BREAKING NEWS! As of 12/8/2000, the
remaining DSL technical issues have apparently been resolved.
Round 1 saga
Round 2 saga
Experiences with "SNET" DSL service.
A Mutual Disaster
You can find out a lot about what real-life DSL users are going through at
sites like www.dslreports.com or www.everythingdsl.com.
Now, I wish I had read more before signing up with the SBC/SNET DSL promotional
offer.
In a nutshell, here is my experience with DSL:
- Monitor DSL availability in my area. I found it was available in
June, 2000, so I sent in my order.
- SNET had to do "engineering tests", but they'd get right
back. It took them a long while, but finally they called back to say
we were "go" and to schedule installation.
- The first installation session didn't "take", because of low
signal on our line. After two repair cycles (about a week each), the
modem finally locked on.
- The networking in the house was very straightforward with the Linksys DSL
router and existing Linux and NT boxes on my local network. (Note SNET
restricts you to using "one machine at a time" on a DSL connection
- whatever that means. Of course, that's all I ever had in mind.)
- The circuit worked fine for many hours, and we realized around 300 kbs
download, which is close enough to the theoretical minimums. However,
the modem took forever to synchronize from power-on - sometimes hours.
Furthermore, the connection would drop out for some hours every day.
- Making the long story short, SNET now declares that I am too far from my
Central Office, and they have pulled the switch on my service. This
despite their engineering tests and my installer's assurances that I was in
the Green Zone, so they'd have to make it work.
- This cost SBC/SNET (and ASI - the real DSL provider) a pretty penny.
They say I'll get a refund. As an IT manager, I thought I knew all
about finger-pointing, but SBC/SNET/ASI take it to new levels. There
is no account manager who cares about your DSL service, and the service
numbers (there are many of them) are all too happy to transfer you to
another number.
This is written more in sorrow than in anger, because of the missed
opportunities. First, if only SNET could figure out their real DSL service
area before making promises to the customer. Second, if only they could
figure out the customer service needed for this new and fairly exotic
service. SNET is hardly the worst phone utility out there. In
our relatively small CT market, you'd think...
You can read the details, if you like.
That was not the end, however. A nice lady at ASI? called back one day
to say she wanted me to have DSL after all. Those guys at SNET engineering
had been disqualifying too many of their installs.
After another 2 months of back and forth, we seem to have settled into a
reliable DSL connection, but time will tell.
Read the second round logs.
12/10/00