![[Bytes Link logo]](../../../cgif/bytelnk2.gif)
A DSL Saga
by Judy Lococo, APCUG President, President@apcug.org - November 30, 2001 at 17:38:15:
The saga begins in the year 2000, as I went in search of a broadband connection... There were three options available to me at that time, they came from a land far, far, away, and little was known about any of them... Baby Bell was the first contact, as they held all the existing telephone lines, and had to determine when my geographical area was available as DSL. Telocity (now DIRECTV DSL) was the second option, and they used the same telephone lines as Baby Bell. And then there was Insight Communications which had all the television cable lines everywhere. How fortunate was I to have three available to me, when most had none!After trying to understand numerous other terms that were alien to me, I discovered that I was blessed in that I was close enough to a CO (Central Office) with a DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) that my throughput would be blindingly fast. And, reasoning with myself that since Baby Bell owned the actual lines, if something happened to my service, they would be more eager to correct any problems, than if I was a Telocity customer, _using_ the Baby Bell lines. So I asked Baby Bell to establish DSL service to me.
It was such a new technology at that time that there were many technical difficulties. For one, Baby Bell was so rabid about not allowing any of the home users actually using more than one computer in a home environment to access their DSL, that they mandated that I had to use an internal modem (more heat inside my computer). I couldn't share the DSL connection with my old computer that I had networked with a new one. They showed no remorse for the fact that their DSL storm troopers had buggered up my two-computer LAN to the point that I now had to disable the network card to the old machine before I could even access the DSL line. And I was even using a different protocol on _my_ network as the DSL line already had a lock on TCP/IP and wouldn't allow the home network card to use that protocol... Needless to say, trying to print a document from the old machine to the printer attached to the new one, took some very fancy maneuvering. Of course, if I had elected to have the business DSL ($$) I could do all these marvelous things without any problem. For two computers, one of which started out life as a 486 machine, this did not compute.
The first problem I encountered was with the telephone line filters that are necessary if you wish to use the DSL service. Every extension in your house must have a filter on it, and unfortunately the one Baby Bell sent me for the wall phone in the kitchen was faulty. I asked for a replacement, & they couldn't replace just one, as nobody had ever done that before! So basically, I phoned & complained about their line filter for the wall phone every month for six months before they finally decided they would send me one that _did_ work. However, what this meant was that my kitchen phone was worthless for six months.
I have always had a Hayes modem, not a Hayes-compatible modem, as I wanted top of the line error-correcting whenever I was using the phone lines. This Baby Bell internal modem was nothing but problems from the third day it was installed, and my wait on the phone to tech support was most depressing. Sometimes the device worked, and sometimes it didn't, and when it didn't, I had to re-boot my machine and try it again. I must have had to reboot my machine hundreds of times during the course of the 14 months I had the Baby Bell DSL for their modem connection alone, and then you have to add to that the times the computer itself seized up when I did something blonde. I'm surprised my "control," "alt," & "delete" keys have not been worn down to a nub...
Baby Bell tech support was generally adequate, and they do have a really nice feature on their answering messages that give you an estimated wait time. But don't expect them to bypass any of their routines simply because you say you have already done them. They are going to assume that you are an imbecile, and work upwards from there. By the time the call finally reaches a point where they can converse in acronyms on equal footing with you, you've wasted at least a half-hour!
After fighting with the internal modem for over a year, I decided to complain even louder about their faulty equipment when I had to call in for some other problem. So the tech support people checked my line & found that my modem was an iffy component, and they would be sending me another. So I asked what it would take to get an external modem, as what they were sending me was basically not going to help my home network agonies. They asked a supervisor to bless it, and all agreed they could get me an internal modem for half-price, since I had used their service for over a year and the existing modem inside the machine was paid for. I said, "Great, let's do that!" The USB external modem arrived at one of my busier times, so it sat in the box for a couple of weeks before I even opened it. My telephone bill arrived in the meantime, so I checked it to see if the $37.50 half-price charge was on there. Imagine my surprise when I discovered they had charged me $18.50 for one of four installments, which basically said I was paying full price for it. Once again, Baby Bell was lying to its customers, and hiding it under an enigma of numbers.
I phoned Baby Bell & explained to all who would listen that I had been wronged. It fell on really deaf ears. Never mind that I have had outrageous monthly phone bills for thirty years, or that I have recently discovered that a directory service request for a new phone number listing is now one thin penny short of two dollars! So I told the woman on the phone that if I couldn't find any resolution to the fact that they had lied to me, then I didn't wish to deal with them any more except on a have-no-choice basis, as they are a monopoly where my local telephone service is concerned. They could take their DSL back to Never Never Land. She said there was nothing anyone could do, so I explained that I no longer wanted to use their DSL service. While I was on the phone talking to her, getting instructions on how to return this external modem, etc., they totally disconnected me from all Baby Bell DSL privileges. I did not even have time to pull email off their server before I was denied access to it. I was not given time to notify people that Jlococo@bellsouth.net was no longer a viable email address. Basically, I was electronically guillotined! "How rude!"
I was suddenly without fast access and back to 56K dial-up speeds. This is tantamount to being mega-rich one day & a pauper the next. If you hadn't seen the promised land, you wouldn't know any better. So I put a panic call in to DIRECTV DSL, and they very candidly told me that their modems were external, cost approximately $500, but were included in the monthly cost of their service. I did have to agree to a year's service with them, but they didn't care if I had two computers networked or not. I could only sit in front of one at a time, and the dogs have not learned how to surf... yet... However, whenever I discontinued their service, I had to return the modem to them. The biggest problem was that it could take up to three weeks for them to get the modem to me. Withdrawal pains, definitely.
However, the modem arrived just over a week after my call to DIRECTV DSL, so I figured I had a day of installation ahead of me _again_. I had to remove the Baby Bell internal DSL modem card, so it wouldn't conflict with the external DIRECTV DSL modem or my home network. Besides, at this point, it was just taking up space inside my PC. And, uh, geez, it also gave me a chance to visit with the dust bunnies populating the inside of my machine. Then I had to uninstall the Baby Bell software - this was not something you should try alone at home! It required the resident Alpha Geek's expertise to figure this one out, as the uninstallation itself wanted to wipe out a few "unused" files such as regedit.exe (among others) because their removal software reported that "I wasn't using it any more & really didn't need it..." I think that was the final straw when I saw that they wanted to inflict harm on my computer because I had chosen not to use their service.
Once all remnants of the Baby Bell fiasco were removed, total time to setup the new configuration was just over an hour. For the most part, the installation went smoothly with no major issues along the way. The new setup included attaching the DIRECTV DSL modem to my telephone line and installing their software. It also included rerouting some of the ethernet cabling in the office and installing and configuring a DSL router/firewall between the modem and my computers. I did have to tweak my software firewall settings to make it all work together. At this point, I called in "Alpha Geek" for assistance with the firewall configuration.
The DIRECTV DSL modem and the DSL router are now flashing lights back at me (comforting to an external modem user...) and my home network is happy again. I can print from any machine on my home network when I wish, I can access the Net no matter which machine I am using, and I don't have to pray that I remembered to disable the network card before I powered down the last time. I don't have to threaten my friends with a visit from Luigi if they send me a huge picture attachment, and life is once again good!
For even more acronyms and information about DSL, check out http://www.dslreports.com.
![[------STRIPE-----]](../../../cgif/str1.gif){kind=small}
Site Disclaimer Suggestions? E-Mail to webmaster@noccc.org