Off Topic but I need your help

[tyte240]

I know this off topic but I know you guys all now your stuff and I would trust the advice here more than most boards.  I recently received an ad about AOL cable modem.  Does anyone have this yet?  How much faster is it?  How much faster is it than DSL?  Do you guys think its a good deal at an additional charge of $21.05 plus the standard AOL fee?   Please let me know what you guys think.

[DSC]

I personally hate AOL. What do you have now? DSL? Call the DSL company and find out how close you are to the closest main trunk and how much it costs for a 256kbps connection VS a 500kbps connection or what ever. Then call the cable company and find out how many people they currently have on your node(if they'll tell you) and ask how much bandwidth they give each node(if they even know, most of the time they are pretty dumb). If you are close to the DSL trunk then go with DSL. If you live in a heavily populated area, I would stay away from cable. DSL is a direct line (sortof) with a dedicated ammount of bandwidth. Cable on the other hand, is a VERY large ammount of bandwidth split between you and everybody in your neighborhood (or wherever) so if you are the only one in the area with cable it'll be really fast but if everybody in the area has it it will be kinda slow. So for less money cable potentially can be a lot faster but DSL will give you a more consistant ammount of bandwidth. I have cable BTW (not from AOL) and even though its crowded its still pretty quick, I love it.


Edit: wrote somethin wrong

(Edited by DSC at 10:24 pm on Nov. 13, 2001)

[96SEChick]

I think cable modems are awesome, but if you are going to get cable internet, go w/ your local cable company if they offer it.  Stay away from AOL cable--there will be some catch to their offer.  If AOL costs what it used to for it services, the basic monthly feel is somewhere around $21-$24/month, and then you add $21.05/ to that for the cable modem/software add-on?  It's not worth it to use the AOL cable.

If you're debating on cable vs DSL, they're pretty close when it comes to downloads and connections.  DSL has a consistant connection and I download usually around 145k/second, depending on the site of course.  You can download faster w/ cable sometimes, though.  I've heard of problems w/ cable connections being slower (I've heard that sometimes it's a LOT slower, and sometimes it's a little bit slower) during peak times when more people are online.  If you ever have anybody upload a file from your computer (a file that you sent to someone else from your computer), ADSL (asymmetrical digital subscriber line, which is the most common and least expensive type of DSL) can only upload at around 13k/sec, whereas cable internet uploads at the same rate that you can download.

I would stay away from the AOL cable, but check w/ your local phone company to see if they offer DSL in your area (they'll give you a better price and better service than someone else that offers DSL because any other ISP companies actually are having to pay the local telephone company to use the phone lines for the DSL, therefore they will charge more and if anything goes wrong w/ your connection, they'll probably tell you to call the telephone company--blaming it on phone line problems).  Then I would check w/ your local cable company and see if they offer cable internet and ask about their packages and prices.  The two connections are very comparable in my opinioni.

I have DSL and I never, ever have any problems getting connected.  But many people are very pleased with their cable modems also.  The best advice I can give you though is to not waste your money on AOL's cable connection---they are still using the cable companies' cable lines, and AOL already has horrible tech support (blaming inability to connect to the internet because something "must be wrong w/ the phone lines in  your area"----I used to have AOL), I think they'll be even worse, blaming the inability to connect to you $40+/month cable connection on the cable company's cable lines.

[DSC]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Quote: from 96SEChick on 10:21 pm on Nov. 13, 2001
ADSL (asymmetrical digital subscriber line, which is the most common and least expensive type of DSL) can only upload at around 13k/sec, whereas cable internet uploads at the same rate that you can download.
</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
Tru, I forgot about DSL's bad upload speed. &nbsp;But unfortionately most cable companys now &quot;Cap&quot; your upload to 1/2 or as slow as 1/4 your download speed so they can cram more people on their networks <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':('>

[BlankFlip]

um yeah, i have road runner, n this cable connection is hella faster than my old 56k connection....so it's good.

[S13Grl]

I have DSL at work and a cable modem at home. I honestly have ot say that I like my cable modem a lot more. Then again, no one else uses the connection to sign online in my building. I would prefer cable, and definitely not AOL cable. Shop around, make some calls, get information prior to signing up for anything.

And also, this isn't really off-topic, it's a chat section. <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'>

[West]

DSL is the way to go IMHO.

Calbe is all shared by the area you live in. So lets say 10 other people are using the same line you are in your area. Then your connection isnt going to be as fast as it was when you were the only one in your area using it. Over time it will get slower and slower.

DSL is a dedicated line, so consistant upload and download speeds are expected. I love my DSL.

[alchemist]

stay far away from AOL cable.....now if you get another cable carrier Id go for it. &nbsp;I'm able to get really fast speeds. &nbsp;####, go to www.dsreports.com &nbsp;this will tell you everything and look for your zip code to tell you whats available. &nbsp;In some areas DSL is shit, and in others its great, it all depends on the provider in your area, &nbsp;none of us know what its like in your area. &nbsp;I have cable and I love it, &nbsp;Tried DSL and for two months it sucked. &nbsp;It all depends on where you live. Go to the site

[TRM02]

96SEChick I could of not of said it better. So clean it up for you not techies out there


Cable modems share there connection so more people in your area get it the slower your connection is going it get.

DSL its all you. you dont share it so speed are stable.

Let put it this way...DSL was more for bussiness and Cable modem are for homes. BUT when is DSL used the most? During the day and this is when cable modem speed are the best cause everyone is at work. At night cable modem speed drop cause now everyone is home and check there e-mail surfing or hitting there favorite Porn site (I dont do this <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'> ) Here is a great place to see what you can get in your area. I hope this helps

<a href="http://www.dslreports.com" target='_blank'>http://www.dslreports.com</a>

EDIT: URL was wrong <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

(Edited by TRM02 at 12:57 pm on Nov. 14, 2001)

[rabbit23]

i have roadrunner which is a timewarner thing, now that they have merged with aol maybe it's now aol cable modem? just a thought. i do love my cable modem, even at its slowest it is just as fast as my friends dsl, but when it's fast it screams. if you are up late like me there is usually not many people on line.

[tyte240]

#### man you people are great. &nbsp;Yyou guys should start a think tank. &nbsp;Maybe together you can solve some of the world's problems. &nbsp;Thanks again for all the adivce I really appreciate it. &nbsp;Looks like I'm going with the cable modem. &nbsp;I'll do some research first. &nbsp;Thanks

[Drifting Ricer]

If I had cable I'll get that. But I can't so I have DSL.

[Takumi]

I have AT&amp;T @home. They're &quot;okay&quot;. Their service is decent, but sometimes, the service tends to crap out and I'm disconnected for a few minutes to as long as several hours, if not more. They'll eventually fix it as soon as they can and AT&amp;T's service was helpful over the phone. I'd say do what I did. Ditch AOL, start using AIM, and get yourself a POP3 e-mail account or something somewhere or just sign up for a free e-mail address at Yahoo! or Hotmail. Don't worry about your buddy lists. If you sign up for AIM and use your AOL name, the buddy lists will automatically transfer. If you don't use AOL chat rooms or click their stupid little icons for shit you can still find on the 'net without AOL, then ditch it for real. I ditched AOL because I had no use for their message boards (used to frequent their anime message boards) and I got sick of chat rooms. You can check the web to see which service is the best and most reputable in your area. There are sites that rate each high-speed provider.

Good luck man. Enjoy the speed!

[dave2u]

And i`ve just upgraded from56k modem to 64k ISDN! &nbsp;YAY! &nbsp; &nbsp;<img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':('>

[misnomer]

[email protected] here. Basically, in my area the cable services are capped at 128k up and 1.5 meg down. Similar DSL is limited to 256k up and 512k down (or so). Basically, in my region, cable's download speed kicks ass, though DSL would be better for games and webhosting with it's quicker upload.

As far as cable slowing down with more users, it's 82% bullshit. Just an ad ploy to get you to buy DSL. With DSL, you have a small pipe coming directly to you from the station. Whereas Cable has a big pipe coming from the station to your region, and few cable companies I have heard of are overtaxing their lines. ATT (now Charter) in my area was keeping it's lines at 60% capacity or less. Basically, slow cable speeds here are still quicker than DSL, and fast cable speeds are simply insane (sustained 750k/s+ download at 5<img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'>0 PM, you don't get that with DSL) So, just don't buy into those lame DSL ads.

Needless to say, both have advantages and dissadvantages. Sinse I run a web server, I'd actually prefer DSL. Plus business DSL beats the shit out of all things cable, pushing T1 speed at a fraction of the cost. Check out what's available at your house, 'cause you usually will get ads for service way ahead of the actual availability (one year in my case). Check what caps are in place, and for the love of God, don't get AOL if you plan on doing anything on your line. AOL uses proprietary authentication and transfer protocols, and they still seem to need continual popup ads to fill their coffers with gold, though they're already about the most expensive dialup service.

And I'm spent.

[Tuck&Poke]

yea dood aol sux i would screw aol and get someother dsl service like bellsouth (is that nation wide) or the equivilent of that company where every you live. &nbsp;dsl is way better than cable because in cable you share a modem with the whole neighborhood so on the hours where a lot of people are online its slow. dsl is way better. &nbsp;ive had dsl and you d/l at like 100kb/s a sec with the basic stuff &nbsp;you can even get 1.5mb/s &nbsp;thats some crazy ish

[misnomer]

Did you even read what I wrote, minime? <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'>

Anywho, both are shared services. With cable it's all on one bigass wire, with DSL it's all in a switch at the exchange. Every cable service I've had experience has been significantly faster downstream (read: 760+k sustained at 5<img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'>0 PM). Anyhow, either way you're waiting for the servers more than your own connection.

See what's available, either are better than dialup. Check how reliable the services have been, if it's just getting rolled out you can expect many outages. Other than that, you won't be dissapointed with either.

[Archangel]

Okay, I work for a DSL company in cincinnati.
Basically, ADSL gives you consistancy, and cable does not.
Cable gives you higher possible speed, but it is not garunteed.
You can actually get rediculous speeds out of a DSL (like 7/1) but it costs alot more than the basic service.
It really is personal preference, both are very fast for normal surfing, and if they both cost about the same, then they're #### near equal.

BTW, I have cable at home, but that's only because our landlord pays for it, and splitts it off into all 4 of the apartments. :biggrin: