The Broadband Wars: Cable Vs DSL

Sit back get a cup of coffee it's time for another tale of technology
by Jimmy Freligh Jr | March 1st, 2004

Lets talk broadband and lets clear some things up. The myth, the fairy tale that keeps going around and around which is faster Cable or DSL? lets close the book on this chapter one last time. First off none of them are faster, it all depends on so many different things you can't really compare them, you can compare them to charts and what's proven, so lets go by the average ISP that provides these services. You really can't say any of them are faster it depends on what flavor you choose.

Standard basic cable most of the time is faster then a standard basic DSL line that being aDSL. There are tons of different types of DSL's, depends on your location and how much your willing to soak out of your pocket per month. Basic cable is faster then basic home DSL happy I said it, this is a fact. I can name about 10 different flavors of DSL's some range faster then T1's, some match T3's and so on, depends on how much money you are willing to spend. Basic DSL is typically slower both up and down. Cable you share with everyone, now a days you don't see your bandwidth drop like you used to, it's pretty steady now even though your sharing with other people in your neighborhood or county. DSL is always steady but, depends on how far you are from the CO, if you are far from it and your DSL line is slow your stuck with it.

On DSL you need to dial up before your connected to the Internet unlike cable, that sometimes is very annoying, after a while it's just a pain in the ass when you want to surf but, you need to dial up every time you want to connect to the Internet (waste of time). Cable on the other hand is always connected to the Internet. Now the fastest cable line is not even close in speeds compared to the fastest DSL lines. No doubt basic cable will smoke basic DSL any day. Most of the time it depends on your carrier it also depends if your living in Los Angeles or your living in a town in Ohio with 500 people. It depends on creatures running on your cable/phone lines, it also depends on the weather, there are a ton of factors that can cause a line to be slow to get packet loss or to have a lot of noise on the lines.

Now the myth of uncapping your modem. Lets get this straight maybe 6 years ago when cable/DSL just first came out you might of uncapped your modem but, now a days you can't uncap your modem sure you can download programs to speed up your Internet connection that's only if your on a dial up connection, all it does it breaks the connection. Example a web site only gives you a certain piece of the bandwidth "per connection" modem tweaks connect 3 or 4 times giving you triple the speeds (so what). Your going 1KB faster and seeing no difference browsing. Your not going to see this effect on cable or DSL lines and I'm talking surfing web pages and downloading.

In all seriousness your putting more overhead on your computer/connection. Your not going to see this around much longer and really you will only see a tiny difference if your on a 56K modem if you even see a difference. People who downloaded these types of programs think there going faster when downloading/browsing when there not. I was one of those people for about an hour, these programs make it seem that every thing you download is going at 400+ KB a second but, it's takes you 5 minutes to download 1MB (come on now). Your now capped by your ISP's router's you can't do anything to your modem or install software based tweaks that will work because your capped by hardware. Sorry to break your heart, you might as well get rid of all that advertising garbage called uncappers/Internet tweaks that don't work.

So in my conclusion on bandwidth, cable rocks if your a home user, yes some ISP's that provide high speed cable Internet aren't so high speed to begin with. DSL is awesome too, I check with your local ISP's and see who has the better deal for the price. Uncappers never worked it's all in the mind, satellite, ISDN, 56K what can I say they speak for them selves, they just always brought pain. Hopefully I am not too negative in this newsletter but, just speaking from experience, these are all straight proven facts not some myth or fairy tale. That's my two cents.

"At FiberOps we don't make a difference we are the difference"
September 2003, Jimmy Freligh Jr

Jimmy Freligh Jr
Senior Network Operations Director of FiberOps | Winnetka City Councilman

Just wait until broadband is offered across the power lines...then a user won't have to pay 100 bucks for digital cable AND an internet connection. The price will be driven down (hopefully, fingers crossed)

http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,57605,00.html

Haha sounds good to me lets hope huh. Thanks for the news letter buddy.

The only thing disappointing about having cable is the issue of blocking and filtering ports. I had DSL at 2 other places of residence and loved it (even though it was slower, though not by too much). I was able to do web/email hosting for me and my friends, and now unfortunately, I can't. I wish I could get DSL in my area, but I'm about 800 feet from the CO. How crappy is that? I have pleaded with the phone companies in my area several times, but with no luck. Any body know an effective way to picket for DSL access? I have heard that if there is a high enough demand that the phone companies could possibly break down, and setup a new CO. (this of course would have to be beneficial to the, understandably) I guess they have no interest in my area, cuz most people don't care, and just settle for cable.

This is absolutely the worst possible thing that could happen! The interference that this would create with all types of over-the-air reception would be devastating. See this Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) web page with video links for the facts that nobody seems to be willing to talk about...

That having been said, in our area Comcast is about 3 Mbps, my SBC aDSL is about 1.5 Mbps (I'm not sure about WOW)-- but the load variance is noticeably higher on cable, due to shared bandwidth.

Not true! On my Linux box, I am connected via DSL even when I am in console mode -- from the time the machine boots up. Windows XP can be easily set the same way, and Windows 98 can be done nearly as easily.

I stand corrected I knew someone would say something. I know but,I was speaking for average homes.

On DSL you need to dial up before your connected to the Internet unlike cable, that sometimes is very annoying, after a while it's just a pain in the ass when you want to surf but, you need to dial up every time you want to connect to the Internet (waste of time). Cable on the other hand is always connected to the Internet.

Mad_Dog,
You are comparing apples and beets! Dialup is just dialup - it is not DSL. If you are going to compare cable and DSL then you can't talk about dialup. DSL is by definition always connected (Digital Subscriber Line).

From all the arguments I have heard on both sides, the speed and your satisfaction is dependent on your Service Provider (cable company, ISP, phone company)

Things to consider:
In order to use a cable modem, you have to have cable service
In order to use DSL you have to have land-line phone service.
Each are add-on services
I believe that cable service is flat rate (you either have it or don't)
I know that DSL comes flavors that you can tailor to usage (asynchronus, if you download more than you up-load - synchronous if you game).

The rest appears somewhat like religious arguments (mine is better than yours).

GrimJack

Sounds like your on DSL haha man I am just writing articles for fun nothing more I am not here to fight I just want people to get an idea of how I think and what I feel about the BroadBand Wars. Another thing I am really not comparing DSL with Dial-up any way my hands hurt that's my two cents.

I think that all-in-all, it really comes down where you live and what services are available. I have used both cable and DSL in my area. The DSL, BTW, is always connected. I've never needed to use a sial-up service. The thing that really won me over was the downstream I get with the local cable provider.

Really, before you ask yourself this question as it pertains to all of mankind, call up your local providers, test out what they have to offer. Don't ask all of mankind, ask yourself this question. :-)