Signal To Noise, Part 2
Posted on | November 19, 2008 at 8:55 pm | 3 Comments
To recap from Part 1: A month ago, I started experiencing Internet connectivity problems with my DSL (provided by “company Q”). The problem was tracked to “signal disparity” caused by the installation of new fiber-based DSL infrastructure in my neighborhood interfering with my old style Central Office (CO) based DSL line. There is no solution to the problem except upgrading to the fiber service, which would cause me to lose my independent Internet Service Provider. So if I wanted to stick with DSL, I would lose my current ISP and be forced to deal with Q’s default ISP.
I’ve had my old ISP since my earliest days on the Internet when I had a dialup account. They seem to be a small outfit (at least in terms of employees), but that actually works out very well when you need customer service. I never have any problems getting through to anyone and the people there always seem to know what to do. I much prefer this type of personalized service to the impersonal offshore model that larger companies employ. Plus, I can actually understand what they are saying. And they are always very timely with maintenance notifications. When DSL became available in my neighborhood, with the ability to still use the independent ISP I was used to as my ISP, I jumped at it. Not only would I continue to get the same excellent customer service I was used to, but I could keep my main e-mail address, which is tied to so many things. That worked out well for many years. The other choice back then for high speed Internet was a cable modem, but that would’ve mean losing my e-mail address. Plus I loathe my local cable company ever since I had frequent TV service disruptions with them years ago. I’ve been a happy satellite TV subscriber for a long time and I see no reason to bring a filthy cable into my house. This is a Cable Company Free Zone.
So anyway, the prospect of losing my ISP was not an enticing one. It’s even gotten to the point over the years where I’m actually paying more to have an independent ISP than if I had just gone with Q’s default one. It was worth it to me for the reliability and the personalized service. But my choices were to switch to with the cable company, research other Internet providers (satellite? wireless?), or stick with DSL and upgrade to the fiber service and lose my ISP. For reasons outlined above, the cable modem was right out. And I’m too lazy to research other networks; most of them seem pretty expensive, are not available in my area, or have other drawbacks. So I decided to cut the cord and go with the DSL upgrade.
I talked to my brother-in-law (who works for company Q, though he really doesn’t have anything to do with the DSL stuff) and explained my story. He hooked me up with a friend of his at the company who was more involved with DSL and would see what he could do for me. I ended up going to the fiber service and even upgrading to a higher speed (from the “up to” 1.5Mbps service to “up to” 7Mbps). I’m getting a couple of months free and some other incentives. Once I discontinue my account with my independent ISP, my monthly bill will be lower than it was, even with the higher speed. For now, I do have to keep some kind of account with my ISP in order to still be able to use my old e-mail address. I’m going back to a dailup account, and I can still access the mail through a website and don’t need a direct connection. Which reminds that if anyone reading this is still using my old TDE e-mail address, please start using the gmail one. That is the first three letters of my first name and my full last name as one word, at gmail.com. I haven’t even installed the ISP-related bloatware that company Q gave me, since I don’t really have any need of using the e-mail account etc there. All I really need is that connection to the Internet.
So far, so good. I haven’t been having any more connection problems since I upgraded. The faster speed is nice, although when it comes right down to it, I don’t really do that much downloading or video viewing, and the old speed was just fine for normal website surfing. I did have one problem where I kept getting disconnected from VPN every 15 minutes when I tried to work from home with my work laptop, but that actually seemed to be a problem with the new modem rather than the upgraded DSL service. It had started when I got the new modem and I assumed the problem was the connection issue. But when it still kept happening with the upgraded service, I tweaked some VPN settings and then it started working. According to the speed tests, I’m actually getting close to 7Mpbs download speed (and around .7Mpbs upload speed). With my old CO-based DSL service, I was usually only getting around .8Mpbs download speed, not the full 1.5Mpbs. From what I understand, this was because I was so far from the central office, that I was on the edge of being able to get DSL at all. They had to install some kind of booster in the neighborhood (which I think one of the techs referred to as a “remote stinger”) in order for me to get a signal at all with the old service. That contributed to the degradation in service when the fiber service started interfering.
I’ve had a lot of interesting discussions with people from company Q and my ISP about this whole matter. I don’t want to try to remember and document everything I learned, especially since a lot of it was too technical and over my head. But a lot of it really does make me wonder. I’m okay with the way things are now, assuming that the billing works out as advertised (always iffy) and that the service doesn’t start degrading on the new network as more people get added to (which I’ve heard is a possibility). I just know that the first time I have a problem and have to talk to someone overseas I can barely understand, instead of to someone in my local community who knows the score, I’m not going to be happy.
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “does anybody have superpowers”.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
Comments
3 Responses to “Signal To Noise, Part 2”
November 19th, 2008 @ 11:02 pm
If Obama fixes the FCC as thoroughly as everyone seems to hope he will, most cable AND phone companies would abruptly become smoking holes in the ground.
November 19th, 2008 @ 11:18 pm
One nice thing about my present residence is the high-speed Internet availability, especially compared to my previous location. I’m presently using cable, but I can also get fiber-optic (with the fiber actually running all the way to the house) and two different kinds of wireless.
I’m sorta thinking about dropping the cable company and going to fiber for Internet/TV/phone, but I keep forgetting to ask my neighbors who are using fiber how they like it. I think the price is about the same, but they both have special deals that come and go all the time so it’s hard to keep up with.
November 23rd, 2008 @ 12:44 am
Have you seen http://www.ooma.com ? I heard about it on the local “call a geek” radio program today. The reviews on Amazon seem pretty positive.