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DSL vrs Dial Up

coyote

coyote

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I have been Dial Up for a looong time. But the deals being offered to switch to DSL finally meet my price.

For those of you that are using DSL and have used Dial UP, is there enough difference to justify the higher price and the hassle of making the switch over?

I could go with cable modem, but I don't like the price right now.

A major selling point for me was that I could stay with my same ISP and keep my same address, password and payment method.
 
DSL comes in a variety of speeds but even the slowest DSL plans are 4-10 times faster than dial-up.

I have used both cable and DSL and cable is generally faster but DSL does not go down when the cable goes out (which happens here occasionally and is the reason that I switched back to DSL recently). At $19.99 a month here, DSL is not much more than dial-up and well worth it. I run up to four computers on a mixed wired/wireless network and generally do not notice a bandwidth strain.
 
Oh boy..Where to start? Dial-up is absolutely horrid. I paid about $40/month for 3mb/s cable and I think I would cry like a little girl if I had to go back to dial-up. Make the switch!
 
Thanks for the recommendations. I did make the switch, but I can't know how it's going to go until the equipment gets here and I install it. Dial Up has been OK. But when it's not, it sucks. I think Dial Up is becoming passe. It wasn't too many years ago that we didn't even have a local dial up number for the internet. So, much has improved for my rural town in a few years. BTW, your prices are better than ours.
 
I've used all three (dial-up, cable and DSL). I'm currently using DSL Went from dial-up to cable. Got rather irritated with the prices going up with the cable and resulting outages and slower connection speeds during peak times when (as the explained to me) the rest of the neighborhood was utilizing the cable too. Switched to DSL and did not notice much slower download or connection times. Using dial-up and switching to DSL I'm pretty sure you will be happy with the difference.
 
I've completely fired the cable company (Cox) because of their poor service and outages. I had them for television, internet, and telephone. I went back to Verizon for phone service and DSL, and have DIRECTV (and NFL Sunday Ticket!! :D ). The HD offerings are much greater than with cable.
 
I had DirectTV for a while but switched to cable because of S Florida and all the rain. DirecTV would go out constantly!
 
I started out with dial-up, of course.

Switched to DSL to save money and was not happy with the service. Long downloads, trouble with connecting, losing service when the phone went out (which used to happen alot in my neighborhood).

Switched to cable and I'm not going back. My power goes out before the cable does, cable downloads rapidly, the price hasn't gone on me since I got it, and the modem is rented so if I have a problem with it it's the cable companies problem. It's no more expensive that dial-up+extra phone line and I'm happier it with than DSL.

SO, yes DSL is better than dial-up, but IMO cable is better.
 
DSL is better than dial up. I do tech support for a company that offers dsl (Can't say which company). But there are just so many things that can go wrong with dsl VS cable. The fact that it takes upto and sometimes more than 10 days for your phone service to be provisioned for dsl. DSL companies mail out a self-install kit, when cables companies personally install the equipment.

Cable maybe more expensive but if you compare a dsl service that has the same speed, its about the same price. The 14.95 a month plan most dsl carriers are offering now are 768 kilobits download, while a $30-45 cable internet plan is 3-5 megabits.4-6 times the speed of the cheap dsl package.
 
kiote9 said:
My power goes out before the cable does
Click to expand...
Are you using a UPS for the computer and cable modem?

A side issue on cable. When Hurricane Isabel hit here two years ago I had just switched to cable internet and using the cable company for my telephone. I was the only one on the street without a telephone as those with Verizon never lost telephone service. Cell phones only worked if you were near a tower with a generator so that was out. My lights came on after about 36 hours or so but my telephone, internet, and cable television were out for about a week.

My DSL is $19.99/month and tests at 1.5 Mbps down (rated higher) and is rated at 768K up. Initial set up took about 15 minutes with the supplied CD. Cable was a bit faster in terms of speed but waiting for an appointment for them to show up to call in my MAC address (something I could easily have done) took longer than the two business days that it took to make my line DSL-ready. It may well have taken longer if I had not ordered it at the same time that I was switching phone service back to Verizon. As for the speed difference between cable and the current DSL service that I have, I can't say that I notice it at all. I have plenty of bandwidth but if I did a lot of big file downloading I might notice it.
 
I pay $43 (with taxes) per month for Comcast High Speed Internet (cable) with a rated speed of 4.0/384 and usually get very close to it. I used to have DSL, but it was IDSL wich is an ISDN based tech that limited me to 144/144. With dial up I had earthlink and never got anything over 33.3k :bawling: unless I used their pay per minute 1-800 numbers. Surprisingly, I rarely have issues and when I do, Comcast has been helpful in resolving them :)

Give your connection a speed test here: http://www.broadbandreports.com/stest

005-10-11 06:54:09 EST: 3717 / 360
Your download speed : 3806621 bps, or 3717 kbps.
A 464.6 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 368867 bps, or 360 kbps.

:cool:
 
Even though my Optimum cable service is a rip off by a monopoly called Cablevision, it is a fast connection.

Download Speed: 4383 kbps (547.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 842 kbps (105.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
 
Verizon is wiring various areas with a dedicated fiber optic network for internet access, called FiOS. They put the lines down in my neighborhood in August and expect the service to be available shortly. The prices for home use are:
  • Up to 5 Mbps/2 Mbps $34.95 - $39.95
  • Up to 15 Mbps/2 Mbps $44.95 - $49.95
  • Up to 30 Mbps/5 Mbps $179.95 - $199.95

The middle price is comparable to cable plans and much faster. The least expensive one is cheaper than cable. It requires that you be wired with Cat 5 to the router(s). Is anyone here using this service or seen it in use?
 
I haven't seen anyone using that in this area. I would have to say that you should definately get it. I've never seens poor performance from a fiber line unless most of the strands were broken.
 
I would love the 15mbps option, but it's not available here. A friend of mine says that Verizon claims he'll be able to get it within a few months. When Comcast first told me I would be able to get cable in 2-3 months, it turned out to actually take a year and a half :bawling:
 
Pug said:
I would love the 15mbps option, but it's not available here. A friend of mine says that Verizon claims he'll be able to get it within a few months. When Comcast first told me I would be able to get cable in 2-3 months, it turned out to actually take a year and a half :bawling:
Click to expand...
Well the fiber optic cable is in the gound so I would think that they would want to start capitalizing on their investment. Hopefully it won't be too long. LOL.
 
Pug said:
I would love the 15mbps option, but it's not available here. A friend of mine says that Verizon claims he'll be able to get it within a few months. When Comcast first told me I would be able to get cable in 2-3 months, it turned out to actually take a year and a half :bawling:
Click to expand...
Verizon maybe right. They are in the works of laying down thousands of miles in fiber optics all over the nation as we speak. I talked to a guy the other day who works for verizon and he was talking about just getting back from a 3 month trip to Texas were he laid down fiber optics all across the state.

They are currently expanding their fios network everyday. They are even launching FIOS TV. A cable type TV service. Going to be alot of "On-Demand" type movies and stuff like that.

Here is where you can check to see if you can get FIOS Click Here
(The phone qualification only works if you have verizon home phone service, if you don't have verizon home phone use this link )

I only wish FIOS service was in my area. I used to pay $45 a month for RoadRunner till i decided to drop direct TV to get time warner cable, which they then gave me RR for $30 a month now. But i would gladly goto paying $45 again for a 15megabit connection. Thats triple my speed of my road runner connection.
 
Follow up...

FiOS just became available in my area. I had been checking their site every few days and on 10/15 it showed me as available. They do a free install (including running the Cat 5 inside) and supply their router if you commit for 12 months. I set it up for 10/25 and they have already been here marking utilities and measuring for cable to come from the access point on the network to my telephone interface on the side of the house. I'm guessing they are going to do a direct burial. They also showed a price of $54.95/month for the 30/5 not the much higher number on the site.
 
It went in without a hitch (so far). Amazingly fast too.

speedtest.jpg
 
Nice!!! You lucky mofo. If I had that kind of speed I would set up a few dual mobo servers and offer web hosting. Maybe when I move it will be available in my new area.:)
 
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