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>>Diane Kroeckel wrote;
>>I'm currently using a dial up modem. I'm thinking of switching to DSL or
>>Cable. Can you tell me what is better or faster? Any good companies to
>>use?
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I had cable and switched to DSL for two reasons. (1) There were times (high use times) when my speed with cable degraded badly, and (2) My power and my phone rarely go out, even with storms, while my cable frequently goes out. And even if all are out, the power and phone lines are restored before the cable service is restored.
1. The speed of DSL is more stable and dependable because you are not sharing a line with your neighbors in the same way that you are with cable. The speed of DSL depends upon how far (miles) you are from a main switching center or hub. Whatever speed you get based on your distance is steady - more dependable than the speed of cable. Cable is "potentially" faster, but your speed degrades as more users come online in your area.
2. I lose cable service much more frequently than telephone service (phone service almost never goes out). With cable, you can lose your internet access even if your power doesn't go out. And another caveat - one service at the time gets access to repair their lines (in case of storms & such), the next service gains access for repair after the prior service has finished. The order of repair access is: (1) power (2) phone (3) cable. Cable is last in line for repair access, so I have found that I had much more more lost internet access time with cable.
As far as "any good companies to use," unfortunately, as far as I know, competing cable companies and competing local phone service are not allowed to serve the same areas - there is one local phone company and one local cable company - hence I guess they are not actually "competing" are they? You can ADD an ISP on top of the DSL or cable service you choose, but that is just an unnecessary added expense. That is, I THINK that is how it is today - it used to be that Earthlink could offer broadband on DSL, using your phone company's line IN SOME AREAS, (which, oddly, was cheaper than straight DSL through the phone company - I had this for awhile in Raleigh, NC), etc., but I thought they had either done away with that or were planning to do away with it - although I could be mistaken on this point. A shame to remove good competition.
Anna Summers
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