Alternative options to DSL
DSL cheapest in the rural area I live in is $45, I use to have the best speed which was $76 but the $45 speed is fine too.
The best thing to do is get high quality phone wires, usually gold plated to maximize the communication, make sure phone jacks are do not have any corrosion on them, and that they are no longer than 4 years old, have the phone company install new ones, Also have wires firmly secured into your pc to make sure there is no physical packet loss.. The less wires the better, from your PC to your phone jack, and the less people ONLINE in your area, the better, because if you live in rural areas it will slow you down, with phone line static.
Rural areas multiplex their phone lines which mean 2 or 3 or even up to 8 people could share the same phone line. This is creates "noise" on the phone line making a modem's job very hard to descramble incoming packets, however this is done to save money, because phone companies want to maximize profits, so they make the end users suffer by multiplexing their lines, this is fine for voice communications - phones - but extremely bad for modems, and online use.
I did understand that once I got a second phone line, the interference was less this line than my original phone line, I had 2 phone lines so I would be on the net and use phone at the same time.
With the second phone line I connected at 53,333 bps which was standard, then with my original line was 28.8 which was about half the speed.
There are two alternatives to DSL and Cable though.
Their is ISDN, Integrated Services Digital Network, which is about twice as fast as the normal modem, 56k and ISDN is 128k single, the bad thing to ISDN is that it is very expensive and you still need to use a phone line for uploads. However there is dual ISDN which can in theory double your internet speed.
Also there is a "Shot Gun" modem, which never hit main stream but a few people have used it, the bad side is, 1) it isn't really accepted I will explain why... in second. 2) It is very costly.
Shotgunning a modem is where you have two modems. Then you need an ISP that supports "multiple connections" which most ISPs will not accept, if they do 90% of the ones that do accept will charge extra for it.(To connect both modems to the internet service provider probably around )
Then you will need two phone lines, one connects to the other and the other modem to the second phone line. Then you will need to "multilink" your modems in the Internet Configuration, which is another article by itself
In theory shotgunning a modem will double your speed, I have never done this but a friend has done this with excellent results.
I hope this tutorial covers the basics. I will go more in depth in later articles if anyone wants to know anything more about the selected topics.
Any questions please ask. Again this was from pure experience, I typed all of this and didn't use anything from any books. Hope it helps!
Re: Alternative options to DSL
You forgot WIFI!
In the Netherlands http://www.itslogic.nl/php/wifi.php?R_ID=2437
WiFi particulier vanaf: € 49 p/m....................fun account?!
WiFi zakelijk vanaf: € 99 p/m .......................enterprise!
WiFi heeft met een snelheid t/m 11Mbit/sec een ruime voorsprong op Kabel of ADSL
WiFi speed 11Mbit/sec much faster than Cable or ADSL.
