Thanks for the info, Andy. That answered it all. Now I have to talk myself into swallowing about $110 per month in fees. Plus a lot in up front costs. Paul andy at theasis.com wrote: > > While looking for a new ISP, I discovered that cost of ISDN is quite a > > bit lower. > > Lower than what? > > > I live far from town. There is no DSL, no cable. This is my cheapest > > alternative to 56K. > > I have a similar problem. I'm in Ham Lake. Even tho DSL and cable are > nearby, there are infrastructure problems. I've been using ISDN for about > 4 years. This year I got a second line, and so actually am > multihomed. This allows for some fun with the firewall/router. > > > A couple of questions if anyone else has an ISDN hookup. > > > > 1) What exactly do I have to get from Qworst? > > Think of all Internet service as comprised of 2 pieces: the circuit and > the IP bandwidth. > > You must get the ISDN circuit from Qwest (probably no > alternatives). That's the part that costs $69/month, plus fees, which > comes to about $82. They also charge you $110 for installation. > > Once you have that, you could connect through any ISP who has ISDN > service. The bad news is that this is more expensive for the ISP than DSL, > since they pretty much have to dedicate a line to each customer. > > Qwest is about the cheapest option, but it's worth looking around in your > area. They charge about $30/month for unlimited usage at 128k. If you want > static IP, they make you pay $14.95/month for a /29. Maybe also a $25 > hookup fee. > > > Do they string a new line? > > Yes > > > Can I use my current phone line? > > No > > But ISDN is 2 64k channels, so if you get a router with a POTS port, you > can plug a regular phone into that, maybe making it possible to get rid of > your current phone line. Just about any modern router will allow incoming > phone calls to bring down a data channel automatically. > > > Do I have to pay them a monthly fee in addition to the ISP? > > See above. > > > 2) Is it really faster. > > Yeah, I really do get 128k/s on many things on the qwest link. Other > advantages are 24/7 uptime without getting an extra phone line. > > > I don't mind paynig extra if I get 128K, but > > I don't see any mention of that on the > > Qworst site. Just 64K. Can only certain locations get 128K and the > > rest get 64K? > > That sounds odd to me. There's no reason to limit it based on the circuit, > since it is inherently 2-channel. Many ISPs charge you per channel for > bandwidth, though, because it uses more of their resources. I haven't > found qwest to do this. > > > The ISP web pages quote 64/128K prices but is it as simple as paying > > more to get the 128K? > > Now which ISP are you talking about? If qwest is doing that, then it > is a different policy than they use elsewhere. > > > Or does my phone line need to checked? > > There are distance and line quality considerations. Relevance depends on > where you live. > > > 3) Is any old ISDN modem adeqaute for dial-up service? > > Get an ISDN Router, an external box, and make sure it has POTS ports. > > > Some are $200, some are $300. What is $300 buying me? > > Something brand new and shiny, I guess. > > > There is a $195 USR ISDN modem at mwave.com. Says its the replacement > > for the > > 3COM Impact IQ modem, which seemed to be quite populare on google. > > That would seem to be enough, no? > > That would probably be enough, tho I'm not familiar with that model. > > If you go to Ebay, you can find > Lucent (Ascend) Pipeline P75 or P80 > Cisco 804 > NetGear RT328/348 > Zyxel P100 > > All of which will go for ~$100, perhaps well under, except the Cisco. They > are easy to configure. The cisco is more involved, but has the benefit of > using IOS, in case you want to talk to real routers. > > > 4) Any other costs I'm overlooking?a > > Hardware > Circuit (installation & monthly) > Bandwith (monthly) > Your Time > > That's pretty much it. > Good luck > > Andy > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://shadowknight.real-time.com/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20010929/fd31356c/attachment.htm