Just gave up on DSL and changed to cable Internet

[Pilgrim]

I've had DSL service for the past two years, and it has frustrated the snot out of me.  My neighborhood was built in 1968 and the wiring is really old.  The fastest service that Qwest could offer via DSL is 1.5 MBPS, and I never saw that.  Many times it took 20+ seconds for this forum to load, and that was after I'd click two or three times on a link. Other times, the DSL service would crawl at incredibly slow speeds.  On a number of occasions, I'd spend 10 minutes trying to load a site which tests connection speed - and when it finally connected, it showed acceptable download readings of as high as 1.3 MBPS, with uploads around .3 MBPS..  But what about the 10 minutes I spent trying to connect?  

In short, I wasn't getting what I was paying for.  Repeated calls to Qwest always showed that service was within the promised limits...and then it went downhill again when I wasn't on the phone with Qwest.  I changed to Comcast cable modem service, and it's so much faster that I even notice it on the wireless network in my home.  

I just ran a speed test on the laptop I'm using via a wireless router - download speed shows 5.5 MBPS, upload is 2.8 MBPS.  Both are around 4x as fast as the previous service I had.  I know that cable can load up more than DSL, but there's a LOT of room for it to slow down with multiple users in the area before it approaches the pitiful service I've been getting.

I also moved my telephone service to Comcast because they currently include it at no extra charge, and that deal lasts for a year.  That will save me 50-60 bucks a month.  Of course, I'll need to keep my eyes open and probably have to dicker with Comcast when that period expires (lest they nail me with new charges), but I'm willing to do that.

[Dave W]

Qwest has fiber optic lines across most of the metro area but not in my neighborhood. I wouldn't have gone with them anyway because of my past experience with their wretchedly poor phone service.

I'm paying for Comcast's 12 mbps service but getting much faster download speeds than that. I'm happy with them. I've had cable internet for close to 8 years now and never had any noticeable slowdown from multiple users.

Are you using http://speedtest.net/ for testing? It's probably the most widely used.

[Lightyear]

I had Comcast fiber optic internet service in the last house and liked it - it was reliable and rarely, if ever, went down.  My current neighborhood is new and is totally fiber based.  I've been on Verizon's Fios for two years now it's been excellent - I did a speed check and I'm running 9.85 down and 2.38 up - I can't complain.  I'm running my phone through them as well though we now rarley use our land line. 

[Pilgrim]

Qwest has fiber optic lines across most of the metro area but not in my neighborhood. I wouldn't have gone with them anyway because of my past experience with their wretchedly poor phone service.

Are you using http://speedtest.net/ for testing? It's probably the most widely used.

Usually Speedtest.net, although there are a couple of others.  I've skipped around because under the DSL service some of them took 5-10 minutes to load, while the others were faster. 

Our neighborhood is all copper, and there's a green belt in between rows of houses where there is cable laying exposed on the ground in places. They haven't done more than fix the breaks in the cable in the 12 years I've been here.  Even though this neighborhood is in the upper half of income ranges in town (lots of CSU faculty, business owners and HP engineers) neither Qwest nor Comcast has done a darn thing to upgrade their last mile infrastructure.

[Highlander]

Still running on Cu here - we have fibre in our street and could transfer to a system that could give us 20mbps - I could also have much more expensive bills - fibre is common ion the big centres but they are talking sat based systems to be the future here...?