What's better for gaming, DSL or Cable?

I'm moving in a couple of months and I may have to find another ISP. Currently I'm with Mindspring/Earthlink and I get speeds of 750/300. I have 2 computers and they are networked. My kids and I are gamers, and sometimes play in the same game, and we do have 2 different IP addresses. I don't think cable does and I'm not sure if it will allow us to play in the same room. Not sure to be honest, that's why I'm here. Any suggestiosn would be appreciated.

the one with the greater upsteam speed is better... that'd be the DSL I'm, guessing

In my area (SLC, UT, USA) we have formerly ATT cable (now Comcast) and Qwest DSL. Both offer 256k uploads, and ATT offers ~1.5mb downloads. Qwest is very expensive when they start getting into the ~1.5mb download range.

So, cable is by far a better deal in our area if you just want to do gaming. If you want to run a server, DSL will be better since you can get more upstream bandwidth if you want, plus you can get static IPs plus more than one if need be. I don't believe Comcast does this at the moment.

-ben

I would say DSL. It may be more expensive but it is by far more consistant than cable.

I had DSL for about a year, and never had an outage with it. I've had cable for over a year, and also have never had an outage or any reason to call tech support because of problems.

And those that tell you cable shares bandwidth with everyone else in your neighborhood may be right, but I've never noticed it. Infact, I've never had downstream speeds lower than 512Kb *ever* on my cable. Most of the time it is 1Mb+ down and 256Kb-368Kb up on my end.

-ben

Stick with what you have. I think you're getting better bandwidth by having 2 IP addresses rather than sharing one (or a dynamic IP address account) with a router/ICS.

Soy

Thanks guys, another question would be would I have to share bandwidth if I had cable?

there is NO answer to this question. if you want a real answer list the providers you are considering and the area you are in.

the shared bandwidth is a marketing thing made up by DSL companies to try to get people to sign up for DSL. ALL broadband is shared SOMEWHERE. the way most modern cable systems work is a main line comes out from the plant and goes to a node. this node depending on the modulation used generaly has 27mbits downloda and 5 or 10 mbits upload, the cable company then connects people to that node. now its all up to the provider how many people are serviced through that node. my isp(optimumonline) generaly has a node pass 500 houses. now this doesn't mean there are 500 houses on that node, optimum has the highest penetration rate out of all cable isp's, somewhere around 20% so that means statisticly 1 in 5 houses have cable. that would mean about 100 users per node. yet i have NEVER seen a slowdown on my connection always 10megabits download 1megabit upload.

dsl on the otherhand is a dedicated line, but only up to the DSLAM after that its all shared with everyone on it.

so as you can see its not a matter of technology here its all up to what provider your using.

Hit www.dslreports.com to find out about providers in your area.

Generally, if you are FPS'ing--you'd be best served with DSL. PING is KING in FPS's and DSL will offer you lower and more consistent pings. Yeah, cable will generally offer you better bandwidth, but because it is shared bandwidth, it is not always able to sustain it consistently.

oh please dont say DSL is any better then cable.

Tracing route to dslreports.com [209.123.109.175]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 5 ms 5 ms 5 ms 10.123.96.1
2 5 ms 5 ms 5 ms dstswr1-vlan2.rh.wpgrny.cv.net [67.83.233.33]
3 9 ms 9 ms 11 ms r1-ge11-2.mhe.whplny.cv.net [67.83.233.1]
4 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms r1-srp1-0.cr.whplny.cv.net [67.83.238.49]
5 10 ms 10 ms 8 ms r2.srp5-0.wan.whplny.cv.net [67.83.238.2]
6 9 ms 11 ms 11 ms r1-srp3-0.wan.hcvlny.cv.net [167.206.12.161]
7 11 ms 12 ms 11 ms r1-srp13-0.cr.hcvlny.cv.net [167.206.12.97]
8 11 ms 11 ms 10 ms r2-srp5-0.in.hcvlny.cv.net [167.206.12.2]
9 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms gi4-1.msfc1.tlw.nac.net [167.206.16.130]
10 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms 0010.gi4-5.msfc1.nyc.nac.net [209.123.11.229]
11 12 ms 13 ms 13 ms 0095.ge-0-0-0.gbr1.nyc.nac.net [64.21.102.5]
12 14 ms 13 ms 13 ms 1187.at-0-1-0.gbr1.oct.nac.net [209.123.11.150]
13 13 ms 13 ms 14 ms 0095.gi-1-1.msfc1.oct.nac.net [64.21.102.2]
14 15 ms 14 ms 16 ms www.dslreports.com [209.123.109.175]

It depends entirely upon the game. In most games it won't matter which one you use, in others, a small upload cap will cripple you.

In my area, DSL has a low upload cap (looking at 20k/s, but you only really see 15k of that.) DSL, if not already mentioned above, has dedicated bandwidth, which means that you are the only person on there, it will not fluctuate... you have access to the same speeds, all the time.

Cable, on the other hand, is a shared medium, and depends on your neighborhood's usage. You may get great speeds, but I've seen some cable installs that went slower than 56k modems at certain times of day. It fluctuates. That means that your game packets may get delayed/dropped if the medium is too busy. My cable around here gives me about 50k/s upload.

So, in theory, DSL is the better provider for stability, but if your playing something like BF1942, that requires alot of upload, you may need either a better DSL package, or Cable. However, if all your playing is counterstrike, your average usage will be 1-2k/s.. Realistically, they both play about the same, unless your ISP sucks.

In my area, DSL has a low upload cap (looking at 20k/s, but you only really see 15k of that.) DSL, if not already mentioned above, has dedicated bandwidth, which means that you are the only person on there, it will not fluctuate... you have access to the same speeds, all the time.

Click to expand...

this simply is not true. if the provider doesn't buy enough bandwidth at the DSLAM, a DSL connection WILL slow down if everyone starts using it.

xtrmeocr said:

oh please dont say DSL is any better then [sic] cable.

Click to expand...

Why not? It's the truth.

Actually, I didn't make the blanket statement that DSL is better than cable for all situations. But if playing FPS games is the main reason you want broadband and you have the choice, DSL would be your better bet. You should check out the statistics (and some articles, if they are still there) at www.dslreports.com. Generally speaking, DSL will offer consistently better pings than cable (there, I said it again). I also want to make sure that I emphasize the fact that one may get good pings with cable sometimes, but both pings and bandwidth can vary wildly due to its shared nature.

Of course, there are going to be exceptions in some areas. Cable coverage is usually better than DSL because of issues with distance to the central office (CO). DSL performance suffers if you are near the edge of the coverage area, so your choice may depend greatly on your location.

i frequent the dslreports forums all the time activly posting. saying dsl is any better then cable or cable any better then dsl for anything is just wrong.

its all about how the provider configures their network.

ps. have you ever seen dsl with interleave on? 40-50 first hop pings are not good for gaming.

xtrmeocr said:

this simply is not true. if the provider doesn't buy enough bandwidth at the DSLAM, a DSL connection WILL slow down if everyone starts using it.

Click to expand...

True, but I was assuming that the ISP was competent. I was comparing the mediums, not specific ISPs.

thats the point i'm trying to make. just as a competent DSL provider would have enough bandwidth at the DSLAM a competent cable company would make sure there is enough bandwidth for that node, and if a shortage of bandwidth happens they would add more channels/purchase more bandwidth.