Which is better, and why - cable or telephone high speed internet?

Question

Ignoring the cost factor, which one is faster, and which one more reliable? Helpful answers from people who have tried both, please, not opinions from those who haven't.

Answer 1

high speed internet, only way to go baby.

Answer 2

I'm a Network Admin for a retail chain and I deal with both on a daily basis. To the average home user cable offers faster speeds than DSL. Don't get me wrong though, you can purchase DSL with speeds faster than a T1 (1.54Mbps). The problem is with most ISPs, at least as of now, this is classed as a business type connection and the cost gets outrageous. However, one of the upsides of DSL is that it is what is called "baseband" service, meaning that it is dedicated to you, or there is no one else sharing your connection. With cable, called "broadband", this is not the case. Your service is shared with everyone on the same line as you. So if someone down the road is running an FTP server or sharing files through the internet there is a very strong possibility that your connection will be slowed down.

Also, DSL does not block your phone line. You are able to speak on the phone at the same time while browsing online. Not that cable effects your phone either, but I just wanted to point that out so that there was no confusion.

One more thing. I forgot to point out that DSL suffers from distance limitation a lot more than cable. The farther you are from the local CO the worse you DSL will perform.

Answer 3

It depends what kind of DSL you can get.
Requirements for cable connections are
much less than for DSL and it currently
maxes out at about twice the transfer rate
from DSL. Although in most cases you won't
have these speeds anyway. If you can get
a DSL line that's fast enough for you get that.
The only DSL problems you can actually get
are speed aka line quality based. If that's not
the problem it will run like a charm at the speed
you bought. With cable there *can* be a shitload
of after-you-buy problems. Specially those who
raise if the provider maxed out it's bandwidth.

Edit:
@romp:

cable is no dedicated line. It's a shared media.
DSL however is a dedicated line.

Answer 4

Cable: Speed and reliability. I have Comcast and have never had a problem. It's faster than the telephone line for sure.

Answer 5

i have had both and currently i have comcast high speed (the faster avl. package) and cable is the way to go cause going through the phone you can only push so much information through (a phone line) at any one time but with cable you have a dedicated line.......now if cost isn't a factor and speed is try to find if its possible to get a t1 line installed its hella expensive but you will be able to dlaod movies in about 10-20 Min's it takes me about 2 hours or so

Answer 6

you will could evaluate like for like. as an occasion, that's available regardless of DSL to get 20mb consequently the probable gradual cyber web from a end line cable provider may be worse. the respond consequently is get a annoying technical quote with resistances, sign drop, contentions etc. virtually all providers inform you what you could no longer gain as an occasion France Telecom tell human beings around right here that they are in a position to have 8mb, they cant because of the fact the close by sub feeder is shown as having a substantial difficulty and the max for the completed area is barely 8Mb. My line basically supplies me a max of 1Mb so my max is a million Mb regardless of what I pay for, from now on and that's fraud. that does no longer provide up ISP's in spite of the undeniable fact that. The block on the close by unit ability that with rivalry its available to drop basically approximately to dial up. As a element in case you utilize the "unfastened" ISP modem you sign is intentionally being slowed to help on rivalry. Get your self a bought modem and notice the gadget fly while in comparison with until now, it additionally pushes by the max volume. (It ability something while i'm on line get 7mb between the 5 hundred or so customers!!!! try INR.internet for a try or get a belkin modem and verify out your line or a try application for it. A concept in the adventure that your cable provider is optical then it is swifter and function much less interference.

Answer 7

I've done both and let me tell you CABLE is the way to go. Phones have a higher POSSIBLE speed but they NEVER reach it, Cable has a higher normal speed that they keep, and its always been reliable in my years of experience.

Answer 8

Ok i don't know witch is faster but i think cable is the best for the reason is that the phone number will not be blocked and if you work in a type of big or home business you might have to have the phone line clear.

Answer 9

Cable..much faster

Answer 10

Cable! Because you don't need a useless landline and I don't care what anyone says Cable is faster and more reliable.

Answer 11

I prefer cable, seems to be faster, more reliable, and I'm not tieing up my phone line.