Broadband Review Series:

Cable Internet Access

Cable broadband is brought to your home from your cable TV provider. A standard coaxial cable has �extra room� or bandwidth on it, so making room for internet access is not a problem. This actually makes more efficient use of the broadband space available on your standard television coaxial cable. All information from your television is carried �down� through the coaxial cable and into your home. Since internet access requires both downstream and upstream, the standard 6mhz channel allocated for a TV station is allocated to the internet channel. This allows for 2-way transportation of your internet signal. 4mhz are used to download data and the other 2 mhz are used to upload data. For those that are familiar with ADSL, you will notice this is the same type of breakdown in that it allows varying speeds between the downstream and upstream data flow. This asymmetry falls under the premise that most users will download more so than upload. For the typical home user this is generally true.

Availability for cable internet access is greater than that of DSL. DSL is however, becoming more and more available.

Cable modem access is generally 2x faster. The reason it�s �generally� is that pinpointing exact numbers is more difficult with cable access. The difficulty in determining the exact numbers is because of a dedicated vs. shared bandwidth. Cable internet access is shared between the other cable subscribers in your area, whereas DSL is dedicated between your location and the central office. After there even DSL cannot guarantee results. However, most experts agree that currently, cable access has the edge on speed.

Cable internet providers usually provide their modem when you sign up for service, although you are free to purchase your own modem if you�d like. These modems come with basic network firewall capabilities (prevents files from being viewed or downloaded by others) and most implement DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification). This reduces the security risk of cable internet access.

Being on a shared connection is not as big a deal as the DSL providers would have you believe. DSL runs over a dedicated connection whereas a cable connection runs over a shared network in your area. You computer is �seen� as a node on the network. By using the equipment provided by your carrier, this isn�t a big deal. I should point out as well this is an oversimplification of the issue. Suffice it to say that this isn�t a big deal and I�ve personally used cable access since it became available in my area in the late 1990�s. I didn�t have any issues in the early days, nor do I have any issues today.