Advice on DSL companies in Westwood, LA

[Shaka]

Hi,

I'm going to be living in the apartments around UCLA this coming academic year, specifically on Gayley Avenue. Which DSL company is best for this area? Preferably 1500kb down/128+kb up and a static ip. No PPOE either please (I don't know what it is, but I hear it's crap when using the Linksys cable/DSL router).

 

[WoundedWallet]

Shaka, are you GTE or PacBell?

 

[superchicken]

Gayley is GTE domain. GTE will be your line provider, and I recommend you get GTE as your ISP as well. You are really close to the base (~1000-1500ft) and will get excellent xfer rates to UCLA servers. (~90k/sec) Except the dorms, damn that stupid upload restriction.

 

[Shaka]

We don't have phone service yet, but it looks like GTE is the way to go. Thanks guys!

 

[Tonec]

Gte/Verizon is basically your only choice, not too bad since the co is on Tiverton.

 

[superchicken]

I also hear Adelphia is bringing cable modems into Westwood. If you don't want to pay the phone charge that's not a bad idea as well. GTE/Verizon is pretty damn sneaky about 'extra' charges.

 

[WoundedWallet]

While you can now get gte internet service for $39, there is one catch.

They don't offer static IPs, and on the same coin I think this $39 service is also PPOE.

If you're looking to run your own server then Linkline and MMinternet are my choices right now.

I'm about to change into one of them in the next couples months.

BTW, you can go here http://www.gte.com/dsl/partisp.html and get a load of ISPs for your area. You can even go to my semi-finished page http://members.xoom.com/wwwallet/ displaying all of these guys and their prices.

WW

 

[Tonec]

Adelphia cable modems are scheduled for october, but the representative I spoke with said jan is more realistic.

 

[Shaka]

MMinternet looks pretty good... only $2 for extra IP's. But, I will have to discuss this with my roommates. Thanks for all the info guys!

 

[Henry Kuo]

i am sure you are having GTE (I am a bruin ) either getting ir from GTE or earthlink (and most of the isp), you are going to have dynamic IP's and using pppoe, sorry to say

if you are not hosting any servers, i don't see why that will bother you.

 

[Shaka]

ahh, a fellow Bruin...

Well, I bought a Linksys router during the summer thinking it would be a good investment for the coming school year, but I find out through forums and such that it does not work very well with PPPoE. Apparently, the newest patch does fully support PPPoE, but I'm still wary of the router's past firmwares.

MMinternet is $50 a month for up to 256-768 down/ 128 up. It also includes a static IP. It seems like a good deal to me, but 256 to 768 down is kinda fishy. Does this mean I'll be getting variable download speeds?

Also, I'm confused about the service charges. Will I be paying for the line on a monthly basis, as well as for the ISP? Meaning that I'll pay $33 a month for GTE/Verizon's Bronze Plus service and an additional $50 for MMinternet's service? It seems like the lines are owned by GTE, while the ISP comes from either GTE or a different company. Sort of like modem dial up... you need a phone line, and you need an ISP to call. Two different bills.

From the Verizon DSL Services site: "Internet access is not included in the monthly service charge. DSL Internet access must be obtained separately through one of the Participating ISPs in your area. "

 

[Henry Kuo]

yup, you are right. so basically you have to pay for the line and also the isp service. d/l speed depends on how far you are from the CO. i don't live in westwood, so i have no idea. but ask around since i am pretty sure most people in westwood they got DSL.

for me, i go with earthlink. 50 bucks a month, including the line and the isp service. dynamic ip though.

 

[b0red]

err... I have mminternet.com, and I only pay 50bux per month. That's for both the DSL line and ISP. mminternet.com also let you to LAN your IP, so you can ICS, etc. etc. Also they got rid of 1 year contract. So if you aren't satisfied, you can cancel without penalty. ^^

 

[Shaka]

Most complaints about the PPPoE support on the Linksys Router were made before the latest patch (v1.34) came out (8/31/00). And one person stated their PPPoE problems were fixed with v1.34. This is all from www.timhiggins.com though.

romin, perhaps you should consider www.linkline.com or www.mminternet.com. They both offer static IP's and linkline includes 6 email aliases. $50/month for either one. Just something to consider.

I may want to start a thread asking about people's PPPoE experiences with the Linksys router and the new patch.

Question about the dorms though: I was in the dorms last year and there wasn't an upload restriction that I noticed. Is there a new policy? I lived in Courtside.

 

[Henry Kuo]

i don't live in dorms, but i don't think so (not 100% sure though)

 

[fatboy]

You can also check out this site for more info on getting dsl. Text

They have a list and review of a lot of providers around the cali area. I went with www.ciso.com myself. I was with verizion and they wanted a $100 a month for 768/128 static ip. Ciso only charges 19.99 then 32 or so for the hookup thru verizion. Oh yeah verizion is gte now. Good luck!

 

[Pauli]

You don't need to have GTE be your ISP is you use their DSL connection. I live close to UCLA and have GTE DSL Bronze package with PCMagic as my ISP. They give you one static IP address and charge $2/mo for each extra IP. I use the Linksys DSL router with this setup and it works just fine.

 

[superchicken]

GTE as both an ISP and a line carrier is excellent. I lived on Kelton and we were only 1000 ft or so from the base I think.

Also, GTE doesn't use PPPoE. However, they do only offer one IP, and they won't let you know that they charge an "Internetworking Fee" of $17.95 for extra IPs. You can call them all you want but they'll try to squeeze it by you. Just buy a router or if you have a machine that you don't use just use ICS with two network cards.

Personally I would have bought a router -- hardware solutions are always better. That and you can sell it after you're done with it. For those that like Netgear, I set up a Netgear RT314 router that has a built in 4 port switch. Street price is around $140 bucks.

 

[Shaka]

I thank everyone for all the input. I have gone with MMinternet's $50 a month DSL service. The good thing about that ISP is it's month-by-month, so if I find that I want to ditch it for another ISP, I can. Thanks everyone!