Hi guys,

I need some information about internet service options. I am familiar with dial-up service and cable modem service but I am not so sure about DSL and wireless services. I do know that DSL comes over a phone line but can you be online and on the phone at the same time? What kind of a connections/software are needed? As for wireless, I am totally clueless about the whole wireless idea. Can someone please give me a description of each, remember you are talking to a computer challenged person so please try to keep it as simple as possible.

I appreciate the help!
~ Karen ~

 

Remember this:

Cable>DSL>wireless>Dial-up


I worked Tech support for Centurytel DSL last year.
DSL lets you use the internet & the phone line at the same time (if everything works correctly)
With DSL, you will most likely get a external modem, and several DSL filters. The filters plug into every telephone you have on that line.

Wireless internet means they "beam" the internet connection over a certain area & you pick up the signal using a wireless adapter.

Cable is usually the fastest 3-6mbps
DSL is slower 1.5 mbps down to 256k or so.
wireless: i dunno
Dialup is 56K max

Hope this helps a little

 

okay with DSL. there is 4 lines in ur phone line ur telephone uses 1 an 3. DSL uses 2 an 4.. so u can be on the phone and DSL at the same time. they give u filters because DSL has alotta line noise and ud hear really weird noises when ur on the phone without the filters.

 

Yea putting a filter on every phone the DSL modem isn't hooked up to is a real pain, especially if you have a wall plate in say the kitchen.

When my sister got it I split the signal just as it came in the house and put one filter on for the whole house except that line.

She cancelled two months later because it doesn't compare to cable. DSL speed is heavily dependent on your distance from the phone company's office. The further you go the faster it drops.

Wireless is ok but can be pricey and max speed is usually 2 MB if you have an amazing connection.

Comcast Cable in my area is up to 4Mb for download where DSL can only get to 1.5. However it is a shared connection which means when a lot of people are on in my area the speed can really drop.

 

I have had DSL now for about 2 years. Love it. I could have had cable, but being the company that services my county is Adelphia and I dropped them in favor of satellite TV because of poor quality. So I went to DSL when it became available. Currently I have the 3.0mb service and get download speeds of about 2.7mb as I am on the edge as far as distance for that speed. For DSL you must be within 18,000 feet of the CO for 1.5mb and 11,000 for 3.0. I am at 10,900 per the phone company. After having dial-up for so long, it really shocked me to be on-line and the phone rang. Kinda neat to be able to browse and talk on the phone at the same time. Cost here is much cheaper than cable. I believe cable here runs about $50.00 if you have basic cable or about $57 if you have them as ISP only. My DSL runs $29.95 a month with a 1 year commitment. Don't know the cost in your area. If I drop them within that year, it costs $45. With DSL you have to have filters on every phone line you want hooked up as a regular phone. Wasn't a big deal for me, I could get the extra filters at Radio Shack or order from the phone company.
You may be able to find the distance from your co at this site. No guarantee as they do not have mine listed.
http://www.dslreports.com/prequal/distance

This site is also good for a lot of you questions on DSL.

 

Where do you get wireless at. I can't get dsl or cable.. I'm stuck with satellite. Wireless might be a good idea.

 

I can't get cable either I live in Bf....but I have wireless through a local ISP in Virginia and I have no complaints, I get around 280 kbps and haven't had any problems with it yet.

 

I had Satelite for 3 years Now have 1.5 Mb Wireless . Wireless seems 10 times faster. do a search for Wisp providers in your area

 

T-1 is only 1.8 I have the 1.5 DSL and ussually get 1.7 + it's just not worth the extra $$ for T service unless you go T3 or higher.
I am 5 miles for city limits not sure were my station is BUT there are fiber optics 1/4 mile from my house 6 to 1 that has something to do with my speeds. When I was on dial up I constantly got 4800 too, people in town would come out and be like Whoa this is fast. LOL Granted they would only be getting 2600-2800 in town!

Rose,
As a general rule Wireless is over priced and is ussally crap. You must have a staight line of site to thier antenna tower. If there is a building (or in my area a Hill) in the way, then you will not beable to get the signal. Most Wireless providers or atleast the ONE here also makes you sign a 2 year contract, and if someone happens to build a building in between you and thier tower. You are SOL and still bound to pay the bill even though you can not use the service. "Thats a crock if you ask me!" And the hardware needed cost $600 and another $400 or so to have them put it in. (and no they will not send it to you so you can install it either, I tried that. ) Check all of this closely before deciding to go wireless. Your provider in your area my not be as bad as this one is here. (Then they wonder why they are not getting thier share of the market here? DUH!)

Persoannally I prefer DSL over Cable because I'm stingy and dont like sharing my bandwidth. Cable is like the party line version of DSL. Heaven forbid you get stuck trying to share with someone who downloads movies/music/programs etc. even when they are not home or they are asleep and you will never have any bandwidth. (BTW Bandwidth = speed) Then you could also get stuck with a techy that knows how to steal everyones Bandwidth for himself. I have seen circumstances were cable was slower than dial up at certain times of the day for some people. My 2nd choice would be satelite, is more expensive than cable but as stated before it is secluded (aka not a party line service). Then maybe I would choose cable, and then last resort the dial up.

I hope this helps you ask the providers in your area the right questions. IF you are still concerned about a provider or thier conditions. Post a link up to the providers website here before you buy and we can check it out and explain it for you.

 

u can always scan ur neighborhood so many people have their entire network open .... just get a wireless NIC and pull bandwidth off a neighbor haha my friends do it. tisk tisk...

 

Thanks for the replies everyone!!

PSS, thank you for the info on wireless. I am asking because we are moving soon and plan on buying a house, on a piece of land, outside of a small town (haven't found the house yet). Anyway, most of the houses in the area that are out of town have phone service but no cable. The area is also pretty mountainous so looks like wireless would be pretty risky. We'll most likely get a satellite dish for TV but I am a little concerned about the whole internet thing. I really don't want to go dial-up again but I'm afraid that's going to be my only option Once we make an offer on a house I'll have a little more info and may request further assistance! One question I do have...you mentioned satellite Internet...How does that work? Can you get that with the dish you get for TV? I'm so clueless

 

WMR, yes you can get TV and internet with the same dish, however it is a different dish than TV only. For DSL, it will depend on how far out of town and whether the phone company or someone else offers it. I was stuck here for quite a while with dial-up as my only option before was that, cable from a lousey comapny or the first generation of satellite.
Unfortunately, satellite is even more expensive than cable, but not quite as high as wireless. Good luck with your move and ISP search.

 

Satelite is a viable option if you have no other broadband.

The last time I checked into it, the download rates were respectable 512kbps maybe higher. The downside was you had to have a phone to upload data. I'm sure that has changed and I'm just too lazy to look.

One thing about satelite is the latency. I looked into if for a remote branch of an office. Their bandwidth was fine but the latency was so large that our VPN connections would constantly drop. We decided not to put it in.

Good luck with the house search.

BTW: The difference between DSL and T1 is a whole lot more than .3 kbs. There is no comparisson in the reliability and actual throughput of a T1. DSLs can't travel over fiber cables, their bandwidth isn't guarnteed, nor is their uptime. T1s are meant for mission critical service and DSL isn't. DSL is fine for the home but no way can you recommend a DSL over a T1 unless price is the one and only factor.

Jim

 

They now have 2 way satelite service but it requires a seperate dish than your TV dish. As stated price is a little more than DSL or Cable. Equipment (IE dish, reciver, and modem) Run between $400 up to around $600. Depending up on what dish you want etc. Services starts out around
$60-$70 per month for the slowest (which is still typically around 500Kbps download, 150Kbps minimum upload) then of coarse prices go up for faster services.

Personally I'm looking at 2 different satelite internet providers for my camper. I currently use my cell phone as a modem when camping but I have to wait until free minutes kick in and it seems really really slow compared to my DSL at home. The one's I'm looking at is DiRECWay the other is StarBand I Personally don't know anything about StarBand, I know several people who have DirecWay (many are respectable techs) and they are all really really pleased with thier service and thier customer service. So if I decide it's worth it for the camper, then I'll probably go with them because of what I have seen.





As far as T1 vs DSL

Yes I would recomend DSL over T1 to most small business or residential service unless they have a server and need a back bone service. But then I would probably recomend atleast T2 probably T3 or higher depending up on requirements. (ie current traffic + realistic expected traffic) other wise they are wasting thier money. Small Business/residential is classified as a 20 point or less network and service use is typically for browsing, email, and FTP. For that they will never notice the difference between T1 and DSL except when it came time to pay the bill. For Mid sized business you must talk to the customer and weigh the options vs resources of both money and service demands so that gets a little tougher and each one is different. Large Coorporatins may have a variety of services depending upon each service site. You must evaluate each site and it's demands and service availability there too.

As a secondary administrator (I'm trying to get out of the field) I have/had several clients that could easily afford T6 to all of thier locations and they have enough faith in me that they would not question me if I told them they needed it at all of thier locations. (I can not fathum a circumstnace where I would ever do that.) They still more often than not will take my advise over thier current admins even though it's been 2 years since I started quitting they still call me in for help or second opinions. But my job for them in a nut shell is/was to make it run as smooth as possiable, as cheap as possiable. So I would never suggest anything just because they could afford it. Price should always be a major factor. An administrators job is not to have "status" service. (example: the fastest service that they can talk/sale thier company into getting.) Unfortunatly way to many admins. today seem to think that it is though. Smooth and cost effeciency is the name of the game.

I have to laugh when I walk into a small business and notice that they have 5 computers, 2 printers, and a Cisco 20 port router/switch alone in a rack over in the corner. I instantly know that thier admin. has the big eye. Especially when most are not even using print servers. Expandability is one thing but by the time they will need to expand they will likely be having to replace the worn out switch they were going to use to expand, so they wasted $200-$300 on something that they never even used. LOL

I can go on and on but I'll get off my soap box now.
In closing yes my humble opinion is that DSL, more often than not, is the senseable, viable effective service than T1 for most applications. There are always exceptions otherwise T1 would no longer exist, it's time is limited. But for now it has it's place... Just not very many logical places. LOL

 

PSS-mag, Direcway/DirecTV does have an option to use only one dish. See: http://hns.getdway.com/dtv.html