The Difference Between Dsl and Cable for High-speed Internet Service

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The Difference Between Dsl and Cable for High-speed Internet Service

The Difference Between Dsl and Cable for High-speed Internet Service

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Home Page > Technology > Communication > The Difference Between Dsl and Cable for High-speed Internet Service

The Difference Between Dsl and Cable for High-speed Internet Service

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Posted: Nov 06, 2008 |Comments: 0
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You timidly suggested to your nephew that you were considering a move to a faster form of Internet access. Perhaps you have heard the term “broadband connection.” He probably heaved a huge sigh of relief. “Finally!” he said. But when you asked for guidance on which service to choose, you soon were sorry you asked. In two or three short sentences, he left you behind, babbling in technical gobblydegook that you couldn’t possibly follow — when all you really wanted to know was, “What should I get?”

Breathe easy. We’ll explain what the options are for faster Internet connections (which is what’s meant by “broadband” or “high-speed Internet”), with just a teeny bit of “how it works” so you have some sense of what you’re choosing and why.

In doing so, we don’t expect that you want to become a computer wizard. All you want, we assume, is the ability to get the advantages of fast Internet access: a computer that is always connected to the Internet, that permits you to zip around Web pages faster than you imagined possible, and that opens up a whole new set of ways to waste time online. Oh, we mean, a whole new set of ways to be productive. Whatever.

Let’s start out with the key question, and then work our way back to the underlying issues.

Q: What should I get? DSL or Cable Service? Most technical people will give you all sorts of “this is how it works” answers, and they’ll talk about performance (that is, is DSL or cable service faster?) and setup (that is, how will you get your computer hooked into the modem?). There are differences between the technologies, and we’ll get to those in a moment.

But for someone who’s simply trying to find a simple and credible answer, the truth is that “fastest” is not really the most important issue. It’s just like choosing a car. Yes, auto enthusiasts discuss performance and 0-to-60 speeds and other things that matter primarily to other car aficionados. But if all you want is a car to commute to work, then what matters most is reliability, gas mileage, and the phone number of a mechanic whose work you trust. And affordable. It should be affordable.

In terms of high-speed Internet connections, that means:

1) Find out if you have a choice at all. In many places, you can get one kind of service but not another. (We’ll explain the reasons why in a little while.)

2) Choose a provider you trust. If you hate your phone company or if you are already irked with the cable TV provider, why add agony to your life? Choose the provider whose service you trust the most (or whom you hate the least, which may be closer to the mark).

3) When you check into pricing, be sure to find out about installation options. Many cable and DSL providers will come to your house or business to set up the network and Internet connection. If one provider does so and the other does not, your decision is easier. As with many things in life — such as garage door openers — it’s important to get your high-speed Internet service installed right in the first place, or it’ll never quite work correctly. It can be worth the expense to pay a professional.

4) If company-supplied installation is not an option, then ask your “local techie” — that same nephew who’s sure he knows everything — which type of service to get, and follow his advice. If you rely on family-provided technical support, then it makes sense to choose an option with which that family member is comfortable. Doing so avoids those nasty “I told you so” conversations over the Thanksgiving table.

5) Consider price as just one element of the equation. In most cases, the difference in cost is negligible. But your existing phone and cable company may be able to sweeten the deal; for example, some cable companies may offer a reduced price if you get Internet access, telephone services, and TV stations from them.

What — none of those things are about technology! Isn’t that the key issue? Shouldn’t I choose the one that’s better?

Yes, there are technical differences between the two kinds of service. There can be major speed differences. But in the real world, “convenience” is often much more important.

Q: What do DSL and cable services have in common? Both types of service provide an “always-on” connection. That is, they’re automatically connected to the Internet as long as the computer is turned on. You need not worry about busy signals or any connection/disconnection process.

Both are billed on a monthly basis, often on the same invoice with your phone or cable TV service.

Both work with your Windows or Macintosh computers without fiddling. They’ll also work with other operating systems, too. However, the typical high-speed Internet service technical support representative may be unfamiliar with the details of getting everything to work with your “alternative choice.” It may take extra expertise, and you may need additional help (that is, expect to buy the nephew a nice dinner).

In most places, DSL and cable access cost about the same.

Q: How is Internet speed measured… and to what degree does it matter? When computer techies talk about Internet connection speed, it’s generally in mbps: millions of bits per second. This can be confusing since everything else in the world of computers is measured in bytes. Bits and bytes aren’t the same thing. But to put it in context: to send a photo that’s 2.2 megabytes (MB) when stored on your hard disk, it’ll take about 3 minutes for the transfer if you have a 5 Mbps Internet connection.

If we were to get technical, we’d quibble with the reliability of those numbers and whether they’re useful for more than a general comparison. So would your helpful nephew. If you later decide to explore the underlying technology, you’ll learn the reasons for this. But for now, simply assume that 6 Mpbs is faster than 5 Mpbs, as a useful oversimplification.

Obviously, most people prefer faster speed to slower. Many providers price their services accordingly.

Realistically, if you’ve been using a dial-up modem to access the Internet, it will all seem blazingly fast. If you’re planning to use the Internet for relatively ordinary purposes, such as e-mail, Web browsing, and instant messaging, then your provider’s “basic” speed is probably enough whether you choose cable or DSL. Speed matters a lot more if you expect to work with large files, such as movies, photos, music, games, and any other application that caused the computer salesperson to say, “Hmm, you probably should get a bigger hard disk.”

Q: Why do Internet providers list upload and download speeds separately? Should I care? One aspect of connection speed that is important is the difference between upload speed and download speed. Download speed measures how quickly the information on the Internet is sent to you, such as the email you receive or the Web pages that appear in your browser. Upload speed indicates how fast the information is sent from your computer to…well, to anywhere else.

In many cases, especially with cable service, the upload speed is much slower than the download speed. That sounds like a bad thing, but in most cases the upload speed isn’t a key issue. Think about how you got to this article. You probably typed something into a browser window (such as “compare dsl and cable service” in a search engine). You clicked on a couple of links. And that was about it. A few words of typing, and the clicks. Those didn’t need to speed up the line at warp speeds; you could manage it even if your typing skills are generously described as “hunt and peck.”

But the computer where this page is stored is sending you several pages of information — so you want the download speed to be fast. (This is a very simple example. Your “just a few clicks” could also have shown you a movie, which would have a lot of data to download!)

In some circumstances, the upload speed matters. But for ordinary home use it’s fine for