Time Warner is playing hardball this year, I guess. Usually once a year they try jacking up my rate, and I call and say I can go to DSL for my old rate and they give me the DSL price for another year. This year I called in and the guy wanted to argue with me, and when I mentioned I use it for part of the day for my business, he somewhat flipped and said I needed to switch to Business class immediately. I told him a $12 per month increase was unacceptable, and if I have to I'll make the switch to DSL at my current rate. No go, he won't budge. They did this about 6 years ago with their cable tv and I dumped them for Dish. Looks like ATT may see my business now. My question is, any reason I would find any changes using DSL as opposed to cable? I've been on cable 16 years, and I can't imagine there are any differences, but figured it would be worth checking. I hate to go through the email change hassle. Thanks
I've never used Time Warner's service, but I currently have Comcast cable internet and ATT DSL. For daytrading/scalping, I use DSL since it has proven to be more stable than cable internet over the long run. My DSL service has never gone out on me while trading. If you decide to go with ATT and also have cellphone service with them, be sure they give you a discount on your monthly DSL bill (my discount is 5 or 10 bucks/month).
I'm not a tech expert, but the tech guy who set me up said that quality of DSL service is highly dependent on how far you are from the switch. If you go the DSL route, make sure you ask the phone company how far you are from the switch. I can't remember offhand what the acceptable distances are, but if you do some research I'm sure you can find it.
I don't know if DSL has changed over the years, but years ago when I had it the performance was horrible (unreliable, dropouts, etc..). Reason being that it usually starts on the telephone wire (RJ11), which is a very poor conduit of high frequency information (was designed for 3khz voice band). When I had DSL, I had to manually wire the house with RJ45 ethernet cable for several terminals; be prepared to do that or have an upgrade. So other than a direct RJ45 ethernet connection somehow to the communications co. I would stay clear, or do some good research. Find a better cable provider if you can. Problem in many cities is not enough competition (monopolies). edit: I see someone mentioned good reliability in DSL above, so maybe they've done some changes over the years. Try going to the broadband dsl forum where people discuss performance in their region, as it varies.
Thanks for the responses. This reminded me why I ended up with cable over DSL so long ago. I called ATT and they said they would send a guy over as my house needed updated wiring to use DSL. The tech was a no show for the date and I rescheduled and had another no show. I called Time Warner and had them out the next day to wire me up. The tech from ATT showed up 2 weeks later without an appointment to take care of the wiring, I told him it was too late. He claimed this was the first time he had been told about the setup. At the same time whenever I've had a problem with my cable I end up talking to at least 3 reps and sitting there while they run through the script each time and don't solve the problem. I have solved every problem except one where I had to go ballistic to get them to check the line outside the house. Lo and behold they found a squirrel had probably chewed the line and it needed to be replaced. Crap, this is a no win situation.
I worked in telecom sales for 5 years, I am no expert either. But he is right DSL is mileage sensitive. They can put in equipment to boost the signal. There are so many things that can vary your outcome on either it's trial and error. Run ping test with both, check them on speakeasy speed test, etc. Here in Denver Comcast is generally great. I live in new subdivision, so its new infrastructure. If you live in 100 year apt. blng in NYC it may have rat chew marks etc.
I know I was originally at the limit for DSL, and I was told I couldn't get the highest offereing which was 6mbps at the time. Now they claim I can , but at the same time I can't get their U-verse service. Makes me wonder if they aren't making a claim they can't actually honor. I'll have to try and figure that out, as I have no way of checking until I actually have the service.
Qwest offers a 30 day money back. If they won't offer a service guarantee I would pass. Or go to a forum like dslreports.com and ask ppl about your provider.
Thanks, I forgot about dslreports. I'll check in there and see what thoughts are there on ATT locally.
Any chance of getting FIOS ? I have been using it for 2 years now and it is excellent. Not one problem and the rates are great. You can even get the bundle and save quite a bit.