I am going to dump my cable company after the College Football championship next week but think I may keep the high speed cable internet connection. It seems to be a lot steadier than the DSL that I also have (my company provides it for work but I can't piggyback it...trust me...already rode on that bridge).

Anyway, I checked into it and their prices and speeds are as such:

384 Kbps (which I am sure would not be good for gaming)
3 meg for $43.99 a month
5 meg for $52.99 a month
10 meg for $69.99 a month

I didn't know if 3 meg was way too low or if it is more than enough. I currently use the 5 meg in the package but I have but have no problems downgrading if there isn't much of a difference. Or should everyone have 10 meg? This is for Xbox Live and surfing the internet only. I don't game on the computer if that makes a difference.

Just wanted to be sure before I changed it or cancelled it. Also, do these prices suck or are they about average.

If you have better suggestions on high speed internet companies or prices, go ahead and suggest them. I am not tied to the cable company and personally hate them but have just been using them out of convenience. I have a friend with Earthlink but he complains about them all the time and I don't mind paying a little more for stability.

Thanks!

Hey Spiderbite73,

Yes! cable prices suck!, but they do have better speed up/down. With XBL you can get by with a 768kb down/384kb up(DSL Basic $14.99). The middle DSL package is 3.0MB down/512 up ($24.99) and the top tier DSL is 6.0 MB down/768 up ($34.99). Of course all of this depends how far you from the CO.

I really like Cable speeds, but the prices and the introductory schemes suck.

Thanks for the opinion & info Slimoby! Guess no one else here has one.

When you say it depends how far you are from the "CO"...what does CO stand for?

I prefer being hard wired so my connection runs thru a 50 feet ethernet cord straight from the cable modem (which is connected to a wired router). Is it the distance from the modem what you are talking about? What would you recommend for my situation?

CO == Central Office

It's the central office (where all the equipment is housed, trunks come in, etc...) of your provider, usually the phone company and other ISPs. There are several in major metropolitan areas. DSLReports has more info here:

http://www.dslreports.com/coinfo

You usually need to be within a certain distance from a CO to get DSL service, but I haven't had DSL service in years so I can't speak to that very intelligently. Speeds also vary by how far you are away.

You could call the phone company and they could probably tell you if you can get service and which speeds, or they might have a lookup tool on their website.

Edit: Sorry, didn't really see what you were asking at first. 3Meg is probably plenty for gaming, you would only notice a difference when downloading demos, updates, etc...