Rehash - DSL?

[cj]

Hey everyone - I did a search for "DSL" and most of the conversations were from a year or more ago, so can I ask again?  Up until recently, I could only get dial-up internet where I live, but now DSL is available, so I'm thinking that it's time to upgrade.  Especially since I'll soon have to do all of my surfing from home.   It's $17.95 per month, with the first month free.  $19.95 initial setup.  This is about what I'm currently paying for dialup.

So - if you have DSL, how hard is it to set up?  I'm really bummed that I'll have to change my email address I've been using for almost 10 years.  Other than that, how hard is it?  I have basic virus protection already, but will I have to upgrade that?

Any words of wisdom?  I'm not too tech-savvy. 

Thanks!
CJ

 

[yakers]

DSL Good. (Trying to sound like Homer Simpson) and its easy enought to set up that Homer could do it. Maybe a change in email address, just do it.

 

[Andre1969]

We have DSL, but I don't know much about it. It's my roommate's computer, and he handles the internet. All I know is that it's about $50 per month. I've seen commercials for cheaper DSL services, but it turns out that DSL comes in different speeds, and the cheaper ones are going to be slower.

I'm sure it's still gotta be light-years faster than dial up, though! As for email, I've never had anything other than a hotmail or yahoo account, so I've never had to worry about changing an email addy.

 

[cj]

Speed - yeah, on dial-up it's 50K or so, and DSL (the slower one) is 768K.  I've been managing with dial-up, so I think I'll be fine!

CJ

 

[donheff]

That sounds like Verizon's offer. It is so close to dial up costs that it seems a no-brainer to me. Even the low cost spread is much faster than dial up. DSL is easy to set up (and I believe Verizon will come out if there is a problem). What you will appreciate most is that the connection is always on, like a LAN at work. You don't need to go through the dial up handshake bit to connect to the Internet. You can also add a cheap router or wireless router if you have more than one PC you want to connect to the Internet.

Don

 

[Nords]

Speed - yeah, on dial-up it's 50K or so, and DSL (the slower one) is 768K.  I've been managing with dial-up, so I think I'll be fine!

It's addictive.  

If you don't have DSL now then you probably don't "need" it, but once you get it there's no going back.  As an unrepentant mainliner, I'd recommend that you don't get it until you really really need it or at least can afford it for the rest of your life.  We'll only go back to dialup if that's what it takes to someday encourage our kid to leave the nest.

The technology has been dumbed down to transparency.  You may have to install plug-in filters on your other phone jacks but otherwise you just connect your computer to an external modem.  For us it's been much more reliable than cable and a lot cheaper.

 

[cj]

If you don't have DSL now then you probably don't "need" it, but once you get it there's no going back.  As an unrepentant mainliner, I'd recommend that you don't get it until you really really need it...

I know what you mean, and I know that you are right.  The thing is, once I am no longer able to look at stuff on the (really fast) internet at work, I'll get more annoyed with it at home.  Of course, then I'll have a lot more time to wait for pages to load.   

The thing is, more and more sites are assuming that you have access that's better than dialup (all the fancy graphics, etc.)  So I think that dialup will become more and more of a pain as time goes on.

Thanks all for the input!
CJ

 

[cj]

And yes, I'm talking about Verizon.

 

[nwsteve]

It's addictive.  
 We'll only go back to dialup if that's what it takes to someday encourage our kid to leave the nest.

WOW--an excellent stategy for dealing with rebounders and nesters!  Not one I had considered.  We are selling our house and leaving junior to find new digs--Not popular but works
nwsteve

 

[JohnP]

I've had dsl since retirement and enjoy it.  Last week I installed DSL on SIL's Mac in So Cal - so it works for all systems.

For new users, if you order online (www.TheNewATT.com) AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet Express (at 768 Kbps) is available for $12.99 a month for a 12-month term and $17.99 a month for AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet Pro (@ 1.5Mbps).

If you already have ATT, Verizon, SBC, ... DSL you can go to a secret website https://swot.sbc.com/swot/DSLRenewalQual.do?DCMP=att_upgrade
and speed up your DSL to 1.5Mbps while reducing monthly to $17.99.  It's pretty easy, all you have to do is enter your phone number to see if you are eligible - if so, approve the change and cut your bill.   

JohnP

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I have hooked up DSL a couple of time by myself and still managed to screw it up this last time. Thank heaven for customer support.

I solved the e-mail address problem two ways--one quite by accident:

One was smart. (Thank you, thank you! ) I have two Yahoo accounts; one personal, one professional. I can get at them anywhere in the world where I can get to the web. It doesn't matter whose service I am using.

The other was luck. We signed up for Earthlink many years ago. A friend's son taught me how to connect to Earthlink through an unrelated cable ISP. We never used our ISP's e-mail account--just kept the Earthlink one. We did pay for both services, though, but the small extra cost at the time was worth it. Later the cable ISP gave up on offering their own service and served up Earthink, so we saved a couple of bucks a month.

Maybe your DSL people will sell you access to your present service? You can keep your e-mail address.

Or, surf the net and find out how to access your present ISP again. All your new DSL provider is going to do is give you a very fast connection plus some software that will change the settings in your operating system to point to their web pages and set you up for their e-mail. You can change these back to whatever you want. Remember that you will have to pay for both the DSL from one supplier and still pay for your old service, too.

My friend's son has graduated and lives far away now, and I don't remember how to do it, but I'll bet that your old ISP will tell you what the setting are and where they are so you can stay with them. Call customer service and ask. Be prepared to write a lot of stuff down.

You can do it. Read up on it on the web.

Cheer!

Ed

 

[modhatter]

Went on the "NewAT&T web site you posted. Cheapest 1 year plan they are advertixing is $29.99 a month.

 

[sgeeeee]

I upgraded from phone line to DSL about 6 or 7 months ago. Because DW and I both need to be online often, we had 2 phone lines prior to DSL and still missed calls when both of us were online at once. With DSL we got rid of one line and still get the phone calls. The DSL modem also provides us with a WiFi connection that we didn't have before. Occasionally it is nice to be able to use the laptop somewhere in the house that doesn't have a phone jack.

We have 4 computers and installation was trivial.

 

[cj]

Thanks again everyone! The DSL is ordered. I found out that when my 74 year old Dad got DSL, he got it up and running by himself. I better be able to do it.

sgeeeee - yes, the one thing that really sold it for my DH was that when I'm on the computer, we can still get/make phone calls. That's a biggie.

Onward!

CJ

 

[JohnP]

Mod - Perhaps try it again. When I did it a minute ago I clicked on "Residential" which opened a page showing "AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet Get super fast Internet for as low as $12.99! For new online orders only."

Hope it'll work for you!

JohnP