| Author | Message | ||
     Euclidean |
Any Verizon DSL users on this bulletin board. I installed my DSL service about a week ago. It has been a bit quirky and seems to have occasional hiccups, but generally, I am pretty happy with it. In the process, I found a fantastic website, www.dslreports.com, which has tools to help you evaluate your line speed and optimize the performance of you PC. | ||
| Jasper |
I just signed up for Verizon DSL today, but my line won't be ready until March 5! I've heard some horror stories, but am hoping that they've ironed out the kinks since then. Thanks for the tip about the website. I'll bookmark it. | ||
| Euclidean |
Definitely check out the website. Even on the discussion boards, after you sift through the venom, there is a lot of good information. At this point, I am thinking of buying a Linksys router so that I don't have to use my DSL dialer on my PC. The DSL dialer is the quirky part and sometimes reboots my PC without warning when I make the DSL connection. Also, if I have the router, my BlackIce Defender firewall software might not be needed. Also, I haven't cancelled my AOL service just yet. I plan to keep it around as an insurance policy while Verizon works through their remaining problems. AOL can be configured to run over DSL, but you can also revert back to a dialup connection. | ||
| Melidere |
When you configure aol to run over dsl, you can also get a reduction in your rate to aol since you aren't using their lines to connect. be careful, tho...it has recently come to my attention that if you take the discounted rate and then use their dialups...it's something like 2 bucks a minute or something. | ||
| Euclidean |
Mel, That's a good point. I think with all of these services, it is a good idea to read the fine print which describes additional charges under various circumstances. tj | ||
| Waynecaviness |
Thats great input from everyone. I'm trying to decide whether to go DSL or cablemodem. Cablemodem doesn't seem too bad in our neighborhood because the density is a bit lower than some. Thanks. | ||
| Melidere |
oh, i'd easily choose cable over dsl at this point. the installation of dsl can be a nightmare, and if something goes wrong, it's even worse. if cable gets overloaded...then worry about it. I haven't had any problems to date. | ||
| Euclidean |
Wayne, Go to http://www.dslreports.com/ and see what they have to say about Cable versus DSL. It seems that on technical grounds, DSL is better, but currently, Cable is faster and easier. At this point, I am a reasonably happy Verizon DSL user, however, I replaced the PPP over Ethernet dialer provided by Verizon and I tweaked an entry in my Windows registry to improve the down speed. I am consistently getting 500/80 speeds. The dialer replacement information and tuning information can be found on the website above. I am also leaning towards getting a Linksys router so that I can hook up my work laptop to a highspeed line. I have the BlackICE Defender software firewall installed and it is interesting to see the various hacker probes which occur from time to time - quite an education. If you like a bit of tinkering, don't be afraid of DSL. Anyway, according to the website above, Verizon is improving. Also, check your Windows version. I have Win 98 and that worked well. Win ME might be mroe of an adventure. | ||
| Jfb |
Verizon sucks, period. Unresponsive and bloated. Try MegaPath. Great prices, great service. I installed a MegaPath DSL line. No problems at all. Came with a Netopia Router with Firewall built in. The router has a 10MPS Hub & DHCP server built in for you network freaks out there. Very fast.. | ||
| Dave |
MegaPath recently sold their consumer business to Telocity, a rather bad provider. Their business DSL is good, though (I use it). For residential DSL if you don't want Verizon, check out speakeasy.net. | ||
| Lseltzer |
I'm curious: why would any of you who have cable modem available at about $40/month prefer residential DSL? | ||
| Euclidean |
I use DSL for the same reason I started with AOL. The morning I decided I wanted to go online, the AOL disk was there. When I was waffling about high-speed lines, Verizon called me with the offer. If Comcast had called me, I would have gone with cable. The interesting thing will be to see who wins the broadband battle, especially with wireless broadband becoming a reality three to five years out. | ||
| Felt22 |
VERIZON DSL IS HORRIBLE!!!! That company is a mess. I call to get the DSL and they send it out and then I wait for the start up date. Then the start up date comes and nothing. They say they are checking the line - that takes them 3 weeks. They then call me and tell me that they made a mistake and DSL service is no good at my location. They tell me they will send me a label to return the modem. I STILL HAVE THE MODEM AND IT'S BEEN A MONTH. What did I do? I called up Comcast baby!!! They came out to my place in a week and it was all installed within 15 minutes. It cost me 45 bucks to hook up and it cost the same per month as the crappy VERIZON DSL. CABLE MODEM ALL THE WAY BABY!!!!! | ||
| Waynecaviness |
Thanks to all for response to DSL v. cablemodem! According to most sources, DSL has a technical edge, but (and from personal experience, I agree with this part of it) Verizon leaves a lot to be desired as a vendor. Putting it all together, as of this moment in time, a residential customer with a cable system that isn't too crowded/dense seems to have the edge. But as DSL matures and better providers become available, that seems likely to change. | ||
| Jrf |
Verizon DSL is horrible and should not be compared to a normal SDSL service provider like Covad, Northpoint or Rhythms. The only negative to Comcast is the rather slow upload speed. Otherwise, Comcast rules for the $$$. I'm moving to S/O from Maplewood in April - is cable available? Jrf | ||
| Melidere |
no maplewood has comcast. s/o has someone else that doesn't offer cable service. | ||
| Euclidean |
JRF: What is wrong with Verizon DSL other than customer service and user unfriendliness? Now that I have tweaked my registry and replaced my PPoE driver, I am getting 511 down/80 up KBPS against a server in San Jose. The platform is now very stable. | ||
| Kap |
SO has Cablevision and they are, as we speak, in the process of wiring the town for cable modems. | ||
| Jrf |
Euclid, A few things.... one, they do not offer static IP addresses. If you wish to use your PC as a server, this is extremely difficult. 80 K up is unacceptable to me at least, since you can have another DSL provider for around the same cost which will provide much higher upload speeds. I also had a lot of problems with disconnects when I had Verizon... sounds like this may have been corrected. Jrf | ||
| Euclidean |
Jrf, Those are all good points. I also had a disconnect problem (I assume you mean dropping and reconnecting the DSL link). This problem I solved by replaced the WinPoEt driver with RASPPoE to provide my PPP over Ethernet dialer service. The RASPPoE driver is freeware. With RASPPoE, I don't have to reboot after I disconnect, I don't experience abends, and my line doesn't hang anymore. P.S. I am not necessarily defending Verizon - I was curious about technical differences and I was glad to see that you responded along technical lines. | ||
| Lseltzer |
Jrf: Your point about static IP addresses reminds me of some changes in Comcast practices and licensing in recent years. They used to have static IP addresses, and my main account with them is on one. But new accounts use DHCP, although you do get a static name. In any event, it's not usually of much value since they would never let you register a usable name with that address. The dns name on a typical Maplewood @Home system is something like cc1234567-a.union1.nj.home.com. Also, it's always been technically against the license agreement to run a server on an @Home system. @Home actually scans their networks for certain types of especially bandwidth-hungry servers, Usenet servers in particular. Does anyone know if residential DSL agreements are any more generous? | ||
| Jrf |
Larry, >>Does anyone know if residential DSL agreements are any more generous? << That's a good question. In my opinion, if you go with an ADSL provider (Verizon) rather than an SDSL provider you are probably going to be more regulated. I have SDSL and am running FTP servers with no problems at all. It's my bandwidth to use as I wish I guess. The whole purpose of paying the extra $$$ for SDSL is the guaranteed bandwidth in both directions. It's as close to a pure T1 as you can get at your home. As for @Home, have they banned Napster due to their license agreement? I would imagine that would take a lot of bandwidth. Jrf | ||
| Tomp |
I want to put in a plug for Earthlink DSL. I signed up for an account last July and they had me up and running within a month. The connection goes down briefly every now and then (I know because my IP address changes) but in all the time I've had the service, I can count on two or three fingers the number of times it's been unavailable when I needed it. My main reasons for going with Earthlink DSL were that (a) they didn't care what I used the line for, whereas the cable modem companies don't want you to put servers up, (b) Earthlink gives you up to 20hrs a month of "roaming access" to their national modem dialup network, which is nice if you travel, (c) they offer higher speed DSL connections than Verizon and (d) Verizon's reputation is really crappy. It turns out that there's a central office in downtown South Orange, so the closer you live to there, the faster your connection will be. I live about 0.6 miles away and just timed my connection speed at 1.2Mb download and 320kb upload. As far as a static IP address goes, I don't see anymore why you'd want one. Their are a handful of services like DynDNS.org that offer you static machine *names*, which are automatically mapped to your current IP address if it changes. It's not the same as a static IP address, but for my purposes it's more than good enough. Best of all, this service is free. Anyway, I've heard a lot of DSL horror stories, but as far as I can tell, you can get very good DSL service from Earthlink here in South Orange. I've been completely happy. |
