[ale] Inexpensive broadband recommendations

[Sean Kilpatrick]

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On Tuesday 18 February 2003 10:36 am, Stephen F Nicholas wrote:
> I have to ask...
> I tried cable modem during the transition from Media1 to ATT.  Service
> and the Help Desk sucked big time.  Within 2 weeks, I dropped them.  I'm
> hearing snips that Comcast might be better.  I HAVE to have
> reliability... service (since I run Linux) is not a priority (though it
> be nice).
>
> Is this an option, or am I doomed to either BSHell or dialup

I have been with MIndspring/Earthlink for years, and have been
using their DSL service for nearly a year. Their first level
tech support guys speak English (unlike Red Hat's) and seem to
understand basic Internet terms such as DHCP, pppoe, etc. 
They can cope with an operating system _other_ than M$ or Apple. I
was down for more than 20 hours last week, but it turned out to
be a partial short on the BellSouth copper line and I was somewhat
more effective at leaning on BS than the Earthlink help desk.
This is the only significant down time I have ever had with Mindspring.
(I was going through clinical withdrawal without my DSL link and
was about as pleasant as a smoker on the second day after quitting
cold turkey.) <grin>  I have been able to get the EArthlink tech 
support guys to even do things that seem to make no sense -- such
as pinging my DSL bridge to restart the connection. Don't ask me
why it works, but it does. 
So much for the pros.
The cons are these:
pppoe and dynamic address unless you spring for another $10 a month
to get a fixed address.  I believe BellSouth insists you upgrade to
a business acount for your phone line before they will give you a
fixed address.  This costs a lot more than $10 a month.

Sean

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