On Wed, Nov 04, 2009 at 05:13:57PM -0500, Richard Klein wrote:
On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 4:57 PM, David P. Connell <davec99@charter.net> wrote:
I have to say that not one person I know with residential Verizon DSL in Worcester has had a successful experience - Windows or otherwise. Of course, the people that are happy don't make any noise. Charter with Linux is very simple - after all, adding a router is like adding a tiny computer that doesn't have anything but the most basic OS on it anyhow. I think Verizon's problems are related to the quality of the ancient phone lines that run through the trees between the rows of houses in neighborhoods. Now that I think of it, my ex-wife's DSL at her office in downtown Main Street wasn't too bad (but she didn't need Linux support). I have also heard that Speakeasy is a reliable company, but I have no personal experience with them.
FWIW, Speakeasy DSL comes over the same copper as Verizon.
Yes, no matter which DSL provider you choose, its all still crappy Verizon copper. Most of the problems I've had with DSL are the crappy wiring inside my apartment complex. The ancient cloth insulated, 3-wire braided telephone cable was picking up interference from an exerior sodium flood light that was misbehaving. Every night at about 6pm, the circuit would bounce every 3 minutes through the whole night until about 8am the next morning. It was only later after the problem had stopped that I found out that the light had been misbehaving and was replaced right at the same time my problems stopped. Technically, I believe the phone company (Verizon) would need to repair/replace that ancient wiring, since it is behind my Network Interface Device (NID, the thing with the Test Jack on it). Speakeasy doesn't use crappy PPPoE/username/password authentication like Verizon does. It is straight IP-over-Ethernet out of the DSL modem, with static addressing, no DHCP. DHCP would even be fine, it is just the hack known as IP-over-PPP-over-Ethernet which sucks.