wich is better DSL or cable? (which has better downloading)?

Question

i have dial up still so i was just woundering which one is better for downloading? if some one could tell me that would be great! (i am not considering wi-fi)

Answer 1

Hi Alex,

Cable is usually much faster. Usually from twice to eight times as fast.

DSL gets slower the further you are from the telephone office.

Cable is a shared "pipe" with all cable users using the available bandwidth. They say cable will slow down at peak times but I have never seen that happen with my cable.

I had DSL for a couple years and the best thing I ever did was switch to cable.

Norm

Answer 2

The answer is, it depends. What do you consider fast enough and how much do you want to pay?

Here's the two basic issues:

Cable has a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 6MHz. Cable broadband uses the equivalent of a TV channel. You mileage will certainly be less. There is over head in the data which will drop the useable throughput to something on the order of 5Mbps, IF you are not sharing. Cable broadband networks are a shared medium. If your next door neighbor is on cable broadband and so are several others in the immediate neighborhood, you share that 5Mbps.

On the other hand, DSL can easily do 5-7Mbps, but your wire to the local telephone switching office must be less than about 18,000 feet. Nearly all ISPs have a tool on their site where you can put in your phone number and it will look up in a national database whether or not you can get DSL.

I am referring to ADSL, which is the standard for home access. There are several others that are faster but cost more, and there is a version called ASDL2 which most current DSL modems will support when it becomes available.

I suppose your cable company might decide to allocate more than one TV channel to broadband, but I haven't heard of it. They usually want everything they can get on profitable services like Digital-On-Demand.

Anyway, those are some of the things to consider.

Personally I use DSL at 1.5Mbps. It's fast enough for what I need now (I develop an occasional website) and it only costs me about $27/month. I can upgrade to 7Mbps for about another $12.

Answer 3

I agree with John's answer. Simply put, the further you live from a "port" or a "cabinet" of a DSL provider, the narrower the bandwidth gets. Thus less speed. With cable, the more people around your neighbourhood use cable, the less speed you'll get. If you are using a dial-up, it may be a little slow but it is the most reliable and secure when compared to broadband. Not to mention the cost. There is one ISP I know of who provides a heck of a hi-speed dial-up using a unique technology. Their service also helps broadband service to boost speed. Check them out at www.speedqwest.com

Answer 4

Cable can be several times faster than DSL, the closer u are to the phone company the faster your DSL is.

Answer 5

I think cable would be faster but I don't know which one is better overall.