DSL vs. Cable
Terry over at Possumblog has recounted his tale about getting DSL and having the modem die after one day on line. It's humorous, in that sad sort of way.
Here's what I wrote in his comments:
... I've had my cable service for almost 4 years now, and the one time I did have what looked to be a bad modem, the Help Desk just told me to go down to the local Time Warner office and exchange the modem. They put the new modem's serial number on my account, I went back and installed it, and everything has worked fine since.
If you don't know the difference between Cable and DSL, here it is:
Cable is one coaxial line that everybody taps into. Everybody takes a small share of the bandwidth. Since there are amplifiers on the line, anybody on the line can have Internet service. Unless there is someone doing something very bandwidth intensive (i.e. having a very busy website on a computer in their place), 98% of the time you have maximum bandwidth available. If a wire breaks, everyone is out of service and the cable company will be working hard to get everyone back up as quick as possible. You also don't have to buy TV Cable to get Cable Internet service.
DSL is the other way around. Here you are the only user on the line and all of the bandwidth is yours. The bad news is you must be within 15,000 cable feet from the switching office. That is way less than 3 miles, since this wire has to jump from pole to pole. You also pay for gradients of service. You can pick fast, faster or fastest service, at increasingly expensive rates. If your wire breaks, the phone company will send someone out in their own sweet time to fix it, since it's only one customer. Several poles or a switch must come down to knock enough users off-line before they put a priority on fixing the problem.
Hope that helps. Remember, friends don't let friends use DSL.