Cable Internet

So the cable internet service from AT&T Broadband/Comcast is installed and working. I’ve got to say, I was expecting to have poor quality, but –so far– I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

After living on the DSL wire forever without a single hiccup, I expected my cable experience to fail miserably in comparison. After two days, I’d say that I am very pleased with cable. The speeds are much, much better than DSL and it was actually easier to setup in my router than DSL.

Cable vs. DSL Speeds: (AT&T vs. SBC)

Cable — 2.176Mbps download & 250kbps upload
DSL — 960kbps & 120 kbps
Testing tools (CNET download & PCPitstop upload)

Clearly the AT&T broadband is much, much faster than SBC DSL.

Another really nice aspect was how simple it was to setup AT&T broadband cable for my Linksys router. (I might have been able to eliminate step 1, but I didn’t have the router unpacked at the time!) The steps were as follows:

1. Sign up for AT&T and authorize my service by connecting cable modem directly to my PC. Verify connection is working properly.
2. Disconnect ethernet from computer and plug directly into WAN port on router. Connect PC to router with ethernet from NIC to plug 1.
3. Access router setup page and set “WAN CONNECTION TYPE” to “Obtain IP Address Automatically”.
4. Click “Apply”.

It really was that simple. Just set the Linksys to “Obtain IP Address Automatically”, hook up the other computers to the router, and go surf on every computer in the house. SWEET!

Since this is my first experience with a cable modem, I’ll post anything that comes up over the next few weeks. Maybe y’all can help me if I run into trouble!