Welcome to My Internet is Down

Obviously, if your internet were really down, you wouldn't be reading this. So What is the purpose of this blog?

It's got a couple of purposes.

1. I'm going to attempt to explain to you what actually makes up the internet, from the perspective of a technical support tech for a regional ILEC (that's industry speak for a regional phone / ISP) no, I'm not going to name names...sorry.

2. I'm also going to share tips, hints, tricks and tools that are useful even if your internet is down.

So, go get something to drink, sit down and enjoy.

(I plan to update this blog at least once a week, I'll tweet on twitter when it's updated. Just follow @xanthakita on twitter. )

For an initial post lets look at the basic types of internet connectivity most of us have.

1. Dial-up (unfortunately there are still a lot of people who use dial up modems.)
2. DSL, for some reason people think that DSL is just a really fast modem... it's not
3. Cable-modem broadband to the masses...
4. Wireless (cellular) card for laptop internet access no matter where you are, provided your carrier has coverage in your location.
5. T1 (most individuals do NOT have T1's at their house.) 

I'll discuss the pros and cons of each of these.

Dial-up Internet

Pros: it's very stable technology...  ...  ...  OK that's all I got for the pros, well, it is also very cheap, you can get internet access from Copper.net for $4.97 a month.

Cons: SLOW SSSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Honestly there are people who use dial-up to check their email and that's all they use it for and they are happy.  The basic points of failure in a dial-up scenario are multiple, but most of them are in the users home.

Points of Failure for dial-up internet:

1. Modem Failure - Unfortunately modems do have a fairly high failure rate, they often take the brunt of electrical shocks traveling in on the phone lines, saving your computer, but frying the poor modem.
   
2. Bad wire from the modem to the wall jack, make sure you have good ends on the cable and the connection tabs (the little ears that lock it in place) are secure on the phone line.
3. Problems with the subscribers phone lines. Crossboxes, etc when they get wet can let water drip into them causing modem connections using these boxes to have poor line quality, thus making the internet fail
4. Last but not least, the dial-up servers could simply not recognize the clients login name or password. Be sure to keep your dialup username and password somewhere handy.

DSL

Pros:

• DSL can offer very high speed connections, depending on how close you live to the central office(That's the place where at&t has all of their equipment handing copper lines off to internet routers etc.) you are built out of. 
  
• DSL is relatively inexpensive, Bellsouth is selling DSL Lite (5 times faster than dialup) for $19.95/mo. 
  
• DSL provides very good download speeds.
  

Cons:

• DSL is still subject to phone line issues.
• If you are further than 15,000 feet away from the CO (Central Office) then you can forget getting any kind of data throughput.
• Upload speeds are severely limited (usually 256kb/s or less)
• Susceptible to how much utilization is currently being used by others in your neighborhood.

Cable-Modem

Cable-modem is true broadband Internet, speeds range depending on the service provider, Charter communications, has a 5, 10, and 16 Megabit plan (that's download speed with uploads being 512, 1024, and 1536 respectively) prices range from $50/mo to $100/mo depending on what other service you get bundled with your internet.

Pros:

• Cable-modem allows for extremely fast downloads.
• Uses cable TV cables to connect both outside and inside your home, good news these are almost always made by the installing technician and he or she can determine if the cable has a problem with the tools they carry regularly.
• The modem itself can be leased from your provider or you can purchase a good one for about $100. 

Cons:

• Cable-modem is still susceptible to slowdown due to crowded neighborhoods (up to 500 people working off of one broadband connection coming into a neighborhood.
• Once you have had broadband internet you won't ever go back to dial-up
• dealing with cable companies to fix your internet problem is a REAL pain, particularly when you may reach someone in Simpsonville, SC one day, a tech in South-East Asia on another call, and a tech in Canada a third day.
• if you want to move your computer to a different room, you may be better off leaving your modem and router in the original place and just going wireless from the rest of your house. (It's hard to run coax cable through walls.)

Wireless Coverage (Cellular)

Pros:

• Available anywhere your phone provider offers service (assuming you use the same phone company for your phone and you air-card).
• Decent speeds on both up and downloads

Cons:

• Cost, even at only $60 a month it's still that much extra each month.
• somewhat limit coverage.. it's all based on cell towers.

T1

Pros:

• Professionally supported, usually the router that terminates the T1 is also a fairly powerful router, such as a cisco 2400 series.
• Speeds up to 1536 up AND down for a full T of Data, 

Cons:

• Speeds are much slower than cable modem (at least on the download side)
• To increase bandwidth you have to get another T1 installed and have them bonded.
• Expensive!!!

OK, there is a basic overview and a few links.  Ask questions if you would.

Thanks,

Jonathan aka Bink