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Renew
Online
You may now renew your annual membership dues online. Annual dues are $45.00.
DSL has changed - Going local
by Geoffrey McLean,
McLean Research Associates
A while back I wrote about DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) vs Cable
and came to
the conclusion that Cable was better. Since then I've talked to
scores of people and had many anecdotal remarks made to me.
I'll sum it up this way "I got (Cable/DSL) and it was a
(nightmare/wonderful experience)". Choose your nouns and adjectives.
Well, now I've got my own anecdotal tale to tell. First off, let me
reiterate what I've always preached - go local. Our local ISP was
friendly as usual when I emailed them. I had heard they had just
lowered prices which was more affordable and justifiable for me.
After reflecting on the cost of the modem and price per month - the
swaying factor was the fact that they are local - and a small
business. I knew if I needed help they'd be there - even if they
didn't support my favorite operating system, Linux - or provide
cable.
Judging from the response of the cable and other DSL providers,
Linux was the worst thing I could use to hookup and they refused to
support it.
The day finally arrived when the DSL "modem" was delivered and I
looked inside the box for directions. The Windows version was on a
CD which - before I could even get to the instructions part - wanted
to install software and among other things in the license agreement,
made me give up all rights to my email address, real address, and
any other data the software company collected. Needless to say, I
quickly declined the agreement - and subsequently had no
instructions on installation. There was a pamphlet for Macintosh
users, so I followed their instructions on how to connect the
"modem". After all Mac OS X is really BSD Unix - similar to Linux.
Now what? I had a blinking green DSL light but nothing came to my
machine. I called technical support - within minutes I had rechecked
my phone lines and was told that the DSL company wanted to send a
technician to check my house wiring.
Whoa - let me trouble shoot the wiring first. As many of you know I
live in a Pre-Civil War house and the phone line in my office is a
nightmare of connection boxes, power filters, and phones & modems.
After considerable effort I discovered I had put the DSL line into
the phone jack and the phone into the DSL jack. Not idiot proof!
Suddenly the DSL light lit up and stayed that way. Mmmm must have a
good signal. I then got into my software under SuSE Linux - and
using their system manager removed the modem and setup the DSL which
another call to my ISP (Internet Service Provider) provided the
Domain Name Server addresses with which to connect to. Try getting
that out of the Big Boys.
Plugging that all in I attempted to connect and was told bad
password or username. What? I tried twice more and finally gave tech
support another call. It took several minutes to tell what I had
done so far and the tech listened patiently while I prattled
on."What's your user name" uh, geoff. "No, it's now 'geoff@99main.com'
OH? mmm let me try that. Viola!
So, I've had for DSL several months and I happen to run into a
manager at SNET. I told him I wasn't really happy with the speed and
he claimed I should be getting the full 1.5Mbits/sec. I check my
speed results yet again and finally called tech support (I was
getting the minimum speed contracted for). After explaining the
situation, my ISP said they'd check with the DSL provider. Within 5
minutes I was running tests showing full speed. So, once again, the
local ISP came through for me. I'd never get that out of AOL. I've
spent too many hours arguing with AOL support on behalf of clients.
Much to my joy, unlike a little over a year ago, DSL (at least
locally) now uses the PPPOE - Point to Point Protocol Over Ethernet.
What this means is that you are only connected to the internet when
you want to be - just like a regular modem I can shut it off - that
is totally block any and all attempts to penetrate my server/router.
I could choose to leave it always on but why
expose my server to the bad guys?
I'm not sure if Windows supports this behavior - but just having it
has eased my concerns greatly. At least I can only be attacked when
I'm connected. And I didn't have to give up my privacy to an unknown
company and the local phone company in the process.
Finally, I'm not paid for writing this - and my only affiliation
with the ISP has been as a customer and fellow SAHOA member. But
more than ever, I am convinced that when you need service -Go local.