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#11
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On Sun, 08 May 2005 13:06:41 GMT, Ken wrote:
Von Fourche wrote: Finally my local phone company (SBC) if offering DSL in my area. At least that's what their web site says when I punch in my phone number Ok, they offer two packages - one is $19.95 and up to 1.5Mbps with free activation and modem. The other is 29.99 and up to 3.0Mbps with free activation and modem. I am currently using Earthlink dial-up paying 21.95 a month. I have had very very few problems with Earthlink dial-up and would recommend them to anyone. But I desperately what to jump on the broad band bandwagon. Ok, so how fast is 1.5 Mbps and how fast is 3.0Mbps? Are they worth the 19.95 and 29.99 respectively? How would they both do with watching live video clips and live camera chat? Also, what's the word on SBC Yahoo DSL? Do they have a decent reputation? What kind of costumer support am I likely to get from them? Thanks! To all who have knowledge about the following: Once you change to DSL, do you still need to pay for an ISP such as Earthlink? To me ISP (Internet Service Provider) is who connects you to the internet. Some people seem to use the term ISP as to who you use for mail, news, etc., but whether you use those from your ISP or elsewhere (like Earthlink) does not matter. Dialup is included, so you do not really need another dialup ISP, for nationwide travel (you can have 1 DSL and 1 dialup connection simultaniously). What is SBC Yahoo DSL? Does it take the place of Earthlink? Is there a charge for it? It includes everything you need, DSL, dialup, e-mail, news, web portal, etc. You can use your own e-mail program (smtp/pop3) or web mail. You do not need to keep Earthlink unless you need time to notify others of your new e-mail address or like their newsgroups better. Note that if you have any trouble sending Earthlink e-mail when connected through SBC Yahoo DSL, you can either send through SBC's mail relay (which should work with SBC auth credentials and Earthlink from address), or request that port 25 be unblocked if you cannot reach Earthlink's outgoing relay. From the comments of others about DSL always being on, and the need for a "gateway router from Linksys or D-Link," how much would such a router cost? Sometimes there are special deals or rebates on broadband routers for $20-40. If you only have 1 computer, the modem/router acts as a NAT router by default, but it only gives out 1 private IP. So you don't need a router unless you have more than 1 PC. If you want to, the modem can be reconfigured to let your router do the PPPoE. I guess my questions are just what does DSL replace if anything (except dial up phone service), and what additional expenses would one incur? Before I would pay more for Internet access, I would like to know exactly what it would cost and how it would work. Thanks. It provides everything you need 25-30 times faster than most dialup ISP's. And with 1 year contract it is currently lower cost than most dialups. |
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"David Efflandt" wrote in message ... On Sun, 08 May 2005 13:06:41 GMT, Ken wrote: It includes everything you need, DSL, dialup, e-mail, news, web portal, etc. You can use your own e-mail program (smtp/pop3) or web mail. You do not need to keep Earthlink unless you need time to notify others of your new e-mail address or like their newsgroups better. Note that if you have any trouble sending Earthlink e-mail when connected through SBC Yahoo DSL, you can either send through SBC's mail relay (which should work with SBC auth credentials and Earthlink from address), or request that port 25 be unblocked if you cannot reach Earthlink's outgoing relay. What do you mean "it includes everything you need, DSL, dialup,?" Are you saying if I sign up for the $19.95 DSL plan they will give me dial-up too? |
#13
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On Sun, 08 May 2005 18:51:45 GMT, "Von Fourche"
wrote: I think I'm going to give a call to SBC Monday and sign up. I also think I should be able to save some money. I have a separate phone line in the house in the corner of the living room for the dial-up. I will call and switch that phone line number to the regular phone line number. Then I will have only one phone number coming into the house so I will only have to pay for that number. Then sign up for the DSL package. The DSL runs over the phone line? A person talking on the phone will not hear the DSL data, right? Do people ever hear the DSL data while on the phone? Are problems common? Also, you need an Ethernet card. My computer is about five years old now. It did come with a 10/100Mb PCI NIC. Is that an Ethernet card? I've never used it. Will it work even tho I have never used it since I got the computer five years ago? Any network interface labeled as "10/100 Mbps" is the sort of Ethernet card that your DSL modem expects. The jack looks like an oversized version of the RJ-11 telephone jack. The modem installation kit may include both Ethernet and USB cables. Use Ethernet. Connecting a broadband modem through the USB requires another layer of software that's something else to go wrong. The DSL signal occupies a wide band of frequencies above the voice range. To make sure that you don't hear interference in phone calls, you plug a little filter between the line and each telephone. The modem installation kit will include at least one, and you can get more at places like Radio Shack. Two non-obvious things about broadband: When you establish your account password, write it down and lock it up somewhere where you won't forget where you put it. With an always-on broadband account, you don't enter your password unless service is interrupted. By then, you will have forgotten it. While you are downloading a big file, you can continue surfing the Web. Each page you jump to steals a only few hundred miliseconds from the download. You can even start two big downloads at once. They will share the available bandwidth, so the total time won't be any longer than if you'd run them sequentially. The total time might even be shorter, if both servers are too slow to use all of your DSL bandwidth. As I mentioned, I regularly download Linux distributions that fill an entire CD-ROM. Sometimes it takes 30 minutes, but I can read my email or newsgroups while I'm waiting, and the Internet protocol stack will take care of routing the various data packets to their proper destinations in my system. |
#14
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wrote in message ... The DSL signal occupies a wide band of frequencies above the voice range. To make sure that you don't hear interference in phone calls, you plug a little filter between the line and each telephone. The modem installation kit will include at least one, and you can get more at places like Radio Shack. Each phone? So, If I have one phone in the kitchen, one in the livign room, and the other dial-up phone jack without a phone, and hook DSL up to the dial-up jack without a phone, then I will have to put filters on both the two phones? |
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On Mon, 09 May 2005 01:04:44 GMT, "Von Fourche"
wrote: wrote in message .. . The DSL signal occupies a wide band of frequencies above the voice range. To make sure that you don't hear interference in phone calls, you plug a little filter between the line and each telephone. The modem installation kit will include at least one, and you can get more at places like Radio Shack. Each phone? So, If I have one phone in the kitchen, one in the livign room, and the other dial-up phone jack without a phone, and hook DSL up to the dial-up jack without a phone, then I will have to put filters on both the two phones? It's possible to wire a filter between the line and most of the house, with the DSL jack on the line side of the filter, but it's usually easier to just put one on each phone. The filter is a little widget with a plug and cable on one end and a jack on the other. |
#16
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wrote in message ... On Mon, 09 May 2005 01:04:44 GMT, "Von Fourche" wrote: wrote in message .. . The DSL signal occupies a wide band of frequencies above the voice range. To make sure that you don't hear interference in phone calls, you plug a little filter between the line and each telephone. The modem installation kit will include at least one, and you can get more at places like Radio Shack. Each phone? So, If I have one phone in the kitchen, one in the livign room, and the other dial-up phone jack without a phone, and hook DSL up to the dial-up jack without a phone, then I will have to put filters on both the two phones? It's possible to wire a filter between the line and most of the house, with the DSL jack on the line side of the filter, but it's usually easier to just put one on each phone. The filter is a little widget with a plug and cable on one end and a jack on the other. Well, I just called my dial-up provider Earthlink. They said I could get DSL from them. They want $19.95 for the first six months then $39.95 after that. I think the speeds would be the same between Earthlink and SBC. The woman I talked to at Earthlink was in America and American. The guy I talked to at SBC Yahoo was named Felipe or Pedro or something. I've been reading a lot of bad things about SBC Yahoo customer support. The lady mentioned the download speed could be up to 1.5 megs. I asked her if I would actually be using the SBC DSL lines and just be paying Earthlink. She mentioned since they are the only phone company offering DSL I might be using the SBC lines for DSL. But she said all equipment comes from Earthlink. So, what do I do? Do I go with my phone company DSL (SBC Yahoo) and pay $19.00 a month or do I go with my current my current dial-up provider (Earthlink) and pay $19.00 then $39.00 after six months? My gut tells me to go with Earthlink. I have had no problems with them. I've only called them a few times since I've had them and customer support has always been nice and good. The lady I talked to was in America. I asked if Earthlink DSL customer support was in the U.S. She said they do have centers in the U.S., like New Mexico, and they also have out of country call centers. Ok, she was honest. But do I want to pay $40.00 a month for it when I can pay $19.95 for the first year? |
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