We got a house on a good bit of land which is gonna be great. Only problem is i dont believe cable is offered out there, we're getting satellite t.v. Someone told me to get dsl internet, just wondering what you guys have experienced with it. What kind of cable does it use? And also, how does it compare to cable? Thanks

~..Josh.

 

DSL comes over the phone line. Satelite is better than a dial-up by far; but, if DSL is available to you, that's even better. Cable is still the best.

 

DSL uses most modern telephone lines. It is an always on service, like cable, and it allows normal phone use, even though the same wiring is used. It is much faster than dial up, but much slower than cable (every dsl system I've ever used has been significantly slower at least). If you can't get cable though, DSL is your best bet.

 

Thanks for the quick replies, i hope cable is offered out there.

 

DSL comes through your phone line on a higher frequency than normal voice signals. My connection maxes out at 100 Mbps, although 40Mbps is my typical speed. Compared to 30-40 Kbps with dialup it's phenominal. Check with your phone company because there is a limit to how far away you can be from a substation in order to get the service.You should be able to go to the phone company website and punch in the phone number where you want the DSL and they will tell you if it's available.

 

I don't have cable but i do have DSL. It is very fast and i have no problems with it. I think the speed depends on where you live and how many people use it.

 

If you live that far out, DSL might not be available. BellSouth kept send postcards telling us that it was available, but when we called, something about "the service had not been upgraded close enough to the house".

Mississippi, go figure.

Dave

 

Not wanting to steer the thread away, but anyone have service through a satelite (sp)?

Where I live i will never see cable, and dsl is highly doubtful.

Not sure that I need service that bad for the price of it. about 600 in equipment and 70+ per month.

 

On DSL it dosent matter how many people are on your street that you are on, you are on your own designated connection until it hits the server where everybody is funneled to the ISP's back bone.

Cable is an internet party line. If you are unfortunate enough to have somebody like me as your neighor, I would steal all your band width 24/7. You'd be wishing you had 14.4 dial up because it would likely be faster. Even if you slipped in between my downloads soon as I started again you would slow back down, many people know how to cut in line to get more than thier fair share of cable bandwidth too. Can't remember if it was Raoul or D that hinted that they employ some. I know my brother uses some. Have a friend on cable in town and he even uses his to watch streaming TV progams. So if he's watching one of those programs on TV, his neigbors don't go any where to fast for a couple of hours.

Actuall DSL connection speed vs what you buy varies depending upon how far away from the DSLAM you are. The closer to the DSLAM the closer you will be to actuall speed. I am 5 miles form town but I'm an 1/8 of a mile away from the closest DSLAM. I bought 1.5, I actually get 1.6-1.65. However those a mile away they might get 1.0 if they are lucky. Modulation is higher but distance is sacraficed for it.

 

I went from dial up to DSL through Earthlink, and between hardware problems and lousy customer service, I caught hell for a while, but everything's okay now. Cable isn't offered in my neck of the woods, if it were, I'd be there.

 

5 years ago one of the techs that I worked with at an ISP had satelite. She did not use our service and she loved the satelite, even swore by it. But that was when DSL wasn't as widely available nor as refined as it is today. It still has a long way to go and possiabilities to be exploited. But it's function and reliabiltiy has increased 20-30 x's in the last 5 years from what it was.
5 years ago I can remember laughing at the thought of it being a contestant in broad band service. Availability has also grown 5-10 x's too. But if it's not available then satelite is you only other option. The equipment + install is outrageously high though.

 

I am very pleased with my bellsouth DSL, and I do live in Mississippi.

 

I had cable....hated it, it sucked and was s....l....o....w. Got DSL and I love it. Its fast and I very very rarely have any issues with it. But when I do, it usually consists of me unplugging my modem for 2 minutes, plugging it back in and i'm on my way.


BREW

 

I agree with Brewdude. The best part about DSL is the consistency. I've known too many with cable that have blazing fast connections one minute and ultra slow the next. My connection is fast all the time.

Last year I went through a few hurricanes. Lost power here for days at a time, trees and wires down everywhere. Brighthouse took a couple weeks to get most of their cable customers back up, but my phone line stayed connected the whole time. I had my computer plugged into my generator and was surfing the net at high speed while none of my neighbors had any power or cable.

 

I have had DSL for about 2 years now. With Verizon, you can but different speeds. For $14.95 a month you can get 768k/128k speed, for $29.95 you can get 1.5m/768k or 3.0m/768k, depending upon the distance from the CO. My understanding, is that you can get DSL as long as you are within 18,000' of the CO for the 1.5m/768k. In my case, I am at 10,900' which is within the 11,000' limit for 3.0m/768k. I get real connections of about 2.5-2.7m/500k.

As to why DSL, I had cable TV some years ago, which is why I now have satellite TV, and the price is about $20 a month cheaper for DSL.

Edit - I can't find where I saw it before, but my understanding is that in England they are testing DSL2, which has a download speed of 24Mbs!