[ale] recommended personal DSL provider for Alpharetta ?

[Tom Freeman]

On 09/24/2006 03:34:42 PM, James Sumners wrote:
<<snip>>
> In short, if you don't mind dealing with the local telco, or paying
> the premium to not do so, and you need dedicated bandwith, go with
> DSL. If you just want a high speed connection and want to save some
> money, cable is probably the way to go. VoIP is a lot cheaper than
> POTS (plain old telephone service), and it is easiest to get it with
> cable for the sole reason that you don't have to deal with the local
> telco.

As usual, YMMV, and probably will. I'm not in Georgia, so some  
influences are different. However, my daughter had lousy cell service  
at her condo, so got VOIP with the cable vision/internet to suppliment  
her cell phone.  To put it mildly, her VOIP service sucked royally, and  
the cable for the first year was pretty flakey.

<sigh> None of the local monopolies really supplies the kind of service  
that they could/can if they so chose. And the way regulatory oversight  
is going, I don't see much that the customer can do about it except  
bitch in the dark. Or be lucky and not need customer service.

YMMV of course.

> On 9/24/06, James P. Kinney III <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
> wrote:
> > Hi Courtney,
> >
> > DSL: your bandwidth is YOUR bandwidth. System doesn't slow down when
> the
> > kids get home from school because they are on the cable modem
> shared
> > bandwidth with you. DSL runs over phone line and is ultimately
> managed
> > by the telco (Bellsouth for most, AllTell for the truly
> unfortunate).
> > DSL is quite reliable and robust as long as the dialtone techs
> don't
> > make a mess. In most cases, DSL will be slower on the download than
> the
> > cable modem will. DSL will generally be a bit faster on the upload.
> >
> > Cable: Generally faster download. Customer service even worse than
> phone
> > company (service outage will be repaired in MOST cases in days, not
> > hours). Cable is geared for non-tech, home consumer mentality. If
> all
> > you want is low-cost high speed download and service glitches won't
> > clobber you, cable is a great choice.
> >
> > If you plan on working from home and you absolutely MUST have a
> reliable
> > access method, DSL is a better choice.
> >
> > The "naked" DSL from places like Speakeasy cost more that the
> > traditional shared line DSL. The signalling is different and the
> > head-end connection is different. It is closer to T1 than ISDN.
> >
> > If you MUST HAVE solid connection for work (or you will be running
> > servers), you need a connection package that has SLA's.
> >
> > Cable modem has no SLA ability (NOTE: I have NOT seen the new
> business
> > cable packages term yet - it may be an option). SLA packages will
> cost
> > more. But it means if an outage occurs, you are not appended tot he
> end
> > of the list. You get inserted near the top.
> >
> > The general rule is still "you get what you pay for".
> >
> > I use Speakeasy. I have used BellSouth and Mindspring->Earthlink
> DSL
> > (and ISN and T1 and dialup...). The customer service from Speakeasy
> is
> > fantastic. It is the best customer service I have ever seen in
> nearly
> > every IT/telcom arena. And it does cost me more than what I could
> get
> > elsewhere. But I run servers and I want the upload speed. So I pay
> for
> > 768k upload and multiple static IPs on two separate lines.
> > Load-balancing gives me T1 upload for under the price of a 1/4 T1.
> >
> > Speakeasy speaks Linux quite happily. The wiring infrastructure is
> > handled by Covad. I can also recommend Covad with no reservations
> > either. The few issues I or my Speakeasy clients have had, Covad
> has
> > responded in record time (compared to the other connection options)
> and
> > the issue was resolved and the solution communicated back to me
> (not
> > just a "service restored" notice. I like knowing what went on so I
> can
> > refer back to that sympton if I see it again.).
> >
> > On Sun, 2006-09-24 at 09:43 -0400, Courtney Thomas wrote:
> > > I'm now ready to move, up hopefully,   :-)   to DSL.
> > >
> > > What are my choices and the dis/advantages of each, please ?
> > >
> > > Among the tolerable, who is the least expensive  ?
> > >
> > > As always, thanks,
> > >
> > > Courtney
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Ale mailing list
> > > Ale at ale.org
> > > http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > --
> > James P. Kinney III
> > CEO & Director of Engineering
> > Local Net Solutions,LLC
> > 770-493-8244
> > http://www.localnetsolutions.com
> >
> > GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
> > <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
> > Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> --
> James Sumners
> http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/
> 
> "All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
> pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
> is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
> drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."
> 
> Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
> CH:D 59
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