speed - DSL vs Cable internet?
2014-04
sherrellbc
So I am not quite sure of the differences. I have read that DSL is fed into the home via the phone line, and cable is, of course, through the cable jacks. I currently have a 30Mbps cable connection but am forced to downgrade to a 6Mbps connection due to the service not being available where I am moving.
What are the main differences? For example, as I said I have a 30Mbps connection now that costs $30/mo, but the 6Mbps DSL service I am being forced into is going to cost $35 (different location and different company)! I figured the prices would be similar but was surprised that was not the case. Are there some underlying differences between the two services that may justify such a difference?
If I have a 6Mbps DSL line, will a 6Mbps cable line be the same speed? I realize there are circumstances to consider when making this judgement (i.e. whether you have a dedicated line to your home or a community line), but assuming the situations are exactly the same are they similar?
Also, why have I seen some internet providers offer packages upwards of 105MBps, while a company like AT&T has 'Extreme' package (or whatever the fastest may be called) only on the order of 18Mbps? Is cable capable of speeds that much greater than DSL?
JimNim
Typically in most areas, cable is able to get you speeds that much higher. It does come down to a difference in the technology and hardware, and cable typically comes out on top. When you move to an area where cable is not an option, I believe that DSL connections are leveraging hardware and lines that are already in place for phone systems - hardware that is designed to be cheaper to implement. Cable is more designed around speed, but a cable company isn't going to invest in laying lines to an area unless they expect to get a return on that investment with a large customer base. It's worth noting that normally the speeds advertised by ISPs include "up to..." since they can't guarantee you'll always get a specific speed (doing so would require that they have more network capacity than is actually used, which would not be a good budgeting decision for them). So take that advertised speed with a grain of salt, and consider it more of an average speed to expect on a good day.
cloneman
DSL and Cable are generally regarded as equivalents at a given speed. 6mbps cable and 6mbps DSL offer the same performance (for practical purposes).
There are some subtleties behind the scenes; some modems and ISP devices handle congestion better than others.
DSL is limited by distance to the central office a lot more than cable is; as a result many cable ISPs can offer higher speeds to a larger amount of customers. However, if you have clean phone wiring and are relatively close to the central office, DSL can be very competitive with cable.
Cable has one main disadvantage; it is more prone to congestion at peak hours than DSL if a provider does not build enough capacity on their network. DOCSIS 3.0 was designed to help with this issue.
ADSL connections often use an ATM backbone and/or PPPoE which adds some overhead and may provide slightly lower than advertised speeds and/or cause performance problems for time sensitive applications (see TC-ATM patch for more details). VDSL is fed by fiber backhaul and does not have this issue.
Damon
From my understanding, 30 MBPS was for your whole neighborhood. So if no-one used the internet, you get 30. DSL is "dedicated" but if every one maxed out their dedicated amount, their trunk lines get maxed out and you get slower speeds.
Also, cable usually has less upload speed than DSL. And I do believe DSL can go faster than cable because cable is not typically fiber based, where phone companies are. It's just how close to the fiber (optic lines) are you. That is, is it fiber to your house, or fiber to a box miles away with copper in between, and how many miles matters.
We have always been happier with DSL and we have heard complaints from people with cable who tried to do things like uploading larger files for business, or run VOIP, or other out of the box things. People with DSL seems to have less problems doing such things.
Cable is great for the average home user. DSL shines with "power" users. (Personal opinion, not fact)
Jon Schneider
I've just moved into a new house (new for me; the house was built in 2006). I've purchased DSL service through AT&T, paying for speeds "up to" 768 Kbps downstream / 384 Kbps upstream. My issue is, the connection speed on the DSL is very slow -- the DSL modem connects at 224 Kbps downstream / 128 Kbps upstream, as reported by the modem's own built-in control panel applet (accessible at the internal IP http://192.168.0.1/).
However, my brother-in-law, living 9 doors down on the same street (and further from the local CO -- if the CO map at dslreports.com is to be believed), connects at a much more comfortable 1.5 Mbps downstream / 384 Kbps upstream. He has the same service from AT&T (although he's paying extra for the 1.5 Mbps service).
I'm not sure whether it matters, but I have a "dry" DSL connection -- DSL service only, no phone service.
I've tried the following:
Switching modems. I actually tried borrowing my brother-in-law's modem, that connects at 1.5 Mbps from his house; replacing that modem with the one at my house, it also connects at 224 Kbps. Both modems are the same model (Siemens SpeedStream 4100).
Connecting the modem directly to the phone jack on the outside of the house (to rule out the possibility of bad wiring inside the house). No change, the modem still connects at 224 Kbps.
Switching phone cables. No change.
I'm not sure what else to try. I did contact A&T; they informed me that they consider a connection speed of 224 Kbps to be "acceptable" for a customer paying for 768 Kbps service. Interestingly, AT&T did inform me that 1.5 Mbps service isn't even available at my location, based on an on-site test they performed recently (presumably of signal strength / quality).
So, my question has two parts:
(1) Why is my DSL connection speed so much slower (more than 6x slower!) than the service my brother-in-law is getting, when we're located in almost the same location (9 doors down on the same street)? (If the reason is that my DSL signal is weaker and/or poorer quality, then why might that be the case?)
(2) Is there anything I can do to improve the situation, short of dropping the DSL service (and paying significantly more money for cable)? The 224 Kbps connection speed is okay for email and surfing the web, but it's poor-to-unusable for large downloads, gaming, and YouTube.
Thanks!
Jon Schneider
A very helpful AT&T tech that came out to my house ended up solving this issue for me.
- The tech measured the signal quality at the point of the phone/DSL wire coming into the outside of my home. The signal quality was just fine at that point (to my surprise)!
- The tech measured the signal quality at the phone jack inside my home where I had my router and DSL modem plugged in. The signal quality was very poor at that point.
This proved that the problem was with the wiring inside my home. (Again, this was to my surprise, as I live in a fairly new home that is, in other respects, well-constructed.)
- The tech took a look a look at the wiring down in my basement. He offered a diagnosis that the problem was due to the phone wire being run throughout the house bundled together with the electrical power wire. Apparently, per the tech, this can cause interference/"noise" on the phone line, which can adversely impact the DSL signal quality.
We ended up solving the problem by physically disconnecting, at the junction box in my basement, all of the phone lines running throughout the house except the single line leading to the jack upstairs where I had my DSL modem plugged in. (I didn't care about doing this, as I wasn't using any of the other phone jacks in the house.) This did solve the problem for me, and I now have no issues with my home DSL.
Nicholas
Have you had AT&T run line tests? There are tests they can do remotely to tell line noise, etc..
Is your phone line going through any UPS's, filters, splitters, etc.?
You may need to have your house's wiring checked. There could be a bad spot somewhere. You could take your DSL modem to the actual junction box (outside of your home) and connect directly in there to see if speeds improve. Most of the phone junction boxes have a "provider" side which is locked (AT&T's) and an "owner" side, which is accessible to you. Inside the "owner" side you should be able to unplug your entire house's line and plug the modem directly in there.
Have you tried swapping out modems? Does your brother-in-law have the same exact modem?
If things still aren't working right after these suggestions, you may need to have AT&T send out a tech, but if they find any wiring issues in your home, you'll pay for it. Otherwise it's (usually) free if there's something on their end/outside wiring that is screwy.
Lastly, you could try going with a different DSL company temporarily and see how they do.
mrdenny
Switching companies could help if AT&T is in fact limiting or capping your connection speed, the other company hopefully will not.
You did not mention how far from the CO you are, if you are near the maximum distance for DSL from the CO, that could be a factor as well. Your phone line does not alway take the most direct route back to the CO either, you could have a longer cable run compared to your brother-in-law even though he is physically closer to the CO. Depending on your distance from the CO, the line could have gone somewhere else from one of the distribution boxes along the path and that other line may not have been removed, resulting in the line splitting along the path from the CO to your location. That would cause extra noise on the line. If that is the case, switching companies would not help as the local loop would still be provided by AT&T. Good luck.
CarlF
Sometimes mentioning (or writing to) the PSC and the FCC will force a telephone company to actually do what they have contractually agreed to do.
Weebly Howly
Simple. The DSL uses phone services than using a cable modem. Using the phone service it takes a long time to translate the image you want (Download or Upload). But, a regular DSL speed would be under 4 Mbps. Cable Modems can have over 3 Mbps. But this can be increased by your ISP (Internet Service Provider). If you pay for an amount for 25 Mbps. You get that much. But a regular DSL does not use a cable.
You can switch to a different ISP. AT&T's ISP service has been poor. But the Mobile Broadband and Cellular is up to 30/40 Mbps. [Recommend xfinity or Time Warner Cable]