[Cialug] DSL v. Cable (Ankeny)

[Jeffrey C. Ollie]

On Wed, 2006-04-12 at 22:22 -0500, Alan Maupin wrote:
> I've used Mediacom cable Internet service for the past 2.5 years. I live
> on the north end of Ankeny.  I can't count the number of times the cable
> signal has failed. I'm now thinking about switching to DSL.  What are
> the major differences between the DSL providers in this area relating to
> cost, reliability or speed.
> 
> If anyone has a personal suggestion on what they consider the superior
> Internet service for this area is I would appreciate the tip.

I'm on the northwest side of Ankeny (near Westwood Elementary) and I've
had DSL service for several years now.  The only downside to DSL in
Ankeny is that some areas can't get DSL because the phone lines are too
old and Qwest doesn't want to recondition them.  The majority of the
problems that I've had with my DSL service were because of a poor
quality DSL modem.  The modems that Qwest sends out now may or may not
be of better quality than the one I received.

Qwest's DSL tech support wasn't very helpful the one time I called them
(the problem ultimately turned out to be a failing DSL modem).  The
woman that I spoke to was obviously following a script and didn't really
know what she was talking about.

I'd recommend _not_ renting a DSL modem from Qwest.  Best Buy has a
couple of models for a reasonable price.  In fact they are the same
modems that Qwest would ship you if you were to rent one from Qwest.

Jeff
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