DSL - do you recommend it for connecting to the internet?

[Eric J in MN]

I currently have a 56K connection. I'm considering getting DSL.

Have you ever had DSL? What is your opinion of it?

[Dookus]

1. It's a necessity

Seriously... if you can afford it, get it. It's vital.

[EstimatedProphet]

2. DSL good

I have it at work. Go for it.

[NewHampster]

3. I have DSL in the office and Cable at home

If you can get cable for the same price or thereabouts it is worlds better. Faster, cleaner in many ways.

DSL unless it is full bore up and down is slow.

usually they give you 128k down and 56 up

yuch

[bullimiami]

18. 128k?

no. typical dsl round here (like bellsouth) is around 1.2Mb dl and 256 up.

[Deja Q]

36. Not always...

See my reply toward the bottom. Cable is a joke and an insult...

Um, which DSL service is giving out 128/56? I'd love to know...

I'm getting a 256k up/256k down for $26.99/mo. If I spent $12 more, I'd get 1.5m up/896k down per month and I'm highly tempted to do so. 1.5m is close to cable speed, but without all the pathetic drawbacks cable offers.

And if you use cable, you DO DO DO DO DO want both hardware and software firewalls. Ditto for DSL, but many DSL service providers provide equipment that makes the need for a separate H/W firewall pointless. (My Actiontec 1524 seems to do a great job at hiding me and my SuSE and Norton s/w firewalls take care of sundry items.)

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. I do. It rocks.

As much as I hate to say this, if you have Comcast cable modem in your area, they give you 3 Mb/second in downstream speed. Standard. That is T3 line speed and a T3 would cost you a hell of a lot more than $49.95/mo.

If you don't, DSL will still make you wonder what took you so long to switch.

[NewHampster]

5. agreed

i'm on Adelphia now and downloading at anywhere from 200k on up. my DSL at work barely crawls at 56k down and we pay for 384

[bowens43]

15. actually

3Mb/second is not even close to T3 line speed. T3 is 45Mb/second.

[Nlighten1]

6. Yes

either that or cable...

[democracyindanger]

7. Absolutely

You will spend your first day with DSL searching for things to download just because you can.

[Mz Pip]

8. It's terrific

Very fast. I don't thing I could go back to dial up.

MzPip
:dem:

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. I'm to the point that, as much I am a nature boy

and love living outside and camping in tents and being rustic, I couldn't live in any home that didn't have DSL access (or some equivalent, whether cable or satellite, etc.).

I mean, if you compare the cost of DSL to the cost of (shitty, ignorant, pathetic, POS cable TV crap detritus) cable TV, it's less and provides much more intellecual and relevant content.

Throw away that 56K modem and go with either DSL or Cable - and get rid of your cable TV. Or have all of it at once!

But I cannot recommend broadband with enough emphasis.

[truthseeker1]

10. Get it NOW

You won't believe you ever existed on just 56k!!!

[TOhioLiberal]

11. Get Cable

Seriously it is WAY faster than DSL. I have it, and pages load ultra-quick; even the huge threads.

Trekkerlass

[Eric J in MN]

19. I don't know if this would interest you, but I have some stuff on

I don't know if this would interest you, but I have stuff on vegetarianism on Star Trek at:
www.vegontv.com

[Nite Owl]

12. No going back once you got it.

You'll wonder how you ever did dial up. DSL was good. Now I have cable and it's even better.

[DemoTex]

13. Absolutely! DSL is essential.

We are out in the wilds. We bought this house knowing it had DSL service, a great and responsive local phone company (Citizens), a great and responsive EMC (Haywood power company), and a relatively close VFD (Rosman volunteer fire department). DSL was as essential as the VFD. Not as important, but as essential to our needs.

Aside: The VFD knows that I have a big-time ham radio station on the mountain with 1000-watt HF capability. They know that I have VHF 2-meter links with three states and a 9kW generator to back that capability up. That makes them warm-and-fuzzy with our extremely isolated location. Makes me warm and fuzzy too.

[K_Jellyfish]

14. I love it.

Having DSL is worth every penny if you ever plan on downloading anything, opening more than one browser, or doing research. It's supposed to be as fast as 300k or so, but whenever I run the check on my computer it's usually around 150-200k. But if you're never going to do any massive projects, you won't ever need it to go at top speed.
It's especially helpful if you have several people living with you who also need access(that is, if you have more than one computer). It's a person to person thing though. If you don't spend a lot of time online and you don't mind being patient for things to load, it may not be worth your while to get dsl.
Personally, I can't live without it, mostly because I'm now spoiled by how fast I can browse and download stuff, so now I can't even imagine going back to 56k. I can't get over how fast it is, and it allows me to open up browsers, chat, download, and anything else I can think of to do at the same time without batting an eye.

[MrSlayer]

16. DSL is great, what are you waiting for?

[SmileyBoy]

17. I have a cable connection.

Once you go broadband, you'll naver go back.

[neverborn]

20. DSL owns. Oh, and cable's sub-par :(

[Eric J in MN]

21. Are you saying DSL is better than cable? If so, how? (nt)

nt

[Kathleen04]

22. From what I've heard...

(and somebody correct me if I'm wrong) is that cable can be very fast, but it depends on how many other people in your area are using the cable service. If alot of people in your neighborhood have cable and go online at similar hours, then it is going to slow down.

But, DSL works differently (don't know the specifics) so it's not going to slow down if others in your area are online.

[OneBlueSky]

23. question about cable . . .

I'm currently looking into both DSL and cable . . . the big difference where I live is cost . . . Verizon will allow you to hook up multiple computers for the same price, while Cablevision want $49.95/month for each computer . . . since we have 3 computers and 3 users, this makes a difference . . .

my question is this: if I order up cable and purchase a router, can I set up my own in-home network without them catching on? . . . specifically, could two or three of us be online at the same time with different accounts (you're allowed up to five)? . . . and would one user be able to access the other users' computers (I'd rather my brother-in-law not be able to nose around my machine)? . . . needless to say, I know little about networking, so any advice would be appreciated . . . thanx . . .

[Madrone]

25. From my favorite website -

howstuffworks.com

How cable modems work:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cable-modem.htm

and

home networking:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/home-network.htm


I've never used cable internet, but the scenerio you mentioned seems completely plausible to me. The $50/computer thing is complete BS. Is the modem internal, or external? External would be easier to network, most likely.

[OneBlueSky]

28. great info . . . thanks . . .

looks like I'll be doing a little studying . . . I'd rather take the time and know what the hell I'm doing before I go ahead and do it . . . so thanks again . . . :)

[Zech Marquis]

32. yeah, especially Verizon

I have my Mac and Xbox networked, so Verizon encourages having a hoe network.

[TOhioLiberal]

34. you should be able to....

network your computers to one modem with a router. As far a the cable company is concerned, one ip address (public) the router splits the signal between the other computers (private ip, usually starting with 192.x.x.x). The cable company SHOULD not be able to tell how many comps you have on the network. This is the setup I have; we have 4 computers on network and we all can go on at once, with very little signal degradation.

Trekkerlass

[OneBlueSky]

39. thanks . . . n/t

.

[Wapsie B]

24. Qwest has a pretty nice

deal on DSL right now. I'm satisfied with them. It sure beats dealing with a dialup connection that can keep disconnecting.

[avb7]

26. frontier dsl....

I pay $80 per month for dsl line and unlimited long distance great deal great service

[Nomad559]

27. DSL Reports

http://www.dslreports.com/

DSL Reports Is a good site for Info on DSL or Cable.

With a cable or DSL connection, you can view streaming video from around the world. :-)

http://217.10.192.13/xcam1

http://217.10.192.13/xcam2

http://217.10.192.13/xcam3

http://217.10.192.13/xcam4

http://217.10.192.13/xcam5

http://217.10.192.13/xcam6

http://217.10.192.13/xcam7

http://217.10.192.13/xcam8

http://217.10.192.13/xcam9

http://217.10.192.13/xcam10

http://www.lfx.jp/stream/wmp/lfx_nr.asx

http://wwitv.com/tvtv/7023.asx

[JaySherman]

29. Find out who your local ISP will be.

And find out how close you will be to their station. If you live more than 18k feet away you may experience problems with your connection. We experienced this problem last year. Ended up switching to cable. You might want to think about getting a cable connection if it's available. It doesn't cost much more than DSL, and I've found it's much better on the whole.

[JPJones]

30. Cable is OK if you like monopolies

[Zech Marquis]

31. using DSL now

it makes a world of difference, having broadband for my Mac and keeping the phone line free for calls I receive or want to make. I ust don't buy the AOL latest 5 times faster than dialup nonesense, because you can still be disconnected on a 56k modem.

If you liv in an area with both DSL and Cable, check out both--Best Buy, CompUSA, and Circuit all have areas in their stores featuring the local broadband provider, so you can take at least on serivce for a test spin on the showfloor-- just to see which one might suit you better. Cable is faster, but DSL isn't bad.

[Deja Q]

33. YES! YES! YES!! (and AVOID cable, here's why...)

Qwest has a good deal right now, but if they give you an Actiontec 1524 router, you might want to update the firmware if the last three digits are 0.69. ... (v ...0.69 has bugs that cause lockups, the ...0.72 update corrects them. By now, the modems they give out probably have 0.72.)

But don't get me wrong, most DSL services just give you a modem. Qwest, at least for me, gave me a device that has some firewall-like protections. The NAT technology the 1524 provides keeps you hidden, though you still want a software firewall should somebody be able to ping your address and then try to break in - which is EXTREMELY rare. I've been connected for 2 months now and somebody found me only twice. (I did buy a hardware firewall, but I think it's completely redundant...)

Cable-based internet access? Pishaw. They give you no protection of any sort, you could also easily break in to any computer that's on the same segment as you if you wanted, and if many people on that segment are using the connection, your speed DROPS as does theirs. The address they give you might be static as well (meaning an attacker could easily re-access your computer at any time it's powered on) but I can't verify that. But I don't even need to mention hyperbole as everything I've said before the static address is 100% true. :-(

[democratreformed]

35. Have had DSL here at work for about five months

So far, it's great. Much faster and smoother.

[LWolf]

37. I never want to go back to dial-up.

When I had dial-up, I had a second phone line just for that, so I wasn't tying up the house phone. And my connection was terminated regularly; heavy traffic. When I went to DSL, it was costlier, but I made up the difference by shutting down the second phone line and all of the "extra" services on the main line (call waiting, caller ID, etc.). So I pay no extra, but have no connection difficulties, no long waiting periods to download; quick, easy, and I'll never go back.

[AngryAmish]

38. DSL at work, cable at home

Cable works better for me. Just more speed.

[TreasonousBastard]

40. My DSL with Verizon...

is reasonably cheap and I normally get about 650K down, but it varies sometimes-- usually with the weather and Verizon's internal connections. Overall, I'd say it's fast enough and quite reliable.

Cable is theoretically faster, BUT... it depends on how well they maintain the lines and how many people are online. Everyone, including their TV customers, go through those same wires, and bandwidth is ultimately limited. With DSL, you have your own personal line to their connections through your phone line, and the number of customers online in your neighborhood makes no difference. This is part of the reason that cable companies wnat to charge you for more hookups-- the more computers online the less free bandwidth they have. With DSL, you're sharing your own bandwidth.

While 250MB downloads are no longer terrifying, and streaming media becomes realistic, remember that many of the delays are server overloads and routing problems that have nothing to do with download speed. And your own machine and browser still have to take the same amount of time to decode and display web pages. So, there are still times when you'll go get coffee while waiting.

Also, note that cable and phone companies are not primarily ISP's and may not have the newservers, backup mailservers, and other stuff that a good ISP will have.

[ScreamingMeemie]

41. I recommend cable. I have to send several large files several times a

day. It sends them lightening fast with nary a problem.

Good luck!

[amazona]

42. it's great, do it

Warning -- you'll never be able to go back to that awful 56K again, you would be too twitchy waiting for it. You'll wonder how you went so long without DSL!