# My DSL Rant
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [May 18, 2002, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756 "2002-05-18T23:31:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2002, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/1 "2002-05-18T23:31:54Z")
I finally broke down and signed up for DSL from a company we shall call “Q”, after being told that my line was suitable for it and that we were close enough to an office. Last week I came home to find the modem and software leaning against my front door in a box labled “DSL MODEM” in big letters readable from the street.
I took said box and installed said modem using the instructions provided.
And got nothing. The link light was blinking green, meaning that a clear signal wasn’t coming through. I then called the toll-free tech support. Five times. Each time I called I would get a different card reader or (if I was lucky) techie. Each time I had to start over with my situation. Each time the current techie would say that they had NO idea why the previous techie told me to do what they told me to do. The last techie asked me four different times in the space of about 3 minutes if I had another phone line(“No”), then told me that certain items could cause interference with the DSL line. These items are:
Digital television hook-ups
Home security systems
_Cordless phones!!_
He suggested that I disconnect all of these to see if the DSL line could be fixed.
My reponse? “Are you fucking serious?!? Do you honestly expect people to disable their home security systems, go back to basic cable and go back to using a corded phone just to get DSL?”
Him:“Why did you order this service if you didn’t intend on using it?”
Me:"How can you sell this to people without telling them how many different things can interfere with it?
Him:“It’s not our fault that the signal from the base of a cordless phone interferes with the modem we use!”
Me:“Who the hell’s fault is it, then?”
End result-modem back in box, to be dropped off Monday, and reinstallation of Earthlink, which took all of 3 minutes from cd insertion to signing on.
---
### Author:  [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/2 "2002-05-19T00:27:25Z")
I have no idea who this company you call “Q” is, but my last DSL ISP experience forced me to go on a long and arduous **quest** to find a suitable replacement. I finally settled on a poorly supported, frequent down-time cable modem service, which was quite a bit better than my DSL provider, which will remain unnamed, even though they coincidentally also start with a **Q** and are generally located in the **west**.
Some of the problems that I experienced:
1. My phone would often emit a single ring with no one on the other end. (Yes, I tested to make sure it was actually caused by the DSL connection. Remove the DSL modem from the loop, no ringing. Reconnect it, rings galore).
2. UDP traffic blocking, while denying that it was taking place.
3. Upgrading their equipment to the point that my expensive DSL modem (which they sold me) had to be replaced. This took place less than a year after I signed up. Not only was the replacement not free, I didn’t even get a credit on the purchase.
4. I had to pay full price for their dial-up service when the DSL system was down for an extended period in my area. I was still being charged for the DSL service.
5. They insisted that the problem was my network card and refused to help me if I didn’t replace it. This was _after_ I explained that I had connected three different computers, all with different network cards, and experienced the same problems. Then they said that it was caused by having the wrong patches on Windows, even though one of the three computers was a Mac.
Having recently moved, I’m going to give BellSouth a chance with their DSL service. We’ll see what happens.
---
### Author:  [@tallinu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tallinu)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/3 "2002-05-19T00:31:07Z")
FTR, the tech is slightly full of shit…
:: tallinu looks at 2.4 GHz phone, then looks at DSL modem 5 feet from it ::
:: tallinu checks… yep, DV cables still in wall, cable coax still plugged in ::
Really, really, really bad tech support.
You have my sympathies, I enjoy having DSL, and dial up would drive me nuts.
That being said if the DSL company “Q” is, oh ,say “west” of you, mebbe a different (better, or at least competent) DSL provider can get the job done?
---
### Author:  [@tallinu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tallinu)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/4 "2002-05-19T00:33:04Z")
damn, **DMC** got ahead of me on the Q
west
bashing. Curses!
---
### Author:  [@techchick68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/techchick68)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/5 "2002-05-19T00:42:26Z")
Hmmm, my Q experience has been pretty positive from Day One.
Got the modem, the day they promised to have the line up by 5:00pm it was up and running by noon.
No problems, have two cordless phones on the line and I even have the line that is my DSL and my crappy cordless split.
I average over 500 down and 200 up.
I’ve only had two outages since December 6 and that wasn’t Q’s fault, they lease the line from another company. In addition I am 22,000 feet from the central office (CO to others – but I worked in construction, a CO in construction is Certificate of Occupancy.)
Anyhow, I have had a good experience sorry to hear you haven’t there Czarcasm.
Now I can bitch about Ahellphia because my parents call me first. Their internet tech support needs to be overhauled, thrown out in the garbage and regurgitated (sp) by a rhino’s ass fart.
---
### Author:  [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/6 "2002-05-19T00:55:56Z")
Does Earthlink not have DSL where you are, Czarcasm? I’ve had their DSL service for over a year now, and I’ve been pretty happy with it. Downtimes are very infrequent (although I have heard complaints about Earthlink elsewhere). I had trouble getting it up and running, too. Same problem as you; couldn’t get sync. The problem wasn’t on Earthlink’s end, but on the phone companies. It took them a while to troubleshoot it (over a week, if I remember correctly), but since it’s been up, it’s been great.
---
### Author:  [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/7 "2002-05-19T01:50:28Z")
Another satisified Qwest customer…going on 2 years now. Several cordless phones in this house as well. (They did send filters to install in the phone outlets…I suspect that that’s a different issue for you). I use a local ISP instead of Qwest…and the few problems I have had have mostly been due to them.
---
### Author:  [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/8 "2002-05-19T03:12:36Z")
Try [speakeasy.net](http://speakeasy.net) I’ve had them for a while now, and am most satisfied, with both their level of support and quality.
---
### Author:  [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/9 "2002-05-19T04:51:24Z")
I wish I could get DSL where I am. As it is I have cable internet from a company that sounds like comcrap. They tech support is poor when I needed to reach them and I lose service at least once a week
---
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/10 "2002-05-19T05:24:04Z")
They gave us they filters, beagledave. The third techie told me to remove them because they could interfere with the signal!
---
### Author:  [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/11 "2002-05-19T05:47:38Z")
verizion dsl was a bit rocky when I first signed on due to i “had bad slots” when they installed the dsl on their end It was going to take 3 weeks for it and such … well since it was a violation of my contract they let me go
Well, I talked to EarthLink I talked to AOL dsl and guess what?
I couldnt get dsl from them cuase it all runs through verizion in my area and they only had so many setups per year they can have
So i ended up going back to verizion since they lowered the price and got rid of the contracts
But If you have your phone on more than one extension and the dsl on the same line it will slow it up sigifingnatly
---
### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/12 "2002-05-19T05:58:33Z")
I have [Bellsouth.net](http://Bellsouth.net), which is a bit slower now than when I first got it over a year ago. That matters little as all I do is browse message boards. :rolleyes:
---
### Author:  [@BooBoo316](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BooBoo316)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/13 "2002-05-19T10:45:41Z")
For what it’s worth, I have been very pleased with my Roadrunner service. The techie who installed it was competent and polite, although we did have to go through three different cable modems in his truck before we found one that would work. Said they got a bad shipment of them.
Tech support, however, has been a mixed bag…on the few of occasions I’ve had to call, I got _one_ guy who really knew his shit and a couple of people that I wouldn’t trust to operate a Pez dispenser properly.
---
### Author:  [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/14 "2002-05-19T11:18:40Z")
I think it’s better to go through your local telco. That way you’re just dealing with one company. If the self install doesn’t work, they’ll send someone out without charge to fix it. In my case, I had a bad modem and they _forgot_ to do the actual wiring work in the CO (doh). Before coming out they mentioned stuff like security systems causing problems but once they did their thing all that was a non-issue.
---
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/15 "2002-05-19T11:55:14Z")
In my case, the company in "Q"uestion went around the neighborhood telling people that all of their lines were tested and that they all could install the DSL themselves with no trouble whatsoever. These “Commission Babies” didn’t tell anyone about what dificulties there might be, or "Q"uiz them about items they own that might interfere with their poor sensitive modem.
---
### Author:  [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/16 "2002-05-19T12:52:34Z")
I used to get dozens of one-ring hangup calls a day, but now I get less than 6 per week.
I switched my internet service from " Telecom Enron- Swindler of US West and Northwestern Bell Retirees"( also referred to as “Q”) to my local cable operator about 6 weeks ago.
It never occurred to me until just now that the “annoying bastard” was actually my DSL connection.
I don’t know what people in my area will do for phone service once the overpaid incompetents at “Q” finally declare bankruptcy and leave for the Bahamas with their Golden Parachutes. May local terrorists kidnap them upon their arrival there and make their deaths appropriately slow and torturous.
---
### Author:  [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2002, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/17 "2002-05-19T19:27:05Z")
Oh, one other thing we did. We rewired our house’s incoming phone box so that the filter is connected there, just like how the phone company would do it. That way, we only needed the one filter, with a simple Y junction before it for the DSL line. Took us a week, but now every room in our house has Cat5 for phone and Cat5 for data as seperate lines, and a Cable hook up for when I install the dish later this summer. That doesn’t include the wireless AP and the den, which has the patch panel. Whooeee. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@techchick68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/techchick68)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2002, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/18 "2002-05-20T07:11:04Z")
Q gave me four filters, no problems with the filters use them on both phones. Sounds like it’s a wiring issue, be that to the house or in the house.
Hmmmmm.
Everyone has different experiences with each ISP. And I do agree with the statement of getting your DSL through the local teleco. Only one company can be responsible for the problems one might experience.
[DSLreport.com](http://DSLreport.com) has mixed experiences from all the ISPs.
---
### Author:  [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2002, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dsl-rant/109756/19 "2002-05-20T14:08:58Z")
Someone needs to think of a new posting “law”.
Right after I post that I’m having great DSL service …the service tanks. The "Q"uestionable company no longer even sees our phone number as having DSL service. Apparently it’s a problem with several other customers in my town.
The trouble ticket has been “escalated” to a different level…uh huh…
Fuqqers