weezcake Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Hey all. I am moving into a new apartment in September and I was discussing the internet with my apartmentmates. We have 6 peoplein the townhouse, so I assumed we needed the fastest one (3-6Mbps). There are basically two options; cable internet (Comcast) and DSL (SBC/AT&T or Extreme DSL [local company]). I will be using this for gaming and school work. And random web surfing. Price is not too much of a factor; the two plans are about the same price. I'm not exactly sure about the difference between the two. I am worried that cable speeds will be affected by other people around me (I know comcast is popular in Davis). ==================================Retired tip.it moderator.Teaching and inspiring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viteck Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 comcast is highly rated, and is known for good connection... (GMT -5 Hours Eastern Time USA) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mementh Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 comcast is decent (though they might sometimes get problems and are slow to fix here in nashville) i would see which you can get faster with... The following statement is true. The previous statement is false. 60% of all statistics are made up 90% of the time andrew i love you & want you to have my babys!!! Finally, I get to save the Earth with deadly lasers instead of deadly slide shows! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezcake Posted August 22, 2006 Author Share Posted August 22, 2006 Well I know that there is an AT&T center in the center of town, so the speeds should be pretty good, seeing that I won't be living too far from it. If the advertised speeds are the same, what factors play into the speed of the connection? ==================================Retired tip.it moderator.Teaching and inspiring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruiser Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 DSL speeds depend on your distance from the local hub in the area. Wikipedia cites the max range as about 7000ft. The farther you get from that hub, the worse your DSL connection gets, along with your speeds. Not much you can do about that. :? Cable connections on the other hand, can depend on the number of people running on the system. So, if you have 2 suscribers on a line (Say, 2 houses) your speed won't be effected much, but if you get alot of people maxing out there cable line, it'll start to degrade everyone's performance on that section of the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anesthesia Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 I think that contention issues affect DSL too Cruiser... I know people on a 50:1 home account who get problems with speed & reliability at peak times, whereas I'm on a 10:1 business account which hasn't suffered from it yet. Some people are changed by being a moderator. I wouldn't be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blast5226ball Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 I am using DSL but it seems slower than i expected. I check it out finally because the distance from the local hub to my area is very far. http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opu Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 I'm using cable connection and im doing well with it :) RSN - Ur Enemy, lvl 120 - Back in action!:)Oldest rsn: Obu86 lvl 100 :P ~Retired~ RS Since 2001 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmms Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 i have comcast, but my is horrible cuts out all the time late at night when i really wanna use it, its down for hours if i could get verison, i would get it ~bmms Aefx(started 11/1/2002) Cb: 200 TS: 1900+Bmms--Jr(Started on 1/24/06)(Banned 11/13/09 ) Cb: 119(pre-eoc) TS: 1700+Bmms(Started 8/?/2001)(Banned 1/24/06 ) Cb: 101(pre-eoc) TS: 1350+ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fadfdfd Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 I have comcast and it's fine, so I don't know what you're sniffing. I'm sorry, but just get comcast. My friend has DSL (From SBC) and it's slow as molasses. The only reason I could find it to be better, is cause you get one of those TwoWire (I think it's called) routers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvw08 Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 I'm using cable and I love it, for a while, we had 3 houses on the same cable line (we have a plan for cheap TV and web in our community) and It was still lightning fast. One of our neighbours even sent weekly backups of her computer to somewhere in huston for work. Imo cabel is better but that's my opinion. Droolman's item Guide | My RuneScape pictures | My barrows videos, with download link!Free Image Hosting! | Free File Hosting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zonda Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 satelite :thumbsup: ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blade995 Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 satelite :thumbsup: Don't you get bad ping times gaming with Satelite? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zonda Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 Nope, thats what everyone thinks but in reality I get just as good or better. In counter-strike servers, I am usually hitting between 19 and 24 ping for chicago servers (I live north of milwaukee) so that's pretty descent and I download at about 120kbs and upload at about ... hmm 70-90? Don't quote me on that, I don't upload much but small files. I've never had problems with dropped packets either, not during storms or anything. And it's relativly cheap, I pay $30/m for it, which is how much I was paying for my dialup + extra phone line lol... of course the dish itself runs about $180, but thats a one time fee. ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest XplsvBam Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 I've had both. Quest DSL and Comcast Cable. Cable is only faster by 10 fold. If there is problem with signal strength all you have to do is call and they will come out and take care of it. When we first got it installed it worked on and off for a week but they came out and fixed it. I guess there was a problem in the area because they had to stop at alot of my neighbour's homes too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 I have a technologically inclined (like obscenely so) friend who switched from DSL to cable and says that cable is infinitely better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anesthesia Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 I have a technologically inclined (like obscenely so) friend who switched from DSL to cable and says that cable is infinitely better. Funny, my story is the opposite. A few of the guys on my course are on cable, they say that the connection is unreliable and they have to reset their box thing frequently. Some people are changed by being a moderator. I wouldn't be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruiser Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 Nope, thats what everyone thinks but in reality I get just as good or better. In counter-strike servers, I am usually hitting between 19 and 24 ping for chicago servers... You're either making up numbers or using some little, no-name satellite company that figured out how to speed up the earth to sat relay time :lol: . Satellite works like any other provider. Few users = higher speeds. The reason "everyone thinks" it's horrible is because of the huge ping times most people get when using satellite. Pings into the high 200ms range were a GOOD day for a few people I knew that used DirectWay (DirecTV's internet service). Wikipedia and Google both peg geo-sync orbits at about 26,000 miles up, so, unless you have something tracking multiple satellites in lower orbits, your signal is travelling about 52,000 miles just to hit a ground station again. The circumference of the planet is only ~25,000 miles, so it's not hard to figure out what's going to happen. Signals only travel so fast and putting another huge span in between the relay points doesn't help the matter. Satellite also fails fairly consistently in heavy clouds, rain and snow. I know this for a fact because we had DirectTV for a while before going cable. The dish is still on the side of my house if anyone wants a pictures. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zonda Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 Don't beleive me? Join any server with my any day, and you will see all my pings under 30 ms. Using dish satelite for T.V. and using satelite intnernet cannot be compared... I can sit for 2 minutes just to wait for my dish T.V. to tell me some info on a movie, thats like comparing a model T to a ferarri and saying well the Model T was slow and unreliable, so all cars must be that way. 26,000 miles? No. Oh, and just for your information, 2*10^8... ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diminished2b Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 Weird, I had satelite net from Dish once and my download was around 200kb/s but my upload wouldn't go past around ~1kb/s and I had crap pings. I used to have satelite for downloading and 56k for gaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezcake Posted August 27, 2006 Author Share Posted August 27, 2006 Satellite downloads at fast speeds, but uploads data at 56k speeds. I've talked to my roommates and they decided to get Comcast. Thanks guys. ==================================Retired tip.it moderator.Teaching and inspiring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WutangFlu Posted August 27, 2006 Share Posted August 27, 2006 satelite :thumbsup: Don't you get bad ping times gaming with Satelite? worse than dialup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruiser Posted August 28, 2006 Share Posted August 28, 2006 Don't beleive me? Join any server with my any day, and you will see all my pings under 30 ms. I'm not going to bother argueing it, but, I still don't beleive it with all the info I've seen saying otherwise and only your word saying it's great. Using dish satelite for T.V. and using satelite intnernet cannot be compared... I can sit for 2 minutes just to wait for my dish T.V. to tell me some info on a movie, thats like comparing a model T to a ferarri and saying well the Model T was slow and unreliable, so all cars must be that way. Comparing the two is nothing like comparing a Model-T to a Ferrari. Both satelite TV and Internet have to travel the same distance to the satellite and back to the ground, causing higher latency. We aren't comparing a high end car to a low end car. Protocal differences might slow one down over the other, but nothing is going to change the time it takes that signal to travel out and back. Again, see my lines about friends getting 200ms ping times. Either way, something that can be taken out by heavy clouds isn't worth your money if you have land lines as a choice. "120kbs and upload at about ... hmm 70-90" from your first reply is hardly anything to brag about either when you can get DSL that goes 3 to 4 times faster for the same price. 26,000 miles? No. Oh, and just for your information, 2*10^8... See http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/rocket_sci/satellites/geo-high.html and any other credible source you can find through google. And what does 2*10^8 have to do with anything? Yay for weez getting cable. :mrgreen: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zonda Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 I'm not going to bother argueing it, but, I still don't beleive it with all the info I've seen saying otherwise and only your word saying it's great. you don't have to argu, like I said, join a server with me any day and that will be that.... A lot of people say that AOL is terrible, that doesn't mean that all cable/dsl is terrble, now does it? No, didn't think so. Protocal differences might slow one down over the other, but nothing is going to change the time it takes that signal to travel out and back Yup, your right about both those things, particularly the second. Which is where 2*10^8 comes in. That's the speed at which the signal is being sent and received at... 299,792,458 m/s People who say satelite is terrible are ignorant. What do you think your cell phone is using? It's certainly not relaying it from tower to tower when your calling bejing thank you very much. How about someone gives me the link of the "internet test site" that tests your internet up/down speed by basically packeting it, I will proove it that way so you will be quiet. ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruiser Posted August 29, 2006 Share Posted August 29, 2006 A lot of people say that AOL is terrible, that doesn't mean that all cable/dsl is terrble, now does it? No, didn't think so. Comparing AOL to cable and DSL is idiotic. AOL is dialup, bloatware, and an overall a crappy program. AOL doesn't run it's own Cable/DSL lines either. They resell other providers in the area branded as AOL. Trying to lump AOL and cable/dsl doesn't really make any point. People who say satelite is terrible are ignorant. What do you think your cell phone is using? It's certainly not relaying it from tower to tower when your calling bejing thank you very much. How about someone gives me the link of the "internet test site" that tests your internet up/down speed by basically packeting it, I will proove it that way so you will be quiet. 1) Just because I have seen mountains of info in general, friends and personal experiences pointing to satelites terrible latency doesn't make me ignorant. People that assume such need to be slapped multiple times. 2) Cell signals travel at most 20 miles to hit a tower (If even half that). Big difference when compared to the 10's of thousands your sat signal is traveling. 3) http://speakeasy.net/speedtest. Up/down rates != ping times, but you asked for it anyway, heh. If you want the millisecond times to a site and back, open a up a command line and use the ping command. Threads dead, weez got cable. : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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