Cable Internet - Curious

General questions regarding internet connection via cable. I'm sure information varies from company to company, area to area, but overall, what's the pros/cons compared to a regular phone line connection?

- Is it true that you share a line with others in the neighbourhood? If there are several online at the same time, is there a noticeable slow down?
- Connection drops?
- Limits/caps on how much you can download from the internet?

Just curious because a friend may be thinking of switching to cable when they re-locate to another area. Currently, their area only offers dial-up.

Thanks!

~ Edited to add that my friend and I are located in Canada, just in case that makes a difference in information ~

 

Cable is better than dialup no doubt but I'd rather have ADSL any day as long as its from a reputable source (in otherwords not AT&T). Cable has alot of problems like poor shares, if there are several PC's in the house sharing the same connection everything seems to be slow as molasses. That doesn't happen with ADSL, especially one with the ethernet switch on the modem. I have never seen much of a slow down from nieghbors abusing the line but I do see it from more than one pc trying to use the service. I don't have any limits on downloads with cable but my system may be so slow that I just can't reach them. I have Cox cable and they're better than Comcast, Comcast has been in the news for purposely throttling their users lines so they get slow downloads or none at all with p2p clients especially so avoid them if possible.

 

I am one of the few people who use ADSL in my neighborhood.

From what I hear from my friend down the street, his cable internet is blazing fast early in the morning and late at night, but in the middle of the day it's really slow.

I'm thinking that ADSL is better because it isn't shared.

 

I have heard similar things about Comcast; they do indeed throttle usage, and P2P file sharing is against their "rules". I read where some guy back east (USA) was disconnected completely for file sharing. He called Comcast because he didn't know why he suddenly couldn't connect to the internet. They told him "P2P file sharing is illegal and you were sharing files. We could be held liable for allowing you to break the law so we disconnected you" and that was it. Even though P2P sharing is NOT illegal in and of itself; it's the copyright laws on the shared files that get broken, but not everybody who uses P2P networks for sharing files is breaking copyright laws. For example, many Linux distros are released via P2P/bit torrent for their sheer size makes this a sensible way to download them. I believe the case I mentioned is in court in Georgia (I think). Anyway- I use cable internet. Various online speed tests show my download speeds regularly over 4.5mbps. I pay $19.99/mo for 5mps max download speed, and it is F A S T ! ! ! I have no complaints. I have used Clearwire (wireless 'broadband') and it's great for surfing, just don't try to download ANYTHING, even a 30mb driver. It took 48minutes to download a 35mb driver file a couple weeks ago. I have also used ATT DSL and while it was fast most the time, there were outages probably 2 or 3 times a month that would hit without warning, and would last up to 12 or 13 hours.... BUT- anything is better than dialup, except for maybe AOL-DSL.....

 

I have a 7MB cable from Videotron and as I also get cable TV from them, I get a $20 discount and the speeds are consistent throughout the day but I'm rural. Only thing I don't like is a 20GB/10GB dl/ul limit/mth. You can check http://www.dslreports.com/forums/all and read the opinions and comments there to get a better idea of the companies.

 

>> Just curious because a friend may be thinking of switching to cable when they re-locate to another area. Currently, their area only offers dial-up. Thanks! Oooops! <<

I most definitely highly recommend getting cable or DSL service whenever it becomes available. Your friend will immediately notice a significant increase in speed.

I currently use RCN cable service and like it quite a lot. I consistently get T2 speeds hovering around 20 Mbps. In fact; I just now tested the speed at the CNet Bandwidth Meter and got 20098.5 kbps (20.09 Mbps).

If anyone here wants to test their speed at the CNet Bandwidth Meter here is the webpage link to do so.

Good Luck!

 

Ive got comcast and download several gigabytes on a daily basis and have never had a problem.

Also you could have the slowest cable connection on the entire planet and it would still feel like greased lightning for anyone coming from dial-up! Welcome to the 21st century glad you could join us

 

LMAO ! Thank You!

Hi! With the short form that you used above, (sorry, I'm a dummy, lol) did I understand correctly in that you are limited in your downloads per month? Is 20GB/10GB lots for a typical home user? My friend will likely be viewing videos such as news, photos from e-mail, just general stuff. Not a heavy computer user at all. What happens if you go over your limit? Do you have to wait until the following month before you're allowed to connect again? Or do you still remain connected, but charged a service fee?

Does weather affect the connection?

My Dad would be signing up with "Cogeco" Cable. I believe that's the only cable service in the area where he may be relocating to. Any members here subscribed to this company? I found their website, I'll have to check it out, would be easier for me to do so on my highspeed, than him on his dial up, lol.
http://www.cogeco.ca/en/index_o.html

Thanks so much to all, you've been a great help.

 

Yes, I am limited in both my download(20GB) and upload(10)GB) but as Cogeco does it, they combine the two into a total of 10GB for the lowest tier which in my opinion is plenty for regular use like watching videos etc.

In my case if I go over the limit, it's $8/GB pro-rated to the nearest MB. I think the lite version would be best for him as I rarely go over 20GB downloading and I'm a fairly heavy user to the point that near the end of the monthly period, I have to check my consumption to make sure I'm not going over.

Weather should not affect anything unless there's a lightning strike and even then the phone lines are at the lowest on the poles.

Anyways, the price is good for the 'Lite' version at 10GB, I think he'll be real happy with that!

BTW, here are comments made by Cogeco subscribers, they seem happy enough about the service. http://www.dslreports.com/forum/cogeco Just for an example, I've been youtubing plus regular surfing, and in eight days, I'm only up to 400MB. 10GB is plenty.

 

Thank you augiedoggie, very helpful information!

 

@ plodr- thanks for straigtening me out. I knew I had read something about p2p and Comcast and someone getting shut off and I apparently mixed the two incidents into a single one. My bad. But I was on to something, and I don't think it should be up to Comcast to determine if someone can p2p or not. But this thread isn't about that, so I'll just shut up now.