High-Speed Internet

[Darius]

Sorry if this is too far off topic, but it’s definitely SMAC-related.

I’m becoming increasingly frustrated with the poor quality of my internet connection. I’m using a V.90 dialup account through my telephone company. I’m playing in about eight PBEM’s right now, sending and receiving game files several times a day. Just about every day now, during sending a turn, the email server quits responding. I have to sit there to click on “keep trying” or it will disconnect. Meanwhile, the time is counting against my limited hours per month. Sometimes I can’t connect at all.

I want to upgrade to a high-speed connection. DSL costs $50 per month in this area, so is not an option. I’m looking at cable, at $35 per month.

I have read that the throughput of cable internet depends on how many people in the neighborhood are online, as the bandwidth is shared. Also, the upstream speed of the system here is only 128 kbps, or about double that of V.90. (Downstream is “up to” 2.8 mbps.) But speed is not my primary concern. I want a system that will work reliably.

I’d like to hear from any cable modem users what you think. Have you noticed speed decreasing as more people sign up or at certain times of day? Is it reliable? Is it worth the extra cost?

I would also welcome comments from DSL users, but DSL is out of my reach right now

[Misotu]

Hi Darius

I'm also living in CT, and used to have a cable internet connection before I moved. My experience with cable was superb - the speed was great, the reliability was excellent. It was well worth the money, and I would pay it again now if it were available in the area where I live

The other nice thing about cable is that you almost never lose your connection, or at least that was the case with the set-up I had where the cable connection was provided by one company, and the back-up dial-up connection by another. So when, occasionally, the server was down on my cable connection, I could still dial in with no problems.

I loved it.

cheers
Mis

[Q_tip1976]

I'm currently using a Cable Modem from Time Warner in New York and its been well worth the money. It's almost always very fast (turns download instantly) and it's only been down for ~5hrs in the past 5 months (the whole time I've been using it).

I understand that reliability of cable is somewhat dependant on area but I LOVE mine and would HATE to ever go back to dial up.

[Deimos]

Another cable modem fan here! I had some instability problems early on (I've been using it for almost two years now), but that was due to the fact that I was one of the first to subscribe when it came to my city.

Since then, everything has been great! I haven't really noticed any slowdowns, and the service has been unavailable only for a few hours total in the past 9 months or so.

"You can have my broadband when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the keyboard"