Re: Dialup congestion and winter weather (fwd)

[Jeff Mcadams <jeffm () iglou com>]

Also sprach Roeland Meyer
> 1) I'm my own ISP, dialing into my own modem banks. I am reasonably
> confident that I know what my own systems are doing. They are not
> interacting as you describe.

Indeed...modems don't need to be set to 14.4 to negotiate slower speeds
on ADPCM lines (as I'm sure you're aware, it seems Christopher is not)

Not sure why I missed Christopher's response first time around...the
rest is a reply to him.

> Come on, The ISP is not going to write an init script for their modems
> to permanently have them connect at 14.4. 

They don't have to...if the call is coming through a 32kbps ADPCM
connection, the modems will negotiate down to 26.4 at best from what I
have seen...possibly lower.

> Telco's don't turn down the PCM rate on dial up's to 32KBps either... 

Maybe not explicitely on dialups, but BellSouth does 32kbps ADPCM on a
good number of customer lines...Frankfort, KY fought this for a *long*
time (and may still be, I don't keep up with specific issues in specific
locations with our tech support all that much)

> Telco's (RBOC's) have a separate (unregulated) ISP, which handles dial
> up traffic. 

WRONG!  This is important for the non telco folks here to realize.  This
is not necessarily the case.  My experience is primarily with BellSouth
and BellSouth.Net.  BellSouth.Net as an ISP is a product is BellSouth
Telecommunications, the telephone company.  There is a BellSouth.Net,
Inc.  BellSouth.Net Inc. does, essentially, contracting work, running
modems, routers, switches, bandwidth, etc. and has only one customer,
BellSouth Telecommunications.  BellSouth Telecommunications takes the
infrastructure built and maintained by BellSouth.Net Inc. and uses it to
sell BellSouth.Net Internet Service.  So, the ISP service is not
necessarily a seperate affiliate, the same employees can, and often do,
work for both BellSouth.Net the ISP, and BellSouth the telephone company.
Does this all sound convoluted enough for you?  I hope so, its
essentially all a dodge by BellSouth to avoid most of the regulations
for intermingling regulated and unregulated services.  Fortunately, some
ISPs and state utility commisions are starting to realize the dodge that
has been made and fight it.

BellSouth, true to form, thinks that they're above the law basically and
has refused to admit that what they're doing is wrong.

> The regulated side is the switched side (voice switch).... One has
> nothing to do with the other (usually union workers on the regulated
> side, and non-union on the unregulated side). So to prove your point,
> the dial side (ISP non-union) would call the CO's and have the
> Switchman changed the line card to an ADPCM (32Kbps) card at the
> switch, and the ISP sets their modems to connect at 14.4Kbps. No way
> Jose!

Having disproven two of your premises, I don't think its necessary to
even address your conclusion.

> The RBOC's at this time are still using typical PCM (64Kbps) per
> channel, for the line cards (unless using BRI).

Not always.
-- 
Jeff McAdams                            Email: jeffm () iglou com
Head Network Administrator              Voice: (502) 966-3848
IgLou Internet Services                        (800) 436-4456