My son is wanting me to get DSL or (naked DSL?), ditch the landline and use VOIP. His main complaint is that even broadband internet is SLOW, at least slower than naked DSL. This son knows a lot, but also knows that he can bombard me with facts that I have no way of checking.
I am happy to use VOIP if it is stable. I have one friend and I called her on her VOIP and it dropped out three times in ten minutes. I would throw it through the window so I don't need the aggravation of that happening.
Is this common? Is ADSL really SO MUCH faster than broadband?
ADSL is a form of broadband. I think you might be referring to "cable" versus "ADSL". Cable broadband uses the same coaxial cable that PayTV uses. ADSL uses your copper phone line.
Maximum theoretical speed from a single ADSL2+ service is 24Mbps, but in reality, even if you lived right next to the exchange, you would only get just over 20Mbps due to transmission losses. I live about 1.5km from my exchange and my ADSL link syncs at just over 16Mbps.
ADSL is aggregated at the exchange - my copper line literally goes from my house to the exchange and I get exclusive use of it between those two points.
Cable generally connects at the same speed for everyone, but it is a shared network. That means you and all your neighbours who are using the same cable, share the available bandwidth on your cable run. If nobody else is using it, you will get close to the full speed available. If everyone is online and doing lots of stuff, your speeds will slow down. It can vary a lot. When it is good, it is excellent, when it is bad it is horrid.
ADSL doesn't tend to suffer from time of day variations in speed (unless the upstream network is congested, but that's a problem any form of internet connection will suffer from - and it means it is time to get a better ISP).
Whether ADSL or Cable is better for you depends on your needs and usage patterns (and for Cable, the usage patterns of all your neighbours!). Ironically, if you move off cable, your neighbours speed will improve slightly
Not all VoIP services are equal. You generally get what you pay for. Free services have no guaranteed quality of service, and if it breaks, bad luck. Cheap services can sometimes work - but your mileage may vary.
I have some friends who use a VoIP service here in Sydney and I have difficulty talking to them on the phone, the line is noisy and very garbled. They use a (relatively) cheap VoIP provider.
I recommend using a VoIP service that is tied to your ISP - something that is optimised for use over your internet connection. There are a couple of good ones out there.
I use Internode as my ISP and use NodePhone for my VoIP. It is not a "toy" system, Internode have built a carrier-grade VoIP service (ie it is designed to be highly reliable). I rely on it 100% for all my personal and business phone calls and it just works and the quality is excellent. It doesn't cost much at all either.
Just remember that any service that relies on your internet connection, will only be as reliable as your internet connection is. Make sure you have reliable hardware, and that your phone line and the phone cabling inside your house - is all optimised for your ADSL link.
If there is a lot of noise on your phone line, your router will likely keep losing sync and have to re-connect to the internet. That will cause phone conversations to drop out.
VoIP is great, but if you are going to rely on it, you have to do it properly.