Switching to SBC follow-up

[ho'ard]

http://forums.macresource.com/read/1/215...msg-217123

I went online and found they didn't offer me a bunch of options--

1) There's a non-wireless modem available, free after rebate. I'm refusing the wireless model and a non-wireless will follow. They're referring to it as a "one computer" modem.
Should I be worried or can I still send the signal out through my router just like now?

2) They didn't mention that I could opt out of the year contract ($99 cancellation fee) for a one time 24.99 charge. Found out that option would preclude something though . . . what was it . . . I guess the gift card maybe (see #3) so I stuck with the contract.

3) I mentioned that there was a $75 gift card available online, asked to cancel my order so I could sign up online, and they promised me (3) 24.99 credits to make up for it.

4) If I send in my last cable bill there's a "switch" deal that will credit me back 24.99 for months 4, 5, and 6.

So effectively after a 12.95 shipping fee and a bit of a rebate hassle, the first 6 months are free, unless I was lied to. I'm halfway tempted to overlap since I'm worried the downgrade in speed will be too noticeable (to think I was a dialup holdout until a year ago-- this is exactly what I was afraid of).

Some questions:
-Do you think I'd benefit from getting some sort of heavy-duty phone line to run from the jack to the modem? It's about 25 feet. Currently I have a thin/flat one that's been tripped over a lot but is basically functional.

-what's the farthest I could run a cat-5 cable if I wanted to place the modem at another place in the house, away from the man computer?

Thx!

[Ken Sp.]

I went online and found they didn't offer me a bunch of options--

1) There's a non-wireless modem available, free after rebate. I'm refusing the wireless model and a non-wireless will follow. They're referring to it as a "one computer" modem.
Should I be worried or can I still send the signal out through my router just like now?


The wireless is a router-2 versions-1 wireless only. 2 wireless with 4 wired ports.
Your Router should work just fine, but you will need to connect the modem directly to you computer the first time to set your username and password

2) They didn't mention that I could opt out of the year contract ($99 cancellation fee) for a one time 24.99 charge. Found out that option would preclude something though . . . what was it . . . I guess the gift card maybe (see #3) so I stuck with the contract.

3) I mentioned that there was a $75 gift card available online, asked to cancel my order so I could sign up online, and they promised me (3) 24.99 credits to make up for it.

4) If I send in my last cable bill there's a "switch" deal that will credit me back 24.99 for months 4, 5, and 6.

So effectively after a 12.95 shipping fee and a bit of a rebate hassle, the first 6 months are free, unless I was lied to. I'm halfway tempted to overlap since I'm worried the downgrade in speed will be too noticeable (to think I was a dialup holdout until a year ago-- this is exactly what I was afraid of).

Some questions:
-Do you think I'd benefit from getting some sort of heavy-duty phone line to run from the jack to the modem? It's about 25 feet. Currently I have a thin/flat one that's been tripped over a lot but is basically functional.

The modem will usually contain a good phone line--10-12 feet in length. Put the modem loser to the jack and use a longer ethernet cable. DO NOT FORGET TO INSTALL THE FILTERS THEY SEND YO ON ALL PHONES.


-what's the farthest I could run a cat-5 cable if I wanted to place the modem at another place in the house, away from the man computer?

100 Ft

[mikebw]

If this were comcast I would be afraid of the lies, but I don't know about SBC.

So we're talking DSL...

They will probably send you a slightly thicker gauge phone line to connect the modem to the wall jack, but if the lines that run through the walls are bad it won't make any difference. Probably not an issue in any case.

Cat 5 runs can go several hundred feet with no problems.

You can use a router to 'split' pretty much any kind of internet connection, regardless of the modem they give you.

[ho'ard]

Great answers, thanks!
I guess the modem could hide behind the couch . . . got plenty of long cat 5 around for whatever reason.

[JoeH]

The flat phone extension line is usually not twisted pair, so getting a twisted pair round phone cable may give you an improvement over that 25'. Doesn not even need to make it to Cat 3 standards to be good enough. You could even put RJ-11 connectors on a piece of Cat 5 if you want. But that may only be necessary if you have a bunch of interfernce to deal with. I have been using a 25' flat phone extension ever since I put in DSL 7 years ago. I get over 2.6 Mbps downloads on my 3 Mbps service over that line. As for the phone lines in the wall, unless someone used non-standard wire, those should already be twisted pair phone cable.

[samintx]

I love my SBC DSL...but still waiting for my rebates...$75 and something else, I can't remember without looking at the zerox of what I sent in.