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ISDN, How much is it ? How far does it go ?

B

BigLance

Golden Member
I live in the middle of nowhere, Satallite is doable, but gaming is sucky... I relize this isn't super fast, but hopefully the price wants to be like the speed ? Anyway, just wondering about it...

let me know what you know !
 
How far out? About 5 miles. How much is it? Usually very expensive, but there are big differences in price depending on your carrier. I've heard as much as $120/month (w/ ISP) to as little as $50/month (again, w/ ISP). Locally (Qwest in Colorado), it's pretty expensive. It's about $60/month with a $30 ISP - so $90/month total.

IDSL achieves essentially the same thing as ISDN using similar methods and it's usually a little cheaper but your CO must be wired for it.
 
ISDN should be the absolute last resort. If cable and dsl are out of the question than you may want to look into satellite, but the upload speeds are a little slow making online gaming not so good. The price I normally see for ISDN is around 70 to 90 dollars. You could also try to shotgun two modems but you need two seperate phone lines.

Glp1
 
ISDN is a very reliable connection that can be an 'almost always on' connection like DSL or Cable. Ping speeds are generally pretty good for online gaming, and your download speeds will never exceed 15k/s unless it's an uncompressed file (.txt for example). Most of the time you will average 12k/s up or down.

If DSL is available in your area, get that instead, you'll pay the same for DSL vs. ISDN and the DSL will be faster downstream, and possibly upstream as well if you pay for it.

ISDN cost me about $60/month when my roommate and I had it, and he worked for Internet America so the account cost us nothing. I assume $20 would be a normal monthly fee for your account. Then if you want static IPs you will probably pay $5/month per IP, if you have more than one machine.

More than likely after all is said and done, minimum would be $75 per month, but hell, anything is better than dialup. At least on ISDN your speeds are almost always constant.

dm
 
Furthermore, ISDN is old technology. Better to stick with the newer dsl and cable broadband connections.
 
ISDN has several advantages over two ganged modems, and it's usually not that much more (locally the difference is about $18/month). Latency is should be really low (<100ms vs. ~200ms for modems). Bandwidth is guaranteed (vs. paying for 2 x 56k and getting 2 x 33.6k) . A lot of times it's either always on, but when it's dial-in, the dialing is digital and literally only takes a second or two to connect (versus a good 30 seconds more on a modem).

On the plus side, BigLance, help is probably on the way (if you can afford to wait a long time). ADSL is now out to 5 miles in trial. See this press release (EETimes just did an article on it in the Jan. 15th issue too).

Edit: No offense, Biggs, but does it really matter how old the technology is if it gets the job done? I'm sure that if BigLance had access to a low latency, high bandwidth, cheap internet service using 100+ year-old telegraph technology for his online needs, he'd probably use that.
 
Hey, another Colorado resident !
Well thanks for the advice, guess it IS not an option.
Satallite is all I have access to 🙁

Oh well...
 
I have ISDN at my house. It's not terrible fast or cheap. But it's a lot better then a 56k modem. I get approximately 10-15k download and upload speeds. The best thing about it is, the reliablity. The connection won't get dropped hardly at all. Matter of fact I've never seen it drop but I'm sure it could. It will travel fairly far from the Central Office (CO) I would say that almost everyone should be able to get it.

The costs...

$100-200 for installation

$200 or more for a terminal adapter (ISDN modem)

$40-70 a month from the local bell company for ISDN service.

$29.95 or about for ISP Internet service. (my provider is earthlink)

Be aware most LEC's or CLECs will require a 1 year service contract.


Good Luck!

live4spd@earthlink.net




P.S. I don't visits the forums very often so use private mail if you wish to contact me.
 
ISDN...absolute last resort! Expensive ($200 ISDN modem or router, $100 or per month in many places), and if it starts not working...ugh! If it weren't for Tribes' stuttering, I'd say my current one-way cable is in every way better than ISDN. If you have no other options, go for it. But don't hold on to it. If DSL or cable gets to town, sell your ISDN stuff on e-bay and go. 🙂
 
BigLance,

are you line-of-sight to Cheyenne Mountain?
You might be in the Sprint Broadband coverage area for Colorado Springs.

 
I live out near Calhan for you Colorado guys...

I am not positive, but I don't think I am eligable for the Broadband, I sent an e-mail and they told me that I could not get it... I don't know if it was distance (35-40 miles from Pikes Peak) or the poop line of sight... I guess its Satalite or my Modem (just now getting 50k, was stuck with 21k until we got a second line !!! So that helps !)...

Thanks for the HELP !
 
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