| DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is an interesting technology which allows
high speed access to the internet over a standard phone line. The thing
that amazed me is a normal voice line works over the same phone cable at
the same time you are on the internet with DSL!!!
So what's so great about DSL? Well, it's a permanent connection, which
means you are always on the internet. This is cool because busy signals,
dropped connections and other nuisances become a thing of the past. However,
note that because it is a permanent connection you had better be more concerned
about security, especially firewall
security.
DSL is also fast, incredibly fast. The actual speed you get depends
on how close you are to the DSL office. You must be within 1500 meters
of the office with the DSL equipment for it to work at all, and the further
you are from the office the slower your connection. Connection speeds of
1.5mb/sec are commonly reported, although 384kb is commonly sold.
The sharing of the voice line with the data line is a great feature.
This means you can talk on the phone while being connected to the internet,
which effectively eliminates the common issue of not being able to get
phone calls while you are dialed in.
So how do you get DSL? First you find out if it is available in your
area. This could mean some searching, as DSL is not available everywhere.
A good place to start is your local phone company. You can also try the
services like FlashComm to see if they are available where you live.
Call the DSL company and schedule an appointment. Beware here as most
of the complaints that I've heard about DSL revolve around installation.
Most reports that I've heard also indicate that DSL, once installed, is
remarkably stable. Dropped connections and other line problems seem to
be almost non-existent.
Once you've installed DSL you will most definitely want to tune your
operating system. You see, Windows by default is not optimized for
DSL speeds. In particular, you will want to change the RWIN parameter in
your registry. I did so and found my speed jumped from about 450kb/sec
to 1.5mb/sec! I used the TweakDUN utility (click the picture to the left
to purchase) to set RWIN to 32767 to get that result. One quick reboot
and my speed tripled!
I have written a review of Pacific Bell's DSL service. You can
check it out at the following link.
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