Cable 1500/256 or DSL 640/256 ?

[BentValve]

I have had DSL for 3 years now and it has been nice but it would be nice to have something faster....my line is usually around 500/250 ish
so I get what I pay for except my pings are usually around 160ms and this last month I have been dropping connections every once in awhile.

Comcast is offering a 5 month deal for $25 a month and I am temped to try it out.

I am not sure how reliable cable is but I have heard some horror stories, my DSL has been down 1 day in 3 years.

Should I stick with my DSL or try out the cable?

 

[JackBurton]

With the Cable service you get your broadband service PLUS cable TV. 2 for 1 (cable), or just 1 (dsl), you make the call. Don't tell the cable company you'll be splitting the line for Internet and TV though. Just do it after they leave.

As far as service, I'm using Charter as my cable broadband provider and I'm up 99.9999999% of the time. Download speeds stay nice and fast too.

 

[858diver]

Jack:

Are you suggesting that it is posible to simply split a cable TV feed and install a modem without activating service?

 

[Snuffaluffaguss]

i don't think so, he's saying you can split the line and get free tv

 

[Lord Evermore]

The cable company SHOULD be putting a filter on the line to prevent the TV signal from reaching you. If not, it is just due to a forgetful tech. They do have ways of finding out if you're stealing cable without having to look at every line, but I'm not sure if they can tell if you are getting a TV signal with the modem signal without actually checking the line. What JackBurton is suggesting is in fact illegal, so keep that in mind before you just do it.

Comcast has quite a few horror stories about them. I am currently in the process of switching to DSL because Comcast bought out AT&T Broadband cable, and since then our connection has been even worse than usual (more than a few problems when AT&T took it over). Just search here at the AT forums and you'll find several threads about Comcast. I've never had a problem with the actual download/upload speeds, always getting close to and often well over the 1.5/384 (now 1.5/256) speeds, but the service tends to go down pretty often (the TV service never does), getting support is a royal pain because they won't support you if you have more than one computer connected and haven't paid for extra IPs. Lately we are unable to play online games for no reason we can find out -- they lag out as soon as a second person gets online.

I would say try to find out whether your ping times and loss of connection are due to your DSL line having problems, or because your ISP's network is getting slow. Try pinging your gateway, which should be 50ms or less. Then try performing a traceroute to see where you get any sort of slowdowns. When you lose connections, is it the DSL actually losing sync or just your server connections?

Don't know who you have service from or how much you pay, but you may consider just changing providers.

 

[xSauronx]

yeah, split the line to get free tv, ive read about people who have done this and the cable company never knew for well over a year, when they were doing some kind of check up or some such, hell, iirc alot of the people even got the premium channles like hbo and showtime for free as well

but you cant split the tv line and get net access with a cable modem....their system wont let you on

 

[Doh!]

This forum has thousands of posts regarding comcast services.

 

[JackBurton]

i don't think so, he's saying you can split the line and get free tv

No I'm saying free cable...well sort of. You'll get all the unscrambled channels. 99% of the time cable companies only scramble movie channels and PPV events. You should be able to get channels like Comedy Central, TechTV, History channel and things like that plus crystal clear local channels.

And as for....

The cable company SHOULD be putting a filter on the line to prevent the TV signal from reaching you. If not, it is just due to a forgetful tech. They do have ways of finding out if you're stealing cable without having to look at every line, but I'm not sure if they can tell if you are getting a TV signal with the modem signal without actually checking the line. What JackBurton is suggesting is in fact illegal, so keep that in mind before you just do it.

Complete bullsh!t! I'm not suggesting buying a descrambler or going up to the telephone pole and making changes to the cables service to bypass the scrambled channels. It's like say, don't oc you P4 2.4GHz chip because you're getting something (extra speed) that you didn't pay for.

Cable works like this...Both your broadband internet service and cable TV service run through the same line, but use different ranges of frequencies. So when you split the line, one goes to your cable modem and the other to your TV. Your cable modem is configured to run at the frequecy set for internet use and your TV tuner will use the frequecy for the cable TV service. Cable is either on or off. 99% of the time they will NOT install a filter because if you wanted to order cable in the future they'd have to come to your house (well just outside your house) and take the filter off. If they DO put in a filter (like I said 99% they won't), just order cable TV service and then cancel it. And no, they can't tell if you are getting cable TV, because like I said, they KNOW they are sending you teh signal. Now if you are using a descrambler, then that is a different story.

Now getting cable TV with your cable internet service is not 100% guaranteed as I haven't checked with ALL cable providers. But I'd give you a 99% success rate.

And by the way, get a GOOD splitter but it should only cost you about $5.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

You don't get free cable TV.
You need to pay extra per month for being not a cable-tv subscriber or your monthly rate has already included that.
There is no free lunch.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Charter in LA for example,
non-Charter cable tv subscriber need to pay $10 extra for the Charter pipeline cable internet.
cable tv basic channels service is $16.xx + tax, so you can save $6.xx + tax.

 

[JackBurton]

You don't get free cable TV.
You need to pay extra per month for being not a cable-tv subscriber or your monthly rate has already included that.
There is no free lunch.

You think so? I KNOW with Charter, if you get broadband you WILL get cable TV. Usually the rates for Charter are about $59 (1.5Mbps down/128Mbps up). If you think TV rates are included with that then great. But if you talk to Charter and say you'd like Cable TV with it, you'll get charged an ADDITIONAL charge for the cable TV service. So look at it like you'd like. But he has an offer for $25/m for 5 months. He'll get cable TV with it too (well 99% sure he will). It ain't a free lunch but it is pretty damn cheap.

 

[Lord Evermore]

What they're saying is that if you get both TV and Internet service, then the Internet service is like, 40 dollars, and then 40 dollars for the TV. If you only order Internet, then you pay 50 dollars. You get a discount for buying multiple services from most cable companies, especially if they also offer phone service.

Either way, it would be illegal (probably fraud, perhaps theft of service or other things too) to order cable TV then cancel it in order to get free TV service by making them not put a filter on. I can't say for SURE that it's illegal to access the cable service if they don't filter it, but knowingly using something you didn't pay for is generally considered bad, and in many cases illegal. Just because keys are left in a car doesn't mean you can drive it.

And I do know fully well how cable works. I never implied anything about going out and modifying the cable or using a descrambler.

Pretty silly to suggest on a public forum that people commit unethical and immoral (and possibly illegal) acts.

 

[StraightPipe]

In montevallo Alabama (30 minutes south of birmingham) DSL is much faster. but in birmingham cable is faster right now.

I've got a friend with cable modem through charter and basic cable. he pays for the combo, but he also gets premium cable free!

apparantly they cant tell the difference yet, so anyone with cable + internet gets premium cable.(even if they only pay for basic)

 

[JackBurton]

I can't say for SURE that it's illegal to access the cable service if they don't filter it, but knowingly using something you didn't pay for is generally considered bad, and in many cases illegal. Just because keys are left in a car doesn't mean you can drive it.

I guess alot of people on this board are doing VERY illegal things. I've heard people buying an XP 1600+ and turning it into an 1800+!!! They didn't pay for an 1800+ CPU, so that would be considered wrong or illegal in your book, right?

Pretty silly to suggest on a public forum that people commit unethical and immoral (and possibly illegal) acts.

You should see the Overclocking forum, they're doing all kinds of immoral things with CPU. Damn those immoral overclockers!

 

[Lord Evermore]

Theft of service and modification of a physical product that you've outright purchased are not the same thing.

 

[drquest]

Charter can put a filter on your line so you would only be a data customer, but they will sell you video of course or if you don't want it they will charge an additional $10 over their regular Pipeline rate.

Back to the original poster's question, depending on where you are I'd check DSLreports and see how your local cable company performs. Cable companies can and will be different depending on what area you are in. Honestly, 160ms ping times sound pretty bad to me, so I'd say go with cable to try it out.

mrpeabody

 

[Kingofcomputer]

When someone moves out of the apartment unit A, Charter doesn't come to turn off the switch.
If someone else in unit B orders cable tv, Charter comes to turn on it and also turn off the switch for unit A.

I got free cable tv (not legal and not illegal) when I moved to an apartment, the previous tenant had subscription. Later it's off because of the neighbour ordered subscription. Then I ordered cable internet, so they came to turn it on.
I had such experience many times as I move often.

It's only illegal if you go to change the cable tv control switch in your apartment or in the terminal on the street.
It's the cable company's property and of course locked.

 

[BentValve]

Originally posted by: mrpeabody

Back to the original poster's question, depending on where you are I'd check DSLreports and see how your local cable company performs. Cable companies can and will be different depending on what area you are in. Honestly, 160ms ping times sound pretty bad to me, so I'd say go with cable to try it out.

mrpeabody

Well I am the original poster and I made the switch , I did not have high expectations at all for it so I kept my DSL line going. 2 days later I found myself running
to get the DSL cut off. Turns out cable is actually 1800/256 and I am averaging 1700/250 99% of the time so far as I can tell.
My download speeds have more than tripled and its very noticable.
For example I can go to Apple's website and watch any of the movie trailers at their highest quality settings and I can watch it
immediately , the playback speed does not catch up to the download speed, in fact the movies are usually downloaded before
I am 1/2 way thru watching them! I could never do this with DSL, I usually would hit the pause button and wait several minutes
for it to download.
I have recorded as high as 300kbps or 2640 on several occations!!

At first I felt foolish that I kept DSL so long but 3 years ago I did try cable and it was horrible, turns out they were still building alot of the
area up, now its done and it works way better than my DSL ever did, my pings much better as well.

 

[Pulsar]

I can't believe Jack is even arguing this.

Splitting the Cable service off the internet line and then WATCHING it without paying for it is illegal. Period.

There is no analogy, no rationalization, no twist of logic that can get you out of a simple fact. There really isn't any point to even argue it.

You don't use a toll road for free just because the gate is broken (well... some folks do, as evidenced by Jack's post).

 

[Lord Evermore]

BentValve: you're lucky. Not all cable service problems are just due to them not being done building out the network. We used cable Internet service for about 4 years. Started off great, was great for 2 years, nearly perfect service. Company got bought out, started having problems. Eventually were having outages once a week, even though the throughput was still awesome. Company was spun off, service got worse, more outages of different types. Moved, got service installed again at new location (was shying away from DSL due to expense). Service was just as bad. Comcast bought out company. Service went to hell immediately. Online gaming became impossible, even getting worse from the initial problems (not just laggy, outright disconnection from every server at all times). Ordered DSL, got it installed, all problems went away, and it ends up being cheaper because we're sharing it with the other people in this house.

 

[isaacmacdonald]

The only time the cable service will know you're "stealing" cable is if you're using an addressable cable box. Otherwise, all they know is if they've installed a filter or not.

Regardless, TV sucks. Especially the crap you'd be getting for free. In fact, even when you have a cheapo descrabler (about $80), you'll find that premium cable sucks just as much as regular cable. Hell, even cable pron sucks.

That said, cable can be fast as sh*t, and you don't have to deal with arcane ISP NAT devices that won't let you get active connections, so I'd go cable (if the isp is reputable of course)

 

[Lord Evermore]

What "arcane ISP NAT devices" would you be referring to? You mean a ROUTER, like the ones you have to use with cable service unless you want to pay an extra 10 to 15 dollars for a couple of extra IPs?

There are no "reputable" cable ISPs. The only ISPs there are for cable anymore are the cable companies themselves.

Cable can be fast as sh*t, but it can be slow as sh*t too. I personally couldn't recommend Comcast for anyone doing anything more than website browsing and email, and the fact that cable companies are consolidating and building monopolies faster than even the phone companies can't be good for consumers.