Cable to DSL... much better... (1 Viewer)

[Dean Cooper]

I like any way I can keep my money from going to the cable company...evil, evil, evil. They can rot in the hole they belong in. No, I'm not bitter...really

 

[Keith Mickunas]

My basic phone service costs roughly $28 a month, that's without caller ID or any extras like that. DSL would be an extra $35, probably $40 with taxes and fees, per month. Of course, it's still not an option in my neighborhood. A friend of mine was looking at SWB's plans and they look much better.

Comcast is roughly $60 once you factor in everything including a leased modem if you don't have cable TV service. If you have TV service, it's $10 cheaper.

So for me, if I want a phone line, it's cheaper to have DSL. If I got rid of my satelite, and I think it's safe to say my cable fees would probably roughly equal my Dish fees, but I'd get fewer channels, then cable is still going to cost an extra $50 a month. But if I drop the phone then I'd be saving a few bucks over the phone + DSL option.

However I got the system beat. I use a wireless ISP. The company that put it in my neighborhood ran a T1 to one house then put a big antenna there. We all connect via 802.11b. So we get 1.5mbps each way, and even though it's shared among about 30 people, it's damn fast all the time. In a week or two another T1 is going to be added, then in a few more months they plan to install a third. So depending on other people, I could potentially hit 4.5mbps each way. All of this costs me $40 a month ($44 with tax I'm guessing, I haven't been billed for a full month yet). I get a static IP, and the terms of service are friendlier than anybody else, and the tech support doesn't tell me to reboot my computer anytime there is a problem. The only thing I'm not supposed to do is serve up a bunch of MP3s on Kazaa or anything like that. I can VPN, host a web server, access my system remotely, whatever, it don't matter. It's great. It's been in for about a month now and I'm loving it. I'll probably cancel my home phone soon, which means I'll be paying a few bucks more a month than I was paying for phone plus $10 ISP.

 

[DonnyD]

I'm still very happy with Bellsouth-DSL.... and it is still much much faster than cable... But I do live only about 500 ft from the "slick" (I think that is what my son called it.)
Charter just doesn't cut it around here. Down a couple of times a week and at times would not be any faster than dial up. Then add in that we are in a new neighborhood and everytime a backhoe was brought in for something, our cable would get cut!
I had Time Warner RoadRunner when I lived in Memphis and it was faster than dial up most of the time but went down a lot too. Poor service..........
Phone line costs do not factor in to my end cost for me as a phone is necessary regardless at my home. I have family who installs VPNs for local companies around here and soon will have it ready for us "normal people".....
Bellsouth is around 165 buck to get DSL initially but rebates actually get back all that + 50 bucks....
Everybody has their preferences but around here everyone was waiting on DSL.
At least with Bellsouth, I have some spam filtering now whereas Charter never did/would/could filter anything......

 

[Michael St. Clair]

We've (coworkers and myself) run some fairly serious tests here (Cincinnati) in 5 different neighborhoods.

Our DSL (Zoomtown) is about half as fast as Road Runner (cable) in the worst case scenario.

However, the Road Runner is sometimes even slower than the DSL during certain times a day. Sometimes the Road Runner upload speed is half that of the DSL upload speed!

Also, Road Runner here has more packet loss, at least to microsoft.com.

Since I'm a gamer, upload speeds and packet loss are as important as download speed. I'm sticking with DSL.

 

[John_Berger]

those that claim DSL to be cheaper aren't factoring in the phone line

That argument is only valid if the person getting DSL doesn't have a standard land line in the house or has no need for a land line. Because the number of people in the U.S. who still use land lines VASTLY outweighs those who dropped their land line in favor of 100% cellular, it is a completely fair and understandable assumption that potential DSL customers already have a land line, so there is no additional "cost" involved.

I've had DSL for four years with three different ISPs and have never had a major problem.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Man you guys are getting hosed on DSL prices. We only pay about $27 a month for 1 meg download up here

 

[Steve_Tk]

Well my Comcast went down last night. No 24 hour tech line. After going through 3 people today, that all had me do the "unplug the modem then plug it back in magic trick" he finally said he was going to send someone out. I said "great", then he said in 4 days. I was not very happy. These companies have hundreds of people ready to help you the minute you pick up the phone if you are starting service, but when you are actually a customer you sit on hold for 30 minutes and then have to wait 4 days just for them to get their thumb out of the their ass and see what the problem is. Ridiculous.

We need to start a new post where we can vent about terrible customer service with these type companies.

 

[AllanN]

I had Road Runner when I lived with my parents. I could get consistent 1.5-1.8 mbps download. When I moved out and switched to SBC DSL. I was only getting .7 mbps download, but much faster ping times and relatively faster page downloads, but total throughput was less.

my cable is uncapped, and barely anybody is on my node... my downloads max out where my ethernet cable maxs out

Where do you live, id kill to have 100mbps fast Ethernet to my desktop?

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I was only getting .7 mbps download, but much faster ping times and relatively faster page downloads, but total throughput was less.

Yep, that's the way it is around here. Overall throughput is not everything. Well, maybe it is for piracy, but I'm online to play games and surf.

 

[MarkHastings]

I like any way I can keep my money from going to the cable company...evil, evil, evil. They can rot in the hole they belong in.

Here Here! Ever since Comcast took over, I have had the SHITTIEST digital cable reception. I can not believe this passes as "acceptable". My Digi-cable is constantly going out and the streaks are HORRID.

I have no problems giving SNET my money over Comcast.

 

[AllanN]

Yep, that's the way it is around here. Overall throughput is not everything. Well, maybe it is for piracy, but I'm online to play games and surf.

Accept for when you loose your hard drive and have to redownload all the microsoft service packs, hotfixes, DirecX, updated drivers for all your devices. :frowning: