OT: Best ISP for DSL?

Earthlink isn't bad, but I wouldn't pick them as a first choice - their Tech Support isn't very tech supportive. When it breaks, they use any excuse to get you to just "use dial-up for the day, and see if it works tomorrow." Last time they started troubleshooting an outage and said "Oh, we can't fix that - you're using a "Legacy" modem!"

And I notice a distinct lack of response when I asked them to have me switched over to "modern" equipment they can diagnose remotely. Been three weeks and not a peep out of them...

Oh, and they're charging way too much for those "legacy" connections

- and you can call them and negotiate to get the rate lowered to a competitive level, but that reduction will evaporate in 3 to 6 months and you have to call and start all over again.

I hear good things about DSLExtreme from their customers, but I've tried switching over twice and they get a "No, you can't do that" from AT&T (the Tech Mess formerly known as Pacific Bell who owns the lines)

- then again, it took Earthlink two tries to get Pacific Bell to install the DSL in the first place... I have to call DSLX again and go "I want *OUT* of Earthlink, go beat AT&T over the head till they will process the damned order already!"

You do NOT want the DSL from the Incumbent local phone company or the Cable Modem service from the incumbent cable company directly - go look up "Net Neutrality". These are the companies that already have tried and will be trying to put up digital roadblocks wherever they can on VoIP, Video-over-IP and other high bandwidth usage services, so they can sell you their unblocked high-profit competing services.

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No, you should move to another group and read their damned FAQ.

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Nick

Bert wrote in news:9ss0f2dr3ilgn92qjjeaa51bt45kbmprc4 @4ax.com:

IF you live in the southeast, bellsouth has been excellent service for me.

Wish I could say this. 8 years ago I could 56K baud service most of the time, with 48.8k minimum. Top speed now (same phone line) is now 31.2kbaud and frequently drops to 28.8 kbaud when it rains.

Phone company won't offer dsl service [rural] and cable company won't provide either tv or isp although the cable runs right by the house to another smaller town to the west.

Unka George

(George McDuffee) ========== Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), U.S. general, Republican politician, president. Speech, April 1953, Washington, D.C. ===========

I have Covad. I am 18,000 feet from the CO, so ADSL shouldn't even work! But, unless lightning has blitzed the cables again (Phone Co. problem) it works fine at 1500 KBPS downlink/ 368 KBPS uplink. I pay a huge fee to have static IP so I can run servers on this system (web, mail, ftp, etc.) but they have many cheaper plans. Their tech support had been mediocre, but the last couple times they seemed much better.

Jon

DSL Extreme has pretty high marks from those few I know who are using it. $12.95 a month

May not be available in your area.

There is NO DSL available in my area..nor in a 40 mile radius from me..damnit.

And Time-Warner wants $54 a month for cable modem

Aint happening

Gunner, on dialup

"I think this is because of your belief in biological Marxism. As a genetic communist you feel that noticing behavioural patterns relating to race would cause a conflict with your belief in biological Marxism." Big Pete, famous Usenet Racist

Looks like Nicks herpes has flared up again.

Or his 'roids.

Gunner

"I think this is because of your belief in biological Marxism. As a genetic communist you feel that noticing behavioural patterns relating to race would cause a conflict with your belief in biological Marxism." Big Pete, famous Usenet Racist

That's roughly what I pay, and I think it is worth it, versus dialup.

jk

If you can afford it, good on you mate.

Thats at least 3 days fuel for me.

Gunner

"I think this is because of your belief in biological Marxism. As a genetic communist you feel that noticing behavioural patterns relating to race would cause a conflict with your belief in biological Marxism." Big Pete, famous Usenet Racist

You can be willing to pay whatever you like, but when the phone company says "You're too far from the CO for DSL", you're screwed.

That's the boat I'm stuck in... I literally get laughed at when I ask about DSL/ISDN/Fractional-T connectivity - I'm "out in the sticks" (And staying here, thank you very much - *NO* amount of bandwidth, at any price, is worth living in town for) and too far from the CO to get anything but POTS.

One of my customers is a year-round "summer camp" up in the hills halfway between Thousand Oaks and Malibu - They have an Agoura exchange phone number (fed with a line concentrator) and a Malibu address. And that was the same thing they were told for years - you want highspeed, you need to buy a full T1 line for about $1,200 a month and you don't want to know the setup costs. One place did it (Calamigos Ranch, I think) and everyone else suffered.

The only way I can figure how it happened is (but of course I have no proof) that it's simply Amazing what happens when a Pacific Bell/SBC/AT&T Vice President or higher buys a house up there at the top of that hill and wants a DSL line, and gets "Sorry, too far out" - which is the WRONG answer to give a Corporate High Muckey-Muck with the power to make things happen...

Shazam! Suddenly a Remote DSLAM Cabinet pops up right next to the line concentrator cabinet and the B-Box at Mulholland Highway and Decker Canyon, and these people have DSL available.

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Bruce L. Bergman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Since Corporate America can no longer exist without E-Mail and VOIP, it'd seem that the "Secret" to getting services is to inviegle a Corporate Bigwig to move into the area!

Gunner wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Izzat just for the modem or does that include some bandwidth too?

Even so, it's cheaper than Satellite...

If you're within range, you might want to check out cell phones with EVDO access...

I'd guess anyone could do the same, IF -- they would call up and say "We've got 25 residences up here that are willing to take contracts for 2 years of DSL service, and I'm willing to put that in writing. It might take one of the smaller ISP outfits like Lightning Bolt DSL to make it fly with the telco, and I don't know how many subscribers they would actually need. But, if they know they have the required number of lines ready to commit so they can make money on the CO equipment, I would think they would want to do it. Of course, DSL may now be the telco's white elephant that they want to go away as soon as possible.

Jon

On Sat, 26 Aug 2006 17:19:46 GMT, Bert scribed:

Bert:

Sure you want DSL? I have a Verizon FIOS (Fiber Optic) line that runs at 15 Mbit/sec for about 39 clams a month. Sure is overkill, but I send quite a few large images and stuff from my home office. Really does make a difference...

It is a direct pipe, no sharing, and can stream to my multi-PC network without a hiccup. If you have it in your area, you should get it.

With DSL I think you might only get 768 or 1.5 DL (768 UL). I could be wrong though - check with your provider.

Do you have a dish for TV? Also a good way to get pretty high speed Internet is through that provider, and usually they have nice pricing packages where you get TV, Internet and Phone (3 in 1) for a better price than splitting them up.

Just my $0.02

Freddie

The modem and internet only.

Im not.

Gunner

"If I'm going to reach out to the the Democrats then I need a third hand.There's no way I'm letting go of my wallet or my gun while they're around."

"Democrat. In the dictionary it's right after demobilize and right before demode` (out of fashion).

-Buddy Jordan 2001

Im within 1/4 mile of the CO itself..and there is NO DSL in the entire area. And wont be in the foreseable future, according to a friend inside Contel..which is now Verizon

Gunner

"If I'm going to reach out to the the Democrats then I need a third hand.There's no way I'm letting go of my wallet or my gun while they're around."

"Democrat. In the dictionary it's right after demobilize and right before demode` (out of fashion).

-Buddy Jordan 2001

============= As on SNL "we don't care -- we're the phone company -- we don't have to care."

Unka George (George McDuffee) ============================= When you give power to an executive you do not know who will be filling that position when the time of crisis comes.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), U.S. author. "Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter," in Esquire (New York, Sept. 1935; repr. in By-Line Ernest Hemingway, ed. by William White, 1967).