Dsl ?

[cpayne5]

Originally Posted by BleedBurgundy

Satellite is easily the worst bang for the buck. FiOS is far and away the best way to go if you can get it but it's only in select neighborhoods at this point. Cable is great if you're not in a crowded area where everyone is tapping the pipe. Personally, I have DSL right now through Embarq, I get 5 mbs down and I think 750-800 kbs up. Back when I had comcast at my last place, I must have been the only one in the neighborhood willing to pay for it because I was getting ridiculous speeds down, 15-16 mbs. One thing I will say though is that Comcast has some of the worst tech support you will ever see. I don't know how many times I had to call in there and have the following conversation:

me: "your DNS servers are down"
habib: "sir could you please turn off your modem"
me: "your DNS servers are DOWN"
habib: "reboot the computer"
me: "Goodbye..."

One of the nice things about Embarq is that all of their customer service/tech support is US based.

Comcast has this thing called PowerBoost. It gives customers (for the first 25 or so MB of a download burst) a boost of speed around 15-20mbps. It really screws with speed tests. I believe they are implementing upload PowerBoost right now as well. Something like 5-10mbps for the first couple MB up.

DSL is nice, but it's lifespan is coming to an end. There's only so much data you can push over 50 year old copper twisted pair. It's greatest limiting factor is loop length -ie, how far you are from your DSL provider's cabinet (be it CO or RT). Some of the newer DSL technologies can push upwards of 20mbps to the customer, but the distance limitations are ridiculous (5k feet or less, usually).

Well engineered cable deployments (read, DOCSIS 3.0) and fiber is the future.