[sllug-members]: Re: sllug-members Digest, Vol 28, Issue 16

[Mac Newbold]

Today at 2:33pm, Cade Call said:

>> What benefit do you get from using an ISP like Xmission over Qwest? Since 
>> Qwest provides the hard line anyways. Is it cheaper one way over the other?
>
> You can get cheaper DSL service using Qwest with MSN, but (and its a big but) 
> you have to have at least one windows machine on your network. I'm not sure 
> why (PPPOE maybe?), but I couldn't get the service since I've only got *nix 
> machines at home.

It's cheaper, but flakier last time I tried. And of course the support is 
generally worse than none at all.

The Windows machine requirement is because their configuration CD doesn't 
run on anything else, and their install techs don't now how to use a 
browser on any other kind of machine. In other words, you don't really 
need a Windows box contaminating your network.

One other thing about MSN with Qwest: last time I checked (this may be 
different now) they shipped a modem that was fully capable of doing 
routing, DHCP, and NAT for about 100-250 hosts, but which had been 
neutered by Qwest/MSN to only give out one address. So if you wanted to 
have more than one machine behind it, you had to do your own router, DHCP, 
and NAT. So there's an extra $50 or so of hardware to buy if you want to 
do multiple computers with such a modem.

Mac

--
Mac Newbold		MNE - Mac Newbold Enterprises, LLC
mac at macnewbold.com	http://www.macnewbold.com/