DSL Providors

[Raul A. Gallegos]

Ann, those are definitely good points to consider.  It really is too bad
you have had such an aweful experience.  From my perspective though I've
had better luck with dsl since I first used it in late 1997.  Without
getting into a drawn out debate as to which is better between cable or
dsl I will say this.  The two biggest deciding factors from my
experience in the isp world on whether people like dsl or cable is the
first time installation.  If you've had nothing but problems getting dsl
from the get go you won't want it.  If you've had problems with the
cable providers or have to subscribe to higher tv plans you won't want
it either.  Then there are the technicalities of cable vs dsl which I
don't want to get into either.  Basically what it comes down to is that
one will use what ever is best for them and least hastle to get support
on.  The dsl services I"ve had since 1997 never required me to configure
any routers for it to work except once and that was a Cisco 675 adsl
bridge router which had a serial command line interface.  I've had very
good experiences with both dsl and cable so don't have anything against
either.

My situation however is this.  I wish to go with dsl because for me it's
been the least problematic and also because in the room where my
computer equipment is located cannot have a cable jack installed.  So
even if I didn't like dsl I would have to get it or run a cable from
another room into this one and I'm not prepaired to do that.

Any providor should not act this way as you describe but it's a sad
truth that it happens.  People here in KC use southwestern bell a lot
for dsl and they are so big as part of the sbc group that it takes for
ever to get tech support and they always start by assuming it is your
fault.  What you have to remember is most of the time you are talking to
a novice person working to pay for school or because there is nothing
better.  What makes it worse is most of them have never heard of any OS
except Windows.  I'm not trying to offend anyone if there are list
members who are tech support persons for isp's.  But this is my
experiences I'm sharing.

In short Ann, if you have better luck with cable, then go for it.  I
would do the same if I was in your shoes from what you describe.  Both
dsl and cable are good means of access when it comes down to it.  One
thing I'll give cable though is it's easier to troubleshoot than dsl.
This isn't so much of an opinion rather the truth as I see it from
having worked in both fields.  Currently I am a sysadmin for Sprint's
Broadband Wireless service and the troubleshooting that system is very
similar to cable.

Best regards.

PS.  Road Runner is the cable isp in my area through Time Warner.  And
if it was not for my particular setup I would just go and get it
installed in half an hour because it takes around that much to install.
And this half hour is including the travel time going to the office and
picking up a cable modem from them. *smile*.

Ann Parsons said the following on Sat, Oct 20, 2001 at 06:46:20AM -0400:
> Hi all,
> 
> Forget DSL!!! Forget it!!  If you want DSL you better be prepared to
> get the business kind because if you get ADSL they will force you into
> getting that damned SSG Dashboard crap that can not be accessed in
> Lynx w3 or anything but MSIE.  This is their web interface to their
> routers.  When you *can* access it with Gates' garbage, they have
> decided to write the whole damned thing in Java script.  It takes me
> twenty to thirty minutes to reset my DSL when they time it out, which
> they do every week or so.  Why does it take that long?  I have to
> reboot into Windows.  Then, I have to access the Dashboard.  Then, I
> have to find the stupid links to the edit boxes which are not labeled
> correctly so that the MSAA works properly.  Then, I have to keep
> turning MSAA mode on and off and going through all kinds of
> machanations to get the damned thing reset.  Plus, that's not counting
> the eleven outages I've had since July 18th!
> 
> Not only that, Frontier treats me like a child.  They call their
> routers modems, like I'm a five year old kid that can't call going to
> the bathroom anything but going weewee.  They think it is always *my*
> fault when something goes wrong, it *must* be my fault, I'm the
> customer, and the customer is always wrong, doncha know!!  
> 
> Those telephone companies, at least Frontier Communications doesn't
> know its ass from a hole in the ground.  They can't run their service
> correctly, they don't know what's wrong with their equipment when
> something breaks, and the whole thing is a SNAFU (situation Normal All
> Fucked Up).  Excuse me, I'm sorry folks, I do not usually become so
> vulgar, but I am disgusted with DSL, Frontier and the whole
> technology.  I'm going to cable on Thursday, and I'm very, very glad
> of it.  If you think that DSL can work in Linux, you need to pay for
> the expensive kind, cuz the residential ADSL is for the birds!!!
> 
> Ann P.
>