[ale] Re-send: Opinions on Cable versus DSL

[aaron]

Previously, Jay Finch typed into the ether:
> Hey everyone,
> I know this question has been asked a million and one times, but being that 
> the technology has changed so much in the past few months and I'm only now 
> becoming concerned with it, I wanted some opinions.
> 
> I've been a Charter Comm. Cable Modem subscriber for about 3 years now, and 
> have had pretty good service.  It's been fairly peppy, but I hate how it 
> goes down when it rains (without fail) and other weird routing and downtime 
> issues.

You obviously know about the difficulties that can crop up with the
current high speed offerings, so we won't need to repeat too much.

> I just got a notice from BellSouth that I'm (finally!) eligible 
> for DSL service.

You may want to try to find out exactly how far you are from the
"Central Office" connection. Distance to the C.O. does have a big effect
on throughput and reliability.

> What I want to know is this: How reliable is DSL vs. Cable?
>  What about the speeds?

I chose EarthLink/Mindspring last year; I didn't want to just buy into
the Bell monopoly and Mindspring had, at least at one time, been good to
deal with for alternative platforms.

ADSL service was a new thing back then, and it took 6 months of trying
on two different phone lines before I was up. The delays were mostly due
to BellSouth line noise problems on the first attempt which they
evenutally jsut refused to address; every difficulty was compounded
by truly miserable communications and response time for info to filter
through the layers of Customer<>Installer/E.L.M.<>BellSouth.
(BTW, Mindspring seems to have ZERO Atlanta customer service presence
since "merging" with Earthlink, which may be a big part of the problem)

Even when we got my alternative line working the ADSL has been
marginal. I am apparently on the "fringe" of useful distance from the
C.O., and DownStream speed has averaged about 288kbps (of a potential
1500kbps). The connection was fairly reliable early on, but has
been inexplicably degrading since, especially of late. Numerous waits on
hold with customer service have not yielded any significant results; BS
is "supposed to be" looking into it, that was 3 weeks ago (my most
recent call). 

>  (I generally get 1.5MB download and 128k upload
> on Cable fairly  consistently, depending on I-net traffic.)

I wish I could think about dreaming of getting the actual bandwidth I'm
paying for. Though my upload speed is always 256kbps/

> Additionally, I'm using a Linux box as my firewall/gateway, and I have a 
> Static IP with Charter right now.  I know that Mindspring & Bellsouth both 
> use PPPoE with DHCP as a standard, but Mindspring offers a Static IP for 
> $15 extra a month.
> 
> I want a static IP.  From y'alls experience: Do Mindspring and Bellsouth 
> refresh their IPs often enough to warrant asking for a static one?  (I have 
> several DNS mappings to my home machine right now.)

The IP shifts every time my line drops sync and the modem re-connects.
I have no idea how often the IP was changing when re-syncs were less
frequent.

I, too, would prefer a Static IP, but without paying an extra charge.
So... 

...in hopes of still avoiding the cable and B.S. line monopolies
plus get assigned a static IP at no added cost, plus give B.S. the
chance to provision my third line with newer (hopefully better working)
technology, plus change over my purchase dollars to a service company
that acknowledges LINUX support, I decided to switch to Telocity ...

... which, when I go to place my order about July 1, I find out has
just been bought up by DirectTV DSL. I place my order anyway, because
the static IP / Linux support deals doen't seem to have changed.
Provisioning is promised to be done within 14 days ...

 ... so I get a call from DirectTV DSL on the 19th, about the time I'm
getting ready to call -them- and ask "what the frell?". Apparently, they
lost most all of the order info (though not my phone number, at least)
and are -just- getting around to letting me know. After cluing them all
over again on all the data they lost, I'm back in yet another 14 day
holding pattern, waiting on B.S. to get the line provisioned. At
least I -did- get an email confirmation of my order from DirectTV DSL
this time. ...

... le sigh.


> And finally, I know that neither "support" Linux --

So go with DirectTV DSL. At least they still note Linux/Unix among
supported platforms on the web site. They've also noted LINUX on my
account (again). The EarthLink-Mindspring folks don't even have a
category for Linux in their customer forms, so they have no idea that
the overwhelming majority of their DSL users are actually running Linux!
;-)

> I know my stuff fairly 
> well in getting a box configured, but how much of a bear is it to configure 
> for DSL vs. Cable?

Negligable difference from my understanding. I consider myself a
"well informed intermediate newbie" <grin> and my original setup with a
straight PPPoE connect was no problem.

>  (And is there a "better" DSL ISP for Linux? I'm trying 
> to keep my costs around $50-$60/month, which is what I'm paying for my 
> Cable Modem right now.)

The DirectTV DSL is $50/mo. with Static IP. You do have a $25 shipping
deposit on the modem, which gets refunded on modem return.

The Earthlink / Mindspring is $50/mo. w/o static IP, $65/mo. with.
The Modem and install may still be "free".

ATT (Media One) may have dropped from $50 to $40/mo. (in addition to
your TV package cost, of course). No static IP options at all to my
understanding. TTBOML Modem and install are still "free".

> Thanks in advance for y'alls help.  :~)

Thanks for the excuse to rant on my DSL B.S. experiences.
Sorry to the list if it was a redundant to my previous
notes on such topics, but after the latest uninvited
complication...

peace
(after justice)
aaron
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