Adverntures in DSL

[Tom Droege <tdroege2@earthlink.net>]

Getting DSL has been an adventure.  My second field service call was today, 
tomorrow a different phone company comes to call.  I have spent many hours 
on the phone with Earthlink, SBL and Ameritech.

My DSL connection has worked intermittently.  Sometimes it works great, 
sometimes it just dies.  Because it has worked well the rules are that they 
have to fix it no matter how much it costs.  If it had never worked, then 
they could just say "we can't give you DSL" and they would quit.

It appears that the problem is that I am at the limit of the distance from 
the exchange on old wire.  They may have to pull thousands of feet of new 
wire or put in fiber or whatever.  It no longer matters what the cost is, 
they have to fix it since it once worked.

The moral of this story is, when you first get DSL say that it works at the 
best level it ever worked for a while.  Then you can complain about it not 
working and they will have to fix it.

Tom Droege