Re: [PLUG] Re: Verizon DSL

[gabriel rosenkoetter <gr@eclipsed.net>]

On Fri, Jun 07, 2002 at 10:19:40AM -0400, Jon Galt wrote:
> This is what I don't get.  What does this "access" consist of?  Clearly
> there has to be more than simply a physical wire.  I understand that, but
> *what* do I get from the ISP?  Surely one could say "everything else
> besides the physical wire", but that wouldn't tell me what I want to know.

Wayne, you really need to step back and understand how TCP/IP
networks work. There are many good books on this, many probably at
your local library. (Anything that gets used as a text for a
computer networking class will do).

Your phone line connects you only to a punch-down block (well, a
more modern equivalent, since it's all digital these days) at your
phone company's nearest CO. From there, if the line in question is
for data service, the ISP has hardware installed to recieve data
from all of the data lines in that block and transfer them over to
another phone line running to a larger office of their own.
Somewhere around there is where you hit your default route. Without
the default route, you couldn't see any of the rest of the Internet.

> If one of my computers sends an IP packet out over my DSL line, the DSL
> line provider has to be able to handle the packet... or does it?  Does it
> act in some way like a leased line to my ISP?  Could I use an ISP in
> Alaska if I wanted to?  Or just ones that have some prearranged agreement
> with Verizon in this region?

You could only use an ISP with an existing arrangement with Verizon,
as it involves the ISP having hardware in Verizon's CO. (Note that
there's an FCC recomendation in the works to make it legal for line
providers to refuse to place other people's equipment in their COs.
This would mean there'd only be one or two broadband providers
inside two or three years. That'd be Bad.)

It acts in no way like a leased line to your ISP, it acts like a
phone line. The leased line from your ISP to the phone company's CO
acts like a leased line. The hardware in the CO connects your phone
line with the leased line.

-- 
gabriel rosenkoetter
gr@eclipsed.net

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