is cable as slow as people tell me?

[TeRG]

everybody in my school thinks that cable is slow. one kid said that it was worse then dialup. because of the high price ($65.00 bucks/month) to get dsl i have to get cable. is it really as slow as they say or is it fast. What i really want to know is:
1. How well could i play online games with it?
2. Could i host a website with it?
3. Could i host a website at a decent speed with it?

[anton]

that's all depends on your specific provider and how crowded are your neighberhood ... usually cable is faster than DSL

[TeRG]

there is 4200 people in the town i live in and the service is roadrunner

[Strogian]

We really won't be able to tell you. Maybe you could get other people's opinions at www.dslreports.com. (http://www.dslreports.com.)

[skriefal]

As previously stated, performance varies significantly from region to region. In some areas it's excellent, in others it'll be poor -- but it should never be as slow as dial-up.

I've had a cable modem since January 1999, and it's been reasonably quick the entire time. The first 12 to 16 months was using a 1-way modem (using 56kbps dial-up for upstream, and the cable modem for downstream), and even then I usually saw > 200KB/sec downloads. And it's still that quick if the server can handle it -- for example, I just grabbed the last nightly Mozilla build at approx. 180KB/sec.

[AdaHacker]

I'm using RoadRunner right now, and it isn't too bad. It's not blindingly fast, but not bad. I don't see why you would have any trouble with online games.
As for web servers, I think they may have special service packages for that. I don't know about RoadRunner, but I've heard that with regular home deals, some companies limit your upstream bandwidth in order to discourage servers. But that's just what I heard. You may want to ask a reputable source.
At any rate, the kind of performance you get may well depend more on network load and things like that than whether you have cable or DSL. For example, the speeds I'm seeing with RoadRunner now are comparable to the speeds I got last year in the dorms at my grad school where we had a T1 connection. (That's one of the hazards of not enforcing the no servers rule.)

[TeRG]

rr in minnesota (where i live) gives the network 2.0 Mb/s(downstream) and 368 kb/s(upstream). would that be enough for a webserver?

[linuxNohow]

terg keep in mind when they say 2/mbs down and 384/kbs up they're talking about bits. Just another way to inflate performance measures. So you gotta divide both numbers by 8 for bytes and you get roughly 250k/40k which is exactly what I get. If you want to see how fast it is for a server check out my website at http://24.161.123.13/bixbyhome/ this is on RR from a 900mhz duron runing RH 7.1 and it's pretty good but I am local so...

[DMR]

TeRG,

I've been on AT&T's cable modem service for about 2 years, and coming from someone who's first connection to the Net (wasn't much Web then) was via a 2400 baud modem, trust me- cable smokes! My networking-savy friends who only have DSL availability are envious.

I live in a small town north of San Francisco, the population of which is about the same as yours, so the shared-bandwidth thing should be a non-issue for you. Also, as far as shared-bandwidth on cable goes, you are only sharing with the people on your branch off the main cable, which probably doesn't include the entire town. Anyway, here are my thoughts on your questions:

"Everybody in my school thinks that cable is slow."
# No, it's very fast. I run the
connection speed test at dslreports (http://www.dslreports.com) (yes, it says DSL, but it tests cable modems too) every once in awhile; here are the stats from a test I ran 5 minutes ago: **Speed 2108(down)/116(up) kbps**
(at least 42 times faster than a 56k modem That's about on par with the speeds I usually get when I run the test. Note that ATT&T@home limits upload speeds to 128k, so my 116k isn't too bad.

"One kid said that it was worse then dialup."
# See above. No fscking way. If you live in an area where your cable is that sub-par, you also live in an area where the phone lines are so old (or in such a state of disrepair) that they won't even support a 56k dial-up connection.

"Because of the high price ($65.00 bucks/month) to get dsl i have to get cable."
# DSL subscriptions are usually done on a tiered basis. In other words, you can pay more/less $$ for more/less speed. Remember that your available speeds with the consumer flavors of DSL are limited by your proximity to the CO (Central Office).

"is it really as slow as they say or is it fast."
# See above

"What i really want to know is:
1. How well could i play online games with it?"
# I don't do online games, but the are all about speed, right? Again, see above.

"2. Could i host a website with it?"
# Unfortunately, many cable service providers explicitly prohibit you from running a server. This is less true (or not not true at all) with DSL providers.

"3. Could i host a website at a decent speed with it?"
#Obviously, see the above point. If RR actually does allow you to run a server, I'm sure the connection would be more than enough to handle it.

For more info on cable vs DSL and broadband speed/connection issues in general, do a Google (http://www.google.com) search using the keyphrases "cable vs DSL"
or
"cable modem speed test"

[Estimated_Prophet]

I'm on Road Runner here in Virginia. Had it for about 3 months now, before that had DSL for a year and 56K prior to that. Based on what I know and have observed, Cable is without a doubt faster than dial-up. Even if everyone in your area had it, it would still be faster. DSL is one constant speed based on how far from the CO (central office) you are. The closer you are the better package for speed you can buy, the faster you want the more expensive it is. However it doesn't matter how many people in your area use it, still get same speed.

Cable depends on how many others are using that cable line as well. Not the one in you house but in your area. If a lot of people have cable connections between your neighborhod and the main line and they all log on at the same time you will notice some speed loss but still MUCH faster than dial-up. One tip though, most of the people who come out and install you cable modem know just that, how to install it, so they will set it up as though they were going to add another line to a tv in your house. They will split the line and run one end of it to the modem, this can also slow you down and can even cause connecting problems at times with the net or usually e-mail. Make sure they run a seperate line! Otherwise you can get interference from your own tvs.

One last thing I have noticed durring my time with RR and DSL(have that on upstairs comp for girlfriend). Cable=Faster DSL= more reliable.

Ignore the kids in your school, they really have no idea what they are talking about.

By the way, online games work great with it, very little lag unless it's from your computer or the games server.

[Shadoglare]

Personally I don't care which is a little faster than the other, when I *finally* get up to speed, I'm going with cable, so I can dump the phone company COMPLETELY.
In this area I can get unlimited calls on a cell for less than my land-line costs me every month.

[TeRG]

i guess it will be worth it to get cable. then again those are the same kids that say linux is a "****ty and unstable operating system" .....heh....if linux was ****ty or unstable you wouldnt see me using it. those kids seem to be talking out of threir ***. from what i noticed is that their is mainly one kid describing how the stuff is and the rest spread it. (get your facts strieght ted though you will never read this). and those are the same kids that dont think its worth the extra 10 bucks to get a 16 port switch then a 16 port hub. they all say that switchs suck. thats wrong. these guys dont seem to know what they are talking about. Lets say that in the future (a couple months from now) if i get cable and they get dsl, on a three player game if it lags at all, they will kick me saying that my bandwidth is whats causing it to lag. ive seen it happen before at school. i was running a slower computer (but still adequet) and plaing c&c tib. sun with them and it was running slow. they kicked me improving their speed. but it wasnt that computer at all. lets just say that 50 kids playing games on a 10 Mbps network (sombody said to keep in mind that its mega bits. i know if it was mega bytes i would have MBps) and when their is hubs, plus another person downloading stuff the whole time, three player games dramatically slow down. thier could have been another factor that i dont know but it wasnt my computer. back on the cable. it will take me untill after cristmas to get enough money for it but once i do, i will have cable. that will be kick ***.