Re: Looking for new MVEND ISP

[John Armstrong <siberian@siberian.org>]

Our DSL is both good and bad. We have about 6 servers behind (2) 
1.5mb lines from different providers with mixed results. The upside 
is its cheap, real cheap. Its also fast, real fast. However,if you 
are not in an 'optimal' location ( read : within 10,000 feet of the 
Central Office ) be prepared for some issues as time goes on. About 
once every month or two we go down for a few hours and Northpoint has 
to do an emergency dispatch.

However, we have saving upwards of $700-$1500 a month in bandwidth 
and co-location fee's so it is well worth the cost. If you are on a 
budget, DSL is a great way to go. If you just got that $10 million 
venture capital cash infusion, do yourself a favor and go to a good 
co-location facility..

We also have about 10 lines spread out to employees homes. There is a 
direct comparison between uptime and distance from the CO. My 
personal line is about 20,000-30,000 feet from the CO and I had to 
pull arms to even get it ( 144k line, DSL over ISDN : IDSL ). Even to 
this day when I call for problems they can not believe I have it. 
Point being, I go down for at least 5-10 min a day.

John-

>******    message to minivend-users from austad@fallon.com     ******
>
>Even though my line is considered residential and not "high-priority", I have
>at least a 99% uptime.  For $330 a month, I can get guaranteed 100% uptime at
>768kbps.
>
>A t-1's max throughput is 1.544Mbps, about 2 times faster that a 768k DSL
>line.  However, depending on your ISP, they may set up the line as burstable
>and still claim 768k, which means you can just burst to 768k, and then it
>drops off to a lower speed.  The european equivalent of a t-1 is an e-1 and
>has 2Mbps throughput.
>
>For someone looking to run a shopping site out of their home over DSL, Qwest
>(http://www.qwest.com) offers 768k sustained transfer DSL lines for $330 a
>month.  And the guarantee 100% uptime.  I currently have USWest for a
>provider, and if you have the extra money to spend on Qwest, do it.  The
>people who work at USWest will make your setup process hell, and if something
>does break, each department will claim it's another department's fault, and
>you will be transferred around for a couple of hours before you get anything
>accomplished.
>
>Whatever you do, don't even try getting a cable modem for hosting.  90% of all
>cable companies are oversubscribing and they are slow at peak hours, and most
>have strict policies about running servers.
>
>DSL is a great option for running a shopping site, and you have control over
>your own server.  However, I've set up lines at the place I live now, and my
>previous address, and both times the setup was complete and total hell.  But
>it was worth it.  Much cheaper than a fractional T-1, and I still have control
>of my servers.
>
>Jay
>
>
> >I think you all may be forgetting the downside of a DSL line... The
> >major benefit to it is the cost, yes, I agree, however; its NOT a T-1
> >line.  A DSL line is also not considered a ``Priority 1'' line either,
> >which basically means, if you have the lines go down, a T-1 line will
> >have priority over a DSL.
> >
> >Speed is also a factor, T-1's can have sustained speeds up to
> >2MBit/sec., DSL can have that only one way (unless you work something
> >out with your provider) - and that is usually downstream, not upstream.
> >
> >Basically depending on your situation a DSL line is nice, just like a
> >cablemodem is too. However, you need to remember about downtimes, etc...
> >you dont want to have a line go down on you and not have your site up!
> >:-)
> >
> >thats my $0.02 :-)
> >
> >Jason Korkin.
>
>
>-
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