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Strategies & Market Trends : Working All Day, But Trading Behind the Bosses Back Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark[ox5] who wrote (759)	3/25/2000 5:17:00 PM
From: Mark[ox5]	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 779

Oh no, wholly owned subsidiary of Brooktrout? Is this just a tracking stock. Please say it ain't so....

To: Mark[ox5] who wrote (759)	3/25/2000 10:59:00 PM
From: Mark[ox5]	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 779

DSL and you: (PART 1) To discuss with why "yes" to DSL, you have to start with why "no" to cable. DSL first caught my eye about a year ago, when i was investigating faster internet connections (yes I am an early adopter of technology, I admit it) While it wasnt available here, i did read the pros and cons in computer magazines... and I liked the idea. But as stated, only cable was available here so that is what I have. After that personal install experience, i vowed never to buy ATHM stock again. (a good choice) Every buying experience in life can be "research" .. so when the guy came in to put in my cable modem I asked some questions. First of all they subcontract the work, which in of itself isnt such a big deal... but quality & standardization of work could suffer. Second, I asked the guy how many of these he does a day.. he says he can do 5 or 6 installs a day, and about 3 or 4 are successful. Successful?? I knew what he meant because mine was not "successful". On an IBM Aptiva less than 2 years old no less... he couldnt explain why, he just said I had to "get a new computer." I called and tried another guy from ATHM.. they sent him out he couldnt get it to work either on my computer... etc etc. So needless to say in my particular case I had to get a new computer or I couldnt have a cable modem. The contractor told me this happened to 2 or 3 of his 5 or 6 sites a day. Nice.. not!! And remember each installation means you have to take time off work, sit on your butt while they come out to your house. While I guess this is ok for those with non working spouses, for us single people its a hassle. Also, cable has 2 other disadvantages. 1 is the security issue.. from my "basic reading" cable is basically an open, shared line to a point. I havent heard of this in the press yet, but theoretically its an open conduit to your computer to the very clever souls out there. Now once again, I havent heard of any attacks so how true this is, I dont know... but the fear factor is potentially there. Also the sharing factor drives down performance as more people get on the same coax line. Once again, at this point.. not too bad, but as cable use grows more widespread it may. (Maybe new technology will be out there to eliminate this by then) But both these problems are not problems encoutered by DSL. So why put up with them?? So I put all these factors together, but most importantly how LONG it takes to add EACH user and said.. cable... yuck. AtHome had a 2 year lead on DSL, both in pricing and availability and like most old economy stocks (not ATHM but ATT) it squandered it.... so now its a horse race, and DSL I know is very popular with small businesses. As price comes down its a cheaper alternative to T1 Lines. Instead of paying 2k a month for a leased T1 line, small businesses are going DSL. Along with consumers... so how do we play this trend? See part II