This is part of The Pile, a partial archive of some open source mailing lists and newsgroups.
Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2000 14:42:26 -0700 From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> To: svlug@svlug.org Subject: Re: [svlug] Want a dial up server! begin David E. Fox quotation: >> ADSL. > > Asinnotworking Digital Subscriber Link, right? :) Well, what I meant is that "DSL" is a broad category encompassing some vastly different services (ADSL, HDSL, SDSL, IDSL...) with (among other things) very different speed characteristics. When people mean ADSL, they should say ADSL. > Actually, PacBell is only providing the wire. I'm going through > RawBandwidth.com. Price is an issue, but most of the ADSL services are > pretty close these days. I take back what I said, then: rawbandwidth.com is an excellent company, hampered only by their need (like all other local xDSL providers) to rely on PacBell provisioning. Good choice. === Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2000 14:53:53 -0700 From: "Jeffrey B. Siegal" <jbs@quiotix.com> To: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> Subject: Re: [svlug] Want a dial up server! Rick Moen wrote: > I take back what I said, then: rawbandwidth.com is an excellent > company, hampered only by their need (like all other local xDSL > providers) to rely on PacBell provisioning. That's not quite correct. RawBandwidth, like other PacBell ADSL ISP partners, uses PacBell for both the physical and link layers (OSI level 1 and 2). XDSL providers who work with a data CLEC like Covad or Northpoint rely on PacBell only for the physical layer (OSI level 1), not the link layer (OSI level 2). Leaving aside the technoligical service differences for the moment, this has organizational advantages and disadvantages: On the advantage side, it means there is less for PacBell to screw up.[*] On the disadvantage side, it means there are now three vendors involved, which may result in more finger pointing. I've heard some real finger-pointing horror stories with DSL. [*] I have both a PacBell-based service and a Covad-based service. The Covad-based service has been much more reliable at the link level. ===