I was on the phone with AT&T/SBC/Ameritech/Bellsouth (what I offically call them), (just paying the bills), and they are giving us a FREE upgrade in our DSL speed. it's going from 1500kb/s transfer to 6000kb/s transfer. that's a 4x boost. I did the math, and if my downloads go 160kb/s sustained, then they are going to FLY at 640kb/s, give or take. so long as it stays above 512kb/s (1/2 a meg), i'll be happy.
but that's not all. We are also getting a discount on a new router. normally $80, this one will be $40. it has 4 hard lines, 1 USB port (which is what I use), and WIFI. now I can put Airport back to work. Our netgear WIFi router fryed during a firmware update, so this is excellent. the one we have now is 3 years old, and as nice as it is, it's a pain sharing the single hard line between 3 systems. it also has 0 WIFI, but it does have the USB port.
best of all, we are getting the router in less than a week, and have the OK to install it then, and the speed increce is going to take effect on the 1st of June, or 5 to 7 buissness days.
Freakin Sweet.
-digital 
why do you connect to it via USB? (which is the slowest possible way to connect... in fact you may be maxing out the speed of the USB interface as is) im sure you have a real reason, im just curious. and congrats on the upgrade.
/Bill
the USb port on the back of the router acts as a second ethernet port for some computers that have USb, but no ethernet. I have both, but it's easier, because it leaves the RJ-45 free for my mom to use on the Toshiba laptop, or my powerbook (or one of the other ethernet equipted computers i have. like my PI dell, or my LC III.)
and, yes, it is just as fast as RJ-45. I even have it hooked to one of the built in USB 1.1 ports. I tried a 2.0, but I saw no increase in speed, so I left one of the 2.0s free for something that needs the speed.
hopefully the new router uses USB2, so I can take advantage of much faster downloads.
of course, not too many DSL modems have built in wifi. though my mom's boss got DSL for his office, and he got the SBC/Yahoo DSL with the same router we are getting. 4 wired ports, USB port, and built in 802.11b/g. though his is the 2wire Officeportal, and ours is going to be the 2wire Homeportal.
-digital
Good job! Hope you like the speed boost. I have cable internet and my downloads reguarly go up to 700kB/s. You can never have enough speed!
AT&T (formerly SBC for me) wanted to give us a cheap upgrade to "DSL Pro" but even though we live in an "urban" area we are too far out to get much faster than 384Kbps DSL. We're gonna switch over to cable when our 12-month contract expires. At least Comcast gave us the 3Mbps when it first rolled out, a few years ago. We can get 6-8Mbps cable for almost the same price we'd be charged for 384Kbps DSL after our 12-month price lock goes out. More and more, unless you get DSL on a special deal, cable seems to be the better choice (if available).
If that is like mine, it is a 2wire with 802.11g. I like it
I really have no preference, but cable generally is faster. If you can get FiOS service from Verizon, then that is where the speed is at, but as long as it's over 1mbps, it's ok.
I'll let you guys know when the router arrives. this means I need to look for a Lucent wavelan Gold card for my Wallstreet, so I can use the Airport drivers.
-digital
You whaaaaat? 6000k/s? What are you paying? We're on 512k/s for $50AU ($40 US equ.) a month.
That's what happens when the national backbone monopoly telco is also a retailer...
note that that is the transfer speed. we are upgrading off 1500k/s. and i believe it is $40US a month.
but then, it's the US, so high speed internet is cheap. I know in aussieland, DSL and cable are relitivly new things. My friend who lives there just got his a few months back. thumbing through a magazine from 1997, there was an ad for a 4mb/s cable modem!!
-digital
It's not that they're new things, it's that the monopoly has choked competition. Both DSL and cable have been around for at least a decade, they've just been w-a-y too expensive until fairly recently. They're still pretty expensive for what you get. We could have gone with a 1500k/s plan with our provider but we couldn't justify the cost, and they have a fairly painless upgrade path if we decide we need it in the future, so we went with the second-bottom plan. ADSL2+ and DSLAM (or are they the same thing?) are being rolled out now.
no sign of the new router yet, but they said 5-7 buissness days, so that leaves either today or tommarow. knowing the "buissness day" thing, it usually arrives on the day in between the minimum and maximum set days, so it should be here today, atleast from my past experiences.
hell, I dunno if it's coming by UPS, USPS, FedeX or DHL (never gotten anything from them before, wonder how they are? )
I'll keep you posted.
-digital
In our area, DHL is run by the same contractor as Airborne Express. I hate that contractors service, so I happen to refuse shipment from either carrier because of them. I don't know how it is in other areas, but the contractor here has caused the destruction of two packages, and has once left a package by pulling up in the truck and just leaning out the door to set the package at the side of the steet and not even with in 30 feet of the front gate... Inexcusable.
well, this is a kick in the ass. they never shipped the router, and service is down. I was on the phone yesterday, and the substation lost a server. it was supposed to be fixed by 6pm last night, but the middle light is still solid orange.
to top that off, they NEVER shipped that router. while I was on the phone with jose, I had him check it out, and after giving him the confirmation number, he found it's still sitting in the warehouse. so, first thing Tuesday morning, they will ship it (hopefully), and send my via email a tracking number. they use USPS, by the way. my mom's phone died, and Cingular (cellular service SBC owns) shipped a refurb to her overnight, while a new router sleeps in a warehouse. how fair is that?
by the way, spped increace did take effect. friday night, I was upgrading Ubuntu 5.10 to the 6.06 RC, and it was downloading everything at 510k/s. then the DSL went down while I was downloading, so it broke the kernel, prompting a reinstall.
and concidering it's a holiday weekend, DSL will probibly be down until at least Tuesday. I am on dial-up now, but we only have one phone line. used to have 2 back when we used dial up primarily, but we got rid of the 2nd line. thus, so i dont tie up the line, I will be inactive until they fix the DSL.
see you all when I see you. -digital
I would be surprised if they don't get it fixed this weekend. All of these guys are union and get time and half for working on the weekend and double time for working on the holday.
Several years ago I had my ISDN line die on the 4th of July. They sent a tech out to fix it. I was surprised anyone was working, but he said for double time he had no problem working on a holiday.
well, it's 11:00a.m., and it's still down. I;m back on dial up, because I cant live without the internet. I had to re-assemble my powerbook, because I had the hard drive out so I could put it in the desktop and install Ubuntu, but this little delay has me itching for some net action. I'm using wannabe instead of wamcom to make dial-up feel faster.
to top that, the last three days, it's been 90F plus, in MIchigan no less. big heat wave for may. last time this happened was the year I was gorn, in 1988, and that lasted until late August. cept it got ALOt hotter. let's hope that doesnt repeat it's self.
sorry, i'm ranting, but I have damn good reason to. it fecking hot.
-digital
well, I got it working. somehow the modem lost the config file it stores in it's flash memory. so, I ran the web browser based config porgramme, and here we are. works like a champ, but the guy says we arnt getting full speed because the line is struggling for some reson. they are going to dispatch a technitian tommarow to find out whats wrong.
the router is also MIA, but they gave me a number to call, so I will do that. let's hope they find out why the router hasnt shipped yet.
but I tell you, that was hell getting it working. I went through an hour's worth of automated systems, spanish speeking people, 1 spanish automated system, and alot of button pressing just to get to somebody who could help, and speeks english. For some reason everyone thinks I speek spanish because my last name is french, and they assume that it's spanish, and connect the dots. I also think I got capel tunnel sydrome from all the button pressing.
-digital
DrBunsen, I think you might need to switch ISPs. I am on 512k/20GB with AAPT, and pay only AU$29.95/month.
Who are you with?
woo, just got the new modem. little dissapointed it doesnt have a USB port like the old one, but it has 4 RJ45s and wifi. and instead of 3 lights, this one has 5. it's fun to watch them blink.
it's also a flat silver beast, not vertial and beige like the old one. it's a 2700 HG-B. and wouldnt you know it, I couldnt use the old wall wort. the power jack on the back of the modem is smaller.
also, since I installed the phone cable that came in the box, I seem to be getting the full speed: 6,016k/s incoming, 768k outgoing. looks normal.
havnt tried the wifi yet, but i am sure it's just as awsome. and if you couldnt tell by the letters in the model name, it's 54g, but it also does 802.11b.
i'm having fun.
-digital
Awesome.
How far from the CO are you?