[NTLUG:Discuss] SWBell DSL

[Gorwood, Steve]

Al Wyatt [amw at rocketmail.com] wrote:
> I'm considering signing up for SW Bell DSL service and
> wondered if anyone in NTLUG had experience with it. 
> Of course their on-line information says you have to
> have Winblows or Mac to use it, but has anyone hooked
> up with SWBell DSL with Linux?  I couldn't find out
> exactly what kind of equipment they use.  They're
> offering a deal that sounds too good to pass up -
> $39.95/month with only a one year commitment and they
> give you (or loan you I guess) all the equipment.


I have been subscribed to the SWBELL service for two months 
now.  Here is my experience.

Installation:  After I submitted the on-line application, they
left a voice mail informing me of the installation data (over 
a month later) and informing me that I would need to be there.
They did NOT give a hint as to WHEN during the day they would
be there and the did NOT give a return phone number that I 
could call to reschedule the day if it was inconvenient.  I 
called the 800 number and they committed to call me 
at work an hour before coming so that I could be there to meet 
them.  

They mailed the equipment to me and it arrived one week before
the scheduled installation.  The equipment consisted of an 
ethernet card and an external DSL modem and some filters for
the phone jacks.

They called me a half hour before arriving and installed the 
equipment and tested the hookup.  They required the original
Win98 install disk (to prove that I had a valid windows installation).
They do NOT have any knowledge of UNIX or LINUX.  You will have to
handle this yourself.

Experience:  In the early days I had two problems:  The SWBELL database
was delayed in being updated with my information, so that it was almost
two weeks before I could do email or add my web page to the service.
Their support line was busy during the day (> 1hour delay!), so that
the only time that I could get through was in the early morning (6am)
when I arrived at work.

The other problem persists.  Occasionally I cannot log onto the service.
This happens most frequently during the peak evening hours.  One of the
phone support people told me that this seemed to be caused by some
customers using more IP addresses than they were paying for so that the
IP pool was exhausted.   Once I am logged on, there is no problem.  If I 
wanted to leave my computer on all the time and never log off, there 
would not be a problem.

I have gotten it working under both Mandrake 7.0 and Storm Linux without
any problems.

If you have problems, you CANNOT access their web site with its help files
from another site (in my case from work).  Their support site is only
accessible through their connection.

Short summary:  Their customer service is terrible and there seems to be
a problem getting logged on during peak hours; but the price is pretty 
good and (on balance) I am happy with it.

Regards,
Steven Gorwood 


Al Wyatt [amw at rocketmail.com] wrote:
> I'm considering signing up for SW Bell DSL service and
> wondered if anyone in NTLUG had experience with it. 
> Of course their on-line information says you have to
> have Winblows or Mac to use it, but has anyone hooked
> up with SWBell DSL with Linux?  I couldn't find out
> exactly what kind of equipment they use.  They're
> offering a deal that sounds too good to pass up -
> $39.95/month with only a one year commitment and they
> give you (or loan you I guess) all the equipment.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://ntlug.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20000426/7be083f0/attachment.html