[KLUG Members] RE: DSL

[Adam Williams]

> I asked last year, maybe earlier, I don't remember, but does anyone
> use 
> SBC DSL, and, if so, how do you like it, how does the connection hold 
> up, do you have a lot of down time, etc?

Me.  Work great, no down time except the one day shortly after hooking
me up that they "forgot" I was a customer and deleted the circuit.  They
put me back and creditted me for the down day and a half with no fuss.
The technicial I talked to knew what *PING* was and once I explained I
was looking a the console of *THEIR* router and reading the fact that
there was no circuit immediatly proceeded as if it was *THEIR* problem. 
So nice!  Whereas the myriad times Earthlink [ may their souls fester in
Tark'nah ] was down it was *HOURS* before I could get past hold, only be
be met with "Have you rebooted your PC? .... Oh ... We don't support
Linux ... Whats an ATM light and why do I care that it isn't on? ...." 
I have to threated to *CANCEL* my service to get to a second tier tech
who ALWAYS said, "Oh, yea.  There a problem in your area, check back in
a little while".

> I did hit on a couple of sites that were not very friendly to SBC for 
> their lack of concern and none committment type of seeming to want to 
> get with the program of getting their product out there.

Well, they're all corporatist scum;  I don't doubt that for a second. 
But if you have to dance with a Harpy it might as well not be the
ugliest one in the clutch.

> I have also talked to a SBC rep, and they claimed that they don't 
> support Linux. 

Nope, they don't.  But then they have a page buried on their site about
how to get Linux to connect to their serve (its just basic PPPOE for
dynamic service, so what exactly needs to be supported?).

> That is a major selling point for me and for anyone on 
> this list.

Good luck finding one that does.

> Please respond, either on the list or off, doesn't matter to me, maybe 
> just to John, ;-), but I'd like to know if anyone else has the same 
> feelings, of like, Do I really want to do this or not? and the 
> experiences that you've had with them.

I'm happy,  but I have static service.  I paid for them to install a
router - makes it easy to say "YOUR PROBLEM!!!".  At $64.95 a month with
static IP's, a blazing connection, and effectively a
proceed-directly-to-tier2-support pass phrase - I can't complain. 
Installation was $250 which seemed reasonable to me.  They installed a
splitter OUTSIDE, so the DSL comes in on it's own pair - no doofy
splitters/filters, etc...