Not many people use Satellite connection. One big flaw--If you get rain, you dont get signal--
My friend had it, and cancelled it 3 days into the raining season, poor guy

You get reception the same as your Satellite TV (which I have had for over 6 years).  I have only lost signal about 4 times.  Which really didn't matter, because the the power went out minutes after losing signal.

I'm more interested in if the download and upload speeds are what they publish or not.

A friend of mine had AT&T satellite and he said it was fast and great. You just had to make sure no tree limbs blocked the line of sight.

ive got a damn dialup, i hate it, but its all i can get in my area, ive clocked a download at nearly 5kpsbut usually its between .7k and 3.5k.

poor me

Personally, I use DSL and am quite happy with it.

I've currently got a 2528k/864k link for $45CAN/month. But I don't need that much speed, so I'm dropping it back to 1500k/640k for $35CAN/month.

On that I get 2 IP addresses (cable in this area only gets one), 25Mb of web space, and 25Mb of email space (and for some reason, they don't include attachments when calculating space allotments). I tried to send an 8Mb file to a friend with cable and, even though his email account was cleaned out, it bounced. Sending the same file to another friend with DSL, it went through. I've sent emails with 15Mb attachments to DSL accounts and never had any problems with them.

Also (although this may be a practice of the cable company in my area), but my friend with cable was unable to get a good (if any) ping rate off of my system when we were trying some direct link gaming, and yet, neither of us had a problem connecting to a 3rd friend in Resolute (very far north Canadian military base), who was using the monstrously huge 10 meter dish to connect to the data satellites.

Now, I do have to say, in cable's defense, that they did get rid of the annoying data ghosting they had at one time. Data ghosting: Your kid is surfing the net looking for information for his history project and images from your next door neighbour's porn surfing are ghosted onto his monitor (no colour in the images, a lot like ghosting images on your TV when a station isn't coming in right). Didn't happen often, but it did enough to be a problem.

All in all, I have to say that I prefer DSL for my home.

I have Cable 1.5mb/s right now. Even though it doesn't seem like it. They are still updating the lines in my area to fiber so Charter seems to lag alot.

/me would like to get "Road Runner"

By what I heard this is faster then T3, I still have to check the speed chart on it. Road Runner is connected to several goverment areas. Sorry, can't tell you how I know. I just know.

If it's not as fast as I heard. Then T3 would be great, I know a building that has that line also But by what I heard, for them to lay that, they need to put the lines through a pipe that is I think 10feet in diameter or bigger. Not sure where they run that baby to, just know you better have the $$$$$$$$$$$$$ and land to lay that down.

/me said his comments and now leaves.

I've had my Roadrunner cable for about 14 months now. If I ever had to go back to dial-up, just shoot me and get it over with.

I have Road Runner cable, and I can tell you that I always have one of the best ping times in any online game I play (usually UT2003).

Downloads are screaming fast, service is very reliable, cost is very good, about $45/month.

T1 - 1.544 Mbps (megabits per second) both directions
T3 - 45 Mbps both directions

My current cable connection - 3Mbps down / 256kbps up
My previous DSL connection - 1.5Mbps down / 160kbps up

Best for home user would be either cable or DSL, depending on area and provider. T1 = expensive and T3 = REALLY expensive.


I've been very happy with the cable modem, myself. DSL was not only lower performance network, but also lower performance technical support and customer service (both cost about the same in my area).

T3...very fast...I love it. We get it at a highly discounted rate of $150 per day.

@ kona –
The Dedicated Digital Line vs. Shared Bandwidth is pretty much a myth perpetuated by DSL providers that while at one point, in theory was somewhat true, does not hold true with today’s hardware. It still pops up here and there, but a majority of the hardware that the cable lines were using has been replaced and these days the “shared bandwidth” thing is the same on cable as it is on DSL, dial-up, or what ever, that being that we’re ALL going to experience a performance hit if loads of people are using the same pipes that we are in the same area, regardless of our connection type. I had just as much of a perf hit during “Prime Time” on my DSL line as I do on my cable line, which at times is hardly noticeable. And according to the figures in my area, the cable users outnumber the DSL users almost 4 to 1.

Although my speed varies, I was pulling down 4MB files in about five minutes on my DSL line. On my cable line I get these same files from the same location in just over a minute.

So needless to say (then why am I saying it you ask?), I’m happier with my cable line.

@ KarmaGirl –
Satellite has come a long way since it first came out, but it still suffers from latency issues which are pretty much a fact of life because of the distance that the signals have to travel. Until someone comes up with a way to break some of the laws of physics (or finds a lower orbit) there will always be a slight latency issue. This is actually only an issue if you’re a gamer, because you need the precision, and with the latency in the satellite signal you’re gonna get pwned by every L337 Do0d in the game. Other than that it is a great option if you simply cannot get broadband in your area.

Btw, T3 @ work and it's not even a contest... hehe...

I read about halfway down and didnt see anyone mention ISDN. If ISDN was offered in my area, I would take it. I'm on cable as it is. ISDN is not the fastest, but it is adequate for home users.

ISDN is offered here in my area but I choose not to get it. i heard that my DSL is cheaper. We also have the choice of cable.

If you like dial-up, you'll like ISDN twice as much

I hate dial up... Even if it means I never get online again, I will never use dial up as long as I live, but don't quote me on that!!!!

KarmaGirl says:
You get reception the same as your Satellite TV (which I have had for over 6 years). I have only lost signal about 4 times. Which really didn't matter, because the the power went out minutes after losing signal. I'm more interested in if the download and upload speeds are what they publish or not.

Peter says:
I used to have DirecPC. My download was usually higher than the 750Kbps, usually around 1000Kbps. If you can't get cable or DSL it's the way to go. The upload was usually arount 110 to 115Kbps which was not the 128 Kbps advertized. The latency was a drawback, but the difference over dial-up was like night and day.

I currently have Adelphia cable (just checked 2261Kbps) however peak times it drops to 1500Kbps. I don't game so I don't worry or check upload much. This speed costs me $59 per month, which I can't afford right now, so I've ordered Verizon DSL which is 1500Kbps and cost's $35 per month.
Peter




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[Message Edited]

My ADSL is 1500/256 and is incredibly stable in my area... Quite a bit more desirable than the unstable Cable offerings here.

I just discontinued my cable! It was $45 a month and I could achieve download speeds of
100k bytes/sec and upload was capped at 10k bytes /sec (sux). I ordered dsl last week, and until my dsl was active i went to dialup (oh dear god, it really sux bad). My dsl provider provides 3 speed options which price out at $35, $45, $135 per month.....I chose the middle option because download speed is at T1.....I am now getting over 200k+ bytes /sec download and 30k bytes /sec upload....This rocks! I am currently looking into buying a home and really would love to live in the country, but until DSL or cable is available in rural areas, im gonna stay with good old city life! My few days tring to surf the web on dialup were aweful, i could no longer play my games, my file transfer program was useless and life just sucked, once you taste the speed, you will never go back!

Long live DSL!!!!!!!


AK