the bundles we have (internet-cable-phone) for only 150$ a month.

I will say, and this is just a matter of opinion, that the HIDEF looked better with my Direct TV than with my current cable box. I think DIRECT TV had to stop saying it looked better than Cable, but to me, it did.

So..which of these three media do you prefer???

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Warp Coil]

I have a cable and internet bundle with Verizon FiOS. Love it. Much more satisfied than I was with Comcast.

 

[LitmusDragon]

I agree that Satellite seems to have the better quality television feed than cable. For internet, DSL is generally great, except when they throttle your speed. This is more of an issue with Qwest than an issue with the technology however. I hear that cable users have similar problems. In my area AFAIK the only providers are Qwest and Comcast, both of which are known to throttle bandwidth.

 

[Mr. B]

Cable: pretty good, if expensive
DSL: generally slow
Sat: overpriced with very high latency

 

[Teelie]

I wish there was more variety in internet connections but just like with many utilities, there is a monopoly on choices here. Unfortunately all I've had are either dial up (years ago) or Time Warner/Comcast, and that's because they swapped. I will say this, Time Warner was the better owner. Comcast just blows.

I'd love to get Verizon FIOS but I'd have to move pretty far away from here for it.

Oh, though I did have satellite television at one point when I lived literally so far out in the country there was no other alternative. It was about the same quality as cable but that was several years ago (dial up days) and on an old tv.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I agree that Satellite seems to have the better quality feed than cable. For internet, DSL is generally great, except when they throttle your speed. This is more of an issue with Qwest than an issue with the technology however. I hear that cable users have similar problems. In my area AFAIK the only providers are Qwest and Comcast, both of which are known to throttle bandwidth.

What does THROTTLE mean? (not versed in this)

Rob

 

[Teelie]

Throttle is where they limit your speed. Either up or down. Usually both.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I am using DSL for Internet right now, the only cable alternative is Comcast and from experience with family and friends' cable connections it is horribly unreliable and not even that fast. I have DSL and phone together through AT&T. I have Comcast just for cable service, though I would DEFINITELY choose satellite if I could. We don't get a satellite signal at our apartment. As soon as we move to a place that offers it I am ditching Comcast.

 

[LitmusDragon]

What does THROTTLE mean? (not versed in this)

To give you a practical example, if for example I leave bittorrent running for too long (more than two days usually) all of a sudden this horrible lag will be introduced into my connection, making it impossible to do things like play World of Warcraft without getting constantly disconnected. If I shut down bittorrent for 24 hours the problem goes away. Yes, I should probably not be using bittorrent anyways. If you don't plan to be doing much downloading, this will probably never come up.

 

[RobertScorpio]

What does THROTTLE mean? (not versed in this)

To give you a practical example, if for example I leave bittorrent running for too long (more than two days usually) all of a sudden this horrible lag will be introduced into my connection, making it impossible to do things like play World of Warcraft without getting constantly disconnected. If I shut down bittorrent for 24 hours the problem goes away. Yes, I should probably not be using bittorrent anyways. If you don't plan to be doing much downloading, this will probably never come up.

whew...over my head. But I think I got the gist of what you were saying. When they 'throttle' can they throttle you specifically? or is it more general to all users?

Rob

 

[LitmusDragon]

whew...over my head. But I think I got the gist of what you were saying. When they 'throttle' can they throttle you specifically? or is it more general to all users?

Rob

It's tied specifically to your IP. So, only I am affected. In fact I think what happens is the server watches your up/down traffic and once you get past a certain number of gigabytes within a 48 hour period or so, a flag is set on the server end and your connection starts getting constantly reset. Shouldn't be an issue unless you download gigs upon gigs of stuff as I am wont to do at times.

 

[RobertScorpio]

whew...over my head. But I think I got the gist of what you were saying. When they 'throttle' can they throttle you specifically? or is it more general to all users?

Rob

It's tied specifically to your IP. So, only I am affected. In fact I think what happens is the server watches your up/down traffic and once you get past a certain number of gigabytes within a 48 hour period or so, a flag is set on the server end and your connection starts getting constantly reset. Shouldn't be an issue unless you download gigs upon gigs of stuff as I am wont to do at times.

i actually don't download much...well, an ITUNE here and there, but thats about it. Here is how ignorant I am. I recently found out how to see how many people were using my wireless connection. Something like seven people were using my LNKSYS network. I never enabled the security doo-hickey. Having a friend come over later this week to do it....so I can get rid of those squatters!!!

Rob

 

[Teelie]

That's a good thing about your friend coming over. No idea who is doing what on your connection. It's very potentially dangerous. People can be doing all kinds of illegal things and you wouldn't know it until the police come in guns blazing shouting at you to put your hands on your head.

Maybe an exaggeration but it's happened before.

 

[RoJoHen]

Cable is pretty much the only option around here other than dial-up. That said, they keep it pretty cheap, and it works great all the time.

 

[Michael Chris]

I have cable. It's good. Especially the deal that comast was offering ($20 a month for the first year), since I just moved here.

 

[Teelie]

I have cable. It's good. Especially the deal that comast was offering ($20 a month for the first year), since I just moved here.

Then they jack it up to I think $40 a month or so. Discount if you go the whole 9 yards and have television, telephone and internet, which naturally would cost more.

 

[Michael Chris]

More like $60 or $70 I think, which is much better considering the speed and price that the old house had with Cable One. But, yeah it's great for me right now since I'll be in the house I'm in for at most two years.

Edit - I'm wrong!! It's only $43 a month after!

 

[mrcoaster]

I really can't stand DSL. I'd almost rather listen to Coldplay and Nickelback all day long than have to suffer DSL. Almost. I'm not a huge fan of Comcast, but it's all we have around here (besides the evil, dreaded DSL). It's reliable enough, so it is what we have until we finally get FIOS in the area.

 

[Yoda]

DSL has been awful in my experience. I'd love to get FIOS, but it's never going to happen in San Diego. The AT&T chumps were putting in their U-Verse fiber crap and tried to get me to switch with their stupid sales pitch about how fiber has 'thousands' of times the bandwidth my Cable internet has. When I ask them for a number of course, their top tier package (18 mbps down) is no faster than my Road Runner.

Time Warner has been pretty reliable on the internet side of things for me. As for TV, I'm highly unimpressed with the quality of service, from the annoying ground loop problems I have, to the terrible cable box interface it's all pretty terrible. DirecTV was ok when I had it, I hate their monopoly on the NFL Sunday Ticket, and I don't have an angle on the satellites so it's not like I can go with them anyway, and they can't do you any favors for your internet service.

I'd say if your cable service works consistently and you're happy with the pricing I wouldn't bother switching. Even if you can get a better deal somewhere else is it really worth the possible installation headaches or recurring connection issues?

 

[mrcoaster]

When it comes to tv, I'm definitely happy with satellite. No real desire to go back to cable at all.