At 04:35 PM -0500 03/31/2003, chris wrote: > >Which would offer better long term speed connections, >>DSL or Cable, if all being the same, e.g a 2 mbit connection for >>downloads. > >If you can get a 2 Mb connection for DSL, I would think long term, that >would provide you with the better speed.
Big IF! :) >DSL the speed you have is not shared with anyone else on that line. So >your 2 Mb is your 2 Mb (however, the DSL lines do all dump into a >backbone which is shared). So in theory, a 2 Mb connection over DSL is >going to always be a 2Mb connection. Not true. xDSL data is muxed with others, perhaps as close as your nearest street corner, +/- distance to the DSLAM or CO. And a lot of Bells just haven't installed enough capacity going out of the CO, so your nice fat DSL pipe gets throttled to a trickle just like cable can. >Cable is shared with everyone else on your run. That might be a few >neighbors, that might be a large portion of your town. As the cable >company continues to sell to more customers, more and more people will be >fighting to use your 2 Mb connection. In theory, that means your 2 Mb >pipe will slowly decrease in speed (unless you decide to do all your >stuff on off peak hours). *nod* but... The aggrigate downstream throughput of a DOCSIS drop is 56 Mbps. The aggrigate upstream is 3 Mbps. Aggrigate = what you share, in total, with your neighbors. As drops get over-sold, they slow down, so the cable company "splits" it. They do a pretty good job of rolling in the upgrades, so your throughput never really suffers. FWIW, our cable service is capped at 1500 Kbps and has never droped below 1400 Kbps, due to neighborhood over-loading. >Also, long term... more and more cable companies are capping bandwidth. >So your 2 Mb connection you order today, you may find that 6 months or a >year later, your cable company decides to cap you at 500 Kb unless you >pony up more cash. This trend is now reversing. The MSOs hit our "pain threshold" and we screamed pretty loudly about false advertizing, failure to provide services, and such. In fact, Comcast is currently rolling out an *increased* upstream cap, throughout their system, going from 128 to 256 Kbps. >BUT... before you commit to DSL... make sure you can really GET 2 Mb. >That's pretty darn fast for DSL, and just because the phone company or >DSL provider is advertising that speed does NOT mean they can provide it >to you. And some phone companies like to sell you on the higher speed, >take your money for the install and order, and THEN inform you that your >top speed is really only going to be 384 Kb because you are so far away >from the CO and/or your line quality is poor. LOL! Very true. That distance game is a nasty trick. Last year, Verizon called us repeatedly, offering 684 Kbps service. The first tech to actually come to the house was very puzzled... we're so far away we'd probably only get around 80 Kbps!!!!! Yes, 80 Kbps. Not even the speed of a bonded pair of V.90 modems! FWIW, - Dan. -- MacNetwork is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... XRouter Pro | Share your DSL or cable modem between multiple computers! Dr. Bott | Only $199 <http://www.drbott.com/prod/MIH130.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> MacNetwork list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/macnet.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; end list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/macnetwork%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
