DSL, DSS, & Dish Network

Jim Smith · From: Midlothian, TX, USA

After a harrowing and grueling 8 days without cable modem Internet access at home and with the rising cost of cable TV, I'm thinking of switching to DSL for Internet access and either DSS or Dish Network for TV. Any comments Pro or Con?

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

Jim, I just got some info on DSL from my
IP [MAP.COM]. One plan says it will cost
$49.00/mnth. Seeing how i'm paying for 2 phone lines now, the overall cost to switch would be just another $10 more per month. Supposedly you are on-line all the time and super-super fast connections and downloads etc.
They told me, however, that I need to buy a new and different modem for DSL. They will gladly sell me one for $250. And what I finally learned when all the FAXXed info got here is that there is a $125 setup fee.
So with 1st months rent and all the other expenses it's gonna cost me over 4 bills to get goin with this.
I balked, needless to say. It's gotta get lower in price sooner or later.

Chips Ahoy

Jim Smith · From: Midlothian, TX, USA

Chip, see if FreeDSL is in your area. Go to http://www.freedsl.com They say they are in my area and I can get up to 1.5 Mbits/sec with a free modem for $34.95/month. I'm not sure of their setup fee though.

[This message was edited by Jim Smith on 11 October 2000 at 05:23 PM.]

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

Thanks for the tip, Jim. I'll check it out.
Your second post just reminded me that my local IP mentioned something about the DSL capability being available in my [or anyone's] area. So I haven't even looked into that as well...the unavailability would certainly cancel out everything else.

Oh well.......

Jim Smith · From: Midlothian, TX, USA

The DSL sites I've been to so far have a spot to enter your phone number with area code. From that they can tell you if you're in their area.

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

I'm looking at DSL for the Forum server. It appears that I can get 384 Kbps uploads for $189/month, or 768 Kbps for $369/month. $369 is pretty steep, but I'm not sure that 384 Kbps would be enough bandwidth for this place.

Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

I work for one of the largest providers of cable Internet, and in my area here in Nashville you must be careful. One of the local telephone services offers DSL for home use (don't quote me but, I believe around 40.00 a month) the only thing that they don't tell you is that both your uploads and downloads are limited to 256Kb. If you want more bandwidth you must pay dearly for the service upwards to 400.00 for cable modem speed.

Now cable modems on the other hand offer 128KB uploads and unlimited download speeds. I have downloaded at speeds up to 3 Megs a second late at night and my normal speeds thru the peak times are over 500KB per second. They cap uploads to keep people from running illegal servers which would suck the life out of all of our connections.

I'm not sure about any other areas, but I would presume that it would run accordingly.

Bob

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Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

Its gonna get way cheaper real soon. I just got word from my sister who works for the FCC with internet issues. Electrical companies are laying down fiber optic cable along with there electrical lines. We are talking fiber optic cable everywhere at no added cost.

Bob

John Gretzinger · From: Canoga Park, CA

b0b -

There are a couple of services down here that are not that expensive - InternetConnect is doing 348 at $169 for business use, but SBC DataComm (Part of SBC) is offering T-1's for business at $899 including the router.

If you can convince them you are doing this for Personal use then cost goes way down. I had a client put in 416 (weird number) for $39.00/mo. with InternetConnect.

jdg

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MSA D-10
'63 Gibson Hummingbird
16/15c Hammered Dulcimer

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

I couldn't lay my hands on the fax my IP sent me on pricing a while ago, but just came across it.
They did mention something, also, about downloading. It all came at me pretty fast, but you pay for added on "power" or "penache" or whatever it's called.

ADSL Residential: all setups cost $125.
384K/90K....(Monthly) $59.95
512K/90K...............69.95
768K/90K...............79.95
1.0MEG/90K.............89.95
1.0MEG/384K............179.95

SDSL Residential: setup=$125
384K...................69.95
512K...................99.95
768K...................149.95
1.0MEG.................199.95

and there's more, too....ADSL Business and
SDSL Business.....no need to print these prices; they certainly exceed the Residential
ones.

I thought choosing and/or buying into DSL would be sort of a simple HMM process, but it's complicated and has many extraneous
components that have to jive just right I guess. I think I'll sit back and just keep reading the pros & cons for awhile.

Chips Ahoy

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

Jim, I checked out the free DSL [Winfire] and
Massachusetts is a covered state, but the only city or place is Boston. Big Dig, Big Pig.

Jeff Hogsten · From: Flatwoods Ky USA

dish network is going to have wireless internet the first of Nov for 69 a month and direct is coming out soon for 49 so I think it will level out at about forty a month

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Earthlink currently is offering DSL for $49.95 per month with no setup fee and they will supply the DSL modem (or DSU or whatever it is) and software including Norton firewall. I think they only require a 6 month committment to get the freebie stuff.

Speeds can approach T1 (1.44MB) but it's like a standard analog modem it depends on the line.

The big thing on DSL is you have to be within 18000 ft (approx 3 miles) of the telco office and I think no repeaters on the telco line.

Earthlink will test your phone line and tell you if your phone line will accept DSL.

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

I pre-pay for a year's worth of dial up and it comes out to around $16 a month. Although I would kill for the speeds you all are talking about, I guess I'm not so keen on paying for it. Or paying someone to kill for it. For the money, I'll live at dial-up speed until something radical changes the price structure.

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

I do the same for modem access from home, Jon. That won't cut it for the Forum server, though.

Lori Smith · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

When I was searching for DSL pricing, I found this great site: www.dslreports.com.

Click on DSL Finder, click on Find DSL, enter your zip code and click on one of the many options from there. It will show you if you qualify and it will show all the different companies that respond in your area. From there, I believe you also get comparative pricing. It also has info on Broadband and ISP's.

As an aside, almost ALL DSL installations come with some sort of rebate on their equipment - just ASK! And, if you go with a provider that re-sells (for instance COVAD does installs but uses re-sellers), check with COVAD directly for rebates on equipment.

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Lori Smith - email: lori@b0b.com - Web Page Design - PictureHost.net

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Thanks, Lori!

Tony Palmer · From: St Augustine,FL

I have DSL service at my business...the problem is..once you have it, you will never, never, ever, ever go back to a dial-up modem...I guarantee it!
Napster downloads are 3 minutes...I downloaded movies from scourexchange.com in about 15 minutes....and of course, breeze throgh the Forum instantly!
Web site graphics come up quick, it really is a new dimension of internet usage.

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