🚀 go-pugleaf

> I'm trying to get DSL as well, from Northpoint. 60 days and counting so
far.
> Northpoint says they can usually get you up and running in 30 days.
> Ameritech came out after about 35. Then northpoint had me connected to the
> wrong port in the CO. After that, they found problems with Ameritechs
> line. That was the last status I've heard, and it's been three weeks.
Every
> time I call Northpoint, they say that they have a call in to Ameritech.
> Nothing ever gets resolved.

I had the same problem with ExecPC DSL.  This problem isn't with either of
the companies alone it with both combined.  Those who make the decisions at
Voyager and Ameritech will not allow their techs to communicate amongst
themselves or touch the others equipment.  So now techs must go through
channels that can take week just to get a tech at the other company to
change a setting in the router.  I went back and forth with Ameritech and
@link about who's problem it was, I swear Ameritech told me 3 times, "It has
to be a problem with @links equipment" and @link told me 3 times, "It has to
be the lines."  It took a letter from the to the CEO of Voyager stating, "I
really don't care whose problem it is, I just want the problem fixed.  And I
think 1 and 1/2 months is way to much time to have my service down because
you all can't stop bickering."  After that Ameritech came out and installed
a whole new line and @link replaced all my equipment and now everything
works great.

I personally know an Ameritech tech guy because I used to drink with him at
Landmark every Thursday in my foolish days.  One day he and I got to talking
about DSL in Milwaukee.  What happens is your provider leases an 8x8 cube at
the CO and installs their DSL hardware.  The only thing that Ameritech
controls are the actual wires.  So if there's a problem with the line the
_only_ thing Ameritech can do is test the lines and distance.  Everything
else must be done by your ISP because if Ameritech touched the hardware they
could be in for a hefty law suit.  And because DSL is so new and people are
unwilling to wait for it to be tested properly (And yes this means all the
people out there who just had to have it NOW) you bound to have problems.
What do you really expect.  This same thing is going to happen with Cable
Internet, everyone wants it now so TW isn't going to test it as thoroughly
as they should and everyone's going to have problems.

> Time Warner is shooting for second quarter for cable modem in my area. I
> suspect that I will not have DSL yet, so I'll tell them to take a hike and
> tell Time Warner to hook me up. Of course, last time I had a cable modem,
> it took them about 3 days from when I signed up for them to come out and
> get me downloading at 960 Kbps. It's cheaper than DSL and about 4 times
> as fast.

It's 4 times as fast now (And I find it hard to believe that and home user
is going to need 960k unless they're downloading mp3s, warez or porn,
because video and audio don't take nearly that much bandwidth), but wait
until it becomes the FAD DSL is now in our area.  You'll be piping around
56k during peek hours because everyone and their brother is listening to Net
Radio and watching Net TV.  In my opinion Cable Internet won't take very
long to get bogged to the point of halting altogether.  I've already heard
from some areas which have had it for quite some time that they are
beginning to see peek hour slow downs to the point of downloading at 2.4
bps.

DSL and Digital Leased Lines are the way to go, we just need to give them
some time to get all the bugs worked out of the system.  And when I say
system I just don't mean the hardware/software, I mean everything including
communication between tech departments and the such.  I am seriously
thinking of going to Ameritech DSL when it becomes available in August in my
area (Around the same time my current DSL service runs out) just because
Ameritech will own both the hardware and the lines, so there will be no
communication excuses.

-cm