[NTLUG:Discuss] High speed access.

[Tim Riker]

Thanx to all those that replied. It looks like DSL and attbi are the 
choices. Anyone with either want to offer comments as to reliability etc?

I'm currently on QWest DSL, but I use a different ISP (xmission.com) 
cause they are much more reliable and open with updates about network 
loads, outages and the causes of them, etc.

Are there folks out there with DSL through SBC/Yahoo? What's the cost, 
speed, and do they offer static IPs?

I'd prefer a higher speed upload than 128k. 256k would be fine. I'd 
strongly prefer a routable static IP address. I'll run ssh, smtp, 
identd, imaps, pop3s, http, https, bzflag (tcp/udp 5155-5157), dns, and 
other standard services. If you are on dynamic IP, how often do they 
change? Assume my server will be on 24/7.

Are there other DSL ISP choices? They all seem to want a phone number 
first, and I don't even have a house or location picked out yet. ;-(

TJ says he's on satelite. Unfortunately I don't see myself playing much 
BZFlag over a satelite link. ;-)

A private message comments about *DSL being spotty in some areas. 
Frankly, getting reliable high speed internet access is very high on my 
list of requirements for home shopping. With the home I'm in how I 
grepped the net for the old home owner's phone number and had the line 
pretested by QWest before purchasing. It went something like this:

"I'd like to test my line for DSL availability"

"ok, what's your phone number?"

"801 *** ****"

"uh, I show that number as being disconnected"

"yes, I know. Please test the line anyway"

"you know that you need to have phone service to order DSL, right?"

"yes, I know. Please test the line for DSL."

"I don't show an active account on this line."

(argh!!!) "yes, I know. Please test the line anyway."

confused operator: "are you sure?"

"yes! please test the line."

"the line passes, DSL service should be available".

"thank you. Goodbye"

I'll probably do the same there. ;-)
-- 
Tim Riker - http://rikers.org/ - TimR at Debian.org
former Lineo CTO - Tim at Lineo.com - http://www.Lineo.com/
BZFlag maintainer - http://BZFlag.org/ - for fun!