Broadband seperation anxiety

[infrandom]

*sigh* Looks like my post-whoring days are up for a while. Just moved and the wait for the new DSL line is a bit unknown. I've heard from people on the phone 7 business days but the web site says this part might take 4-5 weeks.

Anyone signed up with DSL recently know how long it took PacBell to do the line work? I'm actually getting service through DirectTVDSL so I'm not sure if its going to be as speedy as if I signed up with PacBell directly. Wondering if I should have gone for a cable modem since that would have been here on the first day. But I don't like shared bandwidth and I don't like cable user agreements. (enforced or not)

[jj2f1]

I have a related question. I will be moving to the area soon, and I'm not sure if I want cable or DSL. Here in MN cable bandwidth is always high. Who is the cable provider in San Jose, and what are these cable user agreements you speak of? Also, is shared bandwidth taxed pretty bad in that area?

[insyder]

I just signed up for PacBell DSL service..

Ordered online 1 May, they called to confirm 3 May promised line activation by 10 May.
They called again confirming delivery of DSL modem, and moved line activation to 14 May.
Received DSL modem on 9 May, hooked up and signed up new account and started use
on the active line on 10 May!!!

Very happy with my service so far! Especially considering the last time I called them, they
had yet to upgrade our central office, and had NO time frame of when it was going to be done.

Bring on the low ping Soldier of Fortune multiplayer gaming baby!!!

[muddy cat]

AT$T is the provider here for cable. They suck. I have Mindspring DSL which works most of the time.

[Deeter]

I've got PacBell, had it since Oct. 01. I remember having to call their tech support a couple times to straighten some things out. I do remeber that they didn't ship any documentation on how to setup anything beyond just the modem hardware. I had to get the URL for a site to download their PPPoE drivers that they didn't ship with the modem, so that I could actually connect to their service. Out side of that problem, my service from PacBell has been more or less flawless . . . I really can't complain.

[infrandom]

Thanks for the heads up on the time insyder! I'll expect to be modeming it for atleast another week then.

jj2f1: Here cable is capped at 1.5MBps, which is the same speed you can get for DSL pretty easily. Cable has the advantage of being a little bit cheaper by oh around 10$ a month I think. However, the ATT Broadband user agreement states that you are not allowed to run a server or any sort. Not even a small web server that doesnt see much traffic. I don't think they have done anything to enforce that, but the fact that its written there bugs me.

Before the @Home fiasco, cable in the bay area was worth this hassel because it was around 3MBps but ATT capped it when they took over the users.

I just heard Japan is getting 100MB to the home and for like $50 a month price range. Would be nice as long as you don't access anything off the island. :D

As a note, I was a previous DirectTVDSL customer at my previous resisdence. There was a few days (over the course of a year) where my DSL was down or very slow. Minus the "account problem" a week after signing up (somehow my account got "closed") everything was pretty good about the service. (Obvioulsy I'm xfering my service). My only very minor issue was having to reboot my gateway about every two weeks. Unplug the power, plug it back in and service was back. I'm assuming this problem is solved with the new DSL gateway they are sending me.

[KawiKid]

I have had Pacbell DSL since 4-00,
I wouldn't trade it for the world.... I know they aren;t going out of business tomorrow I have had oen down period (3 hours) since I started with them, but I am north of most you guys....


M.

[ambitiousone]

if anything at all, i thought it'll be faster to get up and running nowadays given a) it's wide spread, at least somewhat widely and b) probably not as much people signing up due to economic conditions that created scheduling havoc last 2 yrs).

when i got my 1st work dsl from rhthyms, setup was about 4-6 wks (i even missed days off). then i got my personal dsl from telocity, setup was 4 wks. then i moved, cudn't get cable in my area in SF (yes, not all of SF was available for cable then) so went to mindspring dsl. setup was 3-4 wks.

today, i would expect setup of no more than 2 wks after 2-3 yrs of practice on this stuff. telco co. should have their act together now, "'less it the well I'm the provider of service while your just the front end sales so i'm gonna take my time on ur customers cuz we want them to sign up w/ us instead....."

oh well, good luck on dsl. i'd recommend getting opera browser (currently fastest browser) so you can enable/disable images quickly and help in your temp browsing experience on dial-up.

[infrandom]

Originally posted by ambitiousone

oh well, good luck on dsl. i'd recommend getting opera browser (currently fastest browser) so you can enable/disable images quickly and help in your temp browsing experience on dial-up.

Yeah I would think they'd have this down quicker. I thinking PacBell is just being lazy cause I didn't sign up with them. I've waited 1 week now so I figure I'll atleast wait one more.

Thanks for the browser tip. I've learned to just madly open everything in its own window. Then while they all load just start with the oldest page and start closing them as you read em. Duel monitors help too since I can switch from looking left to right as stuff opens up.