I had an interesting experience with a DSL installation at a client's home the other day, which prompted me to take a look at the latest broadband Internet offerings in the area. More about that problem later.
Broadband to the home or business has now become mainstream. Its common to see a Road Runner or DSL installation when I make a service call; in fact, it has become very difficult to service PCs that don't have a broadband connection anymore. There are so many needed fixes and tools that you need to download, and you just can't do it at the snail's pace of a dialup.
Probably the leader in local installations is Road Runner. But Time Warner Cable now has more than one offering on its digital cable network. You can still get Road Runner, but now you can also get direct AOL, and Earthlink. Each service offers some unique content. However, looking at the latest webpages from TWC, I do not see the AOL offering any more. This is interesting, since AOL and Time Warner are the same company. Hmmm. See www.twceastnc.com for details.
One advantage of the Earthlink service is that if you currently have an Earthlink dialup, you can I believe keep your same email ID when switching to cable.
Time Warner has recently increased the speed of its Road Runner service.
But BellSouth DSL is coming on fast. If you are in a situation where you don't have cable service, DSL (which uses your existing telephone line) may be the easier installation. BellSouth also offers a less expensive service, called BellSouth DSL Lite, which is about $10 cheaper but has reduced bandwidth. See www.bellsouth.com.
If you are in the area covered by Atlantic Telephone, they also offer DSL service - see www.atmc.net.
But the story of my client's installation concerns BellSouth DSL. The problem was the use of a router. A router is a small box that goes between your cable or DSL modem, and your computer. Routers are common these days because they provide two very useful functions. First of all, they allow the connection of more than one PC simultaneously to the broadband provider. Secondly, they add a firewall function that gives your PCs a measure of protection from the evils of the Internet. Even single PC installations often use routers just for the protection, and I do recommend that you do that.
Neither TWC nor BellSouth officially condone routers. Both services allow them, but if you get into a service problem, they may ask you to remove the router in order to provide service. I have done router installations for TWC or DSL for years with no configuration problems.
Apparently, BellSouth has shifted their stand on routers a bit. They did this by changing the type of modem they provide. Prior modems did not have a built-in firewall and router. The only difference in connecting a router to DSL vs. TWC was that you had to configure the router for PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet) - which essentially means that you had to tell the modem how to log on to the DSL network.
Now, the BellSouth modems come with a built-in router. Its difficult to determine how effective it is because little information about it is provided. But if you have one router, it's very difficult to have a second router (your own) after that. This was the problem that my client had - he was able to get a fine connection directly from the DSL modem to his PC, but it failed when he put his router into the circuit.
Calls to BellSouth yielded no help. I have called BellSouth in the past and had very good relations with them. Now, they just blew me away, telling me to contact the router manufacturer for configuration information.
A little research yielded the fact that BellSouth is now offering its own multi-PC router service called FastAccess Networking Plus. If you get this service, you pay an additional $10 per month and also have to get a different DSL modem.
So, what did I do for the client? Well, after some Internet research, I found that connecting the client's network by using a network switch, rather than a router, seemed to work, The downside of this is that the router in the modem is a minimal implementation, and does not appear to offer some of the features that a more advanced stand-alone router would.
If you are considering a multiple PC type of installation on DSL, I would check with BellSouth first to get their official policy.
Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his web site at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.