OT....internet connectivity, thinking of going w/ cable Options

[Aaron Cox]

im thinking of going w/ cable....DIALUP SUCKS the big ...... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif)

[Mockmaw]

There are a couple of critical questions to answer for yourself when deciding on a 'high speed connection'. Notably:

1. How many people 'around' you use cable internet?

2. How far are you (as the crow flies) from the nearest phone/dsl station?

Cable has theoretical potential to be faster than DSL, but is highly limited by the number of people around you that have it and use it. If you live in the suburbs, cable should be fine.. the only time you might see slowdowns is if many people in your neighborhood also have cable and are using it at the same time (peak hours of 6-8pm for instance can cause slowdown in many people in the area are using their cable connection.) If you live in an apartment/condo complex where many other tenants/residents use cable.. forget it, use DSL or satellite or something else.

DSL does not have the theoretical potential that Cable does, but it's not limited by the number of users in your area that are causing activity. Unfortunately, speeds and particularly availability are limited the farther you are from the nearest phone/dsl station. When signing up for a DSL service, just ensure that they have a guaranteed _minimum_ bandwidth so you don't get signed up with a plan that gets you only 10% throughput because of your proximity to the local station.

Easiest way to find out which is best: find people that are physically close to your home and see what their connection speeds are like with both cable and dsl.

Hope that was remotely helpful. I've been using cable, dsl, t1, and many other high speed connections for almost as long as I can remember. I've had positive experiences with basically every connection medium I've used.. certainly not true for with every provider I've worked with.