Is DSL OK? Dec 1999
October 2003
Hi, does anyone have any recent reviews on an ISP/DSL provider,
positive OR negative? The recent stuff I've seen on the parents
webpage seems a little old; plus, the business is constantly
changing, yes? We had some problems on our phone line, and an
SBC guy came out to replace the line coming into our house
(luckily, at their expense). I asked him about SBC DSL, and he,
of course, gave it glowing reviews, and said we were only
several hundred feet from a sourcebox [sic] (we're in the El
Cerrito/Richmond view hills). When I went to dslreports.com, it
indicated our CO (sourcebox?) was located more toward central
Richmond-- which is more than ''several hundred feet' (more like
12,000 ft!) DSL reports was recommending Earthlink for our
neighborhood, but the user feedback seemed kinda lukewarm. They
also recommended Megapath, which seemed more for businesses (and
was expensive). Any advice, greatly appreciated!
Jim
have you considered cable modem? i just got the service from
comcast and the modem thru broadbandoffers.com (or something
like that). when the software installation got a little tricky
for me, i just called the toll-free number and the woman took me
step-by-step. cable is fast!
suzie
We recently had SBC DSL service installed (in N. Berkeley), and we're pleased, wished we'd
done it long ago. But we warn you that SBC is dysfunctional - you have to talk with different
offices about orders, equipment, installation advice, etc. etc. If you can handle the
frustration, once you're set up, you're likely to be glad you made the change. Wireless
access is a really neat feature if you have a laptop!
anon
The best and most up to date info on broadband connections can be
found here:
http://www.dslreports.com/
We picked our current provider (Earthlink) through this website.
It has thorough user reviews. It was very useful for getting
exactly what you need.
Addition to earlier post:
I just skimmed your post about dslreports; sorry about that! We
have Earhtlink and my husband is a programmer who works from
home. The service is pretty reliable; we've had few outages.
Our complaint was that we couldn't get a static ip address, but
if you don't need that, they're good. We have more than basic
service, and pay $65/month. I would recommend them.
Sian
Sian
We have been very disappointed with our SBC DSL service- it is
SOOOOOO slow!
milli
We recently switched from earthlink dialup to earthlink DSL. I am
disappointed in the speed -- it's just not fast enough to justify charging
$30 more per month. I complained to earthlink and they sent me some
suggestions for improving the speed. So far none have helped, but I
haven't yet tried them all. I chose earthlink over SBC because I had
heard mostly poor reviews about SBC (including from dslreports). Now
I'm not so sure I made the right decision. Good luck.
They are a little bit pricier (I think), but the best in
customer service and performance is speakeasy.net. I used to
work at Covad and we always knew that if you wanted to find a
Covad alumni, just assume their email address was their
lastname@speakeasy.net. Ex covad employees, including myself,
all seem to get speakeasy DSL because of their excellent
customer service. I think that the reviews bear this out too.
sarah
I've been a computer and network manager for more than 25 years.
In fact, I was the manager and provider of the first computer
Ginger used for parents.berkeley.edu. I've also had DSL for over
4 years and have helped uncounted friends and neighbors get
connected with both DSL and cable.
With all that experience I can say that both DSL and cable
internet service are a crapshoot. You'll find as many people
saying good things about one technology or company as you find
saying bad. In my experience, most of the problems aren't caused
by the DSL or cable service itself. Rather, it's often been the
flakyness of Windows 95, 98, and ME. I've seen real
improvements since Windows XP has become the prevalent desktop
operating system.
Another way to improve your chances for success is to use a
broadband router, even if you just have one PC. This approach
lets you avoid having to install DSL or cable service specific
software on your PC. Instead, the router handles all this. Plus,
you get the added benefit of the firewalling done to various
degrees by the various routers these days.
My recommendation is to talk to people in your neighborhood to
see what their experiences are, and then to go with whatever
people like. Then, make sure you have an experienced computer
person you can call if things go wrong. Although some of the
customer support people are very nice and try very hard, most of
them really don't know much about computers or networking.
Jon
OK, I thought I had posted this response but I must not have hit
the submit button again because I didn't receive a confirmation
and didn't see it in the newsletter.
I've been very happy with my DSL service from speakeasy.net .
The service has been wonderful. I chose it over pac bell because
of the static IP. Pac Bell has extra software that you need to
load on your computer to connect- not a big deal but just
something else that could go wrong IMO.
Several months ago I ran speed tests on my service and that of 2
neighbors. The cable beat us hands down (of course). My
neighbor's Pac Bell service was slightly faster than mine
(speakeasy is provived by COVAD) but I'm not sure if type of
computer effects speed. I did receive an email from speakeasy
not too long ago that they were upgrading their circuits and we'd
see an improvement in speed once that was completed.
Either way it's plenty for me. I bought a router and now have
both of our home computers hooked up, so the kids can surf while
I do.
One tip: At the time I signed up, pac bell had a promotion that
included a reduced rate for a year. When I mentioned this to
speakeasy they offered me a month's free service.
Sophie
July 2003
We need to get internet service at home, and I am tempted to go
with SBC yahoo since they are offering this deal at 29.95/month
for the first year. Has anyone had any experience with them?
Alternatively, does anyone have a provider to recommend? I think
we prefer DSL. I looked on the parents' website, but only found
old recommendations, and I know things have changed a lot in the
past 2 years.
Thanks.
needing a hook-up
I recommend sonic.net for your Internet Service Provider. I started with
them in January after having had DSL from Pacbell since 1998, which became
SBCYahoo last year. I never had a problem until they changed to
SBCYahoo. The service itself became very advertising intensive on every
page related to accessing email or my account. The user interface is hokey
and designed to funnel you to their offerings. When I switched my computer
to Windows XP, the SBCYahoo customer service related to getting support for
the change from Windows98 to XP was horrendous: interminable waits on hold
and poorly informed technical staff. After 6 weeks of trying to get them
help me with the DSL changeover to XP, I switched to getting my DSL through
sonic.net which has excellent technical support and great customer
service. In actuality, sonic.net uses SBC cables so they're really a
reseller, but so much easier to deal with that it's worth. (Usually
bargains like the SBCYahoo special offers require
you to sign up for a year or two or pay a large penalty.) With SBC I spent
about $75 a month for my DSL and voice line. Now I pay about $57 for
sonic.net (and that includes a couple of static IPs which are extra from
SBC) and it's a separate bill from the SBC phone bill which is down to
about $20. So talk to sonic.net before signing up and see what you
think. Good luck!
Kathy
I've used Northpoint and DirectTV DSL, all driven out of
business due to Pac Bell's uncooperative (monopolistic)
practices. Most DSL providers not affiliated/owned by a baby
Bell phone company are driven out of business. The result is
bad customer service, and ruthless pricing to drive out
remaining competition. So, I would consider SBC/Yahoo an ISP of
absolute last resort.
If you just want to surf and download, you can use either cable
or dsl. Cable tends to be speedier for the money. If you would
like to host your own email or web server, then you'll need DSL
with a fixed (static) address. The best deal for static address
DSL with superior customer service is http://www.dslextreme.com,
a small L.A. based, privately held, profitable ISP. Read and
compare reviews at http://www.broadbandreports.com. They're
charging $45/month for the first year and $50 thereafter with
free self-installation and modem. Their dynamic address DSL is
$35/month the first year. I recommend them whole-heartedly with
one caveat: their tech support line is only available 9a-5p.
I've used their customer support: they're young, competent,
succinct, and most importantly, correct in their diagnoses.
kim
I have my DSL service through California.com
(http://www.california.com/products/index.html).
California.com is a local re-seller for Covad. California.com
has great customer service, and Covad's is reasonable for a
large company.
You should also look at LMI.net
(http://lmi.net/services/dsl/index.php), based in Berkeley. I
buy my dialup internet access from them, and customer service is
first rate.
I have not even tried SBC, because a number of my co-workers
have tried them and had awful things so say. They reported long
delays getting set up, and terrible customer support.
If saving money is your highest priority I doubt anyone can beat
SBC (but you should contact the locals and ask whether they can
meet or at least approach SBC's price) just bear in mind that
some of your savings in cash may be ''spent'' in time and
aggravation getting it to work and keeping it working.
Jim
this may be damning with faint praise, but... we have had the
sbc dsl for over a year, and have been satisfied with the long-
term performance. we've only had one major outage, when some
makjr accident occurred somewhere down the cable. on the down
side, their customer serivce in the initial days was substandard-
-but by then we had already given them our money! we did the
installation ourselves, so i can't speak for their work on that
part of the deal (regardless, we spent LOTS of time on the phone
with them trying to get all the details ironed out).
anon
We have had DSL through SBC yahoo for a year now and we have no
complaints. My husband telecommutes so it gets used a LOT and he
says the connection is pretty solid. I think we have only experienced
one or two outages since we started our service. And based on our past
experience (we had DSL through the local phone company when we
lived in another state) that's really good. And since it's through yahoo
you get access to their stuff (like games, etc...) that you can only use if
you are a subscriber.
Sarah
David Lazarus in the Chronicle Business section had a series of articles
about SBC Yahoo fairly recently. The gist of it: Bad customer service,
hardsell on Yahoo, extra fees if you used something other than YahooAuctions
for selling services. I've also worked with a number of people who have had
real
problems using pop with their mail to the university since the reverse dns
lookup
from SBC works poorly.
You have to go up a number of levels to get folks who might even know
what you are talking about to resolve. The good news is that it's a great
deal, and once it is in is fairly reliable. Good Luck.
I signed up for SBC Yahoo DSL about 10 days ago. I had to sign a
one year contract, and in exchange for this got a ''plus''
connection for $30/month and a wireless router with built-in
firewall for $50 after rebate. I bought a $40 wireless card from
Dell for my laptop, and now have a home network on which I can
share a printer plus have shared internet access from a WinXP
desktop and a Win2k laptop. The standard software package
installs with little input from the user and is necessary
primarily to activate the DSL connection. The rest of the
software on CD consists of service packs for different versions
of Windows (a good thing) and add-ons to promote the use of
Yahoo services whenever possible, including SBC-Yahoo browser
which annoyingly suggests yahoo services whenever possible, bit
fortunately can be easy uninstalled (to intimidate users, this
browser is called SBC Yahoo! DSL in the Add/Remove panel -
obviously to make them think that if they uninstall it, the
whole DSL setup will go to hell, which of course does not
happen). While the actual download speed may vary from location
to location, I got speed close to the promised 1500 kbps (I
actually measured 1250 kbps). This is very close to 1350 kbps
which I measured using the same tool at my office, where I have
ethernet. Upload speed is also quite close to what was promised
(around 100-150 kbps). I knew that DSL would be faster than dial-
up, but I did not expect download speeds close to those of
ethernet, and was literally blown off by the performance I got.
The wireless router has a hardware-based firewall which can be
configured to limit certain protocols of inbound and outbound
traffic. It also allows ''stealth'' mode in which the dynamic IP
address which you get cannot be pinged on the web. Additionally,
I got 760 MB of web storage and an e-mail address with 25 MB
inbox plus several additional mailboxes with 10 MB limit.
In my opinion, SBC promotion is the best value for DSL available
at this time. I cannot comment on their technical support since
I did not need it.
By the way, if you wish you can sign up on month-to month basis,
but the same service costs $50 per month and you get no rebate
on the router.
Andrei
DSL vs. Cable Modem
December 2001
We are switching from a dial-up to either DSL or a cable
modem system for our computers and wonder if anybody out
there has had a particularly good experience with specific
provider. We value quality service and good customer
service too. Lowest price is not the biggest issue.
Thanks in advance
Rob + Bobbie
We've been using Earthlink for DSL service recently... Overall, I've found them to be OK...
They've gotten very big by buying up alot of smaller DSL services providers, so getting thru to a
real person if and when you have a problem is sometimes time-consuming... Although, to their
credit, I've found once I get thru, their people are friendly and fairly knowledgable.
We pay $49.00 per month... I'm sure there are cheaper services out there... I'd just caution you
to remember the old saying 'you get what you pay for'. This indistry is going thru ALOT of change
right now.. Companies are going out of business and/or being bought up almost monthly.
A good reference site for this type of information is http://www.dslreports.com/
Hope this helps
Tom
I have been with AT&T the past two years and am seriously considering
switching to DSL in the very near future. The switch over from the @home
network to AT&T's own network has been extremely frustrating to say
the least. They are limiting download speeds, there is no technical support
if you have issues with the new setup (which I do in the case of accessing
my work account), etc. etc. Bottom line, if you are not already stuck with
this service, I certainly would not recommend it. Good luck. (By the way,
I was pretty happy with it before the switch, but they have been just awful
to deal with since the switch over.)
Susan
I've heard nothing good about the switch from @home to att. It happened quite suddenly and many folks were without service for several days, and now there are multiple problems with their DNS. For a description of the problems some on-campus users have been having visit the Micronet website at:
http://ls.berkeley.edu/mail/micronet/
with threads alternately named AT&T Slough of Despond and Reach Out and
Kick Someone.
I have heard that the situation is much better for Macs than it is for
PC's.
We have DSL and have now been through three service providers. We are still
using Covad as the provisioner, and they have recently come out of bankruptcy.
Our current provider is SpeakEasy.Net and we like them a lot. Of course, this is an ephemeral business, apparently. Check DSLReports.com and keep an eye on the business page to see what the scoop is with various providers.
Myriam
I am very happy with my ATT cable modem. Except for the problems with the
whole Excite business, I have found it to be very reliable and fast.
Helena
try and get Earthlink. they were pretty good with me and customer service.
we tried to do a router, and even though they weren't supposed to provide
customer support, they gave very helpful suggestions. they're big and
they're not going anywhere. their webmail, however is slow
their "last mile" installer was Covad, but I think that co is bankrupt.
Brendan
Carrier for DSL
May 2001
For those of you with DSL lines in their home, could you recommend your phone
line provider? Do any of you have strong negative or positive opinions about
Earthlink, Flashcom, SBC, Qwest Communications or Verizon/Bell Atlantic ? I
have heard that the installation process can take a long time in our area.
How much time in advance should one begin the ordering process? I have read
the comments posted on the Parents website but none of these companies were
mentioned. Thank you
I would like to recommend Mindspring-Earthlink. I got DSL from them when it
first became available in this area, now about 2 years ago. Installation was
relatively quick but Covad (the installaton subcontractor) was not as good
as Earthlink, however, Earthlink compensated for Covad's doofuses in the
end.
Their service has been beyond fabulous. Hours of help (even when the caller
is crying and cursing computers!) by sweet and patient techies for no extra
charge. The money I pay Earthlink is well worth it. They are saints.
Christine
This website http://www.dslreports.com/ has all kinds of information,
reviews, price comparisons etc. You can put your own zip code in there and
get all kinds of info on what high speed connection is available and how
closer you are to the connection point etc.
Jared
We had DSLNetworks and had some idiosyncracies with them. Covad cut them
off recently, so we had to switch. Our new provider is SpeakEasy out of
Seattle. We are really happy with them so far (about a month). We needed a
static IP address with some special considerations (reverse DNS lookup for
Berkeley's servers, the ability to run our own domain, BIND and secondary
DNS) and they have understood what we've wanted and been able to accomodate
us. The switch was relatively seamless, we didn't have to spend any time on
the phone at all (they have an excellent web account tracking page) and our
speeds have actually been faster than DSL Networks. They cost about $80 a
month for us, but they have a package as low as
$40 without a static IP address.
Myriam
In Response to the Recommendation of High Speed Internet Access. I had
terrible experience with Earthlink DSL. Not only did they not know what the
problem was that I was not connecting, I had to wait hours on the phone for
tech support. When tech support could not figure out the problem, they stop
helping me. I cancelled the service. Save yourself the trouble.
Liquidimg
Is DSL OK?
Dec 1999
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has obtained residential DSL in
the East Bay. We are moving to a new rental in Kensington and I am
thinking about getting DSL. But there seem to be a zillion DSL providers
out there, in addition to ol' PacBell itself. Surfing DSL users web sites
turns up lots of horror stories -- two month waits, multiple missed
installer appointments, miscomunication between phone company and DSL
company and DSL network. So . . . anyone have praise to lavish, or
warnings to give, or hints to share, about our local provider choices?
Aspects I thought would be useful to hear about include (1) length of wait
for service, (2) smoothness of install process, (3) total out-of-pocket
cost (aka were there hidden costs?), (4) reliability and actual observed
speed of service (getting what you paid for and getting it 24/7?), (5)
competence in billing and customer care, (6) quality of the hardware provided.
John
Jerry
I have had residential DSL for about 14 months now and while it's been
totally flawless for me,
there are lots of horror stories caused by the vendors constantly changing
products.
I recommend you look at the usenet newsgroup ba.internet and see what
people have to say.
A lot of your experience will depend on a) your requirements and b) your
line speed.
Good research will help you understand your requirements and whether a
specific vendor can satisfy
them, but unfortunately, your line speed will only be known after the line
has been installed (and
you have committed to the big bucks.) And, depending on the lines in your
neighborhood and the
popularity of DSL there, your line speed may decrease weeks after your
installation.
DSL service is usually a joint service provided by two companies. One
company physically provides
a phone line that carries digital packets from your house to the phone
company. The other company
connects to your phone line at the phone company and hooks you up to the
Internet. Our contract
provides for DSL with PacBell the Telco providing the line, and PacBell
Internet being our ISP.
I received an Alcatel 1000 modem and one static IP address. I signed up for
384/128 service. I
was told that if I wanted to run webservers from our home, that was no problem.
Regarding your specific questions: I had about a 2 week delay to get the
service installed. It
was painless and very smooth (so since then they have changed vendors of
course....). The costs were/are:
Installation Costs Waived
Alcatel Modem and line splitter Waived
Monthly DSL Line from PacBell 49.95
Monthly DSL Service from PacBell Internet $10.00
I also purchased (not from PacBell)
A four port 10BT hub with BNC $29.95
A Sonicwall firewall router $350.00
If you need a phone line, that will add $11 per month (plus installations
costs).
The waived charges would've been totalled $250. I purchased a firewall for
security because I needed a router
but I also feared that DSL lines would be subject to Internet hackers. That
has been confirmed. Regularly, my
firewall records various folks trying to hack our computer. Most people do
not get a firewall. I believe this
is out of ignorance. You can lock down your own Windows machines but I
wasn't sanguine about that effort.
Regarding speed and quality of the line and the service:
About 4 months after receiving the service, PacBell upgraded it to 384+/128
service which means our download
speed increased to 1200kbps. That was very nice.
I've had no problems with the Alcatel. Other people have. It is now rare to
get the Alcatel modem.
I've had no problems with line sync. Other people have.
I've had no problems with the speed of the line varying or being capped.
Other people have.
Regarding line speed changing over time, it comes down to the
PacBell-the-ISP warranty of 384kpbs. That is
all they need to provide you. Everything above that is gravy and subject to
change.
PacBell the ISP now rarely gives out static IP addresses but is moving to
Dynamic IP addresses implemented
through PPPoE and PPPoA. PPPoE/A makes your DSL experience exactly like a
dialup service. It makes it easy
for the phone company to configure your system, but it removes lots of
functionality. This practically means
that for new customers, home networks, home webservers, Linux, OS/2, and
non-Windows or Macintosh support is
gone. And people with PPPoE/A are reporting that the Windows/Mac support
for that is sketchy at best.
Static IPs mean that you can easily run a webserver from home, run a web
business from home, and get attacked
by hackers from home. It's a mixed bag.
I have had few problems with PacBell's uptime, or mail and news services.
But all over California including
the Bay Area, other people report all the time that their local DSL line is
down, or mail is down, or
news is down.
My advice is that if you are going to use PacBell Internet for your ISP
that you determine your requirements
before hand, and get PacBell to agree to it and get names if not
letters/faxes/etc. confirming what you believe
you are getting.
Make sure you read and print out your contract.
Also note that at one time, people claimed that you could switch ISPs
without cost if they fail to satisfy your
needs. That may or may not be true anymore.
Determine if you need a static IP address. You can still get PacBell the
telco to provide you with a DSL line
but you can use a different ISP and they can get you a static IP if you
want one.
Again, lots of info on ba.internet.
So to summarize, we have had a great experience, but many other people have
not, and what drives everyone crazy
is that PacBell keeps on changing the product every several months, so no
one is really sure what they are going
to get in the future.
Um, after checking out your requirements, you may wish to look at TCI for a
cable modem. They were in my
neighborhood recently claiming cable modems were down to $19/month with no
installation
Myriam
We were fortunate enough to be one of the very early adopters of DSL (and ISDN
before it) through the munificence of a former employer. Our original
service was
through Rhythmns which was excellent, after a few small problems with
installation.
Rhythmns had great service: They used to call us if they noticed we were
off line
for any length of time (usually the result of kittens pulling the power
cable out of the
wall or out of the hub for our LAN). When my husband left the employer
that provided
DSL we attempted to continue service through them, since we were already
set up.
Unfortunately, at the time they were doing only commercial installations.
They have
apparently changed this, and I'm considering going back to them.
We then attempted to get DSL Service through First World, since they had a
"power user
package" which gave us the multiple static IP addresses we wanted for our
network of
six computers. They put through the service order to COVAD who do most of
the installations
for DSL in the area. COVAD e-mailed a cancellation to us about three weeks
after the installation
request was put through telling us that we were too far from First World's
switches. We found
this puzzling since we had been wired for DSL before.
We then got in touch with DSL Networks, which was able to contract with
Covad to do the
installation in about three weeks. They've been fine, but their package
for the number
of IP Addresses we wanted was outrageous (since they consider six computers
to be a small
business installation not a home installation). We've resolved this by
using WinGate software
and a SAMBA server on our Unix box. Since we do some web page developement
we paid for
the more expensive upstream connection, but for folks who are simply doing
web surfing, it's
probably not worth the expense.
Tikva
I am posting this only today, because yesterday and the day before I
couldn't send any e-mail. You should read my story to understand why.
I have decided to use PACBELL for my DSL provider. I have called them, and
gave them my address in Kensington. It took them nine days to give me an
answer whether my phone line qualifies for DSL. After receiving the answer,
I
have ordered the service. They scedulded me an all day appointment, 8:00AM
to 5:00PM, two weeks ahead. The day has arrived, and I sat at home, waiting.
On 3:00 PM the PACBELL technician called and said he is late, but he could
come on 5:30PM. I agreed to wait. On 7PM he called me to say he arrives in
half an hour, and on 7:30 PM he called me to say that it is too late and he
can't come. He said that he can't schedule me a new appointment, and a
scheduler would call me. The day after, in the afternoon, I called PACBELL,
and this time they scheduled me an AM, appointment, ten days more to wait.
The PACBELL technician arrived on time. Our phone line is in the storage
room. The PACBELL technician asked me to take everything out of the storage
room, and just stood there watching without giving me a hand while I was
carrying havey stuff outside.
There are two systems running on my computer, WINDOWS 98 and LINUX. On the
phone I have told the DSL center that I wanted to use the Internet from
both, but the PACBELL technician said she doesn't do LINUX.
While she was working on the computer, I had a phone call. While I was
talking over the phone, she came to tell me she is done.
I wanted to use the e-mail. I have tried to send e-mail from OUTLOOK EXPRESS
and from NETSCAPE messenger, but failed.
I figured out that the mail has not been configured on my system, and I
still need to do setup. I have called PACBELL to ask them what was my
user-id, but it was after 5:00PM, so there was no one to speak with.
When I called the next day, I have waited 25 minutes to speak with a tech
support representative. He gave me the e-mail address, and told me there
were instructions in the web site of how to configure the mail. I have tried
those instructions, but they didn't work for the outlook express, only for
the NETSCAPE. Since I always use the OUTLOOK, my entire address book is
there and I didn't want to change my mail software. I have called PACBELL
(more 25 minuets), to find out that they don't give technical support on
OUTLOOK, only on NETSCAPE. And what about LINUX? No, they don't give
technical support on LINUX, either.
I am an experienced software engineer, and I found out myself how to
configure the mail in OUTLOOK. The instructions on the PACBELL site were
completely wrong. And now, that I can use my mail again, I could hardly wait
to answer to the posting for DSL recommendation.
Avoid PacBell DSL if at all possible. I had a similar experience to
Yoram and Tikva Bonneh. It took two months from my initial phone call
before I succeeded in getting an installer to come to my door on the
appointed *day*. My installer was at least polite, but the PacBell
infrastructure behind him was abominable. Departments don't talk to
each other, any time you call you can expect to spend 45 minutes on
hold. I've learned from other people that they're changing the terms of
their contracts in midstream and denying people static IP addresses.
Regarding security, I'm running a Linux server as a NAT firewall, so my
other machines aren't visible to the world. There's some good data on
the Net about Windows machines on the Internet 24/7, a casual search
turns up this:
http://www.cable-modems.org/Q&A/index.php3?one_question=17
it seems to me the biggest point in the other stuff I've read was that
any shared folders should be password protected.
To the person who said "I have a cable modem and because we did not have
a firewall/security set up, they were able to get in," I would be very
interested in hearing what the hacking was comprised of.
Kevin
I had to write concerning DSL service. I am currently using DSL through
pacbell. I, also, had a very difficult initiation into the DSL system.
They called and gave me a 8am-5pm window and I arranged for all of my
children to be taken to school, activities, etc. while I waited around
the whole day. By 7:00 they told me it was too late and that they would
have to come another day. I was seeing RED. The guy finally came the
following week to set it up and I did log a complaint--no reply.
Anyway, I am very happy with the line but I am very close to the central
area and they said that my service will be even faster than they
normally guarantee because of where I live. I am not going to change
because despite the initial glitches with set-up, I have been happy with
my service (now that it is in.)
Rona
I have PacBell DSL which I've had since Apr. After the initial hiccups with
getting the installation to work, have been very happy with the service.
The setup was about $200 for the installation and hardware, and monthly is
$50 which includes the ISP. E-trade was running a promotion if you opened
an account with them and signed up for Pac-Bell DSL that got you three
months free. Don't know if that's still available.
I'm at the far end of the range up in the hills, but am generally happy
with bandwidth. I do notice some times when the connection is slower then
normal, but still much better then dialing in. Security issues with the
static IP address mentioned in another message are true, so I just
disconnect my computers when not using them.
I telecommute and do a lot of work on my company network and have really
noticed a huge increase in my productivity because of this. Well worth the
initial frustration and $$.
Ed
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Last updated: Nov 6, 2003
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