jenL Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Forgive me if this has already been discussed (I did a search but didn't find anything)... our family is not technical or gadgety, so we need some advice... DH and I are tired of paying our ridiculous cable bill (bundled with phone and internet), so we are looking for ways to cut back. We think we have the TV part figured out, but we are trying to figure out how to keep the internet for a reasonable price. Around here, we can get a great price on DSL (Windstream). We've never used DSL nor do we know anyone who does. Our concerns are reliability and speed. Is it equivilant to cable broadband (or maybe better?). I believe we can get different speeds up to 12K. We're also using laptops and a wireless N router in case that is something you'd need to know. TIA!!! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 If I could get cable I'd take it. But only DSL is available to us for high-speed. It does the job and we are happy not to have dial-up. If I were looking for ways to save money I'd take the least expensive high-speed available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Cable is generally faster than DSL and isn't dependent on how close you are to the provider. DSL, on the other hand, distance is important. Cable is best for those expecting to do larger downloads (think videos, movies, programs, large file sizes). However, if you are just surfing the web and doing email, DSL is often cheaper and good enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzanne in ABQ Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 I agree with the previous posters. I've always been happy with DSL. In your situation, I'd start with the cheapest DSL available. If it doesn't suit your needs, it can be updated with just a phone call (and a few extra dollars a month). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenL Posted December 7, 2009 Author Share Posted December 7, 2009 Cable is generally faster than DSL and isn't dependent on how close you are to the provider. DSL, on the other hand, distance is important. Cable is best for those expecting to do larger downloads (think videos, movies, programs, large file sizes). However, if you are just surfing the web and doing email, DSL is often cheaper and good enough. Thank you for mentioning this as we're planning on using the computer to watch shows & movies using Hulu and/or Netflix. This is very helpful! It looks like we'll be sticking to cable then. I just wish they didn't charge an arm & a leg for it! :mad: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SapphireStitch Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 We're also in NC and recently switched from cable (Time Warner) to DSL (Windstream). We've been very, very happy with Windstream so far. We were able to bundle together our regular phone service, long distance, and DSL and pay about the same as we were paying for those things separately BUT with a big jump in speed. (We went up to the 12kbps level.) Yes, you need to be close to the source of the DSL signal to get the highest speeds. Windstream customer service can tell you how close you are to the nearest point. With cable, you don't have to be close BUT you are affected by how many other folks in your neighborhood have cable and are using the connection. In the summer, for instance, I could always tell when the neighborhood teens got out of bed and got online because our speed would drop way down. We also had a lot of drops of service with TWC. It seemed like every morning there would be an outage from about 10-11. Every time DH contacted them they put him through a big rigamarole where they had him reboot the cable modem over and over even though he knew that wasn't the problem. (It didn't help either.) Right after we got Windstream DH did some speed tests and found we were getting about 9kbps instead of 12 (they don't guarantee the exact speed, but we expected to get closer than that). He called and Windstream sent out a tech the next day who spent a couple of hours here fiddling around with all the connections and filters and figured out what the problem was. He even walked me through some things we could do to rewire our own phone lines (had me write it down so DH could do it himself if he wanted to instead of paying to have someone come out) to make it even faster. It turned out the things he did got us really close to 12 kbps and DH is happy with that so he's not doing the other adjustments. Oh, the DSL upload speed is higher, too, than on cable. This is important to us on weekends because DH does sound recording for our church and has to upload big sound files to the website. The faster upload speed saves him a lot of time and hassle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawn in OH Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 We have the Windstream 6meg DSL and are very happy with it. I don't feel a need to get anything faster (12meg), and we've had no downtime at all in the 2 1/2 years we've had the service. One time the DSL ran slow and that was in the middle of a bad storm, but it never went completely out, just ran a tad slow. While I don't like Windstream for my phone company, I have no complaints with their DSL service at all. I unfortunately cannot compare it to anything for you, as we have only has dial up and DSL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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