Hi everybody. How do you connect to the Internet: DSL, Cable or Satellite? There are many options at our fingertips but which one is the fastest and which one is the most reliable? That will be our dissuasion today in our column.

I can still remember my very first Internet connection. I had with AOL. It was a 56k dial up connection that at the time we thought was fast. Everybody was offering dial up and some plans were even free. Soon after, companies like Bell South began to offer broadband DSL. The speeds at the time were super fast but the ability to surf the Internet and talk on the phone at the same time was a real luxury! No more second phone line. It was just a short time after that all the companies started offering higher speeds like the Extreme 6. At the time, Bell South was one of the biggest suppliers of DSL service. While on the topic of DSL, I would like to add that through the many years that I have used this service, the downtime has been next to zero. During Hurricane Wilma, I lost power cable and telephone but my DSL line kept blinking and never went dark. By generator power, I was able to surf the web and do just about everything I normally would do with my computer as though nothing had happened. I would have to rate DSL service as extremely reliable and rock solid. But it is not the fastest solution.

Your local cable company provides today’s fastest Internet service. Cable can offer speeds that are unmatched by almost any other method. Cable is relatively reliable and usually only goes down after a major storm. In our area, cable appears to have more outages then the DSL counterpart but that might not be the typical scenario in all locations. For a gamer, cable would be a must. All in all for the price and the speed you get, it’s a great deal.

I would also like to talk a bit about satellite Internet connections. If you live in a rural location the only choice you might have for Internet is satellite. Satellite offers different speed packages but from our experience when doing remote repairs, the connections are not consistent. The speed fluctuates from slow to fast then back to slow again. A lot of this is due to weather and atmospheric conditions. I don’t recommend satellite unless it is a last resort option or when other options are not available.

One other option that is out there is provided by ATT and it is called U Verse. U Verse offers speeds that are almost as fast as cable but if you want to use your own router for customizations to your network, you are out of luck. You are going to have to use the proprietary equipment that is supplied with the install. For a simple install, it would probably work fine but for a complex network, I would not recommend it. With cable, it is easy to hook up your own router and switches and you can even purchase your own cable modem if you wish to.

In a nut shell, we found the slower DSL as being the top in reliability but the cable will blow your mind when it comes to speed.

Author:  Joe Zelenak, Staff Writer