Civileme wrote:
>
> DSL is just a digital subscriber line. It uses a modem on ONE pair of wires
> to the telephone office and a digital signal. The modem normally operates
> in one of two ways, bridging between your LAN and the ISP's connection, or
> routing.
>
> What you need to know is that it connects to ethernet. Your gateway can be
> one computer and masquerade everyone to the internet through it or it can be
> the DSL modem connected to a hub (and every one of your computers plugged to
> the hub will need a REAL internet number)
>
> You also need to live within 2-3 miles of the nearest telephone substation
> or it won't work at all, Even within that distance, the loop has to be
> tested for attenuation and noise. Oddly enough, within that distance,
> DSL/ADSL
> "loop certifies" more often than ISDN service.
>
> DSL/ADSL is usually sold by the telco as a service. You still need an ISP
> who will connect you to the internet. MAXIMUM available speeds are
> 1Megabit/s Up and 7 Megabit/s Down. Usually the speeds sold are quite a lot
> slower, The reason for speeds different in two directions? Most
> subscribers DL far more than they upload. The "A" in ADSL is for
> "Asymmetric".
>
> DSL is young technology. It is usually low-priority for telco service, so
> your line is likely to remain broken longer than if you were subscribing to
> ISDN, if ever it breaks.
>
> As far as setup. that is VERY dependent on your choice of ISP. Some support
> only bridging mode, others support only routing. Some hardware will also do
> only one or the other, and hardware usually has tro match on both ends. My
> Cisco 675 will NOT work with what OTZ Telephone Cooperative has here even
> though they are only one Beta connection at present, they are already
> committee to equipment that does only routing mode. Even though the Cisco
> will do both, they say it will not work with their equipment.
>
> I haven't seen any RFCs on DSL, so I don't know if standards exists or if
> it's a series of proprietary wars. After a cursory search of the web, looks
> like it is a technology originally intended for video transmission, and I am
> uncertain whether one or several standards for the signal modulation exist.
>
> Anyway, from your software's point of view, DSL is an ethernet connection to
> the internet )or to an intranet, depending on application( , and the setup
> of the modem you do over the phone with your network support people (from
> the ISP or the intranet you are connecting to).
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> There's your primer |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
>
> Hope it helps.
Indeed it does! I think I learned more in those few paragraphs than
I've been able to glean in months from the telco web pages.
Thank you.
--
Steve Philp
Network Administrator
Advance Packaging Corp.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
