The Performance and Bandwidth FAQ has moved to its own page.
For an overview of our SWB based DSL services and pricing, see our SWB
DSL overview page.
For an overview of our Verizon based DSL services and pricing, see our Verizon
DSL overview page.
Q: What are the geographic areas that NetIn.com offers service?
In the same approximate areas covered by the 972, 214, 469, and 817 area codes, that are supported by Verizon (GTE) or SWB. Your phone line will have to be qualified to determine if DSL service is available in your area.
The acronym DSL mean Digital Subscriber Line. There are many variations of DSL, so they use a prefix to specify which specific flavor they mean. An "x" prefix (xDSL) means any flavor of DSL. An "A" prefix (ADSL) mean Asymmetric DSL. An "S" prefix (SDSL) means Symmetric DSL. SDSL lines can transmit and receive data at the same rate. ADSL typically receives data faster than it can transmit data.
Well, I'm not sure that we're "gung-ho" about it, but the media has paid ADSL a lot of attention. Basically, this is another technology that promises more for less. In this case, it is dedicated connectivity, and high bandwidth, for less money than other technologies. Customers like it, and we like it.
This depends on many variables. First, who is your xDSL provider (not your ISP - who ran or installed that copper cable)? How far away from your xDSL provider's central office are you? How "clean" are the lines in your area? Etc.
But aside from those issues, you need to be careful about what bandwidth rates are being advertised. All the xDSL providers that I know are advertising maximum burst rates, which is far different from what you are able to sustain. The sustainable rate is called the Committed Information Rate (or CIR for short). SWB ADSL services have an unspecified bit rate, which means that the CIR is 0. GTE based DSL services have varying CIR rates depending on the service. At about the same time that GTE changed their name to Verizon, Verizon has followed SWB's lead in no longer offering a CIR on DSL circuits. We, however, still design for a CIR per customer.
Yes - the best way to do this is to have a simple, low cost ethernet LAN with your computers attached to it. There are no extra charges for this, and it is a common configuration. Any computer on the LAN can use the Internet connection.
In a smart bridged (which is what most everyone is using), the bridge will forward over the DSL line any traffic that the bridge thinks is not local traffic. This is a problem for at least 2 reasons:
Many people use Microsoft systems, and Microsoft networks are notorious for being very "chatty" (ie: sends a lot of broadcast messages). In a bridged solution, these broadcasts are transmitted over the xDSL link. For example, some of these broadcast messages advertise what devices are available to be shared. You're probably not interested in sharing your hard drive with your DSL neighbors.
While there are ways that the ISP can try to prevent the sharing of devices over the DSL link, it does not prevent this broadcast traffic from consuming data transport resources. Broadcast traffic is especially costly because if it is unchecked, everyone on the DSL network will respond, consuming even more resources...
The solution for all this is to have everyone connected to the DSL network to have a router with a firewall. A router allows the broadcast traffic on your own local area network while preventing it from reaching the DSL link. This means you can share devices with other computers at your office while protecting them from being shared over the DSL connection. The firewall provides the access control mechanism for your environment. The firewall controls what you will allow to enter or leave your network.