Specifications

9
Windows performance Tip - in dial up networking uncheck "Log on to Network." Most ISP use
RADIUS authentication, eliminating Windows network login speeds up the initial connection to
the ISP.
Windows performance Tip: - Uncheck NetBEUI and IPX in dialup networking. TCP/IP is the
only protocol needed to connect to an ISP.
Security Tip: - If file and print sharing is installed unbind it from the dialup adapter. This prevents
folks on the Internet from gaining access to shared files.
4 DSL Account – Telco’s Enter the Brave New World of Data
We had been looking for broadband service for several years for both personal and business purposes.
Cable service was not available in or town, Satellite has too much latency and charge extra for home
network. DSL was the only broadband service that met our needs.
DSL wish list:
Symmetric speed at least 500kbp/s
No prohibition against using a LAN
Reasonable price
Single static IP address
Service Level Agreement
True always on service
No content filtering
Does not require special software
Good technical support
We were looking for a near business class service provider. DSL is not mission critical but outages of more
then a few hours are very inconvenient. After hearing the horror stories about DSL and Cable modems we
wanted to deal with a stable carrier with minimum downtime.
We did not want the provider to perform any firewall functions. We had run into problems in the past with
the provider blocking out going mail etc. The goal was a transparent connection. We take responsibility for
our own security.
4.1 Distance to the Central Office
Before applying for DSL we attempted to determine our distance from the telephone company central
office (CO). Telephone cable does not necessarily follow roads so this is only an approximation. The first
step is to determine the location of the central office. DSL Reports has a nice CO search utility. We drove
several likely routes to determine the distance. Depending on route we estimated our distance between
9,500 and 14,700 feet.
4.2 Selecting a Provider
Our first attempt was Verizon. Our central office is equipped for Verizon DSL but we did not qualify. No
reason was given. When I plugged in phone numbers closer to the CO they qualified so I assume the reason
was excessive distance.
Next we tried to sign up with HarvardNet. We were turned down due to distance. They estimated we were
20.9K feet from the CO. In retrospect this was lucky because shortly thereafter they got out of the DSL
business.