Cable modem here, I'll never go back to dial up I've heard people say DSL is close enough in performance - not as good but def better than dial up. Go for it

CalhounSq said:

Only in North America of course.

CalhounSq said:

Here in Israel, in appartement buildings, if you use cable modem, everyone in your area will share the bandwidth with you, I don't know how it is in the US.
DSL is connected directly to the ISP, so you get all the bandwidth without the need to share it with others.
I also heard it's more reliable.

Heavenly said:

Well, you don't really have a dedicated line, but generally DSL is better.

1024/512 DSL.....they said it was the fastest they could off, and I don't know jack-shit about these things.....it is fast aand I'm happy with it, and my provider sent me an e-mail telling me that the monthly cost will go down with 10 euros.....yay!

Mine is 1.5, and now they are starting to offer 2m

The only thing I don't like about it, is that the upload is still slow, like only twice the speed of a 56k modem.

Heavenly said:

That is true in the U.S.--DSL gives you your own private little pipeline to the Internet, whereas with a cable modem, you're sharing bandwidth with your neighbors. The cable industry's response has basically been, "If more bandwidth is needed in a neighborhood, we can easily add it." And in my experience, cable modem providers have been providing more than enough bandwidth (at least in Seattle and Indianapolis). In fact, I'm told that cable modems artifically cap the speed... you can modify your modem to get an even faster connection (but your ISP will nuke your account if you get caught doing this).

When I had a DSL line, it was a pretty fast one (I paid over $80 per month on DSL for "geek-level" service, and that doesn't count the cost of the phone line that carried my DSL service), and yet I still has better speeds with my $20/month cable modem.

Another issue: when I lived in Indianapolis, it was impossible to get DSL without also having landline voice telephone service. I didn't want a landline telephone. I was living downtown, with cell towers all around me, and a cell phone met all of my voice communication needs.

One final consideration: DSL typically requires that you sign a contract (mine was for one year). By contrast, cable modem service is usually sold on a month-to-month basis.

Don't get me wrong... DSL is a fine choice for broadband. And if you're a geek, it may be preferable. (For instance, my DSL provider gave static IP addresses, permitted users to run servers, and even let users resell their access to their neighbors.) But I think that for the average Internet user, a cable modem is usually a slightly better choice.