I just spent the last 10-15 minutes getting my 256KB DSL full-time
internet service up and running. WOW!

Though this post has no bird content, those of you who surf the
net looking for information on birds, birding, photos of birds,
or birding areas, etc may find my quick report of interest,
because this new service is a very cost-effective way to get the
kind of high-speed internet link that until now has only been
available at relatively high cost.

US West offers this service for $40/month (net cost for many is
lower, read furhter), it's easy to install, and works every bit
as well as advertised. You can still use your existing ISP - mine,
Pacifier in Vancouver, WA, charges absolutely nothing extra for the
256KB service, I pay the same $19.95/mo (discounted 'cause I pay
annually).

Several cool things besides the obvious fast speed:

1. You can get 1/2 of a T1 for about $80/month (wholly toledo! One
T1 is what most ISPs started out with a few years ago!), though
ISPs charge more. That's 768 KBS each way for the uninitiated.
If you've got money - or say are looking at wiring someplace
like Seattle Audubon - you can get all the way up to 7MBS down,
1MBS up (for more money of course)

This is also a full-time connection, so you don't have to sit
and watch your modem dial-up, get frustrated with busy signals
or modems that ring and never answer, etc. There's a brief
start-up protocol when you've not been using the net connection
for awhile, but it's transparent to you.

2. You get your POTS ("Plain Old Telephone Service") on the same
line. This is VERY cool if you currently have two phone lines,
one for internet access, one for personal use. With DSL, you
are charged your normal residential rate plus the $40/month for
data access. BUT ... if you have two lines currently and use
one exclusively for internet access, you can cancel that second line
and in reality you only pay the DIFFERENCE between the second
line and the DSL line (about $10/mo or so here in PDX).

3. In Oregon, at least (and I think Washington) THE HARDWARE IS
FREE IF YOU ORDER BY MARCH 31, 1999. They even Airborne
Expressed it to me at no charge, gosh. The baby router
box you get costs about $295, and they toss in an expensive
"feature phone" too, so this is a very good deal.

4. It is the telephone company, who can't even look at a wire
without charging you, so there is a one-time $110 fee to
set up the service. This involves physical line testing
on their part, so to some degree is justified.

5. It's easy to set up yourself, if you can install a network
card (or have one in your computer), you can do without
paying them the $150 they charge to come to your site
and install the hardware for you (again, not an unreasonable
charge as they have to take your machine apart and install
the card, unless you already have a network card installed).

Anyway, personal friends have been asking me questions about
this service, wondering if it really works as advertised and
if the phone company really is giving away the hardware and if
you really, really, really can use the phone at the same time
as you're on the 'net (and anything else hooked to the phone
line, like modems - important if you use your computer for
faxes or voicemail - and answering machines) even if you only
have the one line, etc etc. So I thought at least a couple
of folks in tweeterdom might be interested in hearing of my
initial personal experience installing and using it.

OK, I've bored y'all enough. If anyone has questions about
this feel free to e-mail me privately, it's not really
tweeters material.



- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net