IT Professionals

DSL Distance Challenges

Posted by on Oct 19, 2007 | 5 Comments

Today I learned that a friend of is having challenges getting someone DSL service to their home. Normally, they would simply bypass this issue and just stick with a cable connection. Unfortunately, this person needs DSL as cable is simply not a good match for their needs.

It’s wild, but you would think that these days, we would not have the distance excuse when it comes to having access to DSL. But you know something, it remains an issue and from the looks of things, we remain constrained to terrestrial broadband needs which is really getting old. Some might point to the various Wimax options as a solution, but again, the restrictions are many. Go over a certain amount of bandwidth and pay the price.

Frankly, I think that most people are sick and tired of dealing with the various broadband companies, their restrictions and long for the days of dial-up choices, be it not the provided speed as it was darn slow. One person had enough of this and decided to take matters into her own hands. Perhaps this is a reaction to the ‘Comcastic‘ service, maybe it is simply one consumer tired of being treated like crap by another faceless corporation. Whatever the reason, this individual became a bit of a folk hero overnight despite perhaps dealing with her frustration in a less ‘in your face’ sort of way. What do you think?

[tags]DSL, Comcast, Cable Internet, broadband[/tags]

  • http://www.bytehead.org/blog/ Bryan Price

    I dealt with that issue 10 years ago. My apartment was too far from the CO – as the crow flies, let alone the miles of wire between (yes, miles). I guess that was why my best connection with 56K was 36K (I got 44K at work!)

    My cable company wasn’t offering Internet until 2000, when I already knew I was moving to Florida in six months, and they wanted a year contract. I think I got an email a couple of years later claiming that DSL was finally available even though I wasn’t there any more.

    That was Ameritech morph SBC morph AT&T. And when I asked when they might be offering it, I was told 10 years — at least.

  • Dennis

    I remember when I tried….REALLY TRIED to get DSL service where I live.

    WHat a freaking joke. “I’m sorry sir”, said the mope at AT&T, “you’re past the limit for DSL, which is 13000 feet from the CO.”

    Okay, so I kept my dialup, s l o w as it was, until Comcast offered broadband in my area.

    I took it and haven’t looked back. The last time I had a tech out, they actually had TWO show up and they not only replaced the box, which had gotten fried, but also went to the back of the house and RESTRUNG the feed to the house, eliminating about 6 FEET of extra cable that the original installer had jammed in the interface box.

    That’s a typical call here in Illinois. That lady and Comcast have to sit down and get their issues straight. I know she got honked, but not ALL installers are like that. Comcast uses independent people at times, and THOSE are the ones that do the halfa** job.

  • GiM

    Comcast? Don’t worry, Be happy! We have TELUS!

    We have other concerns in Canada – BC, where TELUS promote his services with an Lenovo/IBM personal computer. They made a very professional “fit” of the latest (and greatest) operating system from Micro$oft (Vista Home) and a very-very “modest” computer; they make thousands of peoples crazy.

    [ If it was for me, I'll do it vice-versa: the latest and greatest hardware with the "modest" but good one operating system: XP Profesional (no Home Edition - it is to amputated to work well by M$ itself) ]

    If you reinstall operating system from the first minute (never let it boot and configurate how it came from Telus) and get rid of trials and promotions, you will be a happy one with a system boot of 4 to 5 minutes. Of couse, if you open an email program or an internet browser, other 2-3 minutes are needed. How about Telus high-speed? Does it mathers when you are just able to start a browser, that an ordinary web page load in 3-5 minutes? Else, don’t worry if your system does not work well – in Canada we do “recycle” many things now, including new ones!

    They send to you also a “demo”, Vista Ultimate (Thank you M$!). If you install it, not only it will destroy the restore program (from a service partition for Vista Home – the OEM version, so to “repair” the operating system you should buy it again from Lenovo/IBM), but will stop to work after few weeks an asks only for an activation code to buy. I do not speak about the new performance levels of the computer. If now boot in 15 minutes, you can have ultimate experience! Real! If you, the owner, are located at 100 miles from nearest road and 6 hours from nearest town… Don’t worry man, Be happy! Telus connect you with the world!

    In States they made: ComcastMustDie dot com. Maybe we need a similar site to help us to optimize our experience… Don’t worry, Be happy!

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/microface Steven Leach

    The people in the cities don’t know how good they have it. HEre is Alta Sierra, which 20 minutes from Auburn, CA and 20 minutes from Grass Valley, CA nearly half the population has no Broadband of ANY KIND. No cable, no DSL, and even no satellite at any price because of the trees, and or hills that block the view of the southern sky. I have had DSL now for 4 years, and the rest of the people on the other phone exchanges, will not have DSL any time soon. The only reason I have DSL, is that the phone company AT&T, etc etc was forced to upgrade the Phone exchange in my area because of population growth. SO any time people complain about how slow their broadband is, I start taling about how people out here still have to use ISDN , or if they are lucky they have Satellite for 70/month plus setup fees.

  • Patrick

    Hi Matt

    I always view the articles in Lockergnome regarding ADSL with great amusement. I live in Cape Town, South Africa and our “entry level” ADSL line (yes, ADSL, no SDSL for us here) is a 384kb link with a 1gb monthly cap.

    For this “privilage” we are expected to pay the equivalent of $38 per month.

    Currently the waiting period for a new installation is around 12-14 weeks.

    If your lucky you get the line installed within a month, marveling at the massive 384kb bandwidth. Unfortunately, within a week or two you’ve used up your 1gb cap and either have to wait until next month or fork over an additional $22 for a new 1gb user name.

    If you are a company with a hefty turnover you can opt for the top of the line 1mb, uncapped ADSL connection for a whopping $815 per month. This one even comes with 5 fixed IP’s addresses!

    4mb lines are available, but have horrendous latency due to running over satellite for international access. We tried using this account at my office but ended up canceling it as it averaged around 150kb/s during the day.

    Unfortunately (again) we don’t have the option of a competitor as we only have one fixed line operator in the country. They also have a stranglehold on the government when it comes to assigning a second fixed line supplier.