the Extremely Unofficial Pacbell ADSL Page
by der golemite
home / unofficial adsl faq / adsl vs cable / tweaking your connection / links to useful resources

This is my personal opinion of both services and a compilation of my experiences with Pacific Bell's Basic Home DSL (Feb 1999 - golemite@pacbell.net) and COX@Home's cable modem service (June 1998 - golem1@home.com) in Irvine.

 PBI ADSL 1.544-384/128COX@HOME - Irvine
Cost49$/month55$/month
RequiresNon-ISDN telephone lineInstalled Cable Service
Modem is sold to userModem is rented to user
IP AddressStaticDynamic (a)
Extra IP AddressesNonemax 3 IPs, extra are 7$/month
Connection TypeDedicated LineShared Line
Max Download Speed (KB/s)~160 KB/s~250 KB/s (b)
Max Upload Speed (KB/s)~15 KB/s~35 KB/s
Speeds Possibly Affected By:Distance from Central OfficeActivity on local network
Average Quake-TF Ping (Gamespy)60-80ms90-120ms
Availability526 central offices by end of 1999Depends on Cable Provider (Charter sucks)
(a) Although COX@Home's IP is dynamic, I don't believe they've actually activated the DHCP servers yet, so currently they are still static, but not guarenteed to stay that way.
(b) i believe my usage was before COX@Home made extensive use of caching servers.

any comments/questions/suggestions? email me at golemite@pacbell.net

© 1999 the raid group