I currently have RoadRunner cable broadband that I'm getting real sick of. Bandwidth bounces around from 2.4Mb/S to 750Kb/S. I never know if I'm going to be able to connect or not. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. It may be out for hours at a time for several days during the week. Then it will go for weeks with no problems before starting the crap all over again.

I call and complain and get a few weeks free, but RR doesn't really care because they were the only game in town for broadband...until yesterday. I got a letter from Verizon telling me that DSL is now available in my area. But it said DL speed of only 224Kb/S.

So I'm torn between crappy cable at $50/month or DSL at a much slower speed for $30/month. Hence my question, what would you do?

Well I don't download so I would be happy with 128kbps or above but a faster connection is always nice fro drivers etc. I do rate reliability highly though and with the cut price and ythe chance of a reliable service I would happliy give the new guys in town a try.

Verizon is adding fiber optic lines just out of reach of my area 😞 it promises 30mbps!

heh... your cable company sounds just as bad as mine! When I call them to get someone down to look at the line, they tell me they'll send someone up... they never do. Only way I can get someone to look at my line is if I call 2 times a day for about 3-4 days(Not joking). Then there are the constant disconnects... and it's always nice to call and hear "We know there is a problem, but we're not sure of what it is". Though where yours dips to 750k/s... Mine peeks at about 700k/s... my bill is $55... Cable companys rule! Anyways, if you don't download alot, i'd probably go with the more reliable verizon and hope they upgrade their speeds.

I'm leaning towards DSL. However when I set up a new comp for a client I always DL all the updates for the OS for them. Just so I know when it leaves my hands it's set up right. At my current speed, when it's working right, makes this a breeze. Need to dwell on this a bit more. Thanks for the input guys.

I have RoadRunner and I was experiencing problems as well. It turned out to be the splitter and now everything's good except I get disconnected in the middle of the night when I'm idling in the chat room. Other than that I would say definetly stay with RoadRunner.

Go with DSL. It will be cheaper and more reliable. It all depends on if you actually use that extra bandwidth from the cable or not.

I'm going to jump on the DSL suggestion bandwaggon here for the simple reason that you're paying RR for a service they're not delivering in a completely (or even close to) satisfactory condition. If it's not working, don't pay for it man!

My old cable company (Adelphia) was the same way for a long time...really pissed me off sometimes.

Since I moved in January I've been using SBC ADSL and the consistency just rocks...bandwidth doesn't fluctuate, ping is always low, I'm always able to connect, and I never get disconnected. The only drawback in your case is the low bandwidth, which is probably fine for web browsing, but not so great for big downloads. It may not have great bandwidth, but it might save you some headaches.

ask if verison is going to be bumping up that speed any time soon, might be best to put it off for a few months. If you do get that much downtime, i'd probably go for something more reliable.

Ramman, I have RoadRunner as well and I gotta say that it definitely blows compared to the Cable I had in New York. This thing craps out on me at least once a week for at least half of the day. And since I use Vonage for my telephone it also ends up cutting out my phone line. So I feel your pain.

However, I will warn you. I used to have Verizon DSL as well and that was also a bunch of [censored]. Their fastest speed was 1.5mb (or 1.5 something or other) and it ended up costing about $55.00 per month. RoadRunner runs faster (when it's working) and it only costs me $44.95. So if I have to choose between two unreliable connections I might as well take the faster/cheaper one. But maybe you'll have a better experience.

Well I contacted RR and told them I was going to switch to Verizon DSL. They offered me 6 months free and a free dail-up service as a backup if cable went down if I stayed with them.

They will also be out tomorrow to completely re-run the line from the street to the house and bring me a new modem. My guess is they got alot of calls since the Verizon letter came out .

I'll go with the free six months and see what happens. Hopefully Verizon will up their bandwidth by then to make it a more viable option.

Nice! New competetion always gives companies a kick up the ass! If we didn't have Ati we'd probabaly still be on GF4s and without AMD we'd probabaly still be on P3s...