Tom- I am not an expert but I have had cable and had 2 different dsl providers. I have also customized my dsl modem and network addressing.
Cable is usually faster- Also I think it has faster upload speed if that matters to you- I do up load files but dont swaeat the speed decrease.
Dsl is supposedly more secure because you have a direct connection to phone company and a cable is a "party line" network of computers- A neighbor hodd hacker wanabe might pratice on your systems- I never had that problem though.
I think multiple computers will slow down any Internet connection. If they are all accessing the innternet simultainiously. They will have to share the bandwith.
You might not have the slow downs due to other users but then again you might. Some times my connection is slower for no apparent reason.
Your wiring is probably ok- you will need filters for everything except the dsl modem- I have a home office and got one of those phone-fax-message switches and the instructions said to use 2 filters so I did and it works fine.
You should have no trouble with using your linksys router to a dsl modem- It should work just like your cable. Check to see which modems are available- most new ones can be configured from you web browser so you don't have to load any of the dsl software on your computers (one less thing to get screwed up in my opinion)
Bottom line It will work as well as cable but assume it will be slower. If a slight slow down
say 20-30 % is ok for half the price then switch.
I use DSL light which is a throttled down dsl for $10 less a month and am happy.
If you have standard telephone wiring, it's compatible.
You don't need to pull off any wall-plates.
As far as speed - well, I don't know. Zixar or HeGotHope might be able to better answer that.
I had DSL for a year, and it kept cutting out unexpectedly, and at times it was slow. I have cable now, and have had it for 2 years, and love it. I have had virtually no problems with it, and have not noticed any speed problems.
As far as distance to the switch - 12,000 feet is just over 2 miles. You *have* to be within 2 miles or so of a switch or you won't *get* DSL. Something about too much signal degradation.
I'm assuming that the reason you are considering switching is monetary. Well, you can try it and switch back if there are too many issues. I'd get a guarantee or something from the guy.
quote:1) He said that I was within 12,000 feet of the switch so I should always experience good speed. I asked him what that meant and he said I should always be around 1500 or 1600 kbps.
I have dsl. I do some side work for an isp that is the re-seller of the dsl that I have. At 12,000 feet, you are at the edge of even being able to get dsl. But please note, the measurement is NOT "as the crow fly's", it's "as the wire winds", so to speak :)-->. In other words, you could be only a mile from the central office, but the trunk your on could possibly be a 3 mile run of wire before it gets to your house. Also, if your line has been cut and spliced to many times, it will degrade the speed. I have a friend who works for sbc that put me on a different trunk(less copper to travel, with fewer splices) when he came to do the demarcation(I believe that's what he called it) so I would get better speed.
quote:
...He claims that there will be no slowdowns from additional users within the house being online, that my 1500 to 1600 will be constant and will be fully available to each user. (this is a concern as most of my wife's time online is working via Citrix and it seems to hog a lot of bandwidth)
3) He also claims that I won't experience the fluctuations that I do when other households "downstream or upstream" are using their cable to access.
I don't know which of these lies ticks me off the most! To address the first one, if you have 1500mb/s total bandwidth at your router, that is the MAXIMUM bandwidth you have. Now, say your wife is watching a video stream on her computer, and you attempt to download something on your computer, of COURSE you are not going to have the full 1500 mb/s available! All computers on your home network will have 1500 to share, and that's it...not 1500 per computer.
As far as the second statement, while each neighborhood isn't running off of one node like with cable, you still only have the maximum bandwidth of the providers t-1(s) or ds-1 or whatever they have. So on a busy night, if they have oversold thier available bandwidth and you get a LOT of people using it all at once, there will still be a bottle-neck.
As far as your wiring, shouldn't be a problem there.
I'm not saying don't get dsl...I have it and I'm happy with it. But go to some of the dsl forums and get informed before you make the switch. Don't let some sbc sales rep lie to you!
Thanks for the replies guys. What you're saying is exactly how I understood it to be... that's why I kept pressing him... all of his claims were direct responses to me pressing him on these items... I'll check out the site as well...
And you're correct Steve!, it's purely money... if I can get "close to" what I have now for half the price, I'll switch... but I'm beginning to think I'm not going to get "close to"...
Also check out the company that is offering the DSL. Some of these small companies that might offer 'unbeatable' deals might not be around tomorrow, as there is still a shakeout going on between companies. Usually its the bigger companies, particularly phone companies (who typically own/control the phone line backbone networks) that offer more security and stability in the DSL accounts. Note I said *usually*, not *always*.
I have had very good service, both in connection uptime, and tech help, with Bellsouth FastAccess DSL. They aren't the cheapest (I don't believe any of the phone company offered DSL services are), but if stable and secure conections are a big thing with you, you might want to consider thesekinds of companies.
And as usual, it still is a case of "Let the Buyer Beware!", so watch your step, etc.
It's SBC Garth... (essentially the same guys you deal with I guess)... I was checking around, I suppose I can get the super duper version for about $10 more than I'm paying for the cable now... in which case, why should I switch yet? The cable seems to be Okay...
SBC and BellSouth jointly own Cingular Wireless, but they are not merged in any other way.
Tom, if you need more bandwidth, do what I did: keep both cable and DSL and get a load-balancing router. (Xincom DPG-402, $99) Of course, it sounds like you're trying to lower your monthly bill, but if you need the fatter pipe, it's the easiest way to go.
DSL modems typically have a built-in router themselves. This can cause a little bit of a configuration headache if you don't know it's there. It generally has a web-based interface that you can turn off the router in the modem and pass everything to your wireless, or you can just have them both act as routers, recognizing that any port forwarding and the like will have to be done twice--once on each router for each application.
Another thing you might check is if your communications lines are Digital or Analog.
Analog are the old type copper wire telephone lines. Digital are the newer Fiber Optics type telephone lines.
The city where i live is mostly the Analog telephone lines. But about 6 to 7 years ago the telephone company put in a Digital telephone line system for our school system. One of the school teachers that i know said that he thought that the Analog lines were good untill the school got the Digital lines put in. From want he said, the school computers which were about the same kind as he had at home, were a heck of a lot faster for the internet on geting to the web sites and for uploading and downloading.
But i think that most areas are still the old analog lines, unless your area has upgraded to the Digital telephone lines.
If you're in an area that has what they call IFITL (pronounced eye-fiddle) then you have digital fiber to the curb, and the only copper is between the house and the junction box. IFITL stands for "Integrated Fiber In The Loop". Many phone companies use this type of technology to offer phone, broadband, and cable-tv off of a single digital pipe.
In fact, with IFITL telephone lines, you don't really have DSL, you have a direct Ethernet connection to the fiber trunk.
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ckeer
Tom- I am not an expert but I have had cable and had 2 different dsl providers. I have also customized my dsl modem and network addressing.
Cable is usually faster- Also I think it has faster upload speed if that matters to you- I do up load files but dont swaeat the speed decrease.
Dsl is supposedly more secure because you have a direct connection to phone company and a cable is a "party line" network of computers- A neighbor hodd hacker wanabe might pratice on your systems- I never had that problem though.
I think multiple computers will slow down any Internet connection. If they are all accessing the innternet simultainiously. They will have to share the bandwith.
You might not have the slow downs due to other users but then again you might. Some times my connection is slower for no apparent reason.
Your wiring is probably ok- you will need filters for everything except the dsl modem- I have a home office and got one of those phone-fax-message switches and the instructions said to use 2 filters so I did and it works fine.
You should have no trouble with using your linksys router to a dsl modem- It should work just like your cable. Check to see which modems are available- most new ones can be configured from you web browser so you don't have to load any of the dsl software on your computers (one less thing to get screwed up in my opinion)
Bottom line It will work as well as cable but assume it will be slower. If a slight slow down
say 20-30 % is ok for half the price then switch.
I use DSL light which is a throttled down dsl for $10 less a month and am happy.
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Steve!
As far as the wiring -
If you have standard telephone wiring, it's compatible.
You don't need to pull off any wall-plates.
As far as speed - well, I don't know. Zixar or HeGotHope might be able to better answer that.
I had DSL for a year, and it kept cutting out unexpectedly, and at times it was slow. I have cable now, and have had it for 2 years, and love it. I have had virtually no problems with it, and have not noticed any speed problems.
As far as distance to the switch - 12,000 feet is just over 2 miles. You *have* to be within 2 miles or so of a switch or you won't *get* DSL. Something about too much signal degradation.
I'm assuming that the reason you are considering switching is monetary. Well, you can try it and switch back if there are too many issues. I'd get a guarantee or something from the guy.
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Bluzeman
Lie number one:
I have dsl. I do some side work for an isp that is the re-seller of the dsl that I have. At 12,000 feet, you are at the edge of even being able to get dsl. But please note, the measurement is NOT "as the crow fly's", it's "as the wire winds", so to speak
:)-->. In other words, you could be only a mile from the central office, but the trunk your on could possibly be a 3 mile run of wire before it gets to your house. Also, if your line has been cut and spliced to many times, it will degrade the speed. I have a friend who works for sbc that put me on a different trunk(less copper to travel, with fewer splices) when he came to do the demarcation(I believe that's what he called it) so I would get better speed.
quote:
...He claims that there will be no slowdowns from additional users within the house being online, that my 1500 to 1600 will be constant and will be fully available to each user. (this is a concern as most of my wife's time online is working via Citrix and it seems to hog a lot of bandwidth)
3) He also claims that I won't experience the fluctuations that I do when other households "downstream or upstream" are using their cable to access.
I don't know which of these lies ticks me off the most! To address the first one, if you have 1500mb/s total bandwidth at your router, that is the MAXIMUM bandwidth you have. Now, say your wife is watching a video stream on her computer, and you attempt to download something on your computer, of COURSE you are not going to have the full 1500 mb/s available! All computers on your home network will have 1500 to share, and that's it...not 1500 per computer.
As far as the second statement, while each neighborhood isn't running off of one node like with cable, you still only have the maximum bandwidth of the providers t-1(s) or ds-1 or whatever they have. So on a busy night, if they have oversold thier available bandwidth and you get a LOT of people using it all at once, there will still be a bottle-neck.
As far as your wiring, shouldn't be a problem there.
I'm not saying don't get dsl...I have it and I'm happy with it. But go to some of the dsl forums and get informed before you make the switch. Don't let some sbc sales rep lie to you!
Rick
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Bluzeman
You might want to check www.dslreports.com for information about how good the dsl in your area is.
Rick
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Tom Strange
Thanks for the replies guys. What you're saying is exactly how I understood it to be... that's why I kept pressing him... all of his claims were direct responses to me pressing him on these items... I'll check out the site as well...
And you're correct Steve!, it's purely money... if I can get "close to" what I have now for half the price, I'll switch... but I'm beginning to think I'm not going to get "close to"...
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GarthP2000
Also check out the company that is offering the DSL. Some of these small companies that might offer 'unbeatable' deals might not be around tomorrow, as there is still a shakeout going on between companies. Usually its the bigger companies, particularly phone companies (who typically own/control the phone line backbone networks) that offer more security and stability in the DSL accounts. Note I said *usually*, not *always*.
I have had very good service, both in connection uptime, and tech help, with Bellsouth FastAccess DSL. They aren't the cheapest (I don't believe any of the phone company offered DSL services are), but if stable and secure conections are a big thing with you, you might want to consider thesekinds of companies.
And as usual, it still is a case of "Let the Buyer Beware!", so watch your step, etc.
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Tom Strange
It's SBC Garth... (essentially the same guys you deal with I guess)... I was checking around, I suppose I can get the super duper version for about $10 more than I'm paying for the cable now... in which case, why should I switch yet? The cable seems to be Okay...
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GarthP2000
SBC? I don't think so, unless Bellsouth rents/operates some of their cables/equipment, and I kinda doubt that.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
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Tom Strange
I thought they were part of the SBC giant (SW Bell, Ameritech, PacBell, etc)
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GarthP2000
Actually, SBC does own these phone spinoffs that were once part of AT&T:
Ameritech, Southern New England Telecommunications, and Pacific Telesis Group.
So it looks like you got a solid company to work with anyway.
Now all you have to look for is the good customer and tech support and good connections, and you're golden.
And overall, what the DSL guy told you was true.
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Zixar
SBC and BellSouth jointly own Cingular Wireless, but they are not merged in any other way.
Tom, if you need more bandwidth, do what I did: keep both cable and DSL and get a load-balancing router. (Xincom DPG-402, $99) Of course, it sounds like you're trying to lower your monthly bill, but if you need the fatter pipe, it's the easiest way to go.
DSL modems typically have a built-in router themselves. This can cause a little bit of a configuration headache if you don't know it's there. It generally has a web-based interface that you can turn off the router in the modem and pass everything to your wireless, or you can just have them both act as routers, recognizing that any port forwarding and the like will have to be done twice--once on each router for each application.
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Steve!
SBC and Bellsouth jointly own Cingular?
Hmmmmm. And Cingular just recently bought AT&T Wireless.
So it looks like we're coming full circle.
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Tom Strange
Yeah. I'm trying to get the bandwidth I have now for less money.
If I'm reading you guys right, I'm not going to be getting what I have now. In addition to that, there's not much "nice" said at that site about SBC.
I think I'll pass on it... thanks for your help.
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danteh1
Another thing you might check is if your communications lines are Digital or Analog.
Analog are the old type copper wire telephone lines. Digital are the newer Fiber Optics type telephone lines.
The city where i live is mostly the Analog telephone lines. But about 6 to 7 years ago the telephone company put in a Digital telephone line system for our school system. One of the school teachers that i know said that he thought that the Analog lines were good untill the school got the Digital lines put in. From want he said, the school computers which were about the same kind as he had at home, were a heck of a lot faster for the internet on geting to the web sites and for uploading and downloading.
But i think that most areas are still the old analog lines, unless your area has upgraded to the Digital telephone lines.
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Zixar
If you're in an area that has what they call IFITL (pronounced eye-fiddle) then you have digital fiber to the curb, and the only copper is between the house and the junction box. IFITL stands for "Integrated Fiber In The Loop". Many phone companies use this type of technology to offer phone, broadband, and cable-tv off of a single digital pipe.
In fact, with IFITL telephone lines, you don't really have DSL, you have a direct Ethernet connection to the fiber trunk.
For what it's worth,
Zix
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