Comcast "up to XX mbps"?

Thinking about switching to Comcast (currently on Verizon) due to the highest speed I can obtain is 3.0 mbps from Verizon. I was wondering how does cable work as oppose to dsl. I know dsl is simply a line only to your household while cable is shared by your neighborhood (I could be wrong). My concerns are those "up to" phrases used by Comcast, according to a Comcast rep "the figures are at constant 90% of the time".

For gaming/hosting/netflick purpose, I might switch to a 12mbps or 30 mbps plan. Thanks for any help !

 

works fine....if you are on a really congested segment, you could have problems, but to comcasts credit, I have rarely seen that arise in recent years.

The big HOLD ON is your toss off "gaming, hosting, netflick"

Hosting....hosting what?

netflick...Comcast last year implemented a unlimted but really limited service. After 250gb, your unlimited service turns into limited service. 250gb is a lot, but with the dawn of digital movie services like netflicks, I am beginning to wonder if that 250gb limit per month will come back to haunt customers.

That and peer to peer running 24-7 could get you into the 250gb limit

 

Cable IMO is better than DSL. Where Cable is slightly affected by usage during peak times, DSL is hurt by distance, etc.

Cable says "Up to" because there is no full guarantee. For instance, at peak times (At night and weekends when everyone is doing stuff) when bandwidth goes up it is possible for you to see a slight drop in total speed. But this should be SMALL. If it ever gets bad the network team at your ISP should see the spikes and recombine what goes to each card. Alleviating the pain by balancing the bandwidth used.

Also with routers out there and of course the users PC there is no way to say what speed you are going to see. The biggest complaint Cable companies and such get for slow speeds are the customers own equipment. With that to be safe they all say, "Up To".

The reality is though you can get way better than that 3mbps with DSL with cable. Where I live I have WOW cable and its 15 mbps down, and 2 mbps upload. I get a steady 15.4 via speedtest. During peak times at night the lowest I go is 14.8.

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks for the advice guys. I may actually switch after all.

gerryf19: Hosting games such as modern warfare 2, alien vs predator, etc. These are essentially player hosting.

 

Comcast is more restrictive when it come to hosting. You may also find your lag is greater in games. But over all speed is comcast since your dsl is limited to 3mbps. With the exception of uplink speeds. Comcast has always been lower on uplink speeds vs dsl speeds. But it all depends on which dsl service you had, 3/3mbps. FIOS is the only way to go..... 25/10mbps with basic min is 5/2mbps.

 

Then you should be fine. What gerryf19 meant is that according to the terms of service you are not supposed to host stuff like a website or a heavy use ftp server using your connection.

Its perfectly ok for gaming use.

 

I just dumed Comcast for FIOS, got internet, HD tv, phone all rolled in 1 for less than Comcast wanted for slower internet and basic TV.

 

What blue said...upload is restricted in part by the technology of cable

Hosting is a no-no as far as cable communication, which is asynchronis, is concerned because it consumes too much bandwitdh.

lemme explain that better.

The Cable medium can handle X bandwitdh total, just like a 8 lane freeway can handle x amount of cars. Cable makes the conscious decision to allocate 7 lanes to download and one to upload since almost all of your needs as a user are download.

Basically, you say to a web server, "gimme that page" which requires a tiny bit of bandwitdh, and the server says, "Ok, here is the html code, here are the image bits, here are the video bits....."

The problem with you hosting is that it prevents other people on your network segment (sharing your bandwitdh) from getting those "gimme that web page" requests out.

Now, from a general use point, you hosting a game on your computer for a few friends is not an issue, but if you're setting up a web server or large game server, or constantly using peer to peer, you will get noticed.

 

took me too long to type that mess

 

I finally got rid of my crappy Clearwire today and got Comcast and I am getting 25/10mbps with the basic plan.

 

I am getting extremely poor rates on comcast,you see....I get my full 17mbs..but ping tests are very poor, making most bowsing useless sometimes...I would avoid them,get Fios if you can.

 

FIOS and the turbo plan are not a option from where I live. I may have to rethink about this .

Off Topic:

Sonicjet: where did you get your avatar from?

 

http://www.faceyourmanga.com/faceyourmanga.php?lang=eng
It's a little fishy..but they have not used me for spam so I'm fine,they did not send anything to me nor an increase in spam.

 

Beware states speeds from Comcast.

What they tell you it is, vs what it really is can be very different. Many people have gotten what they think 14meg only to find that it's really an 8 with compression, hence the extra lag.

Then there is the max transfer per month. Doing what I do, it would be an issue some months.

Comcast has also been caught throttling certain types of bandwidth like bit Torrent and video streaming. More or less Comcast has one of the worst reputations for broadband because of all of this.

Just do more research before you switch, 3meg isn't that bad, most websites won't allow you to go much faster anyhow. Yes you can download things faster, but web surfing isn't really going to improve.

 

I ditched Comcast after they pretty much tried to pull a nice scam on me and start charging me double for my internet and cable. As a direct result of what they tried to do to us, my apartment complex no longer recommends Comcast to new renters (I was not the only one having issues with Comcast scams at our complex either). Verizon is okay, if you like to have problems with them failing to close your account when you move and then they try to forward you to a collection agency.

So for now I've got AT&T DSL. 3Mbps is good enough for internet, remote desktop, Steam downloads, and everything else we use it for. So for now I'm happy with them, until they try to screw me too.

 

I agree. 3Mb is fine IMO; at least for normal/basic use. I play/host games online via PS3 (mostly NBA Live), download movies/music (up to ~300kbps on a good link) just fine on my 3Meg DSL line. But everyone's experience may be different due to location/ISP.

 

I think I am not going to switch after hearing how comcast seen to try to screw over the uninformed consumer. I will have to wait until I either move to another location or hopefully fios/turbo make it over here .

Sonicjet: Thanks for the link! I made my avatar but I cheated the system and did a print screen without having to sign up for the image .