One thing that's always bothered me is the whole "DSL is faster!", "Cable is faster!" debate.
It's easy to see that cable internet has better peak bandwidth than DSL, but I never see statistics regarding average speed. In the end, average speed is what really matters: if the standard deviation of bandwidth in a cable internet connection is much higher than a DSL modem (which it is), it's possible that while the cable internet can peak higher its mean speed could be lower.
The only graph I've seen which shows average DSL speed versus average cable speed was showed on a TV commercial by my current DSL provider, so I'm obviously a bit skeptical.
I'd like to see the facts, if anyone can help me find them...
I've always seen Cable go the same speed as DSL, never really concerned me.
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As far as I can tell, DSL has a higher download speed, but terrible upload.
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I prefer DSL over cable because with DSL you don't lose speed if people in your area are using it at the same time, like cable does. I've also seen DSL that has speeds equal or higher to cable's peak speeds. You can get 15MBit down 4.5Mbit up DSL in these parts if you live in town, the best cable you can get is 12Mbit down and 1.5Mbit up. The 15Mbit DSL is also about half as much as the 12Mbit cable in price.
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http://compnetworking.about.com/od/dslvscablemodem/a/ speedcompare.htm
They say Cable is better but not by a whole lot. | |
Don't forget two different types of cable exist. Heard of unsaturated (faster) and saturated (slower)? :P
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@Worldweaver: They only say "cable can run faster", which is the whole nature of my complaint. I want to see graphs, raw data, solid evidence... not just weak genericisms. I already know cable can run faster... what I want to know is whether over a given monthly period of equivalent use, whether an average cable connection (i.e., all cable types and providers averaged together) versus an average DSL connection (i.e., all DSL types and providers averaged out) is really faster.
I'm starting to believe DSL actually wins in that regard, since so many people seem so loath to share that information. After all, the turtle beat the hare in the race even though the hare was much faster in short spurts. | |
Bandock wrote:
Heard of unsaturated (faster) and saturated (slower)? :P Only in my foods. There isn't any way to tell what's better in an overall category because speeds differ by location. for example, I had a cable ISP a few years ago in New york City which ran pretty damn fast, I downloaded at about 2 megs a second. Here at my current location a thousand miles west, cable runs at about 600kbs. Back in New York. It also depends on which you'd prefer, down or up. Cable is definately more balanced than DSL but in some places, DSL connections can skyrocket past their 'advertised' limits. Basically, it appeals to your likings, location and price. The best I've used so far is Verizon FiOS, which I don't remember is DSL or Cable at the moment. | |
cable can run faster if you are the only one on the line. cable tends to be shared by many people in the same area, so the overall average bandwidth is somewhere below 2MBit DSL, and higher than ISDN (though not by much).
and with the advent of 2-7MBit DSL being readily available here in Europe (i have 4MBit at home) for as low as $50-$60/month, cable looks woefully out-classed. hopefully the Americas will begin offering larger varieties of DSL to its public consumers. | |
I've been considering switching over to a faster-version of DSL (1.5 Mbps/384 Kbps, $20/mo.) that would still be insanely cheaper than the cable is right now that we've had for about 6 years (10 Mbps/1Mbps, $50/mo.). My mom called and complained to the cable company months back because she probably felt bad because I had to pay the bill, even though I have a job. They lowered it to $30/mo. for quite a few months, but that promotion is done with and it's back to $50/mo. Verizon seems to treat their customers better, and they give you better deals.
The cable company just bleeds you for an insanely fast connection that you never can fully utilize unless you're seeding a download of 100 people (I once got 3mbps [only one-third of advertised] from GameSpot by seeding from over 100 people, but my usual download speeds are a crawling 30kbps). On a great day, I can get speeds of like 100kbps from a single server, but it's usually around 30-50kbps. So I doubt I would see any speed decrease from DSL. On another note, I frequently host games, but due to asynchronous connections people complain about lag. Your personal internet connection speed doesn't matter that much in the long run. It highly depends on the OTHER people's connections and distance. So from hosting something like a BYOND game, you get people from a lot of different places and closer people with slower DSL connections. By 2007, hopefully most people have taken the hint and switched over from dial-up, but back when I joined BYOND it wasn't uncommon to have one or two people on dial-up, which really killed everybody. The only way to really get a lag-free game would be to have a bunch of buddies with fast connections that live around near you play, but you might as well just have a LAN party then. For statistical purposes, I live in Long Island, New York, so most likely a heck of a lot of people use cable around here, but I've always noticed it depends on the actual server's upload speed, how many current downloads the server has, and how many seeds you have. Like I said, downloading off a single, standard server is depressingly slow. I don't do any of that illegal downloading crap. | |
Justin Knight wrote:
but my usual download speeds are a crawling 30kbps). Man your cable sucks in your area, I average around 900kb download speed. Highest is about 1200kb( I do get this from time to time). Upload is around 150kb and my cable cost only 35$ a month. My cable blows out even the fastest DSL here 6mb down and 1.5mb up, plus its like 60$ month. My guess is I just have a good area where alot of people don't have a cable internet connection(works for me). | |
My cable is rated at around 5mbps, and everyone in my area has cable, it's either cable or.... nothing. Cable in my area is always fast no matter how many people are on I always download at around 1 megabyte per second no matter what time of day, as long as im downloading from a server that will give me that bandwidth
Kamahamaha135: FIos is Fiber Optic Internet, which is extremely cheap, and extremely fast. | |
Soldierman wrote:
Justin Knight wrote: but my usual download speeds are a crawling 30kbps). Man your cable sucks in your area, I average around 900kb download speed. Highest is about 1200kb( I do get this from time to time). Upload is around 150kb and my cable cost only 35$ a month. My cable blows out even the fastest DSL here 6mb down and 1.5mb up, plus its like 60$ month. My guess is I just have a good area where alot of people don't have a cable internet connection(works for me). Noob, learn how to read. I'm talking about downloads from a single server. I also said that I live in a very populated area and many people use cable internet around here. K thx | |
digitalmouse wrote:
and with the advent of 2-7MBit DSL being readily available here in Europe (i have 4MBit at home) for as low as $50-$60/month, cable looks woefully out-classed. hopefully the Americas will begin offering larger varieties of DSL to its public consumers. Yeah, I'm kinda looking forward to VDSL once it gets from experimental to proven and the companies stop gouging just for the sake of gouging. | |
[edit]Here's a link if you're lazy to the comparison: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6536_7-726601-4.html?tag=arrow
[edit2] Here's another link (if your lazy): http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6536_7-726601-5.html?tag=arrow