[CLUE-Tech] DSL Recommendations

[Dave Anselmi]

Jeff,

My 2 cents - most of your questions were well covered.

I have 640/256k service.  It's $10/mo more than 256k each way, but it's what I
started with when The Man was paying for it.  In my experience, it is reliable and
I recommend it.  I was thinking about switching to cable - it seems a little
cheaper and faster (glad I didn't, now).  The down side is that it's bridged so you
have to worry about setting up your own NAT, dhcp, firewall.  The Cisco 67x comes
with all that (not quite as fancy as you can do with Linux, but mostly adequate).

I use americanisp.net.  I switched just before Qwest announced the switch to MSN
because the price is the same and at american you get unlimited email boxes, email
aliases, ssh shell access, and a static IP.  American has been plenty easy for me
to work with, so I've set up my brother (DSL) and my dad (dial-up) with them.  The
only glitch was that I asked them to have dial-up too for when I'm away from home.
They gave me 12 hrs/mo but when I tried to use it I got the same IP as the DSL had
(made the dial-up useless).  As soon as I mentioned it, it was fixed.

When you look at ISPs, compare price and features (including things like upstream
bandwidth and so on, if you can find the info).  Then call and ask what kind of
deal they'll give you.  They may be willing to give you an incentive off what the
web site says.  Wish I'd known that leaving qwest.net would cost me $30 - I'd have
asked about that.

Dave