[NTLUG:Discuss] DSL vs. Cable modem

[Richard Cobbe]

Kevin McMillan wrote:
> 
> Although you will not find me singing the praises of any teleco, I have recently connected to GTE's DSL service for the
> following reasons. I notice you already have a GTE account, so it should be really easy to get your service started.

Well, you may not have to change ISPs, but that doesn't affect how easy
(or possible) it is to get *DSL service.  (That being said: I've heard
some unpleasant things about GTE's ISP; you may want to go through
someone else.)

> 1) Due to internet research, I believe cable connections are far less secure than DSL lines.

Really?  I certainly haven't heard anything about this.  I know some
ISPs will set up a firewall for you, but I think this is a per-ISP
thing.  Me, I have a DSL connection, and I'm getting friendly with
ipchains, portsentry, logcheck, cfengine, and friends.

> 1) The tech wasnt at my home but 35 minutes are so, and I was online.

True, although there was a long delay between my order and the tech
arriving at my house -- 2-3 weeks, IIRC.  Would have been ok, but this
was longer than GTE/DirectLink originally stated.

Oh, and a friendly note: if you get DSL, make sure that the phone jack
in your computer room is easily accessible -- I had to move a bookshelf
so the tech could mess with the wiring.  (After he's done, you can put
the bookshelf or whatever back -- the modem can be across the room if
your cables are long enough.)  He had to get into the other two phone
jacks in my apartment as well, although that was somewhat unexpected. 
YMMV.

> 2)  While I do not get a static IP, it is not difficult to get my IP, and update my dyndns.org account, so I can run my server
> without any real trouble. There are utilities and scripts that will do the update automatically, or with the click of an icon.

This is a per-ISP thing.  I get 2 static IPs.  The ISPs should say
up-front what they do here.

> One more very important thing is, GTE will not support DSL under Linux.

This just means that they don't *support* non-Windows connections.  Says
nothing about allowing you to USE other OSes.  I'd recommend having a
windows partition available so you can troubleshoot stuff with their
tech support if necessary.  If you have difficulty 'translating' those
settings to Linux, that's what we're here for!

As someone else has already stated, though, this is an ISP thing.  Like
another poster, I use DirectLink and I've been quite happy with their
service.  I did ask about Linux support when I was shopping around for
ISPs, and it's a little complicated.  DirectLink (and other ISPs) also
sell consulting services for the complex stuff (setting up a VPN,
running a commercial web server, etc. etc. etc.) for which they charge
extra.  They do provide basic support for simple situations, but they
don't want to let the free stuff get too out of hand.

One thing to watch out for: I *believe* that Compaq, among others, is
starting to sell computers which come equipped with DSL modems that plug
into a PCI slot (according to a FOAF, so this should be taken with a
grain of salt).  If that's true, then make sure you don't get one of
these, because I certainly haven't seen Linux support for these --- yet.

As for comparison with cable modems: back when I was shopping around,
TCI didn't have cable modem service in my neighborhood, and GTE had
DSL.  That answered that question, at least for me.  Anyway, I really
can't comment as to the relative merits of the two services.

Richard