Computer folks I need advise...........

[Wizard]

Hey guys and gals, I have two phones lines here at my house, but in the next few months I may have to move due to the fact I have elderly parents that are in very poor health and are at the point where they can't take care of themself anymore. We may have to move in with them. My question is if you had to get a new set up for you computer what would you do......second phone line again or cable hook up or is there something better ????? I have heard alot good and bad about cable........anyone have advise on what they have found to be best?????? If we move we will be setting a small office up in the game room and I could go any route I wanted ............Just looking to learn something here..............

 

[KillerMuffin]

Awww you are such a sweetheart

Cable works nicely, it's faster and less line noise. I believe it requires purchasing a new modem. Another thought is DSL, if it's in your area *kicks her isp for not laying the freakin line already.* DSL is a broad bandwidth signal, as opposed to a narrow bandwith analog modems use. DSL uses the wider ranges to send it's signal, not interfering with the phones at all, so you can have both. The downside is that you have to be connected to the puter 24/7 unless you shut the thing off. Wait, is that really a downside? I'm not really sure about cable, I didn't look it up because our cable company supplies is locally and they want too much for the stupid thing. I got my info from DSL.com, I'm sure there is info on cable as well somewhere. Personally, though, considering my house layout and all that rot, DSL was the better option for me, no cable jack near the puter.

Hope this helps at all.

 

[ShyGuy68]

Wizard

I'm currently hooked up via cable here in Denmark, and I have to admit that I do like it a lot. The speed it great, and I hardly ever have any problems with my ISP. It's also an advantage that you connect within seconds, and don't have to wait for the modem to dial up.

Soon I'll be switching to a new provider and a new connection type, it's ADSL, it's rater new over here, but it's supposed to work great, and have great speed too. And I'll get a flat rate, and don't be billed as I am now for traffic over 300 mb/quarter. But I'm sure that the cable provider in the states probably have a flat rate too. The Danish ISP's could really learn from that!!

 

[Wizard]

Interesting........Let me ask this do you guys think cable is just as safe as phone lines?
Not that Phone is safe but we like to buy on-line from time to time and someone once said that cable was unsafe?????anything to that?

Thanks for the input thats what I was looking to hear. Diffrent route we could go and the good and bad with all 3.....

 

[Patryn]

Cable is no less secure as far as encrypted sites or submitting information, but it would be a good idea to get a firewall. As with most broadband connections, a cable modem is on all the time, even if you're not using the internet. Some ISPs offer them as part of the service, but if not, look around http://www.download.com/ I belive there's a few free or cheap ones there.

I have a cable modem and I've only had a few problems with it, and those are caused by equipment upgrade by my cable company. It's not really that more expensive than a regular dial-up account in most places. Dial-up here costs an average of $20-25, a month, cable costs $35, and it's worth it for me because of the speed and not getting &^*(& disconnected all the time.

 

[ShyGuy68]

Firewall.

It's possible to get a firewall at:

http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/partners/zonealarm/download.html

as long as it's for personal use it's free. I use it myself, and it works great.

 

[Unclebill]

Re: Awww you are such a sweetheart

Cable works nicely, it's faster and less line noise. I believe it requires purchasing a new modem. Another thought is DSL, if it's in your area *kicks her isp for not laying the freakin line already.* DSL is a broad bandwidth signal, as opposed to a narrow bandwith analog modems use. DSL uses the wider ranges to send it's signal, not interfering with the phones at all, so you can have both. The downside is that you have to be connected to the puter 24/7 unless you shut the thing off. Wait, is that really a downside? I'm not really sure about cable, I didn't look it up because our cable company supplies is locally and they want too much for the stupid thing. I got my info from DSL.com, I'm sure there is info on cable as well somewhere. Personally, though, considering my house layout and all that rot, DSL was the better option for me, no cable jack near the puter.

Hope this helps at all.

To clarify a couple of things KM offered:

1. Cable does require you to buy or lease a modem. The modem accepts the RF from the cable, extracts the frequency used for the net carrier, and demodulates that to Ethernet. There is a NIC installed in your computer to complete the Ethernet newtork connection to your computer.

2. Cable is a broadband signal, i. e., a carrier frequency is used to transport the intelligence in the form of modulation. The advantage is that many signals may be transported on the same medium each on a different carrier frequency. It's as if your cable modem is tuning to another TV channel on the cable.

DSL is baseband like Ethernet in that a modulated carrier is not used to transport the signal requiring frequency discrimination and demodulation at the user end.

To make it clearer, you and your neighbor can both have Internet service provided on separate carrier frequencies over the same medium (coaxial cable) and never have any interaction or interference. You cannot both have DSL service off the same medium, i. e., the same pair of wires.

3. Actually, DSL uses your existing telephone lines which leads to the reason it won't work for everybody. Line quality is critical to DSL operation. If your area is an older development with telephone lines that have been around for 30 years, you may not have the suppport for DSL. If you're in a newer area (10 YO or less), the lines will probably support DSL fine. Also somewhere I read the DSL service is not offered if you are more than 12,000' (2.25 mi) or so from your central office (the building where your telephone line first connects to their equipment). The closer to your central office you're located, the better your chances of DSL being satisfactory and the better speed of service available via DSL.

4. A standard dial-up modem is also a baseband device. It used modulated audio to carry the data but there is only one carrier frequency on the medium thus the medium cannot be shared as it can with cable.

Interesting........Let me ask this do you guys think cable is just as safe as phone lines? Not that Phone is safe but we like to buy on-line from time to time and someone once said that cable was unsafe?????anything to that?

The question of safety as I understand it is not the encryption used by a secure site (credit card transactions, etc.) but more from hackers.

With cable or DSL service, your computer is assigned a fixed IP address whereas dial-up users get a temporary IP address each time they log on and it is released when the pog off.

IF you leave your computer ON AND you leave the ISP connection hooked up, it is possible for a hacker to interrogate your computer via its IP address and depending on his skills and your firewall, he has anything up to total access to your computer and all files thereon. This is the security issue most people speak of regarding cable or DSL.

The only time someone can access your computer is when it is turned on and the OS is running. If you turn off the computer, it can't be accessed. The other security aperture is that having a fixed IP abbress, once they identify you as a desireable target, it's very easy to come back and find you when you're on-line.

If you have a dial-up service, the latter part is more difficult since you will almost certainly have a different IP addres each time you log on. As an example, I was troubleshooting a problem recently while talking to my ISP. TO replicate the problem I had to disconnect and reconnect several times. Each time I was assigned a different IP address.

 

[Wizard]

Thanks to all you folks for putting that in terms that I could understand..........I was wondering about that and thought who better to ask than you guys.....

 

[Bigdog]

I have DSL and have had no problems at all. You do have to be in the right place to get it, within 3 miles of a phone company central office. Look up "DSL" on a search engine and you should find several sites that can tell you by address whether or not you are close enough. Don't know anything about Cable modem service, my city just got it a few weeks ago. I have heard several people whining about Time Warner cable systems, though.

 

[Guest]

You can get free dsl if available in your area from winfire but it gives you a banner and is slower than regular dsl. The phone company in the area is the place to go to find out if your phone can even get dsl. I would also check with the cable company about availability of cable connection. Cable and dsl will both have a higher rate for net service and modens will usually run around $200 for either one. Do a search for isp's and dsl's as I know that there are lists of what services and providers are available in each area.

For safety in buying over the net I would consider getting a card just for the net. I know that American Exp has a blue card? or a net card that uses a chip imbedded in the card and a reader (it's free) so that no one can steal the card # and charge on your account. I believe that some of the other companies are providing cards much the same.

Good luck
Fallen Angel

 

[Wizard]

Wow...what you can find out when you ask i didn't know there was a card to us for the net. I don't worry but in the back of my head I allways wonder what the risk is.......If i have to move in with the folks, They live in a Large town and I'm real sure all of this would be avaliable there......I 'll check with the phone company and cable company there...I thought this would be a good chance to do something better....


On another note I have 4 in my family and am not really looking forward to moving but what can we do.....I have an obligation to take care of my folks and my father has a nurse the comes to his house and she wants him in a nursing home....(Thats out of the question) and I still have mom to take care of(also in bad health )....seems like this is the best thing to do......They are my folks ya know....