My AT&T DSL is working well for the time being, but it's been a bumpy ride.  Last year when the company was SBC Global, some tech accidently flicked a switch and cut my speed in half.  Technical support for that problem was all about convincing me that I didn't have the knowledge to understand how to measure internet speed.
This year, under the AT&T banner, tech support instantly recognized that there was a problem and flicked the switch back to full speed.  So props to AT&T for that, anyway.
But now I notice that my speed is much faster late at night than mid-day.  I thought that speed wasn't supposed to vary on DSL.
Speed issues aside, it's pretty reliable.  The local network is up about 363 days a year. 

Quoting chibul:

Quote:
For those of you who have used both, what do you prefer?

I just switched from Comcast (I hate that company with an absolute passion, one of the worst-ran organizations I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with), and now have DirecTV and AT&T DSL. So far, I'm thrilled with the DSL - I haven't noticed any difference at all. Just curious what experiences others may have had.

First, let me say I'm talking about my area.  The same company may be fine in other areas.

DSL around here sucks big time.  We have AT&T and a large local company.  Then we have Insight Cable.

The biggest problem with the DSL is that you pay through the nose for full speed.  Then, there are the problems with people monkeying with settings as someone else mentioned.  Just because they say its supposed to be a dedicated line at such and such speed doesn't mean it will be 24/7/365.  DSL is also subject to the vagaries of the old point to point copper wire system in most places.  If you live in an older town like I do, many of those connections haven't been touched in decades and have so much crud built up on them its a wonder regular phone calls even go through.

Now, cable, on the other hand, is new and runs over fiber optic lines most everywhere these days.  I got cable here several years ago, and even then it was twice as fast as the best DSL available at the time.  They have bumped the speed UP twice in the last three years.  Now its approaching T1 speed, and the cost is roughly the same per month.  DSL is still only half as fast, and rates have tripled in that same time frame.

The cable folks also contacted me and said I needed to replace my cable modem because the one I had (which I owned) was no longer compatible with the faster speed upgrades, so they replaced it at no cost to me, and I now own the new one.  Despite some problems with storm related outages during this last winter, I have not had any problems with cable worth mentioning.

Been using cable for 2-3 years, and besides the usual technical problems (or being late on the bill  ) the speed is lightyears above dial-up (never used DSL) and it has served me well

IIRC, I was told once, that both depend on different things for the speed.

With DSL the speed will go down the further you are from the first connection point/server or whatever.

With Cable the speed depends on how many users in your neighborhood connect to the same point/server with you.

So, your mileage will vary...

(I think I have something like 1M up and 4M down (well, it's ADSL) and doing a speedtest it usually comes rather close. I am not in the USA though...)

My first high speed connection with ADSL, at like 1mbit down and 384kbit up. Worked well enough at the time (several years ago).

Then the company (Sympatico/Bell, to not name them) was offering an Premium High Speed package, which I decided to take. I had for all of 5 days.

Day 1: no problem. Speed was blazingly fast (for the time) and all was well.

Day 2: Speed drops to below standard high speed, so I call tech support, do their usually uselessness at Level 1, they finally decide to escalate to Level 2, so they send a tech over.

Day 3: Tech arrives, checks out my computer, the modem, the quality of signals and decides the modem if defective and changes. Speed is back up, noticeably not as fast as it was on the first day, but at least it's faster than normal.

Day 4: Speed drops again to below stndard high speed, call up tech support, at least they escalated straight to Level 2 (you know, those that actually know what they are talking about), and they check a few things on their end and decide to send a tech over.

Day 5: Tech arrives, checks a few things, concludes there's no reason for it not to work, so it must be the house phone wiring. Hum.. HELLO! The house is NEW, built less than 5 years ago! So the wiring IS FINE! (re-checked by an independant phone technician, not affiliated with Bell/Sympatico in any way). What I figure is I was too far from the access point for the super high-speed access, and instead of telling me that and keeping me as a customer with the regular high speed, they tried a stunt to keep me paying for the full super high speed, even though I would never have been able to get it.

So I call accounting, cancel my account, switch to cable, and never looked back.

Right, I have a nice Extreme High Speed package (from Videotron), which is advertised as 10mbits down and 1mbit up, with no transfer limits! . Speed drops a little at around 7PM in the evening, but it's nothing drastic. I've been a happy customer since and would never switch back to DSL. Oh, I've had one little snag once, and it was quickly identified as being the modem itself. Quickly as in before even testing anything, the tech changed the modem, and all was well

As for comparing the two, I guess if you're in a good area for DSL it can be just as good as Cable, but for most of the people I know around here, they ALL vouch strongly for Cable.

Usually, Cable has lower ping times (excellent for games), and great sustained transfer speed (but DSL also has that).

Speed variations because of load has just way too many variables involved to really make a valid comparison.

I've used both in the past and had great luck with both.  Although my preference would be for cable since, if nothing else, it's a less complicated setup.  On the other hand, I much preferred giving my money to Verizon than Comcast.

These days we have FIOS (fiber optic service from Verizon) and LOVE it.  But that's obviously not an option for most people these days.

I've tried both and at this point I prefer my DSL through AT&T.  The speeds are slightly slower in general than they were when I had Comcast, but I think the reduction in speed (barely noticable - I only know from running several speed tests before and after the switch) is worth it to avoid encouraging Comcast.

Like John, I live in an older town and had DSL through the local phone company. I live just over 1 block from the telephone main switching center and my DSL was spotty at best. About a year after I started with DSL, Insight re-wired the whole town and added cable internet. I switched and have never looked back. It is much more reliable, and 99% of the time is has been at least twice as fast as my best DSL speeds.