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To: Scrapps who wrote (2272)	12/22/1997 10:09:00 AM
From: Norman Klein	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9236

Good article discussing cable modems vs. ADSL Several people have posted asking about the advantages and disadvantages of cable modems vs. ADSL. I thought that this article provides an excellent summary and analysis (naturally it is pro-ADSL). The entire article can be found at zdnet.com THE CABLE ROUTE With a cable Internet connection you can expect transfer speeds of up to 30Mbps. Cable setup is inexpensive; you typically get the cable modem free when you sign up for the service, which usually costs $50 per month or less. Theoretically, cable is an option for anyone already wired for cable TV, as are most urban and suburban homes in the United States. But your cable company has to set itself up to provide cable modem service first. Only a few have done so due to the expense, and those that have are still in the testing phase. More reality: Most of the test sites offer a top download speed of 1.5Mbps and a top upload speed of 300Kbps. And here's the big caveat--you have to share that bandwidth with your cable neighbors. As the guy next door downloads an MPEG clip of the latest Schwarzenegger movie, your download speeds plummet. Variable download speeds mean you have to schedule your heavy downloads to avoid rush hours. Home users might not mind the inconvenience, but businesses need something more stable. ENTER DSL That something is DSL. It's theoretically slower than cable, with download speeds topping off around 9Mbps. But it's 20 times faster than satellite connections, 60 times faster than ISDN, and 250 times faster than 33.6Kbps analog modems. Best of all, those bits are squeezed through the same copper wire you use for phone calls, but without the complex setup of ISDN. DSL does this by taking advantage of unused frequencies that exist on standard telephone lines. While it creates channels for moving data up and down the line, the original plain-old telephone service (POTS) frequencies remain free to handle voice traffic. So you need only a single line for all your telecommunications. And while its peak speeds may be slower than cable's, you don't have to share the line with your bandwidth-hogging neighbors. Right now the flavor of DSL that's available is called asymmetric DSL (ADSL). Asymmetric indicates that the data moves more quickly downstream (from the Internet) than upstream (to the Internet). ADSL uses special modems called endpoints. Along with an endpoint, your PC needs a network interface card that treats the modem like a local device on the network. Many ADSL modems combine both functions into a single internal card. (See How ADSL Works.) Most of the major modem makers are producing endpoints, including Hayes, Ericsson, Global Village, ParGain, and 3Com, but don't rush out to the store to buy one just yet. Many ADSL service providers bundle the hardware you need with the service. One of the most attractive things about ADSL is that it bypasses most of the public switched telephone network (PSTN), the connection machine that often delays analog modem and ISDN connections with busy signals, ring-no-answer calls, and other reliability gremlins. Not using switches also means, in the long run, that monthly charges for ADSL could be lower than for ISDN. Another plus: ADSL is a pure network service, so unlike analog modems and ISDN adapters that must dial, connect, and disconnect from the Net, the ADSL connection is always on. That doesn't just mean saving a few seconds for each connection; it also means any ADSL subscriber can set up Internet services available to others, such as Web sites and file archives. These sketchy standards, goals, and costs might just remind you of ISDN's shaky start, which made it an overhyped, overcharged, and underserviced technology. But even with these uncertainties, the prospect of DSL is exciting. If all goes well, expect ADSL to start taking over the business world by mid-1998.