Mike,

Personally, I have SBC DSL. I like it. I get 1.5Mbit/sec download rates.
I know four other people (family and friends) that have Comcast cable,
and while it seems fine when it is working, they have periodic problems.
All of them have sporadic instances where they have to power cycle the
cable modem. I am not sure if it is a hardware problem or something more
endemic to to the cable infrastructure. On cable, you have to realize
that you are sharing the cable with many other people in your
neighborhood. With DSL, you have your own private line back to the phone
company central office. One benefit you can get with cable though, if
you go with a VOIP phone service (like Vonage for example), you can
totally eliminate any phone lines in the house, but not everyone would
be comfortable with this, like if you lost power in the house and needed
to call 911, VOIP would not work.

On value, I signed up with SBC almost two years ago when it was
$29.95/mo. The equipment is included (after rebate) free, and that is
for a full year. Most cable offers only have lower monthly rates for the
first three months, so in the long run, DSL is cheaper. In addition,
near the end of my one year of service, they said that if I agreed to a
one year extension, they would keep my current $29.95 rate. I can't
vouch whether they still do that or not, but two years at $20 less/month
than cable (which is $49.95) adds up to $480 savings.

I share the connection with two other computers (on wireless) and my PDA
(also wireless) in the house. You do NOT need a second IP, whether it be
cable or DSL, all you need is an internet router. Most of the ones these
days are very good at setup, walking you through the process and you
don't really need any experience. You can get wired routers for about
$20 now, and wireless ones for less than $40.

Russ Poffenberger
[log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael
> C. Williams
> Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2004 4:29 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [PCBUILD] DSL versus cable
>
>
> 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.
>
> Thanks for any assistance provided.
>
> Mike Williams
>
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