Nicole,
I want to use my response to your email to address these issues. The issues you describe are fairly common and can be fixed. I've had the unique opportunity to use all three of the internet connect types that you describe and I have worked for a major dialup ISP (in the form of a major University) and a cable high speed internet company.
On Mar 10, 2004, at 10:36 AM, Nicole Benn wrote:
I need (ok, want) broadband internet access. My dialup has until now been sufficient; unfortunately, in my current apartment, the line quality is bad and I suffer from poor connections speeds (actually got 1200 on my 56K one day ACK!!!) and very uneven performance. But, I've run into a couple of problems with conventional broadband:
There is one major factor on a phone line that can dramatically affect connection speed. Static. Static on the line will slow down a connection or make it so you get kicked off frequently. Most of the time static can be fixed by the phone company. Sometimes you will not be able to hear the static on the line, as it may be traveling on a frequency the human ear can't hear (but the modem can hear). I had static on my lines in my condo and the repair guy told me it was water on the lines. As soon as he fixed them, my connection was back to perfect (my old dialup account I used to stay connected for days at a time).
One key piece to this puzzle is how you present this info the phone company. Don't tell them it's a "data line." They want to charge more for a data line (which is totally bogus) and if you tell them you are using a "voice" line for a data connection they will hit you with, "well, we don't guarantee connection with a voice line." They may also hit you with, "well, you don't have the phone line protection plan and it'll cost $1 million dollars/hr if we have to come into the house." The problem area is not usually inside the home (although it can be if the lines are crossed in the jack) so don't let this throw you.
I had phone / dial up trouble with water once and squirrels another time.
I've heard that TPCs (The Phone Companies) are required to provide fax service. So testing your line with a fax connection might give you another bullet to put in your gun.
Newer or upgraded phone service will likely have a demarcation point with a modular phone connection. Your house phone service is plugged into this jack (with a short cable). The point of this is you can unplug your house and plug in a phone here. If you have problems with the signal here then it's a phone company problem and they need to fix it. That is the point of this connection, to be able to determine where the problem is. You may still have to bull your way past the customer disservice rep. Last time I called I kept saying I tried connecting through this jack and still got a bad signal. The rep kept saying if it's in my house wiring I'd have to pay for the service call. UGH! But it did get fixed.
I have a client for whom I was working on their phone lines. Well one line went dead and I'm running around wondering "what did I do?" Then I notice a phone company crew up on the pole, oh oh!. So I check the demarc connection and sure enough it's dead. So I call customer service on another line. I tell them the line was working, it went dead and that their is a crew working. She insists that not only is that line working it's going to the right customer. How she can think this is the case I have no idea, the demarc box doesn't have anything inside it to identify the location as far as I ever heard. I kept going around for a while and they wouldn't do anything. The client went out and talked to the crew and they fixed it. The moral of the story is to not put up with the bull from the customer service rep.
1. The cable signal coming in to my building is very poor - the cable modem was able to get an intermittent signal maybe 4 times in the week and a half that I had it.
Cable signal can also be fixed. It's similar in basic premise to the phone line problems I describe above. I currently work for a major cable provider as technical support. If you can't stay connected consistently, and I can't say this enough: Call Them. Call them every time it goes out. We can check the status of the connection. We can see if it's down. I have to admit and intermittent connection can sometimes be a bear to fix (for both the technicians and the customer) but they ARE fixable. I've talked to people who've had 3 or 4 visits before it gets fixed. That is a worst-case scenario. But it does get fixed. Not sure who your provider is, but our service calls are no charge. You have nothing to loose. The signal can be affected by bad splitters, bad cable, or some piece of equipment on the line between your house and the device broadcasting the signal. So, give them a call.
2. I don't use one of the baby bells for phone service, so I'm not able to get DSL - the local BB will only allow other ISPs to lease their lines to provide broadband internet service to the BB's phone customers; AND the BB only provides DSL to its phone customers.
Check around, some ISPs use other LECs such as Covad and don't even support POTS on the DSL line. At least this was the case at one point.
Cable is faster than DSL anyway. And, I've talked to "switchers" at work who came to cable after having a nightmare with their DSL.
Only problem I've had with DSL is that my first supplier (DirectTVDSL) left the business a month after I got connected. After getting a new ISP it's been fine.
Any suggestions on getting around this? I thought maybe some type of wireless - but from what I can see that isn't possible. Or is it?
Check around for local ISPs. My ISP (Sonic.net) has a wireless service in the city around their offices.
There is also Sprint's wireless which has a large coverage area (multiple counties). They stopped taking new orders some time ago (they've got other plans for the frequencies used). But there might be other similar services
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