Cable and DSL
Most people have either cable modem or DSL for their
high speed internet service. At the Peirce household we actually have both. It's
because my wife and I both work at home and need reliable internet
service.
Originally, the choice of broadband internet service was a simple one. Although it was promised "soon", when we moved into our current house there was neither cable modem nor DSL service available. So for a while we had T1 service. It's pricey and normally only used by businesses (and actually not all the speedy really) , but it was our only option and so we went with it.
Eventually Insight offered us Roadrunner service over the cable line. It's a pretty good first generation broadband offering. Speeds are decent and reliability was fairly good too. But outages weren't uncommon and that's a real problem when you spend your day on the internet.
Last year, Verizon improved the DSL service in our area. They had previously offered DSL, but we were too far away from our local CO to qualify - a common problem with DSL. Lucky for us, they upgraded the equipment and could offer DSL to folks further away from the CO and that included us.
So when I saw we qualified for DSL service, I signed up. The DSL service came with a WiFi enabled router so it was easy to user either the existing cable modem network or the new DSL one by just choosing a different WiFi network. Since we've had both services, there have been a few outages on one service were we could simple switch to using the other and stay connected.
The two services are roughly equivalent. Cable edges out DSL in download speed (2650 kbps vs 2500 bps) but in practice you really can't tell the difference. Upload speed is a different matter. DSL is roughly twice as fast as cable in our area (675 kbps vs 345 kbps). This really makes a difference when uploading big files like, say, Keynote presentations or audio files from school board meetings.
Finally, there is another performance measure called "ping time" (or latency) which measures how quickly a data packet travels to and from a remote location. (if it takes a long time between when you click on a link in your browser to when the pages starts loading then latency is often the problem). Here cable also does better than DSL - in this case lower numbers (shorter times) are better.
While we're happy with these services, I'm very much looking forward to the day when they step up the speeds. Verizon's FIOS offering is significantly faster offering 15,000 kbps to 30,000 kbps (15 Mbps to 30 Mbps) download speeds. When they get around to installing the fiber optic cables here in Lewis Center I'll be the first to sign up.
[ note: speed testing was done using the excellent speed testing tool over at Broadband Reports http://www.dslreports.com/stest ]
Originally, the choice of broadband internet service was a simple one. Although it was promised "soon", when we moved into our current house there was neither cable modem nor DSL service available. So for a while we had T1 service. It's pricey and normally only used by businesses (and actually not all the speedy really) , but it was our only option and so we went with it.
Eventually Insight offered us Roadrunner service over the cable line. It's a pretty good first generation broadband offering. Speeds are decent and reliability was fairly good too. But outages weren't uncommon and that's a real problem when you spend your day on the internet.
Last year, Verizon improved the DSL service in our area. They had previously offered DSL, but we were too far away from our local CO to qualify - a common problem with DSL. Lucky for us, they upgraded the equipment and could offer DSL to folks further away from the CO and that included us.
So when I saw we qualified for DSL service, I signed up. The DSL service came with a WiFi enabled router so it was easy to user either the existing cable modem network or the new DSL one by just choosing a different WiFi network. Since we've had both services, there have been a few outages on one service were we could simple switch to using the other and stay connected.
The two services are roughly equivalent. Cable edges out DSL in download speed (2650 kbps vs 2500 bps) but in practice you really can't tell the difference. Upload speed is a different matter. DSL is roughly twice as fast as cable in our area (675 kbps vs 345 kbps). This really makes a difference when uploading big files like, say, Keynote presentations or audio files from school board meetings.
Finally, there is another performance measure called "ping time" (or latency) which measures how quickly a data packet travels to and from a remote location. (if it takes a long time between when you click on a link in your browser to when the pages starts loading then latency is often the problem). Here cable also does better than DSL - in this case lower numbers (shorter times) are better.
While we're happy with these services, I'm very much looking forward to the day when they step up the speeds. Verizon's FIOS offering is significantly faster offering 15,000 kbps to 30,000 kbps (15 Mbps to 30 Mbps) download speeds. When they get around to installing the fiber optic cables here in Lewis Center I'll be the first to sign up.
[ note: speed testing was done using the excellent speed testing tool over at Broadband Reports http://www.dslreports.com/stest ]
Posted: Wed - March 8, 2006 at 10:53 AM
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Published On: Mar 13, 2006 02:08 PM
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Published On: Mar 13, 2006 02:08 PM