[lug] DSL OR CABLE MODEM

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Mon, Jun 17, 2002 at 08:44:02AM -0700, Yuko Jonah wrote:
>What really is the difference b/w dsl and cable modem. I have never use
>dsl before,but thinking of switching from cable modem to dsl due to price.

Switching to DSL due to price?  You want something *MORE* expensive?  That
leaves the field pretty wide open...

Cable is super sweet for the typical home-user sort of traffic.  You get
real fast downloads (even after AT&T lobotomized it down to only 1.5mbps,
it used to be 3.5mbps), I will often see 200KB/sec downloads with the
cable.  However, if you are sending data, it sucks, not only is sending
data out slow, but it swamps the cable modem so you can't do anything
else...

QWest's DSL is fairly symmetric, meaning that you can upload and download
without any problems, but the rate is much lower...  For around $50 per
month, the DSL is only going to give you around 60KB/sec download rates.
Plus, most ISPs that will provide DSL over QWest's lines are going to meter
you -- if you download more than about 5GB in a month, you'll pay more
(like $5/GB).

However, a benefit of DSL is that you can get static IPs on it, and do all
sorts of wondeful serving things.

Our cable connection is $35/month-ish, without any usage limits (though
it's not supposed to be used for serving business stuff, according to the
AUP).  Our DSL line is easily $50/month.

Oh, and with Qwest's DSL you'll have to get a modem ($300), where our cable
connection included the modem in the monthly cost.

Unless you don't like the cable modem, I'd recommend you stick with it...

Sean
-- 
 "Having computers is a lot like having kids, except it's not as much of a
 problem if they die while you're away."  -- Sean Reifschneider, 1997
Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python