CABLE vs DSL vs SAT

[Arrqh]

DSL quality can vary a lot dependent on the local hardware... if you're too far from the CO but can still get some sort of signal your Telco will probably sell it to you anyway. There isn't really a whole lot that can be done if the signal isn't great... and frequently they'd rather sell you bad service then none at all.

What's good about DSL is that your speeds are less likely to be impacted during peak hours. So while the top speed is generally lower, you're not going to drop that far below it. Whereas with Cable you're sharing a pipe with all your neighbors so during peak times your speed can potentially dip much lower then your top speed. YMMV, of course. In general I prefer cable simply because telcos piss me off slightly more than cable companies do.

 

[IndyJones]

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

Off topic: Netflix is also said to throttle users (don't know if they still do it). If you watched movies and returned them too quickly it would soon become obvious that their turnaround time was increasing. That was their way of keeping you from costing them too much money.


On topic: I've had Charter, Time Warner, DirecTV, and now have comcast.

Time Warner was the worst, their menu is terrible (Slow, often displays 'No Data Available').

I loved Charter, but that was 6 years ago.

Comcast is fine, and I got a great price.

And I liked DirecTV at the time. BUT...They sent me to collections about a month ago for not paying my December-January bill. Which was interesting, as I cancelled my service in May of 2007. They wouldn't believe me and it was frakking weird. The bill was for my apartment in Chicago, but the address they had on file for me was in Colorado (which I gave them so they could send me empty boxes to return my cable boxes in). They had a record of that, and having received the boxes in 2007. But even after confirming that they were still trying to charge me for cable in Chicago this year. I'm still dealing with it.

 

[Yoda]

And I liked DirecTV at the time. BUT...They sent me to collections about a month ago for not paying my December-January bill. Which was interesting, as I cancelled my service in May of 2007. They wouldn't believe me and it was frakking weird. The bill was for my apartment in Chicago, but the address they had on file for me was in Colorado (which I gave them so they could send me empty boxes to return my cable boxes in). They had a record of that, and having received the boxes in 2007. But even after confirming that they were still trying to charge me for cable in Chicago this year. I'm still dealing with it.

The collections dorks are toothless bitches. I had a similar issue where they tried to charge me a 2 or 3 hundred dollar early termination fee after they told me the fee wouldn't apply as it was through a third party that managed DirecTV for an entire apartment complex. Which by the way is the shittiest idea ever, but I digress. I would just ignore 'em, it's a couple of years later and nothing bad has popped up on my credit report.

What leeches.

 

[RobertScorpio]

DSL quality can vary a lot dependent on the local hardware... if you're too far from the CO but can still get some sort of signal your Telco will probably sell it to you anyway. There isn't really a whole lot that can be done if the signal isn't great... and frequently they'd rather sell you bad service then none at all.

What's good about DSL is that your speeds are less likely to be impacted during peak hours. So while the top speed is generally lower, you're not going to drop that far below it. Whereas with Cable you're sharing a pipe with all your neighbors so during peak times your speed can potentially dip much lower then your top speed. YMMV, of course. In general I prefer cable simply because telcos piss me off slightly more than cable companies do.

Hey..with your DSL, how many things can you DVR at a time? Our local DSL company claims one machine can DVR 6 things at a time..is that true?

Rob

 

[Spot's Meow]

Man, why the hate for DSL? I've had no problems with it, in fact it is faster than the cable internet service my boyfriend had through Charter a while ago. I guess it can vary a lot depending on your location but it's always been pretty fast for me.

 

[Yoda]

Man, why the hate for DSL? I've had no problems with it, in fact it is faster than the cable internet service my boyfriend had through Charter a while ago. I guess it can vary a lot depending on your location but it's always been pretty fast for me.

A few years ago I had DSL. It was advertised as being 3.0mbps down, I got 1.5 at my apartment. Then I moved, but was still under contract (the DSL had a monopoly on my previous residence, much like my DirecTV), so I had to stick with it... the connection was ridiculously bad at the new place. I'm talking 256k down, and I would frequently lose connection. Even though they refused to do anything to improve my service they wouldn't let me out of the contract either .

Anyway, when my contract ran out I switched to Cox, which gave me like 8mbps, consistently. It was pretty much the greatest thing in the world. Now I'm in a Time Warner area, my speed test just said 23.68 mbps (though I suspect that was somewhat 'speed boost' enhanced. Regardless I get a solid minimum 1.8 megaBYTES per second off of my usenet provider.

Oh, and a fairly common complaint about DSL is that it has shit latency for gaming.

 

[backstept]

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.

and it doesn't even have to be bittorrent stuff
I had a problem with a game on steam and had to re-install it a couple times this weekend and I estimated that I downloaded around 10 gigs in two days
luckily I haven't run into any throttling (that I know of) so it wasn't that bad

 

[LitmusDragon]

Man, why the hate for DSL? I've had no problems with it, in fact it is faster than the cable internet service my boyfriend had through Charter a while ago. I guess it can vary a lot depending on your location but it's always been pretty fast for me.

Ditto here, I had DSL in three states- Ohio, KY, and now Oregon, and it's been consistently good. Guess I've just been lucky.

About the online gaming thing- I do have a bit of latency on World of Warcraft (about 300ms) but considering I found out after the fact that my pacific timezone server is actually located in Massachusetts I consider the 300ms is really not that bad. Why Blizzard decided to host a PST server from Massachusetts, I have no idea. Also ComCast users have had disconnect problems on World of Warcraft before- WoW points the finger at ComCast, ComCast points the finger at WoW, if you do a google on it you'll see it's come up several times before. A few people in my guild have had this problem.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Man, why the hate for DSL? I've had no problems with it, in fact it is faster than the cable internet service my boyfriend had through Charter a while ago. I guess it can vary a lot depending on your location but it's always been pretty fast for me.

A few years ago I had DSL. It was advertised as being 3.0mbps down, I got 1.5 at my apartment. Then I moved, but was still under contract (the DSL had a monopoly on my previous residence, much like my DirecTV), so I had to stick with it... the connection was ridiculously bad at the new place. I'm talking 256k down, and I would frequently lose connection. Even though they refused to do anything to improve my service they wouldn't let me out of the contract either .

Anyway, when my contract ran out I switched to Cox, which gave me like 8mbps, consistently. It was pretty much the greatest thing in the world. Now I'm in a Time Warner area, my speed test just said 23.68 mbps (though I suspect that was somewhat 'speed boost' enhanced. Regardless I get a solid minimum 1.8 megaBYTES per second off of my usenet provider.

Oh, and a fairly common complaint about DSL is that it has shit latency for gaming.

Im with TIME WARNER too (Mira Mesa). I dont switch to DIRECT TV on the off chance the Padres MIGHT be a good ball team in my life time.

Rob

 

[Tomato]

Cdn here I have DSL. I swear the lag kills my gaming. Would love to get FIOS.

Anybody on that? HOw's the experience?

 

[Garrett]

What's good about DSL is that your speeds are less likely to be impacted during peak hours. So while the top speed is generally lower, you're not going to drop that far below it. Whereas with Cable you're sharing a pipe with all your neighbors so during peak times your speed can potentially dip much lower then your top speed.

The hit on our speed at peak time was one of the reasons we ditched cable. According to various bandwidth meters, we were in dial-up range at times. Cable One is also has pretty shitty support for both places I've lived in. It wasn't uncommon to have an 8 hour plus interruption in service. For a while there, these interruptions were pretty common. Though, my brother claims to never have downtime at his place.

DSL hasn't been much faster, but there's been no ridiculous interruptions in service like with Cable One.

 

[Michael Chris]

Yikes! Where were you with Cable One? I never that bad of an experience with them. Granted I was a about a quarter of a mile from their office but still.

 

[Yoda]

Man, why the hate for DSL? I've had no problems with it, in fact it is faster than the cable internet service my boyfriend had through Charter a while ago. I guess it can vary a lot depending on your location but it's always been pretty fast for me.

Ditto here, I had DSL in three states- Ohio, KY, and now Oregon, and it's been consistently good. Guess I've just been lucky.

About the online gaming thing- I do have a bit of latency on World of Warcraft (about 300ms) but considering I found out after the fact that my pacific timezone server is actually located in Massachusetts I consider the 300ms is really not that bad.

Your idea of what is acceptable latency is a little skewed. From San Diego to Boston my ping is 90ms. Heck, to MOSCOW it's still only about 200ms. I got better pings than 300ms to places on my old 56k modem.

Im with TIME WARNER too (Mira Mesa). I dont switch to DIRECT TV on the off chance the Padres MIGHT be a good ball team in my life time.

Rob

Not big on updating your Location field, huh?

Speaking of Mira Mesa, nice theater with the Imax and all, but my god is parking there a mess, and getting there off the freeway, even though it's RIGHT THERE is also a mess. My Clairemont theater may be ghetto, but there's always parking and rarely any sort of lines

Oh, and if the Padres are all that are holding you back, you may as well go DirecTV.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Man, why the hate for DSL? I've had no problems with it, in fact it is faster than the cable internet service my boyfriend had through Charter a while ago. I guess it can vary a lot depending on your location but it's always been pretty fast for me.

Ditto here, I had DSL in three states- Ohio, KY, and now Oregon, and it's been consistently good. Guess I've just been lucky.

About the online gaming thing- I do have a bit of latency on World of Warcraft (about 300ms) but considering I found out after the fact that my pacific timezone server is actually located in Massachusetts I consider the 300ms is really not that bad.

Your idea of what is acceptable latency is a little skewed. From San Diego to Boston my ping is 90ms. Heck, to MOSCOW it's still only about 200ms. I got better pings than 300ms to places on my old 56k modem.

Im with TIME WARNER too (Mira Mesa). I dont switch to DIRECT TV on the off chance the Padres MIGHT be a good ball team in my life time.

Rob

Not big on updating your Location field, huh?

Speaking of Mira Mesa, nice theater with the Imax and all, but my god is parking there a mess, and getting there off the freeway, even though it's RIGHT THERE is also a mess. My Clairemont theater may be ghetto, but there's always parking and rarely any sort of lines

Oh, and if the Padres are all that are holding you back, you may as well go DirecTV.

hey, I too LIKE that clairmont theater. Its like a 'hidden' spot, as is Poway. But yes, the parking at the MIRA MESA 18 is rough. I went there to go to BARNES/NOBLE and could not find any parking even on that side of the parking lot.

I saw TREK there twice in IMAX. First time I had ever seen a movie in Imax, was pretty good, though very $$$.

Rob
Scorpio

 

[LitmusDragon]

Your idea of what is acceptable latency is a little skewed. From San Diego to Boston my ping is 90ms. Heck, to MOSCOW it's still only about 200ms. I got better pings than 300ms to places on my old 56k modem.

Yes, but to what kind of server? If you were getting a 200ms ping to a WoW server in Moscow, then that would be kind of impressive. If you're getting a 200ms ping to a sever in Moscow nobody is actually using, then that's not really all that impressive. Ping is a function of distance, but also a function of the amount of traffic a particular server receives. If we're talking actual DOS "/ping" commands here I can easily get 100ms to web servers and the like.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Since those few shows I watch are readily available on iTunes, I wouldn't have cable at all if I wasn't so heavily into baseball. There's no other way for me to watch it. MLB.TV isn't an option, 'cuz I refuse to be stuck sitting in front of my computer for three hours watching a game. I might consider MLB.TV if it could be used with an AppleTV, or (better yet) if iTunes Store would offer a 'season pass' for all Yankees games.