>         Well probably the biggest pro that goes for DSL is
> > that the pipe to your
> > home is yours, no sharing bandwidth, no security concerns.
>
> This isn't exactly true. Cable shares on the wire (like a party line); DSL
> may or may not share from the Central Office to the ISP.

        I was referring only from the link from home to the CO (the "last mile"),
after that one never knows.

> Bandwidth is a commodity, and it costs money. For the most part, with DSL
> you get what you pay for.
>
> ADSL (asymmetric DSL) means your upload speed isn't the same as your
> download speed (you usually see something like 640k down, 64k up). This is
> just the beginning of the differences - ADSL is usually priced in the
> $50/month range, and is positioned as "consumer" or "home" DSL.

        Here in Canada it is significantly less expensive than that ($39.99/month
CND, around $27.19/month USD + plus taxes (7% I think)), I failed to mention
prices because I knew prices would vary, that is also why I said at the end
of my post "barring price differences between the two". Here in Canada cable
and ADSL are the same price.

> ADSL accounts usually do not get a static IP, so running a server
> or a home
> network is more complicated (but doable). HOWEVER, manymany ISP ADSL user
> contracts *prohibit* running any kind of web or email server, or using the
> account for more than one computer.

        AFAIK cable does not offer a static IP either, although it is almost
static. All Cable contracts I've seen specify the same thing, no servers of
any kind, that doesn't stop people though...

> Finally, ADSL usually has no service level agreement (SLA), or if it does,
> it's very low. I know Bell Atlantic has NO bandwidth guarantee - if you're
> connected, but running at 3k instead of 640k, then as far as BA
> is concerned
> they're fulfilling their side of the agreement. (GTE's SLA on ADSL is
> something like 48k - less than a dialup modem)

        I don't know of what is promised here in Canada, but be assured, the market
is so volatile that if any deception goes on people will switch VERY
quickly. In fact, in my area one of the cable providers has been suffering
many server problems (mostly with EMAIL of all things, although the DHCP
server has been pretty unreliable as well). I know of a few people that had
enough, dropped cable and are now with ADSL. In any case, SLA is pretty
meaningless, most companies promise very little to avoid litigation, and
most of the contracts mention that bandwidth may vary. Remember, the fastest
modem speed over a landline is officially around 300bps (although some areas
promise 1200bps).

> SDSL (symmetric DSL)has both upload and download speeds the same, but the
> most important thing is it's usually a more "professionally oriented"
> service. Static IP's are the norm, home networks and running
> servers (within
> limits) expressly allowed, etc. There's also usually an SLA (my
> DSL provider
> promises 80% bandwidth at all times)
> The trade-off: you get what you pay for: 192k/192k SDSL will run me
> $90/month.

        Don't know anything about this, not offered here (at least it isn't
advertised).

> The thing with cablemodems and ADSL - during early adoption you'll rarely
> see much bandwidth problems. The threat is "as more people sign
> up", but we
> don't know if that'll happen or what the effects will be. It's entirely
> possible we won't see problems at all on the throttling side, but
> there's no
> telling.

     Yes, but what I was trying to get at is that your pipe to the company
is shared on Cable, it is conceivable that somebody with a packet sniffer
(on a modified modem) could easily view what you are sending. With ADSL you
don't have to worry about that, until it reaches the CO of course. Plus, as
on a LAN, as more people start using it in your neighbour, no matter how
free the CO to ISP pipe is, you performance will be sluggish. Both are
equally good products, I just prefer ADSL (again barring price differences).
My post was trying to be general, not addressing subtleties present in
different company's implementations. TTYL

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