Re: Yup; the Internet is screwed up.

[Jon Lewis <jlewis () lewis org>]

On Fri, 10 Jun 2011, Jeroen van Aart wrote:

> I wonder, what's wrong with dialup through ISDN? You get speed that is about 
> the same as low end broadband I'd say. And I think it'd be available at these 
> locations where DSL is not.

No you don't.  BRI with 2 B channels bonded is 128kbit/s.  Does anyone 
offer DSL that slow?  I just had 25mbit DSL installed...though 15 of it is 
reserved for IPTV service.

Have you heard the joke...ISDN = I Still Don't kNow?  For whatever reason, 
BRI service is something the US telcos apparently never really wanted to 
sell...perhaps because it might have cut into their T1 business. 
Initially, with BellSouth you could get flat-rate BRI.  It didn't take 
long for them to limit it to 200 hours/month and then charge per minute 
for overages.  At 128kbit/s going flat out all day, you can transfer just 
a bit more than 1GB.

Also, just the ISDN line from the telco will probably cost a couple times 
what DSL from the telco would cost if you could get it...and if you're in 
a rural area where you can't get cable or DSL, I wouldn't hold your breath 
for ISDN.

> My low end home DSL connection has similar bandwidth.

How slow a DSL connection do you have?

> With regards to the writer's main gripe, if your telecommute work typically 
> consists of ssh sessions and email then even y'olde dialup will do just fine.

For SSH sessions, ISDN is fine and the latency is much lower than analog 
dialup.  At home, I went from analog dialup at 14.4kbps, to 28.8/33.6kbps, 
to 128k ISDN (a flat rate line), to 1.5mbit DSL, to [I don't even remember 
the speed] several mbit cable, to now 10mbit DSL.  I made sure before 
moving 3 years ago to where I am now that there was at least one broadband 
internet provider servicing the area.  3 years later, there are now two 
choices.  If your work/life depends on internet access (particularly high 
speed) and you move somewhere without checking on its availability, you're 
not too bright.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Jon Lewis, MCP :)           |  I route
 Senior Network Engineer     |  therefore you are
 Atlantic Net                |
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