Re: [PLUG] DSL, Bell Atlantic, and Me

["William H. Magill" <magill@isc.upenn.edu>]

>   Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 10:48:13 -0400
>   From: "Joseph B. Welsh" <JWelsh@ConsecoDirect.com>
>
>   I am hoping some one can help me out.
>
>   I founf out that my wife is getting me a Bell Atlantic DSL connection 
>   for my birthday (cool present).  However, she being
>   a computer newbie who is still in the windows world dosen't know our 
>   home network is run on Linux with ip masq ing and firewalling.
>   She also dosn't know about Bell Atlantic reputation.
>
>   My question is this.
>
>   I f I wanted to go with DCA.net.
>   Do I install the Bell Atlantic Stuff, get it working correctly, then 
>   call DCA?
>   Call DCA first?
>   Stick with my dialup because I have it set up and working great? (just 
>   kidding!)
>

Definately.... call DCA first!

Depending upon where you are, they will probably set you up via Covad
rather than NorthPoint (formerly Verizon, formerly Bell Atlantic.)

It used to be pretty simple to call Bell Atlantic and tell them who
you wanted as ISP. Not anymore. From what I can tell, all calls now start
with the NorthPoint operation, which is a competitive ISP company, as
opposed to starting with Verizon "InfoSpeed" which is a tariffed part of
the regulated Company.... it DOES make a difference, a BIG difference.

Things have changed, and continue to change, very rapidly in the DSL
market. Anything which was true 6 months ago is probably NOT true any more.
(Except for the horror stories about the lack of training of technicians.)

-- 
                        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