[ale] OT: DSL at HellSouth

[David S. Jackson]

On Sat, Dec 01, 2001 at 08:20:10PM +0900 Keith Hopkins <hne at inetnow.net> wrote:
> Hello folks,
> 
>    I have a friend who lives off Beaver Ruin Rd (south of I-85)
>    in Norcross and is thinking of subscribing to Miss Bell's
>    DSL service.  They have told her two things that concern
>    her, and that I am unfamiliar with.  I was wondering if
>    anyone here could shed some light on these details.

I am in the same fiber situation, I think, here in East Cobb.  I
would look into Atlnet's (www.atlnet.com) offering.  (It's a
smaller boutique ISP with good service and excellent Linux
support.)  Installation was done by the owner of the ISP himself,
and it was done right.  I forget what he charged, but I think it
might have been around $199.  But there was absolutely no "Oh,
you run Linux?" hassel.  

He charges $65/mo, but I get static IP and he hosts my DNS.  Plus
I get the usual ftp and web space.  He even answers Linux
questions sometimes.  I've been using his services for over four
years now.

> 1-> BS wants to charge me $199.00 for "installation" because I
> have a fiber-optic line.  They have not been able to tell me
> what the "installation" consists of.

Call Todd at atlnet: he could yell ya.  For me it was using one
of the free twisted pairs coming into the house and adding a
filter to the POD.  Then adding another little box, with an RJ-45
connector, next to the phone line in my computer room.  Then it's
just a matter of making the router at the ISP recognize the NIC
or the home router or whatever device you use as your gateway.
Once they get talking, and you have your routing rules set up,
it's off to the races.

> 2-> BS told me that once the "installation" is done, I will not
> be able to move my computer.

Not sure what they mean by that.  Perhaps they're assuming that
the little connection box they put near your phone outlet
prohibits your from moving your computer.

You could just get one of those DSL router/firewall thingies and
stick that next to the connection box next to the phone outlet.
Then you can run cat-5 or your wireless hub wherever you need it.

HTH.

-- 
David S. Jackson                        dsj at dsj.net
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"A power so great, it can only be used for Good
or Evil!"
  -- Firesign Theatre, "The Giant Rat of Summatra"

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