adam on Wed, 27 Sep 2000 16:29:40 -0400 (EDT) |
One note - Covad sent out an email to providers a while back stating that in October they would begin rolling out lines using your existing line. We shall see if it comes to pass. __ Adam adam@radioactivecat.com www.radioactivecat.com __ Endless Loop: n., see Loop, Endless. Loop, Endless: n., see Endless Loop. On Wed, 27 Sep 2000, William H. Magill wrote: > > > Is there anything specific I should know? Services that shouls be > > > run that are run with ip masq 5 computers on a dial up connection? > > Andrew White pretty much covered it... > > You'll never know now from the new Verizon marketing information, but > you CAN get Infospeed DSL from Bell Atlantic -- which is a tariffed sevice, > and use any number of different ISPs. > > I've had Infospeed Professional (1.6x90) with DCAnet as my ISP since about > January, and except for the great ATM failure back in January have not had > an outage. > > DSL service is anything but "bullet proof." It's a lot like Linux... > really cool when it works, but not something that you can expect the > average iMac user to comprehend, let alone be able to use. How well DSL > works and the kinds of problems you will experience depends upon your > physical location and what kinds of things are between you and the CO (ie > the last mile). > > Most of the "RBOC" ISPs now are using PPPoE and no longer providing static > IP addresses. This change started last November at Bell Atlantic, the ISP. > (Which is, or should be now, really Northpoint.) > > There is another factor to consider in the DSL equation... POTS. > > Very few of the non-RBOC xDSL providers (and in very limited areas) offer > POTS. > > If you get Infospeed from Bell Atlantic, you can have POTS -- Plain Old > Telephone Service - on the same line. If you get your DSL from Covad, > you don't get POTS, you get a second "phone line" -- actually a dry copper > pair, historically called a "radio loop" -- with no phone service. > > There are lots of reasons for this approach, and I expect things to change > over time, but I don't know how quickly. I suspect it will be several years > (if at all) before the non-RBOCs offer POTS with their DSL, even if and > when they offer CLEC service in that CO. > > The main reason for this is because the margins are so low on DSL service, > and the maintenance costs are high. This equation will probably change as > the number of DSL subscribers per CO increases, but today the "fill ratio" > is very low, making costs very high. These various providers can capitalize > (ie sell stock) their "installation and startup" costs, but the operating > costs are deadly.... especially since the overhead on the actual account > servicing (dial-a-prayer) is so incrediby labor (and time) intesive. Then > when they have to actually roll-a-truck to do either end user trouble > shooting, or CO equipment trouble-shooting and repair, the costs go > asymptotic almost instantly. > > And none of this is made any easier by the fact that there are always a > minimum of 3 fingers pointing at the problem -- the "last mile" provider, > Bell Atlantic is the ONLY option available in the last mile for the > forseeable future; the aggrigator or xDSL supplier, Covad or RCS or > NorthPoint; and the ISP, DCAnet, NorthPoint, and an incredible cast of > other characters. There are situations where there CAN be even more > companies involved in providing the sevice, each one intent on proving that > their part of the service can never be the problem. (Getting to and from > the CO to the ISP's POP and to and from the POP to the backbone... etc.) > > The only thing less reliable than the DSL setup is the Cable Modem > environment. (another topic.) > > -- > www.tru64unix.compaq.com > www.tru64.org > comp.unix.tru64 > > T.T.F.N. > William H. Magill Senior Systems Administrator > Information Services and Computing (ISC) University of Pennsylvania > Internet: magill@isc.upenn.edu magill@acm.org > http://www.isc-net.upenn.edu/~magill/ > > > ______________________________________________________________________ > Philadelphia Linux Users Group - http://www.phillylinux.org > Announcements-http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug-announce > General Discussion - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug > ______________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group - http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements-http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug
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