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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gary E who wrote (9485)	12/1/1999 1:33:00 PM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

H.G.: The main point I want to make about reliability is: your mileage may vary. The technology is relatively young and definitely dependent on a number of factors, one of which is distance but there may be others like switches, traffic levels and so forth. Therefore my sample-of-one isn't definitive of anything. That being said, my DSL connection, which I've had for only three months, has been by far the most reliable connection I've ever had in the dozen years that I've had them with either the internet or Compuserve, including all the various analog modems and 4 years of ISDN, which as far as I am concerned doesn't work and never has. It's also cheap for what you're getting. I've never been disconnected from the internet. No concurrent analog phone call on the DSL line has been disconnected. I've never observed any strange sudden drops in speed (except on individual servers). And as for busy signals, which are a problem on both ISDN and analog modems, the concept just doesn't exist with DSL because you're connected at all times. I think it's a crime that, with this kind of bandwidth available over plain old copper, most Americans are still using horse-and-buggy modems. There are already books being written about the aspects of our economy that prevent change rather than enable it. Hokey-poke home data service is a leading victim. Lowest-definition TV is another. So in my individual (and, recall, not necessarily representative) case, I rate DSL A+ for reliability. Regards, --QwikSand