[Gllug] ADSL or cable?

[Xander D Harkness]

Ian Northeast wrote:

>Tethys wrote:
>  
>
>>Mark Lowes writes:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>'home' or 'single user'
>>>512kbps @ 50:1 contention
>>>
>>>'business' or 'network'
>>>512kbps @ 20:1 contention
>>>1Mbps @ 20:1 contention
>>>2Mbps @ 20:1 contention
>>>      
>>>
>>Most people assume cable to be faster because it gives higher bandwidth
>>numbers. What they don't tell you is that with that you get higher
>>contention ratios. The last number I heard were 200:1 for NTL's cable
>>service. Worth bearing in mind when making your decision. Also, check
>>beforehand what proxying/filtering you'll get. With ADSL you're much
>>more likely to be able to find an unfiltered pure IP connection. With
>>cable, the providers seem more likely to prevent you running servers,
>>for example, and may well block certain (or in some cases all) incoming
>>ports. Of course, this can apply to ADSL too, depending on your ISP, but
>>it seems that cable providers are more anal about it.
>>    
>>
>
>NTL told me that there is no contention ratio on their cable service and
>experience bears this out, I get a good 1Mb/s and can download a CD in
>an hour and a half, reliably. A friend subscribed to their 128Kb/s
>service and we measured her connection at about 190Kb/s. Mine delivers
>exactly what was promised.
>
>The only filtering NTL apply is their blasted "web caches". This causes
>serious grief when trying to connect to servers inside my company where
>I need to authenticate my IP on the company firewall. Of course the web
>caches are not authenticated and so cannot connect. I have to set up
>proxies on ports != 80 to circumvent this. Other than this, and their
>so-called "support" the service is excellent. Fortunately I have never
>needed to call for support.
>
>The terms and conditions forbid running HTTP and FTP servers, and
>reserve the right to forbid others in future. But, judging by the amount
>of garbage my firewall drops on the floor, this is not enforced.
>
>Upstream bandwidth is only about 140Kb/s.
>
>Setting up an NTL cable modem is extremely easy as it provides an
>ethernet connection, the only software required is a DHCP client and a
>web browser to do the registration. I used Netscape 4 and it worked
>fine. They even say that you don't require Windows to connect - just
>that they can't support you if you don't use it which is fair enough
>IMHO.
>
>NTL's news servers are useless, but I just use the University of Berlin
>one.
>

I have been having difficulty finding a reliable news service, may I ask 
is the University of Berlin open to the public and if so please could 
you provide the address.

Cheers
Xander

>
>Regards, Ian
>
>  
>


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