Watch out for these ads. In some cases, they are flat-out lying. In my city, Cox cable runs ads claiming that they’re faster than DSL. There’s only one DSL provider in the city. Go to each website and you’ll see, right there in black and white, that Cox is 1Mbps down/128Kbps up, while BellSouth is 1.5Mbps down/256Kbps up.
While it’s true that cable isn’t hampered by DSL’s distance-limitations, it’s also true that ISPs cap your bandwidth. When I had a cable modem five years ago, 400KB/s downloads were not at all uncommon. If I was using the same cable company now, I’d never get more than about 125KB/s. Even with DSL distance limitations lowering my speed from 1.5Mbps to about 1.3Mbps, the higher cap means that my downloads max out around 160KB/s.
When choosing a high speed provider, always check their web sites to see exactly what they’re offering and check out sites like broadbandreports.com for user opinions.
I dunno, I’m using PPPoE right now and haven’t had any complaints. It helps that it’s entirely transparent – I just enter my account information, have it auto-connect when I need it, and forget about it.
When I first started getting DSL, I went with a carrier that had a static IP. However, after a year of use, I found that I didn’t use it at all; since I was having some other problems with the provider, I didn’t have qualms about changing to provider that had PPPoE/dynamic IP addresses.
Still, if you do have dynamic IPs and you want the ability to remotely log into your computer, there are free and low-cost services that will handle that for you. They keep track of when your IP changes, and all you need to do is visit a web site to see what your computer’s current IP address is before you connect.
Static/dynamic IP isn’t a deal-breaker for me, but YMMV.
Even easier than that is dynamic DNS. The services keep track of the IP for you and give you a host name that will always resolve to the current IP.
At the last place I worked, we had PPPoE DSL, but the boss wanted a VPN server. Instead of paying an extra $20/month for a static IP, I used the free dyndns.org services. Instead of having the users who were running VPN clients look up the IP address of the server and change it every time they wanted to connect, they just had to type companyX.dyndns.org into the program once and it worked every time. Very convenient.
My error regarding Cable Modem insecurity. I was relating information that’s a few years old. Obviously, some cable modem providers have addressed the issue, which I am glad to see.
I’ve had DSL and Cable. I couldn’t tell much difference between the two. They were both fast as Hell, compared to dial up. DSL was cheaper than Cable. It was also cheaper than what I had been paying for my combination of a second phone line and dial up service. And then I moved out to the country and now I’m forced to suffer with dial-up or pay $600 for the special sattelite equipment to get internet through DirectTV or $300 for the antenna from my ISP to receive wireless internet. I think I’ll wait it out and see if the prices come down a bit.
And I thought I had the slowest connection around. I am thrilled when I see “Speed: 44.0 Kbps,” which only happens about half the time. I’m usually hovering around 38-40.
I was an “early adopter” of Bell Atlantic/Verizon DSL here in the Boston area. The service is good, but woe betide ye if it goes out, as Verizon’s tech support is brutal.
Also, the WinPOET software Verizon wants you to run to handle the PPPoE connection is crap. Frequent connection drops, just not stable. I changed to a third-party freeware driver called RASPPPoE which worked much better. Unfortunately, this created a problem when I called for support on an outage. I was forced to reinstall WinPOET just to prove that the problem really did exist. Pain in the ass, lemme tell ya.
I heartily recommend using a router to connect. All the name-brand stuff has built-in PPPoE setup where you just put in the essentials and you’re good to go. Once that’s in place, all that’s required on your computer is simple DHCP for the IP and DNS addresses. Far, far simpler and more reliable.
The upside for me is cost. I’m getting 1.5Mbps down / 128Kbps up for $29.95 since I bundled my phone and DSL. That’s down from $59.95 when I first upgraded to the 1.5Mbps service from the base 640Kbps.
Another thing to consider is transfer caps. My friend has Comcast cable internet, and recently found that his Usenet service was capped at 1GB/month. Hell, I can do that in a night! So now he’s spending extra money for a Supernews account or some other third-party deal. Also, he loses the advantage of having the Usenet server on his local network, so to speak. I routinely get 1.4-1.5Mbps from Verizon’s Usenet server, solid as a rock.
Both have their advantages and disadvantages, as you can see. DSL, when it’s working (which it has for me 99% of the time after the initial 6 month hellride), is a beautiful thing, especially for the price. Cable has higher real-world potential bandwidth, and is more readily available given DSL’s wire-feet distance limitation.
One thing that may give me better service. Being in North Dakota we have Incontinent Communications for cable, the server based in South Dakota. With such large bandwith for relatively few subscribers, maybe we have faster service than in the Great Northeast?
Comcast doesn’t have their own Usenet servers; they give their subscribers 1GB/month accounts at GigaNews. I usually use a third-party service instead ($5/mo for 1GB/day at nntpservers.com), but I occasionally use the GigaNews account because they have better retention.
news.comcast.giganews.com is definitely not on Comcast’s network, but I still get 1.5 Mbps from there. I wouldn’t worry about having a Usenet server on your ISP’s network, as long as the one you use has enough bandwidth to saturate your connection.
