My DSL Installation
by Bill Raecke
In last month's newsletter, I mentioned the fact that my DSL hardware had arrived and I was just waiting for activation of the service. A few days after I wrote those words, the date of activation arrived. This began my descent into "DSL Hell." This a term I have often heard before. Little did I know how serious those problems can be.
I have had Cable internet service for a number of years. I assumed that DSL would be similar. Bad assumption! The primary difference is that DSL requires software! I still don't know why. After all, when the DSL or Cable Modem is done handling the signal, what comes into the computer is a standard network connection. Cable Internet service never required anything to be installed on the PC. DSL should have been the same, but it wasn't. I tried using the connection without the software -- it didn't work.
When the install program was done with the software installation, it tried to connect to the Internet. No such luck. In fact, I soon discovered that even my dial-up connection no longer worked. Thanks DSL.
I spent 14 hours trying to correct the problem through configuration, re-installations, checking with system experts, and even checking the Windoze website for help (from work). Nothing helped. I finally had to give up. I re-formatted the hard drive and started over. Of course starting over is not as easy as it is with an Amiga. I logged an additional 30 hours to re-installing and updating software to get things back the way they were. That's 44 hours in all due to a DSL installation gone bad. And I'm not counting the time that I walked away while the PC was busy with an installation.
The moral to the story is -- if you can avoid DSL, do it. I'm not sure I can. I'm still trying to find out if I can get Cable Internet here. I'll let you know.
...Bill Raecke