IDSL (Was: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] Newbie Questions)

[Mark Bickel]

> From discuss-admin at ntlug.org Wed Sep 27 20:03 CDT 2000
> Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 20:06:32 -0500
> From: Steve Baker <sjbaker1 at airmail.net>
> Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] Newbie Questions


> > Last, any thoughts on the best DSL/(other fast/cheap) hookups for Linux?
> > AT&T is making a big deal here but I want to ask.
> 
> There has been a lot of discussion of this on this mailing list - check out
> the archives.  IMHO, DSL is *the* way to go - and at least one of the local
> ISP's is "Linux friendly" (Try Internet America for example).  The only
> reason I know to choose cable/satellite is if you live outside the DSL
> service area.
> 
> I live outside the DSL service area (Doh!) and my home is too far from
> the street to get cable (Doh!) - and I live on a steep hillside and
> aparrently have several of the Cedar Hill hills between me and the
> Satellite (DOH!) - so I'm in deep trouble.  I have to look into ISDN?

My wife and I are in a similar predicament. We live out in the country,
6 miles East of McKinney. Our loop is 34,000 feet from the CO, the CATV
service out here is primative (no bidirectional amps, notch filters used
to block premium channels, "Can you say BubbaVision?"), etc. We were
able to get IDSL recently, which works over ISDN repeaters. IDSL should
be deliverable on any loop which qualifies for ISDN service, provided 
that there is a IDSL provider co-located in your CO. We are using Covad
for the DSL portion and firstworld.net as our ISP. No problems at all with
the DSL service (Covad provided a Flowpoint144 router), but a few outages
so far with the ISP, which is a bit pricey, though they do include decent
dialup (several thousand numbers nationwide plus U.K.) 2 statics, 20MB web.

IDSL give you max 144Kb/s up/down, and requires a separate pair as it is
not superimposed over POTS line.

YMMV,
Mark.Bickel at ericsson.com
MB of web space.