On Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 01:49:56PM -0800, Steve wrote: > I called up verizon and it sounds like they have a pretty decent deal > on DSL, but the sales person said verizon only support mac and windows. > She said they basically mail me a dsl modem.
Let me put in a plug for some people that I think highly of; I've been their customer for several years. Call CharmNet, charm.net, at 410-361-8160, ask to talk to Brook or Jason in tech support or Dave in sales and tell them I sent you. (No, I don't get a kickback.) (That I know of.) (Yet.) Their DSL deal might not sound quite as good as Verizon's at first glance, but: (a) they have far more clue than your average Verizon front-line person (b) they're Linux-friendly -- and OpenBSD-friendly, and so on (c) they're using Actiontec modems which allow you to share voice/data on the same line, and which, unless I'm mistaken, run Linux and (d) they will, if you ask, get you a static IP address, which Verizon won't do. And there's one other thing: my experience with them has been that if there's a problem that's clearly affecting multiple customers (like: insane routing updates propagated by ALGX, or in-the-tunnels fire that melts fiber optic cables, etc.) that I don't *have* to call them: they already know, they're already on it, and if it's within their power to fix it, they're already doing it. Compare/contrast with Verizon, where the standard line is (a) there is no problem (b) the problem is in the Windows system I don't have (c) the problem can be fixed by rebooting (d) the fact that 10,000 of my network neighbors have the same problem does not indicate a systemic issue. Is it worth the price difference? I think so. Besides, I think if you work out the cost over a year, I don't think it's that much.
