Looking for some opinions on this. If you've had both, which do you prefer and why? If you have Comcast, what kind of speeds are you getting (especially if you live towards Wheaton, like around by Lincoln School or further west). Do you ever notice huge slowdowns, etc?

Thanks!

I have had both and much prefer the cable service. Overall it is a better deal for me as I was able to dump SBC altogether, add the internet to my cable service, and pick up Vonage as my telephone service supplier. Many more features for the money, and the cable is SIGNIFICANTLY faster than DSL. We had both when we lived in Wheaton, and I have had both out here in Batavia.

The cable line has also proven to be much more reliable and stable.

The one nice thing about Comcast is their promotional deals. When you get close to the end of the current promotion, I call and say I want to cancel all services, and everytime they offer me whatever the current promotion is. My cable and internet combined has yet to cost me more than $75 a month, even with premium channels and HDTV service.

Mom and Dad in GE also have SBC, but only because they have WOW for cable service.

I've had this question for a while and keep forgetting to ask. I have Yahoo DSL/SBC Global etc. and I think I was paying 26.95 a month. I get this exciting e-mail from the SBC folks telling me that I should commit to another year at $26.95 or $24.95 or whatever. So I does a Google search of Yahoo DSL and the price seems to be down to $16.95. Am I misreading something, being misled or a combo of the two?

How much is everyone else paying for Yahoo DSL?

i have sbc dsl and i'm paying the $26.95. i think the lower amount is for a slower download speed. when i reupped my contract they told me that for a few extra bucks i can get a faster download.

Same here. So....I take it they have 3 different products? Slow, Medium and Fast?

correct, but they have fancier names: express, pro, and expert plus. we both have pro which gets us 1.5-3Mbps download speeds and a bit faster upload speed.

Comcast is expensive ($45 per month) but in my opinion, worth every penny. Cable connections work off a dedicated coaxial feed from the POP box (on your house) to the easement box. This is a fat pipe unlike DSL which works off "legacy" copper in the SBC POP rig and underground.

DSL has always been a "stopgap" technology (IMHO) - designed to use existing copper wires. A network is only as fast as its slowest link and DSL is S-L-O-W.

Also, distance is a factor with DSL. The further you are from the main telco switch, the harder it is for you to keep up a sustained high-speed connection. SBC has added "boosters" to their network to help with this distance penalty but still, DSL is a stopgap as long it uses the old-line copper.

I run four computers off my Comcast connection using a Linksys (Cisco) wireless router - three hard-wired on Cat-5 LAN cable and one wireless (laptop). Even with all four "in action" - downloading, surfing, streaming music - there is no apparent slowdown on any one of the computers.

Comcast runs at a steady 4-5mps (megaBITS per second) 24 X 7 with almost no network problems. They have decent customer service, knowledgeable technical support and actual real employees [no sub-contractors from Bosnia or Estonia] who come on-site if needed.

Did I tell you that I need the high-speed connection to run my business? That's why $45 per month doesn't seem all that bad to me.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ByTheNumbers,

quote:

Originally posted by marena62:
correct, but they have fancier names: express, pro, and expert plus. we both have pro which gets us 1.5-3Mbps download speeds and a bit faster upload speed.

Does it get you that as guarenteed speed, or just "up to"?

Try the speed tests at dslreports.com. You may be surprised what you are getting versus wat you are paying.

Btw, my 6 month promo price of $20 a month (that they keep renewing when i call to cancel after 5 months) on comcast... I get 350k up and about 3 meg down pretty consistantly. Nice considering I push around a lot of huge images files and such.

I'm currently paying $36 something for the Pro package. Unfortunately I renewed right before the current price drops.

I'm anticipating that before too long, I will need to get digital cable because Comcast keeps dumping channels from analog in an effort to get rid of it altogether... hopefully there will be a decent price on a combined package.

FWIW... I'm getting 2.4 Mbps down/400 Kbps up, and I pay for "up to 3/up to 500".

But, my contract is for longer than I thought, and they charge a hefty fine for early termination... so maybe in 8 months I'll investigate this again.

Thanks guys!

I've got SBC DSL. It works well (from a reliability point of view). We are pretty far from the office so the fastest we get is 600 up and about 350 down. Numerous calls to tech support have confirmed that is the fastest it will get.

For most normal use that is fine. The only issue I have is trying to send numerous (eg, 50 or more) large (2 to 10 mb) pictures. It is definitely a "set it and forget" experience.

For you SBC DSL users: you can check your speed here http://help.sbcglobal.net/dsl/speedtest/

So do I spend the extra $3.04 per month for the "faster" DSL...or will I not notice any difference? Contrary to what all of you think, I don't spend a whole hell of a lot of time on this thing at home. So...do I need the expert DSL?

Basically, you want a match between your computer's clock speed and your Internet connection speed. No specific formula... but an older computer won't be able to exploit a fast connection.

In round numbers... if your computer is a year or so old, spring for a fast connection. If your computer is three or four years old... save your money.

I have to disagree with you on this one . I have a three year old computer and switched from DSL to Comcast and notice a tremendous difference. The advantage you get in Cable Modem vs. DSL is in things like downloading and uploading. I'm in IT so I sometimes have to download large 500M files and what would take say 30 Minutes on a Cable Modem would take six to seven hours on a DSL line. And the longer you are on line the greater your chance of a connection being dropped. The only thing I can think of processor speed affecting DSL vs. Cable would be in viewing Video over the web. But if you're willing to spring for a better video card you could get around that.

It's a 10 month old iMac G5...and my computer's clock speed is 60 seconds per minute. So what should I get? Take your time...I have until December 31st to decide.

More variables. With DSL (and Cable) you can choose various speeds... and -- as discussed earlier -- DSL speed can be affected by your distance from the phone company's central office.

I've had DSL via Earthlink / Covad for years. It screams... but then I'm grandfathered in at the highest speed for the lowest price. (I got it several years ago when it was one speed only (now the highest) at one price only (now the lowest).

Your mileage may vary.

quote:

It's a 10 month old iMac G5

Spring for the $3.

quote:

...my computer's clock speed is 60 seconds per minute.

Save money. Get a digital sun dial.

Will I need new equipment from SBC? Or will I be able to use the existing modem?

quote:

Originally posted by Clamato:
60 seconds per minute.

We've lots of equipment at home that is 60 seconds per minute. I'm hoping for a new portable device with a 60 second per minute spec this holiday.

We've upgraded to 100 second minutes, you can get so much more done that way.
Metric Time right now is 0.85.067

Besides Base 60 Time I also hear the French wish to eliminate Binary and Hexadecimal in mathematics and computer science.

quote:

"A TOUS LES TEMPS; A TOUS LES PEUPLES"