DSL or cable? What's your choice??

Yours Truly | June 25, 2003 | Yours Truly

[BrooklynGOP]

I believe time warner offers roadrunner cable in manhattan.

[AFreeBird]

For DSL a lot will dpend on your distance from the CO (Central Office). Speeds drop with distance, price does not.

I was too for from the CO to get any real speed advantage over dial-up for the price so I went with cable. I bought my own cable modem over renting one from Comcast. I also installed a 10/100MBs LINKSYS firewall/router to connect my home server to a desktop. I've recently added a LINKSYS wireless 802.11G firewall/router to the mix for wireless laptop and PDA internet access. BTW: If you do go with cable or DSL, the provider will want you to install some software on your system. This is not really necessary. It complicates your system and is basically spyware as it inventories your system. They'll tell you that this software helps installation and will help in troubleshooting any problems. To a certain exxtent that is true, but the percieved bennefit is not worth it IMHO.

If you're good at system configuration yourself, then you should have no problems setting it up. If not, get a friend who is and trash the additional software.

[visualops]

I don't live there anymore :)

I lived in Manhattan in the 70's and early 80's.

[Sub-Driver]

hmmmm, mine as of this minute is:

Download Speed

3076.9 Kbps

384.6 K bytes/sec


Of course everyone get's different results for a various reasons.

Here's another to check:

http://www.toast.net/performance/

[husky ed]

I've had DirecWay. Never had a problem when it was raining. Speeds as fast as DSL and faster.

I live 200 feet from the DSL run here so says Verizon and the local cable company never heard of cable modem so for high speed it's either Wireless or Sat.

Also my equipment didn't cost $539.00. It was $150.oo at Best Buy and I got $100 in Rebates. But I bought the One-Way, as I figured I would be spending more time downloading things then uploading. Plus I don't play games on the net, so ping times don't concern me.

[Pharmboy]

I have cable with a LinkSys wireless LAN that (I am proud to say) I installed MYSELF! It's great!

I used to have a DSL from Verizon when I lived in NYC, and that was OK also...do it on a money basis.

[Ronin]

It's a pain in some ways. Rejecting the cookies and the ads prevents me from viewing some sites -- but if they want to hang a cookie on me, I would rather not be on that site anyhow.

I have to sign in each I turn on the computer for FR and any other Internet site, but that is no big hassle. I have never bought anything online, nor will I ever.

Actually the reason I keep the system that clean is simple speed. Cookies and adware really slow things down. Not to mention the fact that popups themselves are hideous torture to a person in a hurry.

What ARE these marketers thinking??? I can't believe that anyone likes a popup, or is even tempted by their offerings. I squish them like cockroaches when they appear -- which is never anymore.

[eleni121]

I subscribed to Cable (Adelphia powerlink) for a few months and had a few problems. Frozen screens, frozen email, restarts all the time etc. I was told that it was because the cable was shared by others.

Now I am in the process of trying out Verizon DLS and it looks really good. A little faster than cable and no one else to share my connection. And lots cheaper than cable! 29.95 with Verizon vs 50+ per month with cable.

[ilgipper]

Any suggestions for Orlando/Central Florida area...DSL vs. Cable. I think my options will be BellSouth DSL, RoadRunner Cable, and possibly Earthlink cable or DSL.

I currently have DSL from SWBell (SBC) in Texas, and have had a great experience with it.