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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL)

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To: gpowell who wrote (37190)1/11/2000 2:36:00 PM
From: Joseph Stratmann  Read Replies (2) of 41369
 
I have *both* Cable and DSL at home (evaluating both still) and my opinion as of now (after 1 yr of cable and about 3 months of DSL) is that DSL is much better.

Now I should qualify that statement. My incompetant cable company still hasn't upgraded to bi-directional cable access so I transmit at 56k (if I'm lucky) via telco and download from cable. My DSL line is 128kup and 38k down.

I've completed a slew of speeds tests on both and find a large variability in download speeds of the cable modem whereas the DSL connection is fairly consistant. Sometimes the cable is a tad faster, sometimes a bit slower than DSL.

The cable modem connection has given me a number of problems. If my nephew plays any online games he will experience quite a bit of lag (attributable to the telco upload I'd guess) but the DSL works like a charm.

The DSL technology requires you to be within something like 7000 feet of a central office (dont quote me on that number) but cable can be much much farther away.

Someone said it's a myth that you can experience slower download speeds since you are sharing bandwidth with your neighbors. They further added DSL could be oversubscribed. I agree with the latter statement but not the former. You *do* share bandwidth on the cable side - that's a byproduct of the technology used. Whereas DSL you use your own line. Now these statements ONLY pertain to the connection from your house to their office. Most certainly, at that point (assuming one of the companies is incompetant) it's possible for the DSL be slower if they have poor switching equipment, dont use proxy servers, etc.

But, just to keep it simple, only pertaining to the connection between your home and their office, cable shares bandwidth period.

HOpe this helps.

Joe
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