With todays Internet, having a broadband connection that works and is reliable is a godsend. I've got a T1 at work that screams but home is still 56K dialup. Best connection is 44K on a good night from Earthstink. Our Cable (was TCI and now Adelphia) has the oldest cable system in the valley and there is no hope for them to upgrade the ancient system to fiber.
I tried to go DSL a year and a half ago with Earthstink, but root canal surgery is less painful. I signed up and the DSL modem was dropped on my porch 2 weeks later. On my setup day no one showed up. I called and complained and they blamed the local telco, GTE, now called Verizon. GTE ###then blamed Earthstink. 2 weeks later a GTE installer left a card on my door saying I missed my appointment. No one told me anything about this apointment and after losing half a day's pay on the first try I wasn't getting stood up again.
Soooooooo, the quest led to satellite Internet. One week of reading the newsgroups on what a failure DirectPC was left me without hope. DeePeeCee has a FAP (Fair Access Policy), policy that limtis your speed after you exceed certain download limits. Starband I see is another promise about to be broken. The beta tests were on a bird that isn't the one being sold to John Q. Public. Also, the modems are not the same either.
There are several other satellite providers like Nebulink but they want big bucks up front for their propreitary gear and who knows if they survive the shakeout. Landbased wireless from ATT and Sprint is almost in here and there is a wireless system already on called Riccochet. 128K up and down for $75.00 a month. No limit on usage and the modem or PC card modem is about $99.00. The system is up and running inabout 10 major cities right now and there is no roaming charges. Hmmmmmmm.
I'm using Starband 2 way satellite.
No other choices where I live unless you want to go with a very old phone system. About 38k max connection on the modem.
I've been on beta with them since September and have not paid a dime yet for the service. I did pay $499 up front for the equipment, Dell computer/monitor, and installation. Beta ends in July, 2001 I believe, then I'll have to pay - probably $50 to $60/mo.
The only problem I have is the Upload speed. They need to improve this or They'll have some problems. The best upload I get is about 35kbps(slower than modem speed). The downside is very fast. They promise 150kbps but I constantly get between 500kbps and 800kbps.
Possibly a good choice for us "outback" people who are limited on the selection.
Still on 56K, but best is around 44k, with 33k the average. I have been looking at the DPC, but still researching. ###Cable or DSL will not get to where I'm at.
Hey guy's,
I'm a Network Engineer for Sprint's new DSL, called Sprint ION. It is a land-line based service, but they are currently working on on deploying Wireless. They already have the wireless in Arizona and are currently setting it up in the Kansas City area.
I'm an Alpha customer for the land-line based service. I get 2 phone lines and DSL, the speeds are awesome, around 384k upstream and 1.5meg down. These speeds are guaranteed and you might get up to 8meg download speeds.
On my dial-up it took me 3 hrs to download a 42meg file, my ION downloaded a 137meg file in 6 minutes.
This stuff is already deployed in CA, AZ, TX, MO, KS, WA, CO, and we are working on IL, MI, NY.
They have a basic DSL service that runs around $40/month with 128upstream and 384downstream.
Ksbowhunter - WOW! That's fast!
Any chance of this stuff hitting "rural" PA. Seems like most of the time the city folk are the only one's who get the good stuff. What kind of phone lines are required?
Gizz,
The market's that we will be entering are slowly moving East. I'm not sure what the speed's will be for the Wireless entry, but I'm almost positive that we will offer at least 384K up and 1.5 meg down speed's.
Some of our customer's are getting as much as 800K up and 7 meg down.
These speed's all depend on the distance you are from the Telephone Co. central office and other physical loop (phone lines) characteristic's.
The land-line based service is only good for 18,000'. So if you're more than 3 miles from the C.O. you won't be able to get it.
The wireless based service is supposed to have a 30 mile line of site range. This is already deployed in AZ and I think Nevada.
You won't notice much of a difference surfing from website to website, but download speed's are awesome.
We use basic POTS(plain old telephone service) lines for the service, and they are also working on a line-sharing service, where they run data over your existing telephone line using a splitter.
(Edited by KsBowhunter2 at 7:19 pm on Mar. 20, 2001)
KSbowhunter - Put me in for "beta". The land line option is probably not an option for me but the wireless might be. Lots of mountains around here though, luckily I live on top and can see pretty much the other mountain tops.
On another note, there is an old still being used AM radio tower about 500 feet away from my house. This has always caused problems when I had my old dial up. Never could get it resolved between the phone co. and the station - they blamed each other. I could actually here the station in my phones and computer speakers, it really affected my modem negatively. Since I've gotten the "Gilat Starband" system all this went away since there are no phone lines involved. Do you suppose this problem would return if I ever did get the DSL/wireless?
I work as a field engineer in communications and we have fought the curse of AM radio stations bleeding into our radios and phone lines for years. If you're that close to the tower there isn't anything I know of that will help.
Several years ago we did a mind meld with a local Ma Bell to try and sort out a AM radio interferance problem. Nothing worked. The company just moved their temp work trailer to another site. Problem solved.
DSL, I've just heard to many nighmare stories about the install and the ongoing problems with service. DSL Reports is full of rants about people who are getting bent over.
KsBowhunter,
I've talked to the ATT techs at one of our sites and they are close to turning on their wireless. I haven't bumped into any Sprint techs yet up there. Any idea when they'll turn it on. I checked the Sprint website and it says pending on the map. Thanks
Gizz,
As far as I know the wireless platform is still in it's Alpha test phase. We have tower's being erected right now in my home town, and they are working on ###easement rights in the KC area. I'm not sure when they will move East with the wireless.
Like Jesse stated, AM radio is a big problem with DSL customer's, mostly affects the voice-over portion of ION than anything else.
ION is Voice-Over IP, meaning you use a portion of the ###upstream bandwidth to supply multiple(up to 4) POTS lines as well as DSL over the same cable pair.
I think they would be better off going ###to voice-over ATM, since the timing issues would be easier to solve with this ###type format.
As far as I know, Sprint is the only DSL vendor that guarantees speeds at the HUB. Most other ILEC's(phone co.) tell you that you get what you get, no guarantee.
Jesse, do you work for PacBell, Verizon or an independent? Sprint could really use some good field techs out on the left coast.
I had been a contractor for Sprint for a long time as an OSP cable splicer, and finally decided to try something different. Sure do miss being outside, but only when it's nice.
Where it is available, Road Runner service via Time/Warner cable TV is fantastic at $40/month. Two guys I work with have it and after tweaking there IP settings (packet size) the speed is unbelievably fast. You can check your speeds at ### http://interland.toast.net/perftest/ ### and find the tweaks at http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks/RWIN ###You need to test each packet size for optimum performance. Biggest is not always best.
I live in a small desolate are with GTE and Charter Communications for cable, but they said by July I should have cable access. The GTE lines here suck so bad when I get 28,800 I'm happy! I've tried 6 different modems, I've hardwired second dedicated line straight from the exterior phone box to my PC, and still my speeds are slow.
I'm a real slacker, I'm a guvmint worker, work for L.A.County in the field. Did about 8 years in the military and then 10 years in the commercial radio field climbing towers and working hilltops remote sites.
Spectr,
You can have that tower climbing all you want. I've bucked plenty of 30' - 40' telephone poles, but that's all the higher I wanna be.
Some of the cell towers I used to build T-1's for were pretty freakin' tall, good thing I didn't have to climb 'em.
(Edited by KsBowhunter2 at 8:44 pm on April 16, 2001)
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