We have suffered the last few years with sporadic internet service outages from our cable company (Mediacom). Calling their help line is especially frustrating because no matter when one calls the wait for a person on the other end to actually pick up the phone is at least 45 minutes. Then they will always require that someone come to our house (even though the problem is in the cruddy old lines on the street) to look around, which means we need to take a half day off from work to let them in.

Anyhow, I can get DSL service from the phone company (Qwest) for about $10 less per month. Does anyone here have Qwest DSL? Is it pretty reliable? Is it a lot slower than cable?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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1996 Saab 9000 5 speed
2002 Volvo XC70
1983 300D [sold ]
1981 300D [sold ]
1973 450se [sold ]
1967 230 (4 on the floor) [sold ]

Depends on how far away you are from your Central Office. If you're not too far away, it is barely noticable.

__________________
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein


09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

If you are close to the switch it will likely be faster, you have dedicated bandwidth with most DSL connections while you share cable bandwidth.

How do I figure out where the switch is?

__________________
1996 Saab 9000 5 speed
2002 Volvo XC70
1983 300D [sold ]
1981 300D [sold ]
1973 450se [sold ]
1967 230 (4 on the floor) [sold ]

My time is coming to get internet service at home. Verizon is installing the Fios cables in my building and we will be eligible to get their t.v and internet service for a decent price. Comcast now had the monoply in the building and from what the neighbors tell me the service is pretty good. Verizon has a tower on top of our building so signal should be good.

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

Buckwheat, did you just say "DSL is otay?"

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I have Mediacom cable at my house in town, and service is ok. Prime time, say 7:00 pm, and the cable slows way down since so many in the neighborhood are using it. But, downloads are pretty fast, especially early in the morning, which is when I use it a lot.

I also have Qwest DSL at my other house. I am 300 yards from the switch. I personally like it better than cable. It seems more reliable, and I like that it's distributed within the house via the telephone lines. I don't have to wire separately for it. I don't have cable tv at that house anyway. But with all the download choices via internet, I don't really need tv there.

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Las Vegas NV

I can deal with the slowdown at busy times. Our main problem is when the service goes out entirely for days at a time. Our provider seems to intentionally understaff their service desk so it will take forever to get them on the phone. We also get really crappy tv reception from the cable. Unfortunately, I just found out we have line of sight issues so dish is not an option for us.

__________________
1996 Saab 9000 5 speed
2002 Volvo XC70
1983 300D [sold ]
1981 300D [sold ]
1973 450se [sold ]
1967 230 (4 on the floor) [sold ]

It depends entirly on your system. Our cable system barely delivers video so high speed data is pushing it. OTOH our phone system has been upgraded from the switches to the lines on the poles and the DSL is by far the best internet I have ever seen. The speeds are exactly as advertised 768/3000 and it has been "down" 2 or three times in the last 4 years.

I was just wondering about the effect of fiber optic cable service on data speed over coaxial or whatever the prior delivery system was. Anybody know?

Mine is optical but has been getting much slower recently for some reason.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I'm not sure I understand your question. Fiber is fast, really really fast. If you really are using the old coax type of networking cable, you need to step into the 1990's, and get the twisted pair cable (Cat 5 is widely available and cheap). If you were going to have a slowdown, it would be in the cable, not the fiber.


Shameless plug: If anybody wants fiber (or DSL), and you are pretty sure you have fiber in your area, let me know/send me a PM - I get brownie points from the company for passing on potential customers - pricing won't be any different. -thanks!

__________________
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein


09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

There is a reason that the telco's had to quit using this argument: it's blatantly false.

It sounds true, and it is true to a very limited extent; you have a wire from your house to a central location which is not shared. However, this doesn't do you one bit of good unless the connection from there to "the internet" can handle all of the users downloading at the highest speed at the same time. Here's a hint: any company to set things up this way would quickly be out of business.

As was quoted earlier, if you have cable, you're sharing your bandwidth. As far as I know, your cable company terminates on copper at the pole and at your house. Therefore, you're not getting "true" fiber. I have Verizon Fios and it's fast as hell and true fiber to the house. 50 megs down with 5 up. Fixing to go to 100 down. Runs around $50 per month with a free wireless/wired router. They are very aggressive in Fairfax and I feel this is the best deal in your area. Hope this helps.

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13 Fiat Abarth
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80 Ferrari 308 GTSI
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Broadband Reports says otherwise, I do agree that it is a YMMV but my dsl works exactly as advertised I never have busy time lag or slow downs.

Obviously it is all part of the "internet", some providers have a bigger pipeline than others.

I'll give in to the possibility that the cable itself could be a limiting factor, especially as the service gets more popular (including video on-demand and cable phone service). I'm just pointing out that there is always a limit to the speed that the collection of subscribers can send information through their tube (It's ALL TUBES).

That said, we recently dumped Charter cable internet and got AT&T DSL, and couldn't be happier with the decision. Cheaper, faster and more reliable.