Decisions, Decisions....ADSL or Cable Modem

[Floog]

I am one of the lucky ones out there who have the option of choosing ADSL service or Cable Modem service in my area.

I would like to hear any and all experiences using each type of internet connection with any linux OS. I use Slackware 8.0.

Issues:

1. Speed - what kind of download and upload speeds are you getting regularly? Have you tested your connection speeds over a period of time? What kind of speeds do you regularly connect at?

2. Consistency and Duration of Connection - How often do you get a dropped signal and have to restart a connection?

3. Use of Router - Do you use a router to connect more than one computer to the internet at one time? What has your experience been with this?

4. Reading and Research Recommendations - Can you suggest any good sites or articles on the net about the subjects and questions stated above?

All replies greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Mike

[Malakin]

This all completely depends on the service in your area. You can't compare "dsl" and "cable" on a wide scale. You would be best off asking people using these services provided by the same providers you are considering using in your area.

[Negativexer0]

I too had the same choice, and although I can't say much as far as Linux goes yet, I can tell you that I started with @Home (cable), switched to Qwest DSL, and now as of this friday back to @Home. Qwest DSL is a complete rip, they suckered me in to their $20 a month line and another $20 for the isp (about the same as @Home charges for the whole deal), what they didnt tell me is that you get kicked off every two hours, active or no, and the supposed "direct connection" was actually shared with like 4 other suckers like me, my average DL speed was between 20-30Kbps, where as @home was 10x that even with ICS. Theres been other headaches, but I think I've made my point. If those two are you options, go with cable, for the love of God.

[DMR]

I agree with Malakin about checking the reliability and performance of the providers in your particular area, here's some general input:

My network:
1 Dual-boot Redhat/Mandrake box w/Netgear FA-311 NIC
1 Win 98 box w/SMC 1211 NIC
1 Netgear RT-314 gateway router
1 Cable Modem (using @home as provider)

Both boxen run on the internal (100MB/s) net, and share the router's (10MB/s) uplink to the cable modem. I haven't done speed tests in a long time, but when I did, my results were consistently on the high end of cable-connection speed specs. Remember that cable bandwidth is shared by all users on a branch, so the more users you have in your neighborhood, the lower your own available bandwidth will be. Cable upload speeds are also usually limited too 128K.

Overall, my experience with my setup and @home has been very positive. I've never been kicked offline, very seldom experience performance slowdowns, and have never (*knocks on wood*) been unable to connect. Occasionally (usually late at night) their mail or newsgroup servers used to go a bit wonky, but that seems to have settled down now. One of the bummers of many cable ISPs is that their usage agreement can explicitly forbid running a server, and they'll give you the boot if they find out that you are.

As for the router/intranet/connection-sharing setup- thubs up! It's been rock-solid since I configured it last October.

dslreports (http://www.dslreports.com) has DSL-related stuff and reviews of some ISPs. A search at Google (http://www.google.com) using the keyphrase "cable vs dsl" will get you lots of reveiws and comparisons.

Whichever way you go,
Happy Broadband!
:)

[cypunk06]

can't say anything 'bout DSL, but @home cable is smooth and never had any probs with it. I have a buddy with DSL from Bellsouth and say's the conn. is not always up to par. Cable has not givin me any probs

[Okie]

I would say go with cable and a NIC ethernet card (very compatible with Linux is D-Link NICs), and stay away from USB modems, especially DSL with USB modems...

[Craig McPherson]

You should absolutely find friends in the area who use the cable and DSL services, because service can vary greatly by area. Try out the connections yourself at different times of day. Benchmark download speeds, ping times, etc (this would be most accurate using similar computers to do the tests -- trying both services on a single laptop would be ideal).

Another factor to consider is the Terms of Usage. You should read them for both services. In general, almost all residential cable services ban running services (some actually check), and many ban NAT/multi-system setups (which they can't realy check). Many DSL providers do the same, but not all.

[Lem Sip]

I work at a PC repair shop and see a lot of machines that run one service or the other. Here in texas DSL has a very poor reputation. The reason DSL connections can be slow is if you are a long way away from the nearest switch. The closer you are the better connection you have.

But I would also be careful and check out the potential ISP. I went on site last week for a satellite connection and the supplier (starband) doesn't support Linux at all.

And of course you want to see what people are doing with your information.

Lem

[PimpHolic]

i have Adsl and a Linksys NIC running Slackware 8 as well, and smooth as a whistle

[Memphisto]

Here in Australia, the biggest supplier of internet connection - dialup, ADSL, and Cable decided to limit ALL broadband download limits to 3GB a month.

The cable I have is through Optus@Home and their Acceptable Usage Policy is to average everyones (minus the top and bottom 5% of downloaders) downloads over a 14 day period and multiply it by 10. Works out to 650MB a day. Go over and you get kicked off!

Goes to show you should check out as many Broadband ISP's as you can.

[Floog]

Following up on Malakin's suggestion that my inquiry should focus on the two providers in my area. This sounds pretty good to me.

I live in Connecticut.
The DSL provider would be SNET (Southern New England Telephone - a subsidiary of SBC)
The Cable provider would be Comcast Cable Company.

All comments regarding speed and continuity of service are greatly appreciated. I am including my orginal post below for further reference.

Thanks for your responses so far.

Mike
**
** **** ** ** **
I am one of the lucky ones out there who have the option of choosing ADSL service or Cable Modem service in my area.
I would like to hear any and all experiences using each type of internet connection with any linux OS. I use Slackware 8.0.
Issues:
1. Speed - what kind of download and upload speeds are you getting regularly? Have you tested your connection speeds over a period of time? What kind of speeds do you regularly connect at?
2. Consistency and Duration of Connection - How often do you get a dropped signal and have to restart a connection?
3. Use of Router - Do you use a router to connect more than one computer to the internet at one time? What has your experience been with this?
4. Reading and Research Recommendations - Can you suggest any good sites or articles on the net about the subjects and questions stated above?
All replies greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Mike

[Elros]

Yeah, I have the BT ADSL service. With that I have the Alcatel USB modem, and have had no end of trouble trying to set it up on my Suse 7.2 system.

Dunno if anyone has managed it yet, but its not easy, you'd be better sticking with Cable and using a network card, since there are no real problems with this (and it is probably a better connection anyway). :)

[m3rlin]

Well this will depend, se if you can find if the cable modem company is connected on a ISP by T1 or T4, if they are using this, you will bi just fine, but then check if they distribut Tv signal (probebly will) now this will reduce your signal band, see if there is too mutch ppl using cable modem service, and remember that the speed connection is not constant. Now if you can chose ADSL my god thats great, but i think it's expensive, but if you can aford go for it, it is great you use Optical fiber, and you should have a constant speed, and the line will not be used for broadcast, with will make it fast, its just network service, if you can use adsl my advice is go for it, belive me im using cable modem, but i wich that i could be using ADSL, because the cable modem line is being used for Tv transmitions, witch make it slower.
But like i sayd it depends on your ISP, Happy downloads