OT: Why is DSL slower than cable?

[XBoxBoy]

Why is it that DSL has so much slower data rates than a cable connection? Is there a difference in the wires or some other hardware issue? Or is it a software/protocol issue? Bottom line, both the phone company and the cable company have a wire coming into my house. Yet the cable company claims data speeds multiple times faster than the phone company can provide. Why is that?

[spdrun]

Yeah, DSL runs over twisted pair (often old, 1940s-era twisted pair). Cable runs over a shielded coaxial cable.

[XBoxBoy]

[quote=spdrun]Yeah, DSL runs over twisted pair (often old, 1940s-era twisted pair). Cable runs over a shielded coaxial cable.[/quote]

So is the type of wire the only difference? If the phone company put in shielded coaxial would they be competitive with cable service? How much wire would need to be replaced? (ie from the telephone poll to house, or from switch box to house, or from central office to switch box to house?)

If shielded coaxial is so much better why hasn’t the phone company switched years ago? Presumably it wouldn’t have taken much insight to see the business opportunities associated with better connections.

[spdrun]

The length of run is often longer, from the central office direct to the home, rather than an an intermediate distribution amplifier.

DSL systems that only run the twisted pair to an intermediate box with the DSLAM in it ARE actually faster.

Also, the coax won’t fit existing infrastructure. Much larger and bulkier than an unshielded twisted pair.

[no_such_reality]

[quote=XBoxBoy][quote=spdrun]Yeah, DSL runs over twisted pair (often old, 1940s-era twisted pair). Cable runs over a shielded coaxial cable.[/quote]

So is the type of wire the only difference? If the phone company put in shielded coaxial would they be competitive with cable service? How much wire would need to be replaced? (ie from the telephone poll to house, or from switch box to house, or from central office to switch box to house?)

If shielded coaxial is so much better why hasn’t the phone company switched years ago? Presumably it wouldn’t have taken much insight to see the business opportunities associated with better connections.[/quote]

The answer is simple $$$$$$$$. How much do you think cabling up a neighborhood costs? There’s a reason google fiber is in three cities since 2012.

Remember decades ago the phone companies got broken up. I had high speed u verse a decade ago before the cable company could match the speed. It was an early neighborhood. My current neighborhood got it this year. The cable companies wired them because they originally had city franchises that gave them monopoly (pre little satellite days).

[moneymaker]

coax is to twisted pair as fiber is to coax, so why hasn’t the local cable company run fiber to the home? Economics! Google has deep pockets, I think their big obstacle could be with the city licensing agreements.If you read La Mesa’s licensing agreement with cable they prohibit individual tracking and reporting of customers viewing habits, do you think Google would agree to something like that?

[spdrun]

^^^

As it should be. If Google can’t play by basic privacy rules, then f’em.

[FlyerInHi]

related to internet speed, is a wifi router with external antennas better than one without?

[spdrun]

Depends on the application and range you need.

[Doofrat]

[quote=FlyerInHi]related to internet speed, is a wifi router with external antennas better than one without?[/quote]

Wired is always better, you get latency and congestion with wifi, but having directional antennas is a plus. I’m actually going to finally wire up my Apple TV, sick of the lag with the wireless.

And DSL can be a much better connection than cable theoretically because you get your own connection all the way back to the demarcation point (depending on how far the point is from your house) I had it for a year about 15 years ago and it worked for about 8 months of that year. When it actually worked, it was amazingly consistent, my throughput and ping were always the same. You could make calls on the computer and people couldn’t believe it wasn’t on a landline. Games were always a good connection. It didn’t have a huge throughput, but it was a good connection. The only problem was it came from the phone company and they were a bunch of F@&$ tards. That’s the reason I’ve never gone with Uverse, because I don;t trust the phone company with providing this service.

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