ADSL over pots or cable?

Discussion in 'Internet, Connectivity and Communications' started by nugget, Mar 25, 2004.

  1. nugget
    Honorary Member

    nugget Junior toady

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    Just wondering what others would recommend as I don't know much about it all. I want to get a faster connection with ADSL. I have 2 choices, one with the telephone provider and one with the cable tv provider. The phone company's offer is 600/100 and the other's 500/100 kbps. The prices are also similar at 49 and 45 per month.
    What I don't know about is if cable companies speeds are generally more in line with their advertised speeds. My dial-up (56k) modem only runs at 37k while we are too far from the exchange and I am afraid that if I go with the phone company then the best speed I would see is 4-500 kbps.

    I've talked to both reps and they both assure my that this would not be the case (as reps would).

    The only advantage to choosing the phone company is I could change ADSL provider if I wanted to (relatively easily), the cable company is sort of a monopoly. They keep their prices in line with the phone companies but I don't want to pay out only to find that 3 months later I need to change and pay out again.
     
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  2. Nelix
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    Nelix Gigabyte Poster

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    I personally as with cable, just because it was the cheapest for a 1 meg connection, I occasionally experience a bit of a slow down during peak hours and when there are 4 or 5 other machine all downloading at the same time. Not sure on who would be quoting the most reliable speeds and your right a assume that the sales man are saying that to get your money.

    Try looking at www.adslguide.org, they might have some better advice
     
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  3. AJ

    AJ 01000001 01100100 01101101 01101001 01101110 Administrator

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    I go with Nelix here. I am also with cable, but you are right, once you go with them it can be hard to change over.

    One tip is to check out the contension ratio's. If memory serves cable operators are a little better than ADSL (I'm sure Jakamoto will come along and prove us all wrong at some point 8)).

    HTH
     
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  4. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    The only thing you may want to consider is that cable shares its bandwidth and DSL doesn't. At peak periods, cable will always have a slowdown. Also, like you said, if the cable company makes you mad or rips you off, you're sort of stuck.
     
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  5. nugget
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    nugget Junior toady

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    Thanks for the replies.

    Trip, do you mean from the same connection or from different connections in the same area? I asked them if when there are more connections in the area is the bandwidth reduced and they said no it's only when you share the same connection.
     
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  6. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    Usually, a street or apartment building will share cable bandwidth. Obviously, an entire town would have different sections but unless you cable link is dedicated solely to your household, you'll be sharing it with someone...unless no one else on your block uses cable internet.
     
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  7. Phoenix
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    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

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    ok im a tad confused
    your talking about ADSL with your phone provider or ADSL with your cable TV provider
    or is it a simple ADSL vs Cable battle?

    firstly the numbers seem a tad odd, its usually 128k, 256k, 512k etc so perhaps they are rounding, perhaps not

    ADSL is a more modern solution, it was invented in the 80s by British Telecom and utilises existing copper systems at higher frequencies yadda yadda yadda
    pay attention to the ADSL contention ration, this number will effect performance, standard home systems generally sit around 50:1 or 20:1 if your lucky

    Cable modems involve shared bandwidth, and are generally less secure than DSL because of it, most people in your vancinity with the same system will share your bandwith (effecting bandwith directly unlike with ADSL) cable however usually has lower latency (read: ping times) this is good for online gaming and the like, pretty useless for much else at a home level

    by the sounds of it the ADSL provided by your telephone company is giving you higher bandwith and are not part of this monopoly you mention, so why not go with them
    unless ping is very important and you know hardly anyone else in the area has broadband
     
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  8. Jakamoko
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    Jakamoko On the move again ...

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    Agree with Phoenix - our standard Home package contention is 50:1, Business 20:1. This WILL be affected by numbers of Users using the VP on your exchange.

    So, if a 51st user signed up on the exchange, BT would have to install a second VP on the exchange - so that user would get a 50:1 VP to him/herself - great speeds. But if your the 49th user on a 50:1 VP, cr@p speeds.

    Confused ? The luck of the ADSL draw, I'm afraid :roll:
     
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  9. Phoenix
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    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

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    it doesnt effect your bandwidth, only really your latency
    in an easy to explain way its kinda like token ring networks
    all it does is effect your timings, it basically runs through all 50 giving each user a shot, then starts again (remember its doing that numberous times a second), it doesnt effect the capacity of your connection, that remains a constant xxxkbps, so it would be more laggy with 50 users, but not slower so to say (depends on your definition of slow, laggy would technically be considered 'slower' but most users dont classify it in such a way)

    also when BT install more than one VP they tend to LB the devices (its all virtually allocated anyway, very little required in the way of hard wiring)
     
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  10. nugget
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    nugget Junior toady

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    OK, here is a bit more info. All the houses here (switzerland) have a cable tv connection. The older houses' connections are mostly shared up to the point of the nearest junction, the newer ones have single line connections.

    This means (I think) that if I have an ADSL connection through the cable connection, I would share the line with other people which would result in reduced bandwidth.

    As I live in an older house there is one line coming in and then split into four connections for each appartment. As the area I live in has mostly elderly residents and the other families in the house don't have a cable based internet connection (that I know of), I think it would be okay.

    While the telephone company is offering a greater speed I live further away from the exchange that the greatest speed I see from my dial up is 37kbps. If this is indicative of their potential then I would also see reduced bandwidth by about a third. As always, speeds are 'best effort'. There are also no plans in the near future to upgrade, renew or install more lines or exchanges despite making 1.5 billion profit last year.

    I still don't know which one to choose. :(
     
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  11. Phoenix
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    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

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    just to clarify it wouldnt be ADSL if it came over your cable line
    it would be a 'Cable' internet connection
    Cable Modems and ADSL connections are different technologies
    as explained in my above post mate
     
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  12. nugget
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    nugget Junior toady

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    Thanks all for the help.
    I've decided to go with the ADSL from the phone company. :)
     
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