No!!! Not My Cable Access!!!!

digitalwanderer

digitalwanderer

wandering
Legend
My wife is in the process of cancelling my cable internet connection, as well as our digital cable. She finally got tired of paying for two internet connections and is re-working it all out with SBC and is going the DSL route.

On the upside they're saying my DSL will go from 384/384 to 3Mb/?, but damn it I LOVE my cable connection. :(

Oh, she's also getting us a dish. :rolleyes: I have no clue what's going on, I'm only hearing one side of the conversation but I'm in full blown panic mode contacting the admin of all me favorite places I shouldn't go to make sure that I can still log in with a new IP. :???:

EEEEEEEEEEP!!!!
 
sooooo.... you'll be slow now? and sharing with whole family?

i guess "someone" will put some sort of traffic control on router..... i just cant see digi waiting for his files while wife and kids download their stuff ;)
 
Xenus said:
Poor digi since when did the wife start making unilateral decisions without talking to ya?:cry:
Click to expand...
Since about when we first met more than 11 years ago. :rolleyes: (<-Not aimed at you, at myself...like a wistful sigh)

silence said:
sooooo.... you'll be slow now? and sharing with whole family?
Click to expand...
Slower, but 3Mb ain't exactly slow. Right now they share the DSL and I got the cable, this will actually be fairer.

i guess "someone" will put some sort of traffic control on router..... i just cant see digi waiting for his files while wife and kids download their stuff ;)
Click to expand...
I'll make it nice and fair, at least fair-ish.... ;)

John Reynolds said:
Well, you can tell you wears the pants in that relationship.
Click to expand...
Actually we both do, we sort of have assigned areas of responsibility. The budget is most definately under her control. I suck with money and she don't, and she is currently the bread winner of the family so I got no reason to bitch.

But your comment takes away any guilt I feel over re-posting your Superman chop in all it's glory. :p
 
So if you are going to sharing one Net connection from having your own line you probably want to get a good router that will do decent Quality of Service (QoS). You are probably using PPPOE so something like the DGL-4100 or 4300 (GameFuel) from D-Link would be nice. If you are PPPOA then you have a problem. Most likely you will need an all-in-one "gateway" unit and there aren't many of those that are good and affordable. (most are affordable, so that leaves out the other one...)

Wow. I really sound like I am trying to sell you something here. :oops:
All I'm saying is, get a good router for sharing the line and it should be pleasant as well as financially sound.
 
3 Mbps is horribly slow my friend. Sad to see your cable line leaving and now you won't have the pseed you crave.

Is SBC offering any type of fiber optic connection in your area? I know Verizon does in Delaware and it sure is hell is fast and cheap for the bandwidth to compared to the cable company. 15 Megs down and 2 Megs up for $50 a month.

You may want to look into it.
 
digitalwanderer said:
My wife is in the process of cancelling my cable internet connection, as well as our digital cable. She finally got tired of paying for two internet connections and is re-working it all out with SBC and is going the DSL route.
Click to expand...
Well, I seriously, seriously doubt you'll miss cable. Dish network and DirectTV are just so much cheaper (and yes, they both now offer local channels at a reasonable price, as well as a growing selection of HDTV channels), and typically offer free DVR hardware these days.

Just make certain that you're getting free installation and a DVR with the deal. Those deals do exist, so make sure you're getting your money's worth.

As for cable internet, I don't really know. I will say that 3Mbps DSL is far from slow (Over 300kb/sec downloads? What's slow about that?). From my experience with DSL, the best feature is that performance is very, very consistent. While the maximum performance you obtain will depend on the quality of the phone lines in and near your house, as well as the distance to the local switching station, you will always obtain the same performance (please note that this is from my personal experience, and may not carry over to all areas).

I would recommend, however, investing in a router if you don't already own one. SBC's software is annoying and crappy. Installing it is just asking for headaches.
 
Chalnoth said:
As for cable internet, I don't really know. I will say that 3Mbps DSL is far from slow (Over 300kb/sec downloads? What's slow about that?). From my experience with DSL, the best feature is that performance is very, very consistent. While the maximum performance you obtain will depend on the quality of the phone lines in and near your house, as well as the distance to the local switching station, you will always obtain the same performance (please note that this is from my personal experience, and may not carry over to all areas).

I would recommend, however, investing in a router if you don't already own one. SBC's software is annoying and crappy. Installing it is just asking for headaches.
Click to expand...
Here in so cal with cox cable I get consistance 4mb/512kb speeds.. right at what they rate it at.
That whole cable internet slows down with more people is a huge myth down here.
Back when there was @home the only difference was that when no one was on (1 in morning) I could get download speeds around 5-6mb/s and I got 3-4 during the day and considering they rate it for 3mb's it was quite good.
I've only ever used 1 DSL connection down here that was decent and it was at my brother in laws apt. and he got 2mb's constantly untill they went ouf ot business.
I'm obviously using bits btw...
As for 2.4mb being fast, well that depends.
Some of us download alot of keyboard drivers and there it can make a huge difference.
Lets put it this way, with usenet I can get 700MB in about 15 minutes.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
radeonic2 said:
That whole cable internet slows down with more people is a huge myth down there.
Click to expand...

It's never a myth. This has to do with how cable is distributed compared to DSL. However (and this is a big "however"), sadly it comes down to the exchanges being overloaded and this affects everybody so DSL is not immune. In your case you have a good provider for your area. They have "excess" bandwidth and you are getting a smooth ride.

The rapid adoption rate/growth of DSL is, unfortunately, taking its toll on most exchanges and the guaranteed network bandwidth is no longer a universal truth. It seems this will be the domain of private/dedicated/leased lines until the market settles. (Internet2 anyone?)
 
wireframe said:
It's never a myth. This has to do with how cable is distributed compared to DSL. However (and this is a big "however"), sadly it comes down to the exchanges being overloaded and this affects everybody so DSL is not immune. In your case you have a good provider for your area. They have "excess" bandwidth and you are getting a smooth ride.

The rapid adoption rate/growth of DSL is, unfortunately, taking its toll on most exchanges and the guaranteed network bandwidth is no longer a universal truth. It seems this will be the domain of private/dedicated/leased lines until the market settles. (Internet2 anyone?)
Click to expand...
I know the technical part of it but because my provider is good it is infact a myth..
i said "myth down here" (er I see I put there but I meant here).
I have had "excess' bandwidth down here ever since I got cable.
That's been the case for my brother in law/sister who lives a short ways away (not on the same street or anything) and at his mom's home that also a short ways aways.
 
I got hte 3mbps connection. Not bad...its ok. Cheap though.....at least for what we are getting in California. Yes and we are switching to dish as well...there is a sweet deal going on right now.
 
suryad said:
I got hte 3mbps connection. Not bad...its ok. Cheap though.....at least for what we are getting in California. Yes and we are switching to dish as well...there is a sweet deal going on right now.
Click to expand...
Yeah, many members of my family have been using satellite for a few years now (both Dish and DirectTV). The prices are great, and the service is excellent. And hey, if you have problems past the first year or so, you can always switch providers and get another free installation, which is almost guaranteed to fix any issues you may have.
 
wireframe said:
The rapid adoption rate/growth of DSL is, unfortunately, taking its toll on most exchanges and the guaranteed network bandwidth is no longer a universal truth.
Click to expand...
As usual I guess this is highly relative to the particular ISP one has. Mine charges lots of money each month, but I get good stability (link hardly ever goes down) and great pings and speed. With 8Mbit down/768 kbit up, I get 800+ kilobytes/s downloads (record is over 950) and 90-ish kilobytes/s uploads pretty much no matter which time of day depending on remote server performance. Quite satisfied really. :D
 
And after a quick phone call to Comcast, the situation once again changes.... :rolleyes:

On the brightside, I get to keep the cable for another 6 months...they cut the price in half. On the brighterside2 we're also keeping & upgrading our DSL line, twice the speed for half the price.

We're also keeping our cable package for a while longer since they cut the price on that too, but we're still gonna get the dish and check it out...make the switch once we have both and decide which we like better.

So much to do about nothing, the story of me life. :rolleyes:
 
The cable slowdowns when busy are because of oversubscribed areas. This happens because cable works more like a LAN, wheras DSL all links together only when it gets to the exchange. Cable can actually get packet collisions when oversubscribed. Also cable is truly "always on" where DSL does a fast connect, that still takes time if your modem has previously dropped the link.

However cable's strength is that they've cabled right up to your door with high speed cabling, rather than relying on your phone lines (which could be ancient) and the distance to your exchange to govern your final speed. Where DSL struggles to 4 mbit, or can manage 8 if you have good lines and are sitting right on top of an exchange, cable services have no problem giving 10 mbit or more no matter how far away you are from a head end.

In fact here in the UK, the cable companies have just made 10 mbit their top tier residential product, with 4mbit as their standard tier, and 2 mbit as entry level, where only one DSL supplier can manage 8 mbit if you are right on top of an exchange. I guess they are going to have to start using fibre if they want to do much better.
 
digitalwanderer said:
And after a quick phone call to Comcast, the situation once again changes.... :rolleyes:

On the brightside, I get to keep the cable for another 6 months...they cut the price in half. On the brighterside2 we're also keeping & upgrading our DSL line, twice the speed for half the price.

We're also keeping our cable package for a while longer since they cut the price on that too, but we're still gonna get the dish and check it out...make the switch once we have both and decide which we like better.

So much to do about nothing, the story of me life. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

i hate you ;)
so far i was enjoying this topic.... now?.... urgh.... you got best deal possible....

if i ever go to US i'll spank you for this topic....
 
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros. said:
Also cable is truly "always on" where DSL does a fast connect, that still takes time if your modem has previously dropped the link.
Click to expand...
Well, it depends upon how you connect. It can be "always on" if you leave it on. This is one reason why I recommended a router. Bear in mind that there is nothing competing for the DSL connection, so there is little reason to not leave it on at all times.

However cable's strength is that they've cabled right up to your door with high speed cabling, rather than relying on your phone lines (which could be ancient) and the distance to your exchange to govern your final speed. Where DSL struggles to 4 mbit, or can manage 8 if you have good lines and are sitting right on top of an exchange, cable services have no problem giving 10 mbit or more no matter how far away you are from a head end.
Click to expand...
Right, as a data transfer line, coax is clearly going to be much higher bandwidth than twisted pair. The problem is that the phone line is one line that runs all the way to the exchange, whereas the cable line, which was designed for broadcast and not individual connections.

And in reality, cable is typically much more expensive than DSL, while the performance is pretty similar.
 
Dunno how phone lines are in the UK, but I have a friend living in a bleedin' forest and his ADSL runs at 8Mbit/s, with the telephone line hanging from poles along the road for a couple kilometers. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top