[ale] What Do You Think About Cable vs DSL Now-a-Days?

[Jason Fritcher]

On Apr 24, 2009, at 8:08 AM, Marc Ferguson wrote:
> You're all familiar with the old war between Cable and ADSL.  I'd  
> like to know if you guys have an opinion on it today? We currently  
> have Cable (with Comcast) and we can get a better package deal with  
> AT&T, but we'll switch back to ADSL.  Both offer 6 Mbps  
> (downstream), but we know that ADSL is a private line so you're  
> guaranteed that amount.  Has the game changed over the years?

Your bandwidth is dedicated to the DSLAM, but the bandwidth is shared  
beyond that point.

> When I was with ADSL, I was an ADSL-fanboy - when I switched to  
> Cable, I was a Cable-fanboy... so now I'm on the ropes. Facts are  
> facts and it sounds like the private ADSL connection is better  
> rather than a hit-or-miss with Cable.  Thanks.

I am in the DSL camp because as long as your physical circuit is  
reliable, you can change providers if your ISP is not reliable. I got  
my DSL line from AT&T and while the circuit is nearly perfect, I have  
had reliability issues with AT&T as an ISP. I went through 2 weeks of  
them dropping my PPPOE session and it took 4 different tech rollouts  
before someone escalated the problem to a senior tech and they  
discovered a problem with their PPP concentrator.

I called up Atlantic Nexus to ask some questions to get a feel for  
them and to find out what the switch-over process would be like and  
the sales person who answered the phone not only knew what a Cisco 857  
was, but said he has a CCNA and a 851 himself. I am in the process now  
of preparing to switch my DSL over to them and away from AT&T. DSL  
gives you choice, if I was on Comcast with the same type of problems,  
I would be stuck with the local monopoly cable provider.

-- 
Jason Fritcher
jkf at wolfnet.org