ISDN questions!

[Donuts]

I live in the county where this is my only upgrade possible from 24k. I have absolutely no knowledge of ISDN. Reading the pac-bell site says you get 200 hrs off time free and pay a regular rate from 8-5. It also says you have to dial into what looks like a long distance number! Do you still keep your internet provider? Standard fee is around $29 a month. But what is it really going to cost me if I'm on 25 hrs a month during peak time. Thanks

 

[pm]

First off, there's usually two rates: one for 64kbps and then another for 128kbps. The first is usually included in the service, but adding the second 64kbps channel costs more. This is in my experience, this may be different at PacBell.

It can be "always on" or you can have it "dial on demand", but this dialing is REALLY fast and the whole log-in process on ISDN usually takes less than 10 seconds.

I'm not sure about the long-distance number part. It shouldn't be a long distance number... but again, I'm not sure how it works with PacBell.

$29/month for 128kbps ISDN is amazingly cheap in my experience. I'm used to seeing more like $50+ per month, not counting the charges for peak bandwidth, etc. You might want to check this. Installation is usually pretty expensive too.

You might be able to keep your old ISP, if they support ISDN. This is getting rare in these days of xDSL though.

Can you get 144kbps IDSL? Or any SDSL service? They usually run out pretty far. If you are close enough to get ISDN and your CO is wired for DSL, you usually can get IDSL - which is always on, and doesn't have strange rate changes depending on the time of day in my experience.

I'd phone PacBell directly though and talk to them about rates. $29/month seems too little. A co-worker is paying $70/month for it in Denver, CO. I looked into ISDN for my parents (who live out in the country in Napa, CA) and it was pretty expensive under PacBell. ISDL was a lot cheaper, so I got them that instead (it was $50/month including ISP).

 

[office boy]

Dual ISDN at my work costs us $120 for the service from our ISP, and then another $60 from GTE (er verizon) per month. and that?s for only 200 hours. and if you are using both cannels then you are charged double (one line = 64K, Two = 128K) It's all digital and so you don?t really notice the dialup time. And the number is not long distance, your just never seen your ISDN numbers before.

 

[Soccerman]

yeah, here the only option for higher speed access, would be ISDN. however, there's absolutely no documentation on it at all with my ISP, or my phone company on their website (though I bet ANYTHING, if I phone them, I'd be able to get info on pricing in my area).

basically, the only issues you need to worry about are the pricing..

 

[Instigator]

PM,
I currently have ISDN through GTE. I have had it for the past 2 years. I currently pay $110 a month (ouch):| for the line and $40 a month for 100 hours (128k) for my ISP. My ISP is now offering SDSL and I'm assuming the best I'm going to be able to get is IDSL (144k). IDSL is only $70 total. How do you like your IDSL? Is it equal to ISDN in performance? I mostly play online games and my ISDN line is excellent. On good servers I consistantly run 80-90 ms pings. I would be really interested in how you like your IDSL. Thanks.

 

[Donuts]

Thanks for the info guys. I got a buddy who works for pac-bell in the Central Cal. area. He told me they have ISDN for $28. I checked their web site and it does say it's $28 with a $130 install fee plus some other small monthly fees. My current provider will work with ISDN. I emailed Pac-bell with my questions weeks ago but they didn't respond. Guess it's time to make the call to them. thanks again!

 

[Lord Evermore]

ISDN service is essentially the same thing as standard dialup, but it's digital. Any service provider can provide ISDN service, all they have to have is an ISDN NAS (network access server), just like an analog NAS, and ISDN lines to the telco (or a PRI, which is basically a T1 with individual channels used as ISDN channels). The telco does nothing but provide the digital phone network for your connection to pass over. ISDN can be used for voice or data (you can do both at once even, with one of the 2 channels for each service).

ISDN is slightly more difficult to configure than a standard analog, but these days it's pretty easy, and many devices and OS's can autodetect some settings. The ISP you choose will probably walk you through the setup anyway.

However getting ISDN service doesn't usually go through the provider. You have to order the circuit from the telco and have it installed by them, then configure your equipment yourself, and get things like the phone number to dial from the ISP you choose (you don't have to use the telco's ISP).

For more money you can also have the ISP handle all the ordering and stuff, but it's usually much more expensive.

The phone number that is dialled is entirely dependent on the ISP you choose. If the telco doesn't have a local number, shop around for local ISP's that offer ISDN. However it is indeed becoming more rare due to DSL access and the simple fact that ISDN is relatively slow compared to broadband, and far more expensive, more difficult to troubleshoot and to set up. My company provides service down the east coast and we stopped selling ISDN several months ago. Our west coast operations (which was a separate company until recently) has actually started shutting down all ISDN services, meaning customers must migrate to another service or find another ISP).

ISDN is generally quite expensive. The first channel is sometimes part of the flat rate for the line, and usage on the second channel is billed by the minute when it's used (the software used to connect can usually control this). Sometimes you're billed by the minute no matter how many channels you use. Or you may be able to get a flat rate billing. And that's JUST the telco cost for the physical line and service. Your ISP is an additional charge.

 

[Instigator]

PM,
Any comments on the IDSL? I'm just curious.

 

[pm]

Instigator: I ordered it for my parents, and I installed the network and the router at their home once it was installed. I played around briefly with it while I was hooking everything up. They are very happy with it.

Latency was low - lower than my cable modem IIRC.
Bandwidth was pretty much exactly as advertised, no more, no less.
Price was $50/month including ISP.
Reliability is pretty high. In fact, they have only had one period of downtime (like 3 hours) in 6 months.

But I never really played around with it much - just enough to get it installed. Like I said, they are very pleased. But I didn't spend enough time to really get a good feel for it.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Keep in mind that most DSL companies are having serious financial problems.

 

[Instigator]

PM,
Thanks for the info!