DSL vs. Cable modems.

What's ADSL and what's your area?

For a 'FAQ' document, see:  http://www.adsl.com/faq.html
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What does ADSL stand for?

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. ADSL is a modem technology that transforms ordinary phone lines (also known as "twisted copper pairs") into high-speed digital lines for ultra-fast Internet access. ADSL also enables access to corporate networks for telecommuters, as well as exciting new interactive multimedia applications such as multiplayer gaming, video on demand and video catalogs.

How does ADSL work?

<<SNIP>>
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adsl averages between 60-70 KB/S cable modem a 100
adsl is 40$ a month plus modem rental, 10$
cable is 30$ when you're cable tv subscriber or 40$ otherwise plus modem ( you can buy it for 200$)
i guess it depends where you live though

SPACEBRAIN, the tests I've done indicate much-higher data-rates.
I've measured over 450Kb/second with a cable-modem,
and much more than that with ADSL.
BTW, I pay $27 (US) per month, for the @Home service (www.home.com), which includes the modem-rental.

im talking about kilobytes/s
the highest i've seen adsl download is 80KB/s (usually between 60 - 70)
and videotron (the cable modem supplier here) guarantees 100KB/s but i've never used cable modem.

here is a page that compares cable modem to adsl (adsl thru a nortel networks 1Mbps modem) from cable modem vendor compared to available adsl service here

prices i mentioned are in cdn$

i kinda forgot to paste the link:
http://residentiel.videotron.com/en/f-vitesse.html

SPACEBRAIN wrote:
> I'm talking about kilobytes/s

Me, too. I use a cable-modem,
and I have measured over 450Kilobytes/second.

It looks like we pay approximately the same,
$27 (US) <===> $40 (CDN)
for the cable-modem rental and the cable-connection.

That URL seems to compare cable to a quite-crippled ADSL-service,
that is much(!) slower than what is available to ADSL customers in my area.

Obviously, Videotron's page is quite biased towards their own product.

yeah i agree except for 1 thing, the adsl rates a true. There 1 Mbps DL and 120Kbps UL
http://www.ehv.sympatico.ca/faq_techno_A.html
http://www.ehv.sympatico.ca/faq_service_A.html

My colleague has measured ADSL downloads much faster than
the highest cable-modem download-speeds which I've cited, above;
not *ALL* ADSL services are capped at 1Mbps.

Since you insist on referencing SYMPATICO URLs, I did some searching, and found:
http://forums.sympatico.ca/WebX/WebX.cgi?13@^69239@.eeb9c5e
where users are reporting 3.2Mbps speeds with ADSL.

they have different modems in different city's but couldn't get enough of the good modems
so had to go with Nortel Networks 1mbps for the region of Montreal.
For now here cable offers better rates but has its disadvantage too such as a maximun of
5GB download limits per month.

> 5GB download limits per month.

If your modem received 2071 bytes/second
for 60 seconds/minute
for 60 minutes/hour
for 24 hours per day
for 30 days,
then you would download 5GB in one month.

If you were to use your computer for "only" 6 hours/day
(work for another 6, sleep for another 6,
commute/eat/TV/socialize/laundry/backup for another 6),
then your modem could receive 8K/second, continuously,
and you still will be under your monthly-limit.

Besides, it would cost you US $150/month for additional hard-drives to store the 5GB.

Practically, I don't think that you'll be able to exceed a 5GB monthly-limit.

point is there is a limit, imagine 3 pc's connected thru a proxy to the same adsl link, then its highly possible to reach that limit.

> imagine 3 PC's connected through a proxy, ...
> then its [sic] highly possible to reach that limit.

If each of those 3 PCs is receiving 690 bytes per second,
for every(!) second within the month, then you'll reach the limit.

However, how likely is it that all 3 PCs will be 7/24 ?
If they are continuously active, then you deserve(!) to be
surcharged for "excessive" usage.