Russ covered your questions well, and I'll add this:
Speed tests are widely available. Try
http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/  Google wil find you many more. My
Comcast connection just gave me a speed of 3.2MBs/second.  I understand
these tests are not always reliable, but that's beyond my expertise.  Cable
is usually 2-3 times the speed of DSL.
Comcast has been very reliable here in MD. All my clients have had to learn
how to cycle their modems which is a minor problem, but a disadvantage
nonetheless. Comcast service has been efficient and courteous in all but a
very few cases.
Sharing a connection is very simple with a router. I currently have 4
computers sharing my connection-1 XP pro, 1 XP home, 1 Linux and 1 Win98
(Wireless). These machines can all share files via network. There's lots of
great sites about this technology and you can start here:
http://www.homenethelp.com/
Prices are constantly changing for this hardware, but if you want to use the
laptop wirelessly, Linksys was recently offering a PCMCIA card with wireless
router for about $100.00. All my hardware is Linksys, but other companies'
equipment seems to work just fine. Hardware review sites are abundant also.
Try:  http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/  (Which is a great newsletter also).
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I am not sure if this venue is appropriate for my question on DSL versus
cable, but I am looking for advice and/or recommendations.  Currently I use
Comcast cable at a total cost of about $46 per month for the connection and
modem rental.  I like the cable speed (is there a way to check download
speed?) and the connection has been very reliable.  Because I have two
computers connected thru a router and use two IP addresses, Comcast is going
to start charging me about $7 per month more.  I don't need 2 IP's, but
don't know how to connect both computers using only one IP address.  DSL is
now being offered in my area by SBC and I can get service for about $27 per
month.  There will be some startup cost, but only about $100 I think because
of promotional offers; also I will get 2 months free service.

Now for my question:  Is cable more reliable and enough faster to justify
this cost disparity which will be on the order of $26 per month?  For
information I have one Northgate desktop computer (Windows XP pro) and one
HP laptop (Win XP home) computer connected.  The SBC rep told me that a
firewall and spam protection are provided, but these may be what many ISP's
provide.

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