Broadband question.Need advice,please!

[Tripleshot]

I now have some alternatives to my dismal 56K dial up.(actually,I think I am in hog heavan with 56K compared to my old 28.8)

I have a satallite offering of 500KB down/150KB up for 60/momth and 600 in setup and installation.(requires usb port)

I also now have cablemodem connection through charter pipline with 512kb up/128kb down using nic or usb. its a simple 39.95+rental of modem of 9.95/month

My dialup ISP unlimited is $19.95.

I use a linux server as my gateway and I don't think linux supports USB,however,I built my linux box with an extra 3com nic for this occasion.

What would you recommend? I don't yet game on line,but someday ,maybe.

 

[LordSandMan]

Well, I've got the charter cable modem. pings are as low as 40 ms. You get major latency with satalite. I haven't actually seen it, but I hear it's around 500ms. That's probably worse than your modem.

I vote for cable.

 

[A2KLAU]

If you go for gaming then it is rubbish! Using Satalite to play games will be too slow! And if it is cloudy on one day then it will not allow you to connect becasue the signal can not be projected to the satalite in space. The advantages of satalite is that you get a very fast download rate, so good for MP3ers, or software download freaks. If you want to play games and have a decent internet download rate which is not as fast as those of the Satalite then Cable is the way forward. And if you are not a big business then go cable because it is worth the money you are paying for.

Best of Luck!!

SKY!

 

[erub]

cable definitely - sattelite is junk, try to get them to give you the NIC setup, so you can use linux for sure or a router if you want (cause of 10 baseT). I wonder if those are guaranteed speeds or the maximum? I have a tendency to believe that the upload speed will be capped, but the download may be faster.

Also, don't forget if you have an additional line that you use for dialup modem service, you wont need that anymore..my family just adapted to using two full lines hehe (one was pretty much always on the internet when I was home).

 

[odog]

whats satellite service is that... starband(currently the only one availble) has speeds nowhere near 8Mbps down... and another thing the pingis better measured in SECONDS then milliseconds


i have to admit the cap charter puts on those lines is harsh... but it'll still be so much better then satellite in every way but pure DL'ing

 

[Tripleshot]

It sounds pretty good for the cable solution. The starband is viable,but the up front cost is prohibitive. It cost as much as a new computer to get hooked up. Plus the downside of needing USB. Thats ok for someone elses setup,but I like my linux server and the firewall protection. Also,cable does not have static IP addresses,so I'm told. I think that would/could help for security,but I am not sure how that would affect gaming.

 

[miniMUNCH]

Dude!

No DSL! WTF?!

Have to have DSL! You just have to...well because.

Not to brag, but for $35/month with verizon I get 768Kbits/s down and 128kbits/s up and the service is always on and always peak speed. This month they are upgrading technology to make my line T1 capable and I'm going to get the upgrade for free.

I wish there was DSL for you and everyone. Hey that'll by gmick if I run for President, "Broadband for Every Soul in America, Bless God!!"

So would you vote for me? No? Ya, well I didn't think so...

 

[Ulysses]

I have DSL @ 896 Kbps (I think that's the transfer rate down from the CO to my home) and the contstancy or uniformity of the service is nice - it's the same speed all the time. But if it's not available, then that's that.

That satelite service seems very expensive - my DSL is $40/mo. with waived installation & hardware fees, but one-year contract required. So definitely go cable and hope for the best.

I noticed but haven't read this.

 

[LordSandMan]

Just a note, you can have static IPs with cable. It depends on your serviceprovider. I have Charter@home with a static IP.

 

[TH]

I do on-line gaming and I recommend cable. For 39.95 including equipement and free installation, its the way to go. Thought the IP is not static the lease lasts a long time and always seems to have the same IP. Good for video conferencing.

My pings beat other people playing on-line with DSL.

 

[SUOrangeman]

http://ion.sprint.com (DSL-based)

http://www.sprintbbd.com/ (wireless)

-SUO

 

[MrMole]

Dude where are you that Verizon is upgrading your line?
I am in Brooklyn NY and am fed up with this 64k dwn cap and 10k up gimme a break

Thank god for FlashFXP

 

[Need2PEE]

I do not see how you people can pay around $40 a month for like 800kb a second. I pay $40 a month, and although they do not gurantee anything except at least 56k a second, I have no slow down during peak time and at any time I can have 3 300KB downloads going simultaneously. Go TimeWarner.

 

[LordSandMan]

Well, for some of us it is worth paying $40/month for 800k because the only other alternative is 56k for $20/month. Consider yourself lucky.

 

[Tripleshot]

miniMUNCH

I live too far away from the central office for DSL to be effective. The charter pipeline service is as close to broadband as I will get for awhile. The Starband service is here,but $600 for equip and $60 a month is staggering in comparison,coupled with its drawbacks of USB modem hookup and latency problems. I do not believe clouds effect anything,as was stated here.I have had satellite TV for years and never had degredation cuased by clouds. That is as much a digital signal download as ISP service.

Oh,I would vote vote for you,if you would kick qwest's butt into gear and upgrade the dang network. This city has had fiber optic cable in the ground for 15 years and at every home headin,and yet they refuse to impliment the technology.Greedy b@stards want more and more money. Thats why satellite or cable is attractive to me.

 

[goog]

Cable for sure.

 

[spamboy]

Ok, if I hear another person brag about their "fast" DSL, I'll puke. 700Kb down (if you're lucky!)? On cable you can get 700 kiloBYTES down. That's 5600Kb. DSL can suck my coax cable! And most DSL is only 384Kb, which is 16 times slower. Combine that with DSL's sketchy availablity, email outages and line stability problems.

Class, repeat after me: "No brainer."

 

[damac]

I would pick cable over satelite but in my experience cable sucks compared to dsl because of its shared bandwidth. Sure sometimes you can get awesome download speeds and pings but their is almost no consistency. During peak hours you will slow down period. This can happen with dsl also of course but in my experience of having dsl for 9 months, and cable for almost 3 after moving, its crap.

I now have @home cable in sacramento, ca. and its total crap, customer service sucks and they tell me on the phone how its so slow and my ping stinks and do nothing about it and I get no credits. I love playing online games and during the day my ping will crap out at 300, 500 or 700+ and be jumpy as hell. Pretty bad service for me being in the location Im in. Maybe it could be better but were talking almost 3 months.

back when I had dsl if it was up(I had about 3 total downtime days in a row in 9 months during winter storm) the connection was great. When my cable get slow it will time out, give me high pings and I will surf around and maybe 3-4 times the speed of a dialup.

My only conclusion is their must be something technically different about the way cable connections are routed and/or @home really sucks and lets their network go.

 

[Hanpan]

Umm.... Spamboy i wouldn't complain about dsl's email problems. Have you perhaps no heard of @home.....nuff said.

 

[KouklatheCat]

Cable or ADSL stay away from satellite. I would thing that in order to send information via satellite the FCC would be involved. The only salellite internet service uses the telephone to "send" information. I may be wrong, way off base.

 

[frap]

It all depends on the area and how good your phone lines are. Theoretically DSL is better for gameing because the DSL uses a constant data stream where as Cable sends data through with burst-like transmission using time slicing because it is a shared network. but if your copper lines aren't up to the job which a lot of lines are not then cable would be a better choice. You can call up your telco and have your lines tested to see how much bandwidth is available to you.

 

[Chuffmaster2k]

In my area dsl is not available. Cable will be at the end of December. Yeah!!!!

If you can't tell I am a little excited... I have already been told by the cable company (Cox) that they will be capping it @ 1024/128. I can deal with that though. Much better than my 56k. Service will be $40/month.

I have had cable before my wife and I moved. Road Runner was awesome. Definitely go with the cable.

 

[pm]

Cable modem vs. satellite? Cable modem hands down.

I have 2.1Mb/s down, 800kb/s up consistently on mine for $40/month.

 

[pm]

sorry. double-post.