Think I'm going with ISDN

[Mark42]

No cable or DSL where I live. Satellite is too expensive. So I looked into ISDN. I can get ISDN where I live. Local phone company is running a dedicated ISDN line to my house. If it can be strung without and boosters, then I'll get a ISDN ISP provider. If it needs a booster, it will cost another $25 a month, and that makes it questionable.<br /><br />ISDN sounds neat. 128K digital dedicated line, no sharing, 3 second logon, no problems with line noise, etc. The big expense is the line... $200 to have it installed. Then $34 a month line service charge, and 29.95 a month for the ISDN ISP. I save $37 on my old PC phone line and ISP so net expense is 26.95 more a month than I was paying for plain dial up service.<br /><br />Anyone here using ISDN? What do you think of it? Who is your provider?<br /><br />Mark.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Think I'm going with ISDN

Looking at ISDN modems. Lots used on e-bay. Is USR/3com still the best?

 

[Limited-Time]

Re: Think I'm going with ISDN

We had ISDN at the last place I worked prior to moving to a partial T1 line, and I now have DSL at home. The DSL and ISDN line seem to be the same, (going by memory now) both were HUGE improvements over dial up, always on and respectable down load speeds.

 

[JasonB]

Re: Think I'm going with ISDN

I used to use an Eicon/Diva TA, great unit. The 3Com/USR standard modem is probably the easiest to configure and use.<br /><br />I've also Used Motorolla BitSurfr's here at work. Good, but some of the older ones aren't 100% compatible with some other TA's so I would avoid them. Alot of this depends on what your carrier recommends and will support.<br /><br />My brother is in your position and his only "faster than dial-up" option is ISDN. He replaced his pots line completely. Since ISDN is comprised of 3 channels (2 B channels that are similar to reg. phone lines, and a D channel that controls them). He can surf the net on both channels at 128k, but if a call comes in or someone in the house picks up a phone, teh TA automatically unbonds the B channels and releases one for the phone call, dropping his internet connection to 64k. When the call is complete, teh TA can add the channel back in and he's back to 128k. Becareful If you replace your POTS line completely with the ISDN as ISDN tends to be finicky during rain/storms (here at least),a nd if your power goes out and you don't have a battery backup for your TA (modem), your phone is gone as well. My biggest gripe is that with the Telco I was with, to get residential ISDN, you had to go through the Business Services office, and since it was Residential, you were treatd as second class. In my state, residential ISDN is/was subsidised by a technology grant as well as regulated to a certain price by the Govt. Supposedly, the Telco made nothing off Residential ISDN. They also were sticklers that your inside equipment ( your TA) isn't there problem, they only had to verify service to the terminus on your house.

 

[roscoe]

Re: Think I'm going with ISDN

You can get satellite for $49-$59 a month, thats only $12-22 more than you were paying.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Think I'm going with ISDN

Limited-time,<br /><br />That is good news. You got me motiviated. I called Sprint and cancelled the original ISDN order, and placed a new one. Now they dropped the $200 phone line charge, I have two new numbers, both unlisted, with caller id, call waiting, and a few other "package" goodies all for $46 monthly service charge. So I can cancel my regular house phone and PC phone lines and dial up ISP for the savings. Then an additional 29.95 month for ISDN ISP service.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Think I'm going with ISDN

Roscoe,<br /><br />Satellite sounds good on the surface, has problems: <br /><br />1) if you use any VPN with a satellite system, the connection is automatically cut back to 57K. Same as dial up. I need VPN to conntect to my employer. So why pay $49-$59 a month for dial up speed?<br /><br />2) for $49.00 a month, most satellite services are giving you only 100k speed. Less than a dedicated digital ISDN line at 128K. And the ISDN is not affected by clouds, rain, etc.<br /><br />3) to get high speed satelite at 500k or more is at least $70 a month.<br /><br />4) satellite ISP's will cut back your bandwidth if you go over your allocation. So you pay of unlimmited high speed 500K access only to be cut back to 70 or 80k because you downloaded some big files for work.<br /><br />5) satellite requires a hefty investment in hardware. Some as low as $500, but most are up around $800. <br /> <br />The more I looked into satellite, the less it fit my needs. I know there are people who like it, but it just isn't what I need.<br /><br />Besides, what is wrong with 1970's business technology?

 

[Mark42]

Re: Think I'm going with ISDN

BTW, anyone got a USR T/A model 3CP3468A that your not using? Sure could use one!

 

[ndemge]

Re: Think I'm going with ISDN

I used ISDN for a few years until my area finally got dsl.<br /><br />I always used a Lucent Pipeline 75 Router. It had two ports in the back to hook your phone lines to. The lucent was my favorite, but it didn't have a gui interface. I've also used a 3com IDSN Router with limited sucess, and for a while a Cisco800 that worked completely overkill.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Think I'm going with ISDN

I picked up a 3Com 3C882 ISDN Terminal Adapter(modem) off e-bay for $20 ($399 new). It does not incorporate a router. I chose this model because I just want to plug it into the ISDN serial port on my router. I does support compression, and with the ISP I'll be using, through put should be 230kbps upload and download. That will beat the pants off the 42.0kbps or 38.6kbps connection I'm getting now with dial up. More than twice as fast as basic satellite.<br /><br />If it all works well, I'll look for a newer IDSN modem with USB 2 connection that will run at the higher compression "speed" of 480kbps. Still not as fast as DSL, but not too shabby for $29.95/mo

 

[Mark42]

Re: Think I'm going with ISDN

Been doing some research. The hardware I have and the ISP I'll be using will run at 230Kbps. A lot better than dial up. Found out to run in the 512 range requires more phone lines. So for now, its 230kbps.<br /><br />I take it from the lack of responses on this topic not too many people are using ISDN.

 

[roscoe]

Re: Think I'm going with ISDN

Mark, I don't connect to a vpn, don't even know what one is. <br />Actually, I do know what one is, but don't connect to one.<br /><br />Of course the speeds vary, but my upload speeds are typically over 100Kbps, downloads are 400-600Kbps. It really flies late at night.<br />Yes big storms effect satelites.<br />Time of day is a bigger factor, seems to slow down the most around the noon hour, and Saturday mornings.<br /><br />I have Direcway Home, has been $59 since I got it over 4 years ago. Equip was $379, got an upgrade to the new system for $79.<br />Service is directly thru Direcway, not a local dealer.<br /><br />I checked my download usage after hooking up 2 new computers and downloading all the software upgrades to both of them. 70mb of downloads in an hour, came to less than 40% of what would kick me into the fair access mode. Fair access kicks in at 170mb per hour, most of my surfing is in the 1 to 5mb per hour.<br /><br />I have no alternative.<br />Live in the sticks.<br />No cable, dls, or isdn.<br />Dial-up here is real bad, noisy lines. They are all burried, thru the swamp, old , old, old.<br /><br />people think I am nuts for paying the $59.<br />But 3 co-workers have just switched to satelite, 2 of them got DW, so I got the referal credit. <br /><br />Glad you were able to find something cheaper.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Think I'm going with ISDN

Hi Roscoe,<br /><br />Thought I was the only one participating in this thread. <br /><br />If ISDN doesn't work out I'll be forced into satellite. Hardware is up to $600 but still priced at $59 a month. <br /><br />I would prefer a system not affected by weather because I like the option of staying home and working on bad weather days. Besides, when it snows, most of the office is a no-show anyway. And with more managers allowing their staff to do a work-from-home day, more and more associates are hooked up and can stay home on bad weather days. So snow on my TV dish needs cleaning to get the signal, and heavy rain/snow cloud cover causes dropouts, I suppose the same is true with internet. <br /><br />Thanks for posting the fair access specs. They do seem fair. <br /><br />Got one of the two modems I bought from 3-bay. I can't believe this little box cost $399 new in 2003 and I get it for $7.99 plus shipping used. The other one is coming with all the cables, software etc for $39.99.