Pueo

I am currently researching DSL services and would love any information you may have. What experiences have you had with telephone vs cable? Are there any that you would highly recommended? or not?

I'll also be replacing my computer and have shopped the IBM netvista x40, Sony PCV-LX800 and a couple of the Sony notebooks. Any input there would be greatly appreciated as well.

turbo_pwr

I love my DSL and would absolutely hate to have to go back to a 56k dial-up. As for services I believe everything is dependent upon the region you live in. As for the PC buy IBM, I don't have stock in Sony.

Strike

Pueo,

I had DSL, now I have cable. They're both great. Get whichever is the best deal for you. You'll love it. Very fast and reliable. If you have any specific questions let me know and I'll answer.

cdelena

I have had DSL for over a year.. since it was first offered in my area. It is great compared to dial-up with reasonably consistent speeds and almost always

TFota

It may depend on where you live.

In San Diego, Cox and Time-Warner offer pretty good cable access. I've had Time-Warner for almost three years and it's pretty good and reliable now, although there have been some rocky times as their customer base grew and they had to expand and upgrade their equipement to maintain decent bandwidth.

Pacific Bell on the other hand, was marketing DSL pretty heavily and from all accounts, people have experienced nightmares with their service, waiting months to get hooked up and then not having it work. PacBell has actually been sued by the Public Utilities Commission in California for false and deceptive advertising, claiming that they didn't have the proper infrastructure in place before they started selling it and couldn't deliver on their promises.

I know lots of techies with cable modems but hardly anyone with DSL.

nvmys2k

I currently have cable modem at home thru @HOME (http://home.excite.com/market/) and it is SWEEEET!!!You have a guarantee upstream speed of 128 kbps and download speed depends on how many other people are you sharing the bandwidth (sometimes this is your advantage and sometimes it is your disadvantage - btw @HOME doesn't allow you to do VPN but I do it anyway, nothing happens yet). There are others goodies come with sign up with a flat rate. In theory, download speed for cable modem can go up to 15Mbps but that would never happen. So in reality, you will get somewhere .5Mbps - 3Mbps. There are websites out there that would let you test your bandwidth: www.speedus.com www.ewire.com
In addition, you can even download tweaks to speed up your modem cable or DSL at: www.speedguide.net
In the other hand, DSL is also a high-bandwidth technology. You will get a gurantee upstream speed but for download speed, you will choose which package depends on how fast you want. Faster DSL, expect to pay more. In contrary to @HOME, they support VPN. So do you homework. Goto www.omsoft.com to check if DSL is available in your area. The bottom line, cable modem and DSL rock and modem dial in STINKS!!!

Pueo

Wow! Thanks for all the great info! Ya'll have given me some pretty strong sources to research and it's much appreciated. Currently I'm using freeinetworks for dial-up and it's not very trustworthy. I'm knocked off frequently and the dial up number is changed quite a bit. But it's free. I know, you get what you pay for.

In the Houston area, I've heard there have been problems with the phone service here (SWBT) but that Roadrunner is pretty consistent (Time-Warner cable). Once I make a decision on a computer I'll definitely be changing my connection.

Thanks again!

turbo_pwr

Pueo, are you looking at the IBM x40i? If so send me an email, I don't know what street price is but I think I can get a discount through IBM.

Schatten

Cable vs. DSL? Some say DSL is faster because you aren't sharing the bandwidth. In my experience, after the reg hacks, its always the other side that is holding up your speed. However, in Houston if you are going the DSL route, make sure you keep informed about their service. Currently they have a class action suit filed against them. http://slashdot.org/articles/00/08/18/176254.shtml is where I first read the information, but the link to the news story does not exist anymore. I'm sure it got cleared out since most news content providers do not keep all of their stories. Make sure you read through some of the commentaries as well. Some people give great information.

Any more q's? feel free to email, icq, whatever.

cthree

I've currently got @home cable and it's very very good. Don't let the marketing types fool you, the whole bandwindth sharing thing is way over blown. First off DSL speed depends on how far you are from the CO. The fastest I can get where I am is IDSL or 144kbps and it costs a fortune. If you live in a newer suburb this could be a problem. Also so much depends on the network and not so much your connect speed. From this site I get downloads at about 80KB/s (compare with 3KB/s on a 56K modem) but from sun.com I get 200KB/s. I have never experienced any slowdown and the service hasn't been out for over a year. Just open Explorer and pow! I do have some email issues but the connection is rock solid.