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Non-Tech : Bill Wexler's Dog Pound -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JDN who wrote (6159)	1/17/2000 9:04:00 AM
From: lindend	Respond to of 10293

Yep, I live in Broward. but have been unable to make up my mind which way to go (cable vs DSL) I prefer ADSL because of guaranteed bandwidth rather than the shared/pooled bandwidth model of cable. There are security issues with the cable approach also that don't exist with DSL. Take a look at comp.dcom.xdsl for more details on this. Wgich ever way you go, BE SURE to secure your computer. By default, Windows boxes are vulnerable to attack!!! Here's a great starter site. grc.com Another thing that factored in my decision is tech support. Clearly, Mindspring has the best tech support of all the high speed providers, and lets face it: something is going to eventually go wrong no matter what high speed alternative you choose. Its important that the tech support people have a clue when problems happen. I have serious doubts that my cable company can provide the same level of technical support (and I'm being charitable here). In addition, Mindspring gives you 20 free dial up hours. If your cable modem goes down, your out of luck. G.Lite doesn't require a filter on your phone so anyone can plug in a modem and it will allow large scale rollouts. BUT it does cap you at 1.5 Mbps downstream. Right now, in BellSouth territory, an installer will come out an attach a filter outside your house (they announced a G.Lite agreements with COMS, but aren't using it yet). This will theoretically be better long term both for voice quality and for potential speed increases in the future. but not sure, dont even know who to call to see if its available to my area. Here's a Mindspring availability check: register.mindspring.com mindspring.net and a BellSouth check: consumer.bellsouth.net Pretty much if BellSouth will service you, so will Mindspring. Mindspring is cheaper, has better service, more features and their tech support has a clue (unlike the reports about BellSouth). In addition, Mindspring lets you have THREE computers log in so its great for small home networks. Networking is a violoation of BellSouth's terms of use. BellSouth's only advantage is they don't use PPPoE (although they will be SOON).