anybody using SBC Yahoo DSL?

[Brian Kelsay]

Thanks to all the guys that responded today.  Two were off list and very 
helpful.  I got to deal with their tech support tonight at a friends 
house after work.  Unfortunately the tech support was from India and so 
my friend couldn't understand them.  They also were unable to get her 
modem provisioned today.  They have some Authentication server that the 
support person figured was down.  Doesn't mean it was really down, that 
was just her scripted response.  At least now I know what tech support 
will be like.  Hope I never have to use it.  The deal maker will be that 
I get free equipment and that the cost stays level for a year instead of 
just a few months like they offered before.  This will probably end up 
saving $20-30 a month and every bit helps.

I will be using IPCop still so using dyndns or a similar service is not 
a problem.  They have built-in clients for handling the updates and 
built-in PPPoE support to keep the connection alive.  As you say James, 
I may need a Winders PC to run the software the first time.  I was 
looking at my friend's and it looked like the software handled the 
provisioning of the modem.  I may be able to do without it by having 
tech support provision it, but who knows.

Again, thanks for all the advice.


James Sissel wrote:
> I started with Telocity which was bought out by
> DirecTV which folded and switched over to SBC service.
>  When that happened I got a new 2wire DSL modem.  I
> paid $200 for it (a ripoff) but was "reimbursed" by
> lower monthly bills the first year.
> 
> I did setup via a Windows PC but it looked like it was
> just using a webpage servered up by the modem.  I
> think the address translated to 192.16.0.1 to talk to
> the modem.  After I setup the modem I deleted all of
> the installed software on the Windows PC.  I still
> talk to the modem via a webpage and can download
> updates and do all the administration.  Of course part
> of the 150 Megs of crap software they install on the
> Windows PC is a "monitoring" program for the modem so
> they can serve me better.
> 
> I setup one Gentoo Linux PC by name in the DSL modem
> and passed the IP address directly through to it and I
> serve a simple set of webpages on it now.  I have an
> account on http://www.dyndns.org/ but don't have the
> software installed quite correctly on the Linux box to
> update the IP address every time it changes.  Since I
> have frequent power blinks at my house it sometimes
> changes often.  I need to UPS the DSL modem in the
> basement.
> 
> I have never noticed an outage.  I have never had to
> call customer service.  I use paid Yahoo as my email
> but see no reason I couldn't setup other servers.  I
> have run SMTP servers on my Windows PC to send mail
> out on occasion.
> 
> I have the $26.95 year contract.  The speed of the
> downloads are often better than here at work.
> 
> Oh, the 2wire modem is also a DHCP server and firewall
> so you just have to hook up a hub and then as many PCs
> as you wish.
> 



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Somewhere there is a village missing an idiot.