If you even think about getting DSL instead of cable broadband, I will end you
My DSL broadband Internet connection has returned from its mysterious disappearance sometime in the wee hours of All Hallow's Eve. Yes, this is yet another tale of DSL withdrawal and it explains why this site was offline for over a week.
A little background...
In theory, DSL is the perfect technology. And on paper, it has cable broadband beat hands down:
- Your bandwidth is delivered on, like it says, a dedicated line which you share with no one.
- Traditionally, all you need for activation is a phone line and a dial tone.
- You have a "guarantee" of maximum up/down speed (think EPA estimates on MPG) which cable cannot provide.
In reality, DSL sucks. And its fundamental flaw is the bureaucracy involved in providing the technology from the phone company's central office to your phone jack. (The current administration has not made
this situation any better)
In any given market, in order to get DSL, there are three parties who need to coordinate your order:
- The Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC). This is the baby Bell that owns the infrastructure of the telephone service. E.g., SBC, Verizon, Bell South.
- The Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC). This is a networking company that rents plugs and cables at the central office of the ILEC for providing enhanced voice and data services. E.g., Covad.
- The ISP itself. This is your point of contact as a retail consumer and provider of value add services like email, web hosting, and Internet access in general. E.g., Speakeasy, Earthlink, Yahoo.
In many cases, all three of the above roles are filled by the same corporation, but run by different business units, e.g., Verizon or SBC. In all cases, someone will screw up. This is a statistical certainty.
So, after 5 years of DSL horror stories, why do I still put up with it? For two simple reasons. First, in the early days (2000-2001), cable was not available in my Manhattan apartments. Second, the shared bandwidth nature of cable leads providers to block ports and prevent you from running a server at home. DSL by its dedicated nature is unaffected by this use of bandwidth so it is either unaddressed or explicitly allowed by the terms of service. Why I am too cheap to co-locate my server is another valid question that I'll leave for another day. :)
Anyway, to the point. There are several things I have learned from DSL outages over the years, and which I have re-learned this past week:
- The competence of the ISP does not matter, even one that "gets it." The ILEC and CLEC are still largely manned by folks who, to put it mildly, understand the technology about as well as the one of my cats who after two years still thinks the automated self-cleaning litterbox is out to steal her poop and must be swatted into submission.
- Bell Atlantic, Verizon, and Earthlink are on my list. SBC has now earned its place for cancelling my order 10 days after they activated it and lie-fully telling the CLEC and ISP that I told them to do it. This does not make me feel better either.
- Your network will always go down the minute you provide a URL to a web site you host at home to a large group of friends and/or colleagues.
- Printing out things at work so that you can read them at home is no replacement for a working network connection. You *will* always want to Google or Wikipedia something in that last paragraph you just read. This makes the situation more painful and should be avoided. Your only recourse here is to go to a bar and watch sports. Preferably one like rugby where you will not want to look up records and research statistics.
And most importantly:
- If you have a cable broadband connection that is working perfectly fine and you speak in front of me of getting DSL because it is "cheaper" or there is some special offer in your area, I will punch you in the face.
