[Tfug] why not cable?

[Brad Becker]

I just negotiated (today) Qwest down to $26.99/mth for my current 1.5/896  
service, the biggest savings coming from dumping MSN as the ISP to  
qwest.net.

It's now been 2 years since I dumped Cox cable (internet & TV) for DSL &  
Dish Network.  The reasons were numerous:

- Cost.  Over a $20/mth savings. More TV stations too.
- Reliability.  Cable was down or lagging frequently, a story I still hear  
today ... frequently.
- Port 25 SMTP blocking.  Minor point but apparantly Qwest doesn't think  
it's an issue ... or doesn't care.
- Horrible prime time lag & slowdown.  Cox oversubscribed my area.
- Latency.  Initial connect & screen draws at sites seem snappier with DSL.
- Poor upload speed.  Back then DSL offered twice the upload bandwidth.

Things sound a bit better with Cox now.  Certainly the bandwidth has  
improved.  Pulling ISO's down at 6 mpbs or more is nice, no big deal, it's  
just that I happen to sleep ... the perfect opportunity to schedule those  
larger downloads.