Question About DSL

Question

Hope this is correct forum to ask this. I am considering getting DSL from Quest, since I have my land-line with them and might be able to get a package rate. I will be checking out other options or providers before I decide. What I want to do is be able to do some consulting work from home, and will need to be on the phone on a headset will working on the computer. I believe, in the little that I have learned about this subject, that this can accomplished with the single lead in from the street, and the hard and software separates everything. I don't have any specifics yet about requirements on my end byt am told that my 4600 running XP with 512 RAM and 80G drive is sufficient to do the job. Any info or experience you can share about this is appreciated.
Forgot to mention that I am now on dial-up...is DellTalk always this slow to pull up? Its never very fast, but today is worst I've seen in a long time.

Message Edited by dalem29 on 11-06-2003 09:50 AM

SlamX · Answer

When you get the DSL you will be able to use your phone and internet seamlessly. The phone will not even know the DSL is there. So yes you can do your work from home as you desire.

Qwest will sell/give you the hardware you need..that is the DSL modem and DSL filters for phone lines. It is very easy to set up.

Alexandra_P · Answer

PC specs are not a problem. My Qwest DSL was originally set up on a 1999 Win98 PC - and on USB, no less, since I was too cheap/lazy to add a $10 ethernet card. That PC today would barely cut it as an iPhone.

Service is reliable, too; over several years I remember only one outage that lasted a couple of hours.

Only a few caveats:

1) The package deal isn't as good unless you have extra services on your land line (call waiting, etc.); we don't so it's $5 a month more. Also, I think the default package currently has Windows Live as your ISP for email, etc. (when I got it it was still plain MSN) - you can choose other ISP's but the deal won't be as good.

The main downside of Windows Live or MSN email accounts is you can't use XP's Outlook Express with them; it doesn't support the protocol (Vista's Mail does). The free Live Mail email client works, but I really don't like it as much as Outlook Express.

2) DSL's speed and availability is dependent on the distance from the nearest hub. Qwest's limit for ADSL is 17,500 feet, and we just barely squeaked in, so we never get the 1.5MB/s download speed - more like 1.3.

3) Like everything else nowadays it comes with a mountain of software (diagnostics, Live One Care, special toolbars, etc. etc.) - probably much worse now than it was then. I did use some of it at first to get going (tried MSN's browser just for kicks, ran the diagnostics, etc.) but ultimately you may find yourself wrestling with some bloatware.

Pesimist · Answer

OMG - SlamX posted this on 6 Nov 2003. I hope he didn't wait over 5-years for a repsonse. Hope someone at Dell will eventually include posting dates to all forum entries.

Larry R · Answer

Hope someone at Dell will eventually include posting dates to all forum entries.  * DELL-Larry R points to the date listed just below the title of each post.  :emotion-2:

SlamX · Answer

Nope I did not post this 5 yrs ago. This is more evidence of the forum being a mess as I have continued to complain about. chances are this post will be censored too and deleted.

Alexandra_P · Answer

Man, I hate it when my clueless evil twin posts with my username.   :emotion-10:

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Question About DSL

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