I gotta say DSL here.. not really for speed or anything but I just had better experiences with customer support in my dsl companies than when i had cable

Comcast and the like are wh**es.  In areas where you cant get DSL, they rape you, charge too much and deliver sh*t for speed in an overcrowded network. 

In areas where you CAN get DSL, cable has good bandwidth but they slowly raise their prices as the contracts expire and make you feel like a prisoner.

Edited by Administrator - 19 Apr 2007 at 11:48am

Many of you take too hard a stance "DSL is"  this or "Cable is" that you claim, but have you done the research?

I have used both since the very inceptions of either. I live 1 block from the switching station. NOTE: Switching station NOT the provider. Distance is based on where the switching hardware to the Fiber line is located, NOT where your provider is located.

I have found similar and consistent speeds with either. Likewise I do not find any particular security holes to be more accessible via either. The security vulnerabilities exist within your OS not your connection. The one loss on cables side is that it is far more often a static IP than DSL is. This results in the ability for repeat attacks if you happen to piss off some script kiddy. Still the vulnerabilities and flaws in your security rest in finality upon your own system, security programs, and OS.

You may claim that cable companies don't rate their speeds, but often if you look you can find claims to their bandwidth speeds. With comparable bandwidths costing upto twice as much on Cable.
Speed:
Enjoy the next generation of Internet service great for sharing large files and much more. Modem set-up of up to 6.0 Mbps download and 800 Kbps upload.
Price:
$52.95 Monthly Service Fee (plus $3.00/mth modem rental or $99.95 modem purchase plus taxes). Save up to 15% when you bundle with Rogers Better Choice Bundles.

so $55 a month unless you purchase your modem. Recommended if you're going to keep cable for 3years + obviously. Remember though that the cable companies program your user information into the modem making it hard to trouble shoot errors, and difficult to swap out or replace without your hands being tied to the original supplier... the cable company.

Now for DSL

Service Level	MBPS	Price
DSL Residential Level 1	5.0 Mbps*	$29.95**

Yes this connection is 1Mbps on the download bandwidth slower, it's also half the price. You will also note the asterisk.
The speed asterisk refers to a maximum bandwidth available through that particular form of DSL service. Why maximum if DSL is constant despite the number of users and such factors? Simply put, distance. The DSL service uses existing copper phone lines which have a maximum output of noise and signal attenuation. These degrade as you get further out from the main switching point, as the signal degrades your maximum bandwidth must be reduced to match what can be carried as a clean signal.

The Price asterisk refers to a 1year contract, not unlike the cable company will try to rope you into other services with them, the DSL company will try to win you over with lower pricing based on loyalty.
Note: Compu-SOLVE (csolve.net) has an excellent service staff capable of troubleshooting most difficulties a user is having over phone.
However this is not necessarily the norm with DSL companies. Do not try to lump service between provider types, I have seen those who excel and fail in the field with both connection types.

Another thing you'll notice with cable companies is a monthly maximum bandwidth, and if you exceed that bandwidth they bleed you dry with overage charges.
While most DSL Companies do not employ strict bandwidth caps, or have larger caps. Those that do not cap bandwidth, it is not uncommon these days to perform what is known as "Traffic Shaping" where particular types of internet traffic have their bandwidth shaved down. There are legitimate reasons for a provider to do this, and in fact shaping has been observed with cable companies local to my area as well.

How does it work? Generally it monitors the type of packets, and what ports are in use, how much bandwidth a particular stream uses etc. Then tries to provide a bandwidth cap to that particular stream of IP Datagrams, this will in effect reduce your overall download speeds, generally when active I find usenet streams capping at 250kbps download and torrent traffic capping around 40kbps, not horrible. There are however ways around it.
What good is there in this? It helps to ensure that your company doesn't have to raise prices, also it helps to ensure that the ISP won't feel pressured to place any sort of maximum bandwidth per month cap on your line.
Who does this affect? Traffic Shaping primarily affects users who traffic extensively in file transfers via bit torrent or P2P programs. An ISP pays for all of it's bandwidth, and in turn gives you access to that bandwidth on their backbone to the internet for a service fee. It is possible to cap out the ISP bandwidth, and doing so can have adverse effects on the WAN as a whole. While most users do not abuse or over use this access, their are always a few who tweak their internet settings, and their hardware and pound on the internet with 50+Gb of bandwidth per day.

With that as a possibility you can understand why it would be even further necessary for the cable company than the DSL provider. Afterall the bandwidth is shared by your neighbours as well before it even reaches the Internet Access Point of your ISP's backbone.

Do I have a preference? Not really. I find DSL has a tendency to be more reasonably priced however. If I were looking for true speed, I'd live somewhere I can get Verizon FiOS (Fiber Optic Service) with it's 15Mbps bandwidth, or in the UK where they use VDSL equipment to supply home users with 20Mbps connections for £35/month.

Ive said it before, i'll say it again.  Cable is good where theres DSL competing.  When DLS is not available in a certain area Comcast and the like are thieves, throttle back the bandwidth and up the price.  However, its all gonna change with FIBER.  Buhbye Comcast.  Fiber is here.  I'm getting 30mb/s ftth (fiber to the home) and 20 times higher resolution television.

i agree with u partly john but i havent even used it yet lol!