I finally got a new Computer! Now....

[David Ming]

Well everyone, I finally upgraded my home computer system from a Compaq 5220 (1998) to a new Dell 8400. I set it all up and its ready to go except for one thing.... the Internet. I have been stuck with the AOL Dial-up service for too long and now I'm ready to upgrade to High Speed Internet.

Currently I'm paying $23 a month for this AOL junk and I know there are better deals out there for DSL and the such. I don't really know much about either DSL or cable but I think they are about the same. Can anyone please explain the difference to me and the benefits of each?

Also, I'm shopping around for a good deal. Does anyone know where I can find a good deal on High Speed Internet?

P.S. I live in an area that offers Charter Cable TV and SBC Phone service .

Thank You to All,

David

[jrex]

David,
I live in St Louis and have the high speed from Charter. I don't know if you have checked this but if you go to www.sbc.com you can input your phone number and it will tell you if your house is within the area they can provide DSL service. I believe that the Charter service is about 32.00 per month plus modem rental if you do not wish to purchase your own modem. Charter also requires you to have at least basic cable service. The SBC website is offering a price of 26.95 with free activation and free self install kit. I have had good connection through Charter, and a co-worker has DSL and has also had good connection and service. I think a lot of the issues with DSL are related to your distance from the closest switch (Someone please correct me if I am wrong). Good luck on your search.

[jay]

Have you verified that you have both cable modem and DSL service available to you? The main difference in the services in my area is the upload and download speeds, and price. Comcast Cable offers 3MB downloads and 256k uploads, and you share the bandwidth in your neighborhood. That is, more users may slow things a bit. The cost is $42.95 a month if you buy your own modem and have cable TV service.

Verizon offers DSL service too. When I switched to the much higher speed cable service, I was getting 640 kb downloads and 128 kb uploads. Verizon charges $34.95 a month, or $29.95 a month if you have it bundled with a Verizon Freedom telephone calling package. DSL is also a dedicated bandwidth; you aren't affected by other users on the network. You'll need to put filters, supplied to you by the phone company, on all your voice lines. And if you have a monitored alarm system, such as by ADT, you'll need to get a special alarm system DSL filter for it. That was $35, and I bought it from the local ADT office. And jrex is correct, you have to be with a certain distance of the central office switch to be able to even get DSL service. In my neighborhood, it's 18,000 feet, but the switch is well less than that from my house.

Both services, in my neighborhood, are pretty stable, with few outages. I've personally experienced both, and prefer the higher speeds of cable modem service. With both you can use a wireless router and set up a wireless network in your home, so multiple machines may use your internet connection wirelessly.

Good luck in your decision. I know when I finally made the switch I couldn't wait to kick AOL to the curb.

[megao]

Some advice would be to check your local retail stores. Best Buy offers gift cards of $100 and less if you sign up with internet service at their store. Best Buy usually offers all the same services in your area and at the same discounted prices, the benefit is you get a free gift card.

Issues with DSL, all companies force you to sign up for a two year contract. My cousin got SBC DSL for his Real Estate Business, which he almost lot because there were some many outages. He got comcast cable for awhile and used both until a year later that SBC DSL became more stable. SBC would not let him out of his contract and not repay him for his expenses of bad service.

Issues with Cable, they are simply expensive. Cable is twice as fast, no contracts to hold you down and Comcast Cable for me has credited my account if I call about a outage in my area when I needed to use my internet and it was not available, outages are usually very short.

SBC DSL ($26.95 for first year, second year $49.95 for two year contract)

Comcast Cable ($19.99 for first six months, after that is $42.95 with no contract)

[David Ming]

Thank you everyone for your quick responses. I'm still torn between the two different types but believe the SBC DSL is the one I may need. I don't plan to do much in music downloads, I just want to be able to get online (without AOL always updating) and surf the net. The only thing that is keeping me from signing on with SBC DSL is the year-long contract and missing out on a great deal from Best Buy or somewhere.

Once again, Thank You and keep the great info coming.

David

[john802]

DSL has a better selection of packages for people that likes the higher upload like myself. In my area, you need to be located within 20,000 feet of the nearest switch to get DSL.

[PNW-Pilot]

Originally posted by David Ming
Thank you everyone for your quick responses. I'm still torn between the two different types but believe the SBC DSL is the one I may need. I don't plan to do much in music downloads, I just want to be able to get online (without AOL always updating) and surf the net. The only thing that is keeping me from signing on with SBC DSL is the year-long contract and missing out on a great deal from Best Buy or somewhere.

Once again, Thank You and keep the great info coming.

David

Go with cable, It is usually around equal price. Head to best buy, I believe they can assist with DSL. If not I got a $100 gift card, free modem with rebate, free install, and $30/mont for 3 months deal on cable. DSL started out with terrible service and has gotten much better, but they need to reconsider the contracts. Signing a contract for HSI is just a bad practice.

If it help in the decision, the Help desks are vastly differnt, as been said by others, if you need the company to help you out, forget DSL the Bells have proven in the past they don't care, the cable companies strive on customer service, they actually have competition.

FWIW I've had cable modem since 1996, and I've never once reconsidered giving it up (except for now I moved to a non cable area )

[sfhondapilot]

It piggybacks on SBC DSL backbone and, is cheaper. The rate depends on how may other SBC services you have.

[tim.s]

Originally posted by jrex
... I think a lot of the issues with DSL are related to your distance from the closest switch (Someone please correct me if I am wrong)...

That is correct, the further you are from the DSL switch, the slower your access. If you happen to live close to a switch, you'll have max speeds.

The problem with cable modems is that it is bandwidth limited. The more people in your neighborhood with cable modems, the slower your access will get. If you happen to live in a neighborhood were you are the only one on the cable modem loop, you'll have max speeds.

Of course, if you happen to do all your browsing when everyone else is at work or asleep, your cable connect will be super fast. If you get a couple kids playing Everquest online and it will crawl.

So, take your pick...live to far away and have slow DSL service...share the cable modem loop with too many people and have slow cable.

[PNW-Pilot]

I'm so tired of people saying that cable has bandwidth problems. The problems can be limited just by adding fiber nodes to a neighborhood. The cable company knows how to split if too many people are using modems in the neighborhood. Yes you do share bandwidth with the people on your node (500 max usually), but that is all.

what DSL providers forget to tell you is that you are also bandwidth limited. Every DSL connection goes to the neightboorhood CO, there you share bandwidth with your town.

Every technology has it's limits, your never going to see them, don't worry, get what makes best sense for your budget.

[jay]

Originally posted by PNW-Pilot
I'm so tired of people saying that cable has bandwidth problems. The problems can be limited just by adding fiber nodes to a neighborhood. The cable company knows how to split if too many people are using modems in the neighborhood. Yes you do share bandwidth with the people on your node (500 max usually), but that is all.

what DSL providers forget to tell you is that you are also bandwidth limited. Every DSL connection goes to the neightboorhood CO, there you share bandwidth with your town.

Every technology has it's limits, your never going to see them, don't worry, get what makes best sense for your budget.

I don't think anyone referred to it as a problem, but I brought it up just as a reference point that cable offers a high speed but variable bandwidth that is affected by the number of users, whereas DSL offers a consistent, albeit much slower, bandwidth. In any event, cable is --usually-- going to be faster than DSL. Whichever service beats the heck out of dial-up.

[robottik]

Originally posted by PNW-Pilot
I'm so tired of people saying that cable has bandwidth problems. The problems can be limited just by adding fiber nodes to a neighborhood. The cable company knows how to split if too many people are using modems in the neighborhood. Yes you do share bandwidth with the people on your node (500 max usually), but that is all.

what DSL providers forget to tell you is that you are also bandwidth limited. Every DSL connection goes to the neightboorhood CO, there you share bandwidth with your town..

Bingo! Thank you for writing that up... Saved me some carpal tunnel pain.

[krygny]

http://www.dslreports.com/

[robrecht]

Originally posted by David Ming
I have been stuck with the AOL Dial-up service for too long and now I'm ready to upgrade to High Speed Internet.

Currently I'm paying $23 a month for this AOL junk and I know there are better deals out there for DSL and the such.

Congratulations, David! In my last two neighborhoods, our only option was dial-up. As soon as cable became available out in the boonies where we live now, we jumped on board the first week. I am so glad to be rid of AOL. Heck, DSL is now even available in the Adirondacks, so I may never need dial-up again.

manus1980, over at AcuraMDX.org used to have an animated avatar of the AOL guy getting beaten up--pretty funny. I'd post it but haven't recovered it yet from my last hard-drive crash.

[allanbiats]

I have Comcast Cable and their cable modem, and I'm pleased with it, except when it goes out, which is rare. My cable tv signal goes out probably 3 times as often as the broadband connection does. I usualy get fast download speeds, very often at 3 Mbps. I also have a Linksys wired / wireless router connected inside the house and it works well.

I am beyond the range of the current DSL systems so there is no choice for me.

As a retired telephone company employee and a central office technician for the first 14 years -

Another problem that may effect a DSL connection is that the distance involved is not as the crow flies, or even along the most direct roadway from your house to the telephone central office. It depends on the route that the telephone company cable takes to get to your house.

Often, a cable will have multiple legs or segments connected to it. As a simplified example, the cable could go from the C.O. to the end of town using Main St. for a distance of 5 miles. However, if there are 10 other streets that intersect it, they could each have segments of that cable. Suppose customer 1 has a phone line connected on the last house on First Street in 1990 and then it gets disonnected in 1991. Suppose customer 2 has a phone line connected on Sixth St in 1992 and they reuse the cable facilities assigned to customer 1. Then customer 2 is later disconnected. Then customer 3 needs a phone in 1994 on Ninth St and they reuse the facilities again. It is possible that the cable facilities would now be electrically in place from the telephone C.O. to the pole at the end of First St, then to the pole outside the house on Sixth St and finally to the pole outside and then to the house on Ninth St. It would only be terminated to the phone connection at the house it's being used at, but it would still have unterminated segments along the route. Those unterminated segments could deteriorate the signal, usually not noticed on voice calls but on data calls.

So if I had a choice, I would probably stay with the cable modem. I moved out of the area that my old company serves so it isn't the same phone company and there are no loyalty feelings anyway.

hth