I have lots of experience with both DSL and Comcast. My experience is that DSL blows - slow and frequent outages. Comcast is fast and never goes out - until recently. A friend says Comcast is sabotaging Netflix online viewing and I've recently had it going out when I watch CNN online. It would not surprise me if Comcast is doing this maliciously.
Where are you located? Go over to cable - everything... even DSL is eventually shared. If you were paying the $$$ for a dedicated circuit you wouldnt be asking these questions. Get cable with greater than 1mb/second upload and you should be fine. I also sent you a PM. I am close to Greenwich and happy to help out.
I use verizon wireless, and it goes down sometimes on Sunday Night for maintenence. But I don't trade that close. If it was critical I would use comcast as my main connection, and then just pay an extra $50 a month for the Verizon wireless as backup.
Thank everyone again for your input. Now I understand that DSL is the one of the worst. Unfortunately FIOS is not available in my neighborhood, I will try to get Comcast cable instead. Winston: Unfortunately I live in MD. Thanks anyway,
I currently have FiOS with Frontier (formerly Verizon), and it is the best I have seen, but definitely not 100% reliable. I have had router failure and more often hardware failures on the ISP side. When that happens, support can be a problem. I have had Comcast cable in two cities, and both places were plagued with brief (~ 10 second) interruptions. The problem was NOT bandwidth. You don't need much bandwidth for trading, and it's usually not very busy during market hours anyway. The problem with cable is that it is inherently susceptible to interference. That's why it's coaxial. I have also had DSL, and I plan to get that after my upcoming move. The problem with DSL is that it is very distance-sensitive. The farther you are away from the central office (CO) or concentrator, the poorer the signal and the higher the error rate. If you're not close enough, it sucks.
re stability of your internet connection, i strongly suggest getting a dual wan router and hooking up two SEPARATE internet connections into it (e.g. dsl and cable - NOT two dsl lines from two diff phone cos b/c they both travel over the same wires). the router is only a few hundred bucks but the peace of mind is def worth it.