Discussion on:

Comcast raises broadband speed

Having been a long time cable internet user, and more recently at another site, a dSL (Verizon) user, I fail to see the comparisons at all. DSL has proven to be highly unreliable in my instance. Since it's speed and reliabiity depend on proximity to the switching station, those that are close will indeed get their 1.5 Mb speed. More than likely though on average the best speed you will get is 756Kb orless. My experience is also that the Verizon version of DSL, effectively shuts down around dinnertime, probably because of saturation.
I have also been told by Verizon techs themselves, that if a T1 is in the bundle I am using, severe intereference can result, causing severe degradation of DSL. I'm not sure about the other DSL providors, but it seems to me they too use the same transmission mediums.
I have talked to many business users, who swear that they get phenomenal speed out of their DSL. I suspect though, that this is their first broadband connection, and don't know any better. For my money, the cable in 4 years has not let me down.

Read in the paper yesterday (detroit free press) that SBC has lowered DSL to $19 per month providing you sign for a year at a time.

I moved off of my cable modem onto the dsl and have only had one day of interuption in two years. TOTAL.

Back when I had cable, it was a regular thing to not be able to get my e-mail, and then internet outages every few months.

Yes, the cable is faster. doesn't matter how fast it is if it is down.

The other thing is cable blocks MANY ports.

SBC has recently started to block SMTP to fight spam from trojans, but you can opt-out of this.

I like my DSL.

I live in central Massachusetts. Comcast cable modem service is excellent here. I've been using it for about six months. Love it.

On the other hand our telephone hardware is old. It's so old that the phone line for one of my previous girl friends was listed at the phone company as a party line! Before Verison offered DSL they were offering emulated ISDN for about $200 per month. It was emulated because I live more than three miles from the switching station. Imagine that. Emulated ISDN 56 Kbps for $200 a month. I don't know how I resisted that offer. I don't know what they're charging for their 7?? Kbps DSL service in my area but I love my 4 Gbps cable modem network.

I love Comcast. I can't comment on other geographic areas but Comcast has done a lot to bring central Massachusetts into the twenty first century. Verison was happy to let us struggle trying to implement 21st century network services using 1950s telephony technology.

Should be 128 Kbps, download speed of about 15-20KBps. ISDN is either 2 64 KB channels (Basic Rate Interface) or 23+B for PRI. The split BRI MAY be what you are referring to where you are served a single channel of a BRI line. Therefore a steady 64KB. At $200.00 I would be interested in heearing about it, it certainly sounds like business class, which can often run 4 or 500 a month with VERY liited bandwidth each month(5-10 gigs). There are advantages to this, secure IP's better routing, lessocngestion etc. But it is generally for business use only and wouldn't make sense at home, unless nothing else is available of course.

They use a similar service here called Light-speed or High Speed Light 128KB, as opposed to High Speed at 3Mbps or Extreme at 5Mbps.

Extreme Speed costs (around) $50/mo, but bundled with cable you get 60 channels (of mainly US political or network garbage but the 40's and up have great Canadian cable channels and A&E, Discovery, TLC, Bravo, Showcase w/Trailer Park boys, Red Shoes etc.)extreme speed and modem rental/buyout for about $85.00/mo.

I've had no problems with bandwidth on Verizon DSL.

With DSL the "last mile" is your's and your's alone.

On Adelphia cable, however, I can always tell when the kids are getting home.

With cable you're constantly sharing bandwidth with other subscribers on your local loop; not to mention competing for a physically fixed no. of both up and down slots at the head end.

And, don't even get me started about ComCast. So many of their subscriber's boxes are zombies, that they're a veritable volcano of spam & port scans.

Just some facts...

I'm near the heart of "Comcast Country" so maybe that's why I have such good performance (their corporate HQ is a 35 minute drive from my house, and there are at least 4 comcast offices, including a regional office just 10 minutes from me, through a 20 mile radius of my home)...

Several folks in my neighborhood have comcast cable, in fact I'd say in my neck of the woods it is getting pretty common for folks to have comcast broadband and yet my bandwidth, 95% of the time, is excellent at any hour of the day from mid-day weekends, to 2 am gaming sessions, its just plain sweet.

I don't clock it everyday to monitor the ups and downs..but when I do clock it its ALWAYS faster than 1.5 -- most often its faster than 2.75 to be honest. So the shared bandwidth thing is an issue that I never honestly felt impact my 'net performance.

Its a non-issue for me.

Therefore because the comcast is so good over here its a no-brainer over DSL as far as I'm concerned, since I use my Internet everyday I'm willing to pay the extra bucks for the extra speed over Verizon DSL.

Finally, at some point all bandwidth is shared -- I don't care what the marketing reps tell you -- its just how MUCH is shared and for how long that varies.

I suspect that, with respect to technical issues, such vary greatly from one "local loop" to another.

I also suspect that overall the techical capabilities of both cable and xDSL are so similar as to be undistinguishable to the average user.

What I do know for certain is that the quantity & quality of support available to the use does vary greatly from one business entity to the next.

I am greatly satisfied with the connectivity provided by Verizon DSL; on the other hand, service sucks big time, in every respect.

They get in some cases 5-7 TIMES the bandwidth for around the same $40-50 bucks cable is in this country.

Heck over in Europe they are already testing some super version of DSL (I forget what it is called) and the bandwidth is like 25mb! with potential to go to about 100mb in the future! Oh And get this they are paying around $50 for this 25mb.

Here in the usa we are all going "yeah man my connect has a fat 2 or 4mb pipe"..lol

From what I've read Korea (of all places) is about the best deal in broadband on the planet right now.

Anyway..just food for thought.

Many peopl esay cable speeds up and slows down, now I live in the middle of nowhere now, but even when in Vancouver, Cable was steady and always downloading at 350KBs, now I have extreme it's 650KB (5 Mbps).

I have NEVER had my cable down, ever. THey did do some routine maintenance and notified all users by email, it was done between 2 and 4 AM and fine when I got up.

DLS here is down more than up. It's a farce provided by a circus. Unless you pay the bucks for Business DSL from a reseller with better equipment than the telco.

But cable here is steady, FAST as hell, and VERY reliable!

When I was on DSL in Dallas (SBC), every time something big would happen in my MMORPG, linkdead!

Moved back to Kansas, got cable internet with Cox, and have had absolutely minimal problems with it.

There have been times that it has gone down, but definitely goes down much less than our DSL dropped out. I remember times just sitting around waiting on our DSL to "reconnect".

In about two years with cable, probably about one total day without service. With the SBC DSL, I was with them for about a year, and had probably about 1-1.5 days total out of service.

My acocunt I use at home is Shaw Extreme speed.

They advertise 5 Mbps down and 1Mbps up, since I started using it last year, I have tested and tweaked by connection with every possilbe tool and test I can find, personally I think Broadbandreports.com has the best information. They have a tweak tester that works REALLY well for optimizing your conection, everything else I've used just doen't come close.

They use the SpeakEasy speed tests, not the best from way up here but still better than most.

So actual speeds, I get anywhere frrom 4750 - 4976 (my best)kbps down , again from a location that gets some loss with US based test servers.

And I get a STEADY download from almost any site of 640-650 KBps. Much better than my PRI line that was at 128KBps, but I needed the multiple channels for my phone system and server.

I also use a satellite connection for my notebook ALSO at 5MB! I have a good relationship with a business ISP and use them for a lot of installs and sell their services to business clients, as they are far more secure than Telco or local cable providers. They give me my Sat bandwidth for next to nothing, which works well because I sure as heck don't have 400-500 bucks for internet access to TR. It allows me to TR on the ferry, while having lunch, waiting at the terminals, at the horse races etc. At speeds faster than most users in town with hardlines.

Shaw has been great, much to my surprise, I despise the Telco (Telus, formerly BC Hell). as I have worked too closely with them for years and know just what a sham of a company they are now.

I ventured out with SHAW, as I don't REALLY care for them either, I had a lot of money invested in Rogers at the time too.But they have 24/7 customer service where they actually answer the phone, Telus DSL, if there are issues you will hold for a recording saying they have issues. And they are down more than up. When I discussed this with their own techs their reply is that they will credit any days where connection fails. Well that's great, but being down for a week on end is no help at all, I don't care how much time I get credited if I can't use it.

The only DSL I would use is business class provided 3rd party from Telus lines, Telus are completely useless. They said my last area was inaccessible. Their reseller hooked me up the next day, and gave me a DSL router at no cost (though business class is pretty pricey!)

When Shaw started offering extreme speed I jumped onboard and haven't loked back since.

Seriously, when you can download at 650KB's that's pretty exciting stuff! You can suck down large (RAW DAT)audio files in NO time, a 600M+ game download is something you do while reading a few emails, not a half day exercise.

Now if they could only give me 10Mbps! Then I'd want 20 though.

Speed kills they say? Not in the IT world!

My longest cable modem outage was eight days. Since I've switched to DSL, my longest outage has been a few hours. No doubt, cable is faster before school lets out. Eventually, we will have all fiber, and the cable companies will be able to concentrate on what they do best -- telling people they will have someone out between January and July!

Craig Herberg

In western Canada, it's the Telco;s that can't keep the system online. I have seen peopledown for weeks literally due to problems with teh Telco's DSL.

The Telco doesn't even field calls, they just offer a recording. Installation takes forever to schedule too, service...well the IS no service.

WIth SHAW cable, they turn up within a two hour period that YOU choose, within a day or two of your order if not same day service. They have been down TWICE in the few years I have used them and only between 2 AM and 4 AM and after sending out email to all effected suvscribers in advance. IF you need your connection during that time, they will arrange to enable YOUR connection during the downtime. Oh yes, and they ANSWER the phone live, 24/7 within a couple of minutes or they offer an automatic callback service that keeps your number in the call queue.

Plus it's more than three times faster than DSL, consistently, mine never slows or speeds up. When I lived closer to Vancouver, it was still steady and unwavering day or night, this was ONE of my false fears when I moved from Business DSL to cable.

So we got it good up here for Cable, especially after hearing of other people's issues.

I just love having to explain to a business client that he's dead in the water & I can't help him!

That is, unless he wants to try running his business via dial-up.

Why would a business use a residential cable provider for a business class ISP?

They deserve what they get if they are too cheap to set up their business properly.

It is, of necessity, a common practice for SOHOs to use residential DSL & cable.

And, many providers also offer business class provisioning.

Down here, it is not uncommon for a developer or property manager to pre-provision office condos or rentals with cable.

The bottom line is that not every business can both justify and afford the expense of a T1.

Well in the case of ISDN PRI, it's about $135.00/mo Canadian, which is what many small businesses use as an internet connection (at 64+KBps)and use SOME of the channels fro their Business telecom overline service. Therefore the two together make a reasonable cost for a business. Mind you, Business class ADSL at 5 GIG max usage per month is about $99.00 and additional overage is charged at a higher rate or the customer is on a slider to the next service if it works out cheaper.

But ANY business even home based, is absolutely SCREWED if they choose residential ADSL here. And residential cable is just too insecure for most by using DHCP addressing.

SO the only sensible alternative is a business class ISP.

If you can't figure a couple of hundred a month into a monthly operating cost, for the most imperative portion of your business (internet and telecom access) you REALLY shouldn't even be in business.

I HAVE seen these half assed businesses around though, I am not saying they don't exist, they usually just don't exist long.

I have seen these guys buy the cheapest garbage phone systems and complain that they don't do what they are supposed to. Even worse, they would phone (my last F/T employer) and ask for service, after turning down a quote on one of THEIR systems and going the cheap route only to get stung. They'd just say sorry, find another dealer then. Who needs THAT nickle and dime business.

A MAJOR drawback to residential ISP's in Canada, you can't use your own domain name, if you REQUEST the service, they will offer it, because they will bump you up to busines class DSL or cable.

SO now you are talking about a business with no domain name, and no business class service, AND no overlines for the telephone system. THAT's not a business, it's a hope and a prayer.

Again though, I feel quite strongly that anyone that can't afford the costs of operating a business properly, shouldn't even be in business.

To quickly dispense with cable, I concur that security concerns make it a choice of last resort.

Down here, in Verizon country, both personal & business class DSL are available by choice.

If one has no need for local hosting, residential service, at $29.95-37.95/mo., will get you the equivalent of a full T1 trunk.

If local hosting is needed, business class is required, as running a server, of any type, under residential service is a violation of the Terms of Use.

Comcast is faster than a T1. Plus, now whith businesses running the way they are, hosting their own webpages, streaming audio/video and IP telephony, 1.44MBps is just not enough overhead for anything more than a couple of users.

If I were pforced to throttle back my home network to T1 speeds, I would be highly upset.

Comcast now offers business level services, static IP, etc...

Some small businesses, especially home-based ones, don't have the financial wherewithal [author's note: means] to pay for high-grade connectivity.

Craig Herberg

Some of my line costs are astronomical (ISP not being one of them). But I understnd that it costs money to be in business, or at least operate a business properly.

A home based business that can't afford 3-4 hundred a month for business overlines and a business class ISP is about as much of a business as a lemondade stand.

I wouldn't even advertise my phone number if I didn't have a decent Key Telephone System, at least 4 overlines and in skin Voice Mail. I've seen these home businesses start up and use the telco's $3.00 month Voice Mail, they have NO idea what Voice Mail actually CAN do other than take messages. At least hire an answering service for your off hours and PRETEND to be professional.

So if you have even an ENTRY level KSU and overlines neccessary for ANY business, it is cheaper to install a BRI or even PRI line in some cases and run your key system and internet on the shared pipe. It's not as FAST as cable, but at least you have professional services and not some mickey mouse system that any grade school kid with a babysitting service would provide.

This is BUSINESS, there are CUSTOMERS, you can't have YAHOO's take care of customers. Not here anyway, you'd be out of biz in a heartbeat. We have VERY high levels of customer service expected here and the Telco's can't even come close to meeting those requirements, with DSL, phone line OR VMail services. Do it right or don't get in the way.

It seems that the problem is related to the fact that the local jurisdictions granted them monopolies, so they never had to worry about competition. They appear to be a little more concerned now, as evidenced by their many ads bashing satellite TV and DSL.

My longest cable TV outage was three weeks. Needless to say, there is a satellite dish on top of my house now.

It's always good to talk to people in your area before making decisions that could severely impact your business.

Craig Herberg

Any service based on an infrastructure which requires a pervasive physical network in order to achieve economies of scale is amenable to being recognized as a "natural" monopoly.

Im from Houston, and the cable in my part of town ROCKS. I had DSL a few years back (about 4 now i guess) and it seemed ok at 1st. That was only because i hadnt had anything fast before. SBC decided to change what needed filters halfway through and then my connections dropped. When they 1st installed the DSL, the DSL line had an inline filter hardwired behind the jack. They changed it to the phones needing the filter and never said anything. Speeds and connectivity were garbage. Ended up moving and SBC screwed up the reconnect and was going to take an extra month.

I looked around and RoadRunner offered next day svc. Had them come out and never had a big problem since, or at least one that was their fault. Had problems when Houston flooded, a couple of years ago now, and once when a chipmunk ate through the main line to our block.

And now with the DSL here you have to login to it and it has special virtual network adapters its a pain to troubleshoot sometimes.

Somebody mentioned Satalite. I had that too when I had DSL. Was great at 1st but if I spit the wrong direction the service went out. (okay obvious overstatement) but it would go out on every little storm we got. I think it all depends on your location and what the different companies are offering. For me and my local the only downside to RR is the $50/month charge. Would rather be paying the $20 or $30 like DSL.

just my observations.

This article is a little late. The upgrade happened a week or two ago. I didn't really notice any difference even though I occassionally download large files like live operating system iso images. I probably didn't notice any improvement because I am the only person in my neighborhood with cable modem service so I have the pipe all to myself. Overall it's pretty sweet.

I just downloaded a file that was 63 meg, my download speed was 22.5 KB, if anything I think the speed of Comcast has gone down.
Apparently their not adding enough servers to keep up with the new subscriptions.

I'm seriously thinking about going with DSL.

augydog

I have to say that my experience with Comcast has been very good. Initially my speeds were at about 3 mbps and now I am consistantly at 4 mbps or more anytime of the day. I have never had an outage in over a year. I can remote into my computer at work and never have any issues. I may as well be sitting at my desk. So, in my opinion the extra price is well worth it! Yeah Comcast!!!