SG Broadband Community

Overall which do you think is better Cable or DSL? Also if you could list your ISP as well, that would be great. I do understand that at busy times one can be slower than the other but how about when I'm dowloading something that will take 8 hrs, where I have to leave it downloading all night......I use DSL it downloads at 50 kbs (usually) sometimes faster most of the time slower

LOL

What's so funny?

come on people, this question has been asked 500000000000000000000000000000000000000 times, cable has a higher download rate, dsl usually allows a higher upload, weigh the difference yourself, what works for one might not be the best for another

Hey sorry man, I'm new here......just chill ok

Its totally are and ISP dependant. MY ISP, Optimum Online, can not be beat by any DSL in any perspective. But thats not normal. In some areas DSL is much better. You need to ask others in your area about which is better.

I average about 550 kByte/sec downloads on my cable connection. A coupple time I got over 1000kBytes/sec but it was only for a second. I have @home cable.

No one answer applies for all. The answer depends on what you do. What is better for one is probably not better for another. The answer also varies be region, because of different quality ISP's...so again, what is better for one area may not be true for another area.

Generally, where I am, cable has much higher download and upload speeds, averaging in the 3500 down/400 up range. DSL is often under 1000, about 90 - 110 up. But, generally, for online gamers, DSL provides better pings, more consistant performance. Also, DSL with the local phone company is often just average, but DSL with a quality ISP is many times better. I use CyberZone/BizOnline for my DSL, and I doubt anyone here pings 19 - 30 on a daily basis on Quake 3. Sure my buddies with cable can download a few seconds faster than me, I really don't download much, I game, and I'll outping them any day.

I think someone is mixing the bits and bytes how about you specify your units.

Originally posted by matia
I think someone is mixing the bits and bytes how about you specify your units.

Why don't we all just use the correct unit for transfer rates, bits per second ?

Originally posted by CompGeek83
come on people, this question has been asked 500000000000000000000000000000000000000 times, cable has a higher download rate, dsl usually allows a higher upload, weigh the difference yourself, what works for one might not be the best for another

This question may have been asked 50000000000000 times, however there are always going to be new members to the forum, which haven't been involved in the previous discussions.

Keep it in mind.

I'm new, had cable only a couple weeks. Cable internet has been available only about a month. DSL is not available where I live.

I have Cablelynx... small outfit, supplying cable internet service to a few towns. I did a self install, ran new cable, outlet, installed network card in my computer and plugged in modem.

They advertise 512 kbps down and 256 kbps up. Checking several speed sights I average 300kbps down and 230 kbps up.
Until I installed the speed patch mtupatch95 I wasn't getting but around about half what I do now. Before that I tried RCWIN but it didn't change my speed.

I started out with a 2 way splitter, one cable to modem and the other to a three way splitter for TV's but that hurt my projection TV. I then swithced to one 4 way splitter.. helped my big TV and didn't hurt my modem.

I have Earthlink DSL. Haven't had many problems with it. I think most have come from loose connections, or bad firmware on my router. The thing is, with cable, as more of your neighbors get cable internet connections, your connection is going to slow down, because you share your connection with other local people. I'm not sure exactly what the deal with that is, but I think it's somewhat similar to using a hub as opposed to a switch. With DSL, your connection isn't slowed down by your neighbors. So, with cable, you may start out with a faster connection, but it could very well slow down to below DSL speeds. Also, a benefit of DSL is that you can move your computer/modem to another room that has an extention on the same line, without having to string any cables through your house, or get a new jack put in. The one thing I don't get is when I go to the Earthlink site and do a lookup to see if DSL is available where I live, they say it isn't, even though I have it. WTF? And not just in the list of citied with it, but if I give my address and phone number. You'd think they'd be better organized and would realize that someone who already has it should be told it's available to him/her.

Also, security is a bigger issue with cable than with DSL. Cable, from what I've heard, acts somewhat like a workgroup within your neighborhood, so if you go to network neighborhood/my network places, you can see shared folders, etc. on your neighbors' computers, and vice versa. Don't seem to have that problem with DSL.

As a side note, I'd like to add that while my parents' office is less than two miles from our house, they can neither get DSL nor cable, so they got an ISDN line. They couldn't get DSL because apparently the office is too far away from the switching station, or something like that, and they couldn't get cable there because there wasn't any cable laid there already, and the cable company said it would cost upwards of $1,000, maybe as much as $10,000 I don't remember, to get cable there, and they weren't going to foot the bill, and they (rightly) assumed that my parents wouldn't either. I'm not sure if we can get cable at home, but I don't care, as DSL has served me fine thus far.

Its cable for me only cus i live 15000 from CO. I would have to pay tons of money for the bandwith of par DSL speed. Cable is good enuff for me. @home here

Can somebody kindly tell me if cable or dsl is faster? I'm kindda lost .. Um i personally think 28.8K and 56K is faster than cable and dsl. Help?

hehe.. lol no seriouslly like people said, it depends on your ISP. One of my DSL user friend downloads at 50k/sec and and one of my cable modem friend downloads over 500k/sec. So you see, it really depends of the ISP.. some DSL providers MAY provide faster service than Cable providers.. There's different types of DSL conenctions though.. the fastest one would cost ya tons..

i have roadrunner and my d/l speed is about 2200kbps average, while my upload is 300kbps average. when i play games, mostly ut, i am one of the lowest pings at an average of 35-55. that is good enough to play a nice quality game!! and i pull about 45 fps most of the time with my onboard intel graphics controller(boooooo)i know it sucks but i cant complain