DSL vs. Cable

[Christopher Pippin 937894]

I'll be moving soon and for high-speed internet and VATSIM i've always used Cable. However my new place of living I have a choice between Cable (more expensive) and DSL (cheaper) internet connections.

 

So my question is: Does anyone have DSL connection? If so, is it fair equivalent (to Cable) when it comes VOIP capability and clarity and connection quality while connected to the VATSIM Network?

 

Blue Skies.

[Ernesto Alvarez 818262]

all depends on the provider. ive had both DSL and Cable here in florida, both have been about the same except the DSL had some issues maintaining the connection during storms. doesnt happen with all carriers tho, so really depends locally. when i lived in NJ i had the opposite, the cable would constantly disconnect during storms and the DSL would stay on

 

you can have them test your lines aswell to make sure what theyre advertising is exactly what you are getting when it comes to speed.

[Richard Walsh]

DSL is slower but cheaper. Dial up still works for VATSIM. That's what I used years ago when I started.

[Jody Turner 1018734]

Nothing but cable can suffice!

[Richard Gerrish]

cable will give you more bang for your buck depending on your market and equipment. ironically the guy one building away can't get the highest package available out here without having maintenance redo the lines in the apt.

[Alistair Thomson]

Nothing but cable can suffice!

Correct as far as high speed apps are concerned, but just to make it clear to the OP, the bandwidth requirement for VATSIM is miniscule. As another poster said, even dial-up is good enough.

 

So, as far as VATSIM is concerned, you can use whatever connection you like.

[Brad Littlejohn]

Nothing but cable can suffice!

Correct as far as high speed apps are concerned, but just to make it clear to the OP, the bandwidth requirement for VATSIM is miniscule. As another poster said, even dial-up is good enough.

 

So, as far as VATSIM is concerned, you can use whatever connection you like.

 

And even to that, Dial-up is more than enough. My first 3 years on SATCO/VATSIM were over a 33.6Kbps modem. No degradation of voice quality, no issues with heavy amounts of traffic, or any issue that I could think of.. Thinking back about it, I want to say that all of it during the last major event I used it on (it was a California Screamin'), I used on average no more than 12Kb/s in the heavy traffic area, and down to as little as 3Kb/s. And that was multiplayer and voice.

 

Cable? You'll be fine. DSL? You'll be fine. If you get your own OC-48 line? We'll need to talk.

 

BL.

[Joe Prokopanko 998876]

Make sure you read the fine print before you sign on the dotted line, no matter which option you choose.

 

Here in CYTH, we have two choices: MTS (DSL, around 3mbps down/1mbps up) or Shaw (around 8mbps down/3mbps up) for pretty much the same price.

 

Shaw has a data transfer cap of 50GB/month (combined downstream/upstream data). MTS has no such cap in their agreement.

 

Have a Netflix account? Buy movies off Itunes? Use uTorrent a lot? Play a lot of games besides MSFS? (Modern Warfare 2 is the biggest culprit here in terms of data use)

 

You'll run over that cap in less than a week (at least I would). You get an email from them at 50GB warning you to slow down, and at 75GB you get cut off until the 1st of the next month. That would be around the 10th of the month for me, every month. The only option to get more bandwidth is to upgrade your service - - get 125gb/month for the low, low price of only 89.95/month

 

I think you can guess which one I went with. Chances are, there *may* be a similar thing with your ISP selection in your area...so don't just look purely at the connection speed when deciding.

 

If Comcast is the cable choice, I can tell you from first-hand information that there IS a data cap like this, and it's around 200gb/month.

 

Food for thought.

 

-JP

[Garry Morris 920567]

Bear in mind that distance from the trunk will affect your upload/download speed with DSL - hence the "do your homework" statement above. Just because DSL advertises a rate doesn't mean you can get it if you're more than 5 feet from their trunk.

[Ryan Whitford 995253]

ok! Hi how ya doing?

 

Alright DSL.. good luck that's all I can say, when I had it I had nothing but drops in the connection. It seems that it can't hold a correct internet speed. Its not really affected by the weather but it is tied with your phone line so if you don't have DSL filters on any of your phones your connection will drop if you pick up the phone.

 

I have comcast, and I'm fully satisfied with it. I love my 2.5 Meg download with power boost. DSL Is not as fast the most I've seen is 1 Meg.. Dont quote me though

[Alistair Thomson]

Alright DSL.. Its not really affected by the weather but it is tied with your phone line so if you don't have DSL filters on any of your phones your connection will drop if you pick up the phone.

Correct. That's why you should have the filters in place, as supplied by your ISP… I had DSL for years and had no problems. I used the filters. So I could use the phone at the same time as using the Internet.