DSL Question

I was just wondering this. Im not sure if it varies from service to service , But with a DSL box from your provider , does it require any kind of authentication to initiate a connection with the box ? Im wondering this , because in a pawn shop I happened to notice someone had pawned a DSL speed stream box , and I thought that the box was always aupplied by the ISP itself , what im wondering is that if anyone in there can buy it , install an ethernet card and plugin and have a working DSL connection.. But I mean if they live in the area , or close to the phone company it would work better..But even if you did manage to get a working DSL session , the phone company would still bill you ? I mean im not looking for a free isp , but im concerned why someone would pawn in a DSL Speed stream box...Any explanations on this would be helpful..

Hey dude

PPPoE requires authentication... you are authenticated threw the dialer... so you'd have to have a working username and password... and you'd have to have filters for a clean connection but other than that.. you're good to go. As far as your location, you have to be within a certain distance to a loop, but they're usually everwhere now in cities with DSL, so that would make no difference, being closer doesn't give you a better connection. As for the DSL Modem... many companies now have the option of buying from them so you don't have to rent every month, and yeah you can use any modem. So someone who had bought the modem when they got their DSL later cancelled the service and rather than holding onto a modem that was useless, they took it to the pawn shop and picked up a few bucks for it.

Some ISP's might allow you to get your own hardware, or allow you to purchase the DSL modem from them, and thats probably how it ended up there. If you were to get it to connect I dont think the phone company would bill you, they would probably either just disable the user account on their end, or possibly press charges if you manged to use it without their notice for a decent length of time. Still a good buy tho to add to the hardware collection ;)

Thank You all for your posts . HtRegz , would you mind ellaborating on having filters for a clean connection ?

DSL operates threw your phone line. There are several channels on your phone line, so mulitple forms of data can be used. These channels operate at different frequencies. Normally your connection is filtered at a termination point on the other end (for plain phone connections (POTS - Plain Old Telephone System)), so only that one frequency can be used. However with DSL you need access to those multiple frequences, so they can't filter you on the far end. Your side would mix the frequencies and you'd have connection loss. Whenever your telephone rang or you picked it up your DSL connection would drop (similar to how a regular modem works now). The solution, filter the signals at your end, so every line that has a telephone, or now satellite or alarm systems, must be filtered so that it doesn't get the noise of the other frequences, or disrupt the other frequencies. The only line left unfiltered is your DSL Modem so that it can access the full range of frequences, combining the channels (different frequences) to give you your high speed access.

Sorry.. I'm by no means an expert on this topic, but that's my understanding of it.. someone could prolly explain it in more technical terms..

HTRegz, being closer does give you a better connection. That's one of the reasons why DSL suppliers can increase the speed by adding amplifiers / DSLAM points. It depends on the distance for your modem to sync with the line speed. Therefor if you are within 500 metres of a conenction DSLAM you can get 8Mbps. This is impossible at more distance. ISP's need to search the ideal mix between speed and overall stability. If your network has many users that are on the edge of max distance you cannot increase speed without loosing on stability (sync). If many users are close to centrals you can easily gain up without loosing sync stability. The distance is thus on of the major issues for a DSL line. But you don't notice cause the telephone companies asure everyone has reasonable speed and stability by adding network equipment.

About getting a DSL modem not from your ISP itself. I purchase my ADSL equipment alwaus myself at some other point. Cause this way I can choose what brand and connections, Alcatel and Ethernet offcourse ;) You always need a PPPoE authentication before you can surf. So you can line sync your modem when ADSL is setup on that line but you need an account and password to connect to the servers.

About filter, filters are necessary to keep the ADSL signal clean, simple as that. ADSL operates into the higher frequency areas of your normal telephone line.

My apologies..... I know you have to be within a certain point to the DSLAM (which was what i tried to convey), but I didn't know it was a "better" connection, no DSL company here will offer more than 3Mbps.. with the standard package being 1Mbps. I shouldn't have added the line Being closer doesn't give you a better connection. The point I wanted to convey was that it doesn't make a difference anymore, at least here it doesn't, but if ya'll are getting 8Mbps in places.. I guess it does.

hmmmm I'm at 3Mbps, the theoretical maximum for today's ADSL standard is 8Mbps, to achieve this you need to be in close distance to the DSLAM. In the past everyone overhere was at
1.5Mbps but since Belgacom started to add centrals every ADSL ISP could offer 3Mbps cause the network owner (Belgacom) placed more amplifiers/central points. So, basicly if you have a dense enough network you can easily put everyone on 3Mbps. It will make no difference if you are far or close when it's a good network/telephoneline/cable topolgy but in theory people closer to the DSLAM could sync at more then 3Mbps, but that would mean no sync or less stability for people far away (2.4km). To give everyone a good sync, they need to do compromises on speed. So we are not getting 8Mbps, perhaps it's possible to get something like 6Mbps but unless others can't sync on that speed it stays 3Mbps for everyone. However there are providers that offer a lot faster ADSL connections under certain conditions (up to the theoretical 8Mbps down limit)

I could definately go for the 3Mbps connection....... We have a 10GB Cap (upload/download combined.. technically 5 each way. but we can do 7 and 3 or any other variation) on the 1Mbps connection... with the 3Mbps connection We'd have a 20GB Cap... but man.. 6 or 8Mbps.. I'm jealous..

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W00t My 600th post.. in 6 months.. that means 100 posts a month or 3.3 posts a day. I really have no life.. oh well. it's enough to make me happy :)
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HTregz, the bad thing is the download/upload traffic limit is 10GB / month. When you can download a linux distro iso in 35 minutes for each disc... you could easily go over that limit. However for normal use and getting some occasional iso's playing some online games and such the 10GB limit is ok. Another disadvantage: you get used to 'instant' internet. You are not used to wait anymore (that's also the commercial for Belgacom: je bent het wachten niet meer gewoon)

Yeah I had that problem when I moved down here from my hometown. We had a population of 75,000 (when there were tourists heh) and they installed the cable for a population base of 1 million (no clue why). Anyways... the average download speed was 900kb/s+ and no cap. I filled my HDD in like a day.... went threw 50-CD spindles every week.. it was great.. then I moved here and the cable pipeline sucks ... we were lucky to get 30kb/s.. I hated it..... then we went to DSL.. i'm used to the 128kb/s downloads... but i sure miss my 900..

900? that something like 7.2Mbps... at my new home, we get max 8Mbps downstream, but than I need to change our provider. With the account I have now it's only 3Mbps ... I need to reconsider getting the 8Mbps at that other provider, more speed for a lower price... :roll:

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for negative: XS4ALL offers ADSL rocket -> w00t -> 8Mbps down 256k up, 15GB traffic for a lower price then Skynet or Tiscali, you can check if it's available for your line, it needs individual quality check-up. See http://www.xs4all.be/index.php?page=011012n
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