What is "fast" internet?

These days, most people want a fast internet connection that gets them information quickly without tying up phone lines or having to wait what seems like forever for a page to load or an email to send.

What is "fast" internet?
Dial-up internet, the slowest kind, has become obsolete and instead has been replaced by two much faster types of internet - DSL and cable. These types of internet connections don't tie up phone lines, nor do they take long for pages to load. Typically, DSL and cable are about 50 times faster than dial-up and keep you continuously connected to the internet.

What is DSL?
A DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line, connection travels over local telephone cables instead of phone lines, which have limited frequencies. DSL loads data onto copper wires, which travel directly from a telephone switching station to a home or office location, making them much faster. It uses already existing 2-way copper wires that are connected to the station and your computer, so it is always on and will not tie up phone lines.

What is a cable connection?
Cable connections, on the other hand, works through television cable lines instead of phone lines. Cable internet utilizes TV channel space for the sending and receiving of data. The cable used by cable TV has a much larger bandwidth than that of a telephone line, so cable modems give fast access to the Internet.

Which is faster?
Both DSL and cable Internet speeds can be considered "fast." However, their speeds are dependant on a number of things, including your internet service provider, the distance away from the switching station, or how many subscribers are in your area.

Technically speaking, cable is faster than DSL. DSL subscribers can choose between speeds of 144Kb per second all the way to 1.5M per second. Cable, on the other hand, is roughly twice as fast as the 1.5Mps speed of DSL.

However, there are other things to take into consideration that may make the connection slower than DSL:
Cable internet can actually slow down a great deal if a large number of people in your neighborhood or area are all online at the same time
The speed of both cable and DSL can vary in a matter of minutes depending on the traffic on the Internet.
DSL and cable Internet providers actually often put in "speed caps" that limit the bandwidth of their services, making them slower
Some home networks don't adequately match the speed of the Internet connection, so the speed is compromised.

With that information in mind, you can see that DSL can actually end up being faster than cable because DSL doesn't share a connection, as cable does, giving DSL subscribers a more constant speed. In terms of information that is uploaded, however, DSL and cable are quite similar.

Before deciding on cable or DSL you should take a number of things into consideration, including the size of your neighborhood and city, how many people use cable vs. DSL, and other information. Ask your neighbors what they use and if they are pleased with it. If everyone has cable internet and often complain of slow speeds, you may want to consider DSL. On the other hand, if you live in a rural area or a place with fewer subscribers, your cable connection can wind up being faster. These are all things to take into consideration.

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