Rogers cable internet vs. Bell DSL internet

[SeanC]

Hi all,

I'm looking at high speed internet (finally!) I live in the Mississauga, Ontario, Canada area. I was wondering if any other members from near this area could give me some speed numbers for Rogers cable internet and Bell DSL internet (luckily I can get both) I'm curious which one is faster.

My apartment building is right next door to a bell switching office, so I know that would give me good DSL speed. But I want some hard (unbiased) speed numbers.

Thanks,
Sean

cause over here - the only way to get reall yfast speed is to be in the epicenter of a T1 line - not likely given the way things go around here-

anyway - from New Brunswick - persective- bell will be slower if the are using the 'vibe service -' the reason for this is that it is not a true cable sytem - thye quote the fastest speed possible rather than the average. quoted is 300 - average is 75 and that depends on where your house winds up in thte network and how many are hooked up between you and the box.

the rogers system is true cable - and download speed will be close to the quoted speed - so try it and see - but I am waiting for cable or satellite -

regards - wiz

[Cyclone2]

I have Rogers in London and had Shaw in BC and both were about the same. Way better than dial up most of the time
Sometimes it can slow down and you wish you had dialup but thats very infrequent. The other thing you may find is that when the kids get home from school/ people home from work things slow down a bit. Partly cables fault, partly traffic congestion.

I have not tried DSL but they say its a fast connection, not as fast as cables peak but it is a consistant connection.

[willy_ph]

Well here's a response from the DSL camp.

I have Bell HSE and it's pretty good for what I can get. I usually max out around 118 kbps. Connections are solid and connecting it was a breeze.

I've heard good things and bad things about Rogers. Go to DSL Reports and read some of the reviews for the canadian companies and post in the forums. They guys over there are a helpful bunch and should be able to help you sway your decision.

[SeanC]

Hi all,

Thanks for you responses so far...

I don't know much about either technology so I've done some reading on both technologies but I'm not sure if everything I read is completely true. Maybe you guys can help.

With cable, the more people connected in your area (that are on the same cable line) will slow down all connections. True or False?

With DSL, the farther away you are from an office, the slower your speed. True or False?

Apartment buildings will usually give you slower speeds then from a home for either technology. True or False?

And two questions of my own, since the only answers I could find were from Bell's and Rogers web sites:

You won't notice any difference in the quality of your cable TV while you're surfing. Rogers says you won't notice anything.

You won't notice any difference in the quality of your phone while you're surfing. Bell says you won't notice anything.

Thanks,
Sean

[willy_ph]

After installing my DSL I noticed that the phone filters they provided cleared up the line quality a bit.

To your first question about DSL, the further you are away from the CO (Central Office) the slower the speeds may be. This is because the signal gets weaker the further it has to travel. This is mainly due to the physical properties of the copper cables that it has to travel along.

persons on the same street - oposite side - have down load speed differences in the order of up to a factor of 10.

one house - beside the switch - 300 -400

across the street - 20 to 30

that compares to 4 to6 - dialup - depending on the gods of copper

wiz

[SeanC]

Well, the apartment building I'm in is right next door to a Bell central office, whether it's "the" central office for the apartment I don't know.

But, now I think I have enough knowledge to go and talk to their sales reps.

Thanks for all the help!!

Sean

[osprey4]

Quote:

With cable, the more people connected in your area (that are on the same cable line) will slow down all connections. True or False?

True in theory, but in practice the cable companies are smart enough to add nodes to congested areas long before there are any problems. Since we went to cable, about half our neighborhood has joined and my speeds have actually gone up (due to firmware upgrades on the modem).

Our system is capped at 10 Mbps down, and the average is nearly 6 Mbps (1 Mbps upload is never a problem). Many get 8 Mbps (including myself) and very few get less than 3 Mbps.

So even the company ads promising "up to 100 times faster than dial-up" are conservative.

John

[Dmack_901]

I have Cable and it's at 100mbps, I don't know how it jumped from the 10 that it used to be.( I just hooked up a linksys 10/100 cable switch with full duplex and next thing I know Bam 100mbps. Probably never will get a connection with server that fast though.)