cable vs. dsl vs. dial-up

Although I enjoyed reading the dial-up, DSL, or Cable article on the front page, there was one thing that bothered me: the author's generalizations about the various services as a whole solely from his anecdotal evidence.

When I had problems with my Optimum Online connection (which hasn't happened for a year), the cable guy arrived the next day to fix the problem in an hour. Furthermore, I've had friends with DSL that have had to wait weeks for the Verizon people to come, forced to go back to their VW bugs.

I hope I'm not making the incorrect assumption that the author did not check statistics on customer service for both cable and DSL before writing the article. By all means, please correct me if I am wrong.

Otherwise, thanks for a good read!

Gargamel

Different companies have different track records. One Cable company can have excelent service and tech support, etc. Whereas another one *caughrogerscaugh* could have horrible service and support. It all depends on the company.

Generally, here's my experiences:
Dialup=slow, cheap/free, problematic (keeps disconnecting, failed downloads, etc. etc. etc.) Some free services were in place. First Dialup provider I bought block time, so when I used it up(had to watch my usage), i just bought more. The 2nd dialup provider, I paid $12/month student rate, got 150hrs/month (had to watch my usage), got 30megs website+ftp+shell acct.+cgi+shell scripts.. best ISP ever www.IAW.on.ca

DSL=some problems, the dumb connection software lagged my machine. but there's nothing sweeter than downloading 50 megs in 10 minutes.. esp. when you were just using dialup 10 minutes earlier ... more expensive, to the tune of $45 CAN/mo, a few problems. bell/sympatico

Cable=very few problems, worked out of the box, tech support is good/responsive. same price as DSL, no caps (yet *cross fingers*), prices are rising tho , faster than DSL. cogeco cable.

Dedicated=residence internet, free, uncapped, no limits, no filters, hasn't gone down yet (excl. powerouts). Other colleges/universities either cap, limit, or filter their residents , i'm lucky tho centennial college

for anyone who missed it, here's the article:
http://www.overclockers.com/articles634/

my friend just started working for bellsouth dsl and Oct 31st when dsl becomes available in my area (already ordered it just waiting on the connection now) he's going to uncap my account to a T1 feed, he did his its amazing the speeds he pulls , god i cant wait

CyberFed - T1s really aren't that fast, or maybe I'm just spoiled with my 8Mbps down/1Mbps up Optimum Online connetion.

Gargamel

su root said:

Cable= no caps (yet *cross fingers*)

Click to expand...

thats it, canada here i come!

DrewBoOty said:

thats it, canada here i come!

Click to expand...

woops, i missed the part where it's "2 megabits down, 768kbps up" + no download caps (ie: 5gigs/month)

52 kbps Juno (Free)

My first connection was a modem that always connected at 52kbps, almost never failed me and I thought that was fast at the time.

650 kbps Verizon DSL (40 monthly)

My second connection was a Versizon DSL in Media, PA. Failed me about once a month and took from 4 to 6 hours to fix. Tech support was basically a scripted call that ended in "we will look into it if there are more complaints.

2300 kbps ATT Broadband (44 monthly)

My third connection is ATT Broadband in Arlington Heights. I have been on it since last February. It has been down 3 times, no longer than 5 hours each time. I have taken from other ppls comments that I am lucky that my experience with them has been so good but I will take what I can get.

Now when I look at places to move, broadband is at the top of my want list over heat and running water.

IMHO, can't go wrong with Optimum Online.

Gargamel

My first modem was a 9600, in my opinnion the most reliable modem in the world.. i still have it.
When I upgraded to my 14.4, it was all problems, misconnects, disconnects etc. (same ISP, different modem).
Then I upgraded again to my 28.8, oh man, was I flying. And then there was a firmware patch to get it to run at 33.6/28.8. that was sweet. still the occasional problem, but not as bad as my 14.4 (i hated that thing).. then dsl/cable (previous post)

My first modem was 2400 baud. Those were the days...

Gargamel