[sclug] ADSL Diary

[tim]

Dear all, in case you are interested here is a diary of my installation of
ADSL. Have thought about it for a long time, the adsl that is not the diary
and finally went for it.

Going to use the adsl to enable ease of joint development with a guy in
london. So the idea is

VPN to create a WAN/LAN between us
private webserver
mailserver
will probably try playing Everquest as well

Day 1 17/09/2002
Ordered ADSL connection from Zen Internet.
Used Zen because according to adslguide.org they were one of the best with a
good track record. Also
	They give you 8 ip addresses. Which after mandatory allocations still
leaves you with multiple static ip addresses.
	You can cancel the contract and they will refund you some cash
	If the price drops, you will get the benefit
	They provide a backup dialup account (This can only be used when your ADSL
connection is down)
	They helpdesk guy was actually helpfull
	I like the name - sorry
Day 3 19th
BT guy arrives to check phone line. First socket he checks db is over 60 so
he says sorry can't have adsl arrrrrggggghhhh. I ask fhim to check another
socket.
He says it probably won't make any difference, you are too far from the
exchange. Checks 2nd socket 55db - I can have adsl pppphheew.
The db bit is apparently caused by white noise on the line, as technology
gets better there will be less and adsl will spread further out. Also he
said its not a case
that I will get a lesser service than someone with 20db, it is either ok or
its not ! Not sure about this.
Day 7 23/09/2002
Finally decided which modem to go for. Went for the Linksys Etherfast part
no. BEFSR81. Mainly because it was cheap (?65). (By the way I found ACTION
now Insight a lot cheaper than DABS). Also bought 2 splitters ?4.99 each and
an extra ethernet card for the ipcop machine 3com ?26 not the cheapest but I
like 3com NIC cards. Paid an extra ?1 for next day delivery
Day 8 24/09/2002
Informed by Zen that the ADSL was active
Splitters and NIC card arrive. Modem does not (from a different warehouse
and a different courier)
Day 9 Hassle Insight. told that courier did not know where my house
was(guess they don't have internet access - streetmap), so will deliver
tomorrow. Got refund of ?1 though had to be on phone for 30mins :-)( - Its
the principle
Day 10 still waiting

Watch out for the next thrilling installment  zzzz zzzz zzzzz.

Hope this of use/interest

Tim