for dsl or cable would be's

yo i have cable and i love it. my friends hav dsl and they are dont like it so much. i really dont know much on dsl.

but my cable downloads at 350-600 kb/s never lower sometimes higher. i think thats great speed. im in north jersey with optimum online. it rocks

Another DSL and Cable debate...

Since I know a fair amount about both I'll explain and you can make your own decisions...

DSL and Cable both run over copper. DSL is generally over 24 to 28 AWG CAT-3 wiring while Cable is usually over RG59 or similar Coax.

Now onto the big differences. Cable has repeaters which allow them to magnify the signal in a sense to allow longer loops. This is one of the advantages to cable. Also, cable companies generally have higher speed tiers/caps. Which means for pure downloading, cable may be faster. But then you get into FAP or Fair Access Policies or usage caps which basically limits how much you can download. So you may be able to download 200 meg a month at 4 meg a sec. Cable is shared at the Cable CO which means "they have a max of X bandwidth, all users consume this bandwidth as it is distributed". Broken down, it simply means when you have a lot of people online your connection will start lagging.

Onto DSL..

DSL is dedicated all the way to the DSL router (Redback/Juniper/Cisco or whatever). So The wire COs use an ATM transport which is always on. This is a layer 2 function and couldn't care less how much bandwidth you use as it's constantly transmitting ATM cells. Customers then are converted back to layer 3 (tcp/ip) at the DSL router. Generally these routers are fed by 2 to 3 OC3s or more. One of the biggest disadvantages to DSL is the fact that signal degrades quick and we cannot "boost" the signal. That is where RTs or Remote Terminals come in. They are like "mini-COs" in the field. These are little boxes with DSLAMs (DSL Access Multiplexors). These are fiber fed from the CO to allow DSL out as far as they need it. Only downside is, RTs cost about $500,000 to install new. Upgrading existing RTs can cost over $100,000 so it's still expensive.


So what does all this mean?

Cable is generally faster, higher pings, long loops, shared line, and has a FAP

DSL is generally a little slower, lower pings, shorter loops, dedicated circuits and no FAP.


So if you download a lot, cable may not be right for you. Also may not be great if you game. But if you simply want a lot of speed when you want it, this is the route to go.

DSL is great for large downloads, gaming, if you don't mind downloading at 1.5-6 mbps. Where cable is going around 2-8 mbps...



If you have any questions let me know.

Thanks,

Rick

Originally posted by SKYHN
Many cable providers now though have bandwidth limitations, and soon all cable will have them.

That's true enough. Cox cable in my area is talking about making us pay more monthly to make things better, or to raise the bandwidth. Something along that line.