Would anyone out there know who is the best internet provider and why?

Question

Is cable always better than DSL and dial-up?
I am looking for both affordability and quality/speed. And especially providers combining internet and phone services.

Answer 1

I work from home all day writing web applications professionally, so my home connection is essential to my life. Here's what I can tell you,

With a cable modem you have to sort of share bandwidth with people in your neighborhood. So your connection is affected by those near you. However, the cable lines are overall much higher bandwidth and better managed than DSL, it's usually a better deal.

Besides that, I can tell you do NOT go with verizon. The problems with Verizion are endless, from customer support to their crappy network, to secretly giving the Bush administration access to people's phone records without a warrant or notification. See the sources for all kinds of Verizon fun.

Also If you can get Quest, which you probably can't (not available in most area), then do it. Good luck!

Answer 2

Even the BIG companies vary in service quality from region to region, so it's better to ask around locally and ask who has the best prices, services and reliability.

That last aspect is pretty key for me. They can be the lowest price and the best package, but if they're offline during peak hours due to too much traffic... that's not the internet provider for me.

In general, dialup is slowest, then DSL, then cable as fastest. Satellite has spotty reception, and I've not heard enough about the new FIOS to give it any rating at all. Companies that offer package deals on phone/internet/cable might be good choices, but shop around to make sure. Convenience doesn't assure quality.

What I've found to work best for me overall is a cable modem, hooked to a router allowing me to have both wireless laptop connections and physical computer tower connections. I use my local large cable provider, and haven't had any serious issues for over 9 months (and that issue was a damaged relay station, not exactly a company fault).

What I've found to be very unsatisfactory are completely wireless services, such as are found in some apartment complexes, hotels, airports, etc. I find them too expensive and the quality of connection rather poor.

Answer 3

Here's how you can find your fastest ISP. Go to the link: http://speedtest.net/global.php , dial in your continent, country, state, and city, and it will list the local ISP's in your area in order of Net speed.

Dial-up sucks big-time. The only way you won't notice you're on dialup is if you don't use your phone line while surfing AND you don't go to ANY website that has video, flash, or audio files on it, like youtube, myspace, yahoo, msnbc, msn, or ANY WEBSITE IN THE WORLD.


For most purposes, Cable is just as good as DSL, because for general internet surfing, you don't have to have that much bandwidth. Download the page, an ad, click on an occasional video clip, and that's about it.

There is a difference between DSL and cable though.

DSL has lower latency because it is a single user connection. In terms of games, I would go with this.

Cable will usually have 1.5x to 5x the bandwidth of DSL, meaning you can download more stuff at the same time. Cable networks are spread out across the neighborhood however, so your neighbor is picking up the internet off the same cable as you. Sometimes this means during peak hours you get slower connections, but in my case (I've had both), this wasn't really true.


AND FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T PAY $24.99 FOR AOL DIALUP!!!!! There's plans for DSL and even cable for $20-$25 / month if you look!

Answer 4

No DSL is probably better

Answer 5

dail up is very slow and more costly go for broad band it is efforable and there will be pakages as u like and need. and provide u the best speet .i suggest sify