[ale] Jumping feetfirst into DS(hel)L

[Joe]

I got a friendly call from my local phone company (SBC, nee
Southwestern Bell) today, informing me that because they have recently
installed a "remote terminal" on my street, I am now eligible to get
their ultra-super-deluxe DSL package, with max downstream bandwidth
of 1.5Mbps, and 768Kbps gay-rone-teed.

Static IP? "We don't do that." Trial period? "We don't do that,
unless you pay all the up-front charges that we're waiving for
you if you sign a 1-year contract." The up-front charges amount
to about 6 months worth of service fees. Still, they had me
interested enough to stay on the line, because they explicitly
allow arbitrary networking behind the DSL modem; I've studiously
avoided reading my cable provider's AUP, so as to remain
ignorant of whether I'm violating it by having a LAN behind the
cable modem. I suspect so. And the DSL is quite a bit cheaper
than the cable IP. And I could actually get rid of the cable
entirely, which would have a salutory effect on my TV-addicted
kids' intellectual lives.

When the talk started to get around to the DSL nightmare stories I've
heard from ALE members ("ordered in January, finally actually working
in May" kind of stuff), the lovely "Kerry" switched me over to her
supervisor (who shall remain nameless), and that individual made the
following very interesting statement:

"We will 100% gaurantee you have working service on your start date."

Of course, he said, that's because SBC owns the copper coming into
my house. If I went through Earthlink or one of the other local
DSL providers, he said, "We would drag our feet" when activating
the service. I was very surprised that he was willing to make that
statement on a call that (he told me) was being recorded. (Then
again, perhaps the recent deregulation stuff makes it legal.)

So anyway, I decided to jump in and try it (while keeping the cable service
alive for the nonce, in case SBC DSL sucks rocks); perhaps I was overwhelmed
by the supervisor's charm and naivete. The only thing that bugged me a
bit was that the final ordering process had the tech guy asking me
questions about "Windows". Ugh. I didn't think to ask if Linux was
supported.

So, are any other far-flung ALE members (Drew?) using SBC DSL? How's
it working?

Cheers,

-- Joe Knapka

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