James said:
If I am asking this question in the wrong group, please let me know.
I use XP and I am seriously considering changing my internet connection
from the cable company to the phone company fiber optic line (Comcast to
Verizon). I know a fair amount of the necessary details to set up
Verizon but I am still unclear as to whether I could have both services
available in a transition period while I inform others of the change.
Can anyone give some advice and perhaps detail their own experiences?
I'm not sure it's relevant to what you want to do, but I did something
like that back when. My first broadband was a Verizon DSL line (though
they were "Bell Atlantic" at the time), with a "Personal" account at
640KB down/90KB up. Getting up and running was a nightmare, as BA
screwed up just about everything that *could* be screwed up in
processing the order, starting with mis-recording the credit card
number. It took about three months, and much time on the phone and in
email with a BA supervisor, before I was up and running. Once I *was*
up, things pretty much just worked.
Meanwhile, my local cable company recalled I had inquired about
broadband, and called to let me know that after some upgrades, cable
modem service was available in my area, and did I want it? The self
install kit was a $99 charge, and the office where I could pick it up
was across the street. It was the same monthly price as the DSL line,
but three times as fast (2MB down/384K up). No brainer yes decision.
On the DSL line, I attached a splitter jack to my telephone line, and
set up a DSL modem. My DSL connection shared the phone line with my
voice line. (For reasons related to landlord stupidity, I couldn't get
a second phone line.) The DSL modem attached via a cat 5 patch cord to
a 3Com ethernet card in my PC.
When I got the cable modem, I thought about getting a second NIC card,
but it wasn't needed. The cable modem connected to my PC via a USB cable.
I kept both connections for some time, as having had broadband, I wanted
a high-speed backup if one or the other went down.
It *was* a little tricky getting everything to work as desired. I used
Outlook for email, and had both Verizon and Roadrunner email accounts.
Verizon mail had to be collected over the DSL line, and Roadrunner mail
over the cable connectiom
Outlook was not a problem, as it could be told in the configuration
which connection to use. What happened after was a bit more complex.
Because the cable modem was several times faster, I preferred to use it
for browsing. The problem was that it apparently wasn't possible to
have both the DSL connection *and* the cable modem active at the same
time, going out over different interfaces. (This was in the Win98 SE
days.) If the DSL line was open, Windows used it as the browsing link.
I had to specifically close the connection and hang up the DSL line
before I could use the cable modem to browse. Win98 made this a PITA,
as it held open the DSL connection while I was in Outllok. Win2K was
*much* nicer about this: after Outlook finished picking up the mail from
BA, it would close the connection and hang up the DSL line, then proceed
to pick up the RR mail through the cable modem. I could browse links
sent to either address using the cable line.
Another difference is that BA used WinPPOE for the DSL line. I had to
specifically authenticate to thier network and supply ID and password
when I connected. The cable modem had no such requirement. Once I was
setup and plugged in, it was always on and I was connected.
I eventually dropped the DSL line, as my cable company had increased my
incoming speed twice, to 3MB/Sec and then 5MB/Sec, at no additional
cost, and the cable service had been quite reliable, so I felt less need
for a backup.
I don't know exactly what Verizon is doing where you are, so I'm not
sure my DSL experience is applicable, but teh above might give you some
things to look at.
James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland
______
Dennis
