Going offline soon...

We are scheduled to go offline some time today. We are changing our ISP in hopes of a much better internet connection. Internet is more important to our family than TV, though I hope to enjoy the video service as well.

If you are looking for us, but don't see us, we are probably offline, but hope to return soon.

Update 12/24: Well, it's 6:30 right now, and Internet is still up. I suppose the termination could be automated and take place this evening. More likely that it's Christmas eve and the work order didn't get processed. We'll see what happens by tomorrow morning.

It's now 10:20 and the Internet is still available.

Update 12/25: Christmas day and we are still on-line. Now I must wonder if I will have to call on Friday and get it terminated. I was hoping that I might be with the new ISP by Christmas with minimal downtime. Worried now that down time will impact kids school work.

Update 12/26: Still on-line. Think I will have to contact Earthlink.

Update 12/27: Called AT&T to see what was going on. It would "take a couple of days" for the DSL to stop working in our house, like the signal is latent in the line and slowly draining out. Then it would "take a couple of days" for the line to clear entirely; latent DSL signal slowly dripping out of the central office perhaps. We can order whatever we want after all the DSL goodness has left our presence.

Update 12/28: Still on-line.

Update 12/29: Late on 12/28 our DSL connection stopped working because my log in ID was terminated. The DSL modem still indicates we have an active DSL signal on the wire, so not sure what impact that will have for ordering the new service.

We are no longer available on-line and will have limited access to internet and e-mail.

Update 1/1: We have arranged to use our neighbors Internet via Wi-fi while waiting for ours to get straightened out. We should be around a bit more.

Update 1/9: I had to call Earthlink today to get them to actually disconnect the DSL off our phone line so the signal will drop off and we can order/install the U-verse. They said they are working on it today and it would take 2-3 business days to drop off the line.

On the other hand, we are seeing how stable our neighbors DSL is as compared to what we had. Incredible difference. Hope our new service is up to par.

Update 1/19: Finally, after several phone calls to Earthlink, we have had our DSL completely terminated. After some discussion with my father in law, we have decided to stay with DirecTV, so have ordered AT&T DSL which is due to be online this Friday, Jan 23. If the AT&T DSL does not meet our expectations, then we will once again consider the U-verse with fiber optic connections.

Update 1/23: I had to call AT&T again today. The order had not been processed yet. Further, we are only able to get 1.5MB at our current location. Should be hooked up by Wednesday.

Update 2/1: Today I am finally seeing a 1.5MB connection. Definitely wish it were faster, but if it just proves to be stable, I think I can live with it for now. I'll be keeping my eye on it.


I'm redating this entry so that is stays on top until my running commentary is done. Please find regular blog entries below.

Ordered U-Verse

Well, my wife has either gotten tired of my complaining about our Internet connection, or she herself is tired of our poor connection. She decided that we could order AT&T's U-Verse as my Christmas present. I read a pretty good explanation about it here. However I managed to pull it off, I'm very eager to get it installed.

I see it as a present to the entire family. All five of us use the internet daily with plenty of squabbling over access to the computers we have. I also consider myself a more advanced user of the Internet. I maintain several permanent VPN connections to other places, and occasionally need to VPN into work. We watch some streaming video and the kids play quite a few online games. I do bit-torrent on occasion to download VMWare images or Linux distros. I also maintain a few applications that have web interfaces that I can access remotely. Add in wireless, sub-netting of my home network and other networking fun. Our current Internet rarely goes faster than 300-400 kbps, so the promised 6 mb connection will be real nice, even if we don't see a full rate.

We are transferring our home phone service into the plan. I thought there might be some interesting features that come along with it, but it sounds like we are essentially getting the same service, except flat rate with unlimited long distance. While we don't do a lot with our cell phones, we at least have a back up should problems arise.

Finally, we are getting a decent package of video chanels. We've had DirecTV, which I understand is a better service, but we don't currently have a real HD TV (only does 720p on component connections), so figure that is should be as good as what we are used to watching. Our set top box in the play room broke, and we haven't wanted to pay for the repair, so this move should also restore TV access in the playroom. The DVR seems cool too. We'll be able to record 4 channels and watch the recordings in either the family room or the play room. That would be good, since our youngest son monopolizes the family room TV with Cartoon network (and fairly poor choices of cartoons at that).

I need to read up a bit more and figure out how I should connect up some of my existing equipment. I figure the VPN stuff will be a bit tricky. Not sure when it will be installed yet, but I'll keep you posted. I'll be heading over to the U-verse web site to see if I can get a status update on my order.

U-verse

I've been complaining about my internet service for quite a while. When we lived in Stanton, CA the city was low end, but my DSL was rock solid (except during a few rainstorms when the complex flooded). Fullerton, CA is a very nice city, but my DSL connection here has been horrible. It is about a third of the speed I was used to and it drops connection regularly.

I've heard good thing about cable internet in my area, but since I do all sorts of extra things on my internet connection, I've been reluctant to sign-up. I use VPN to connect to remote sites. I have a number of web enabled applications that I like to access from the Internet. Cable doesn't like you hosting web sites on your cable Internet connection.

U-verse has become available in my neighborhood recently. Run by AT&T, it uses Fiber To The Node (FTTN) to get a data connection to the neighborhood. Your existing copper lines are then used to get the data into your home.

U-verse is AT&T's way of providing video services, and you can't get it without signing up for the video services. We already have DirecTV and are committed for one more year. I am also concerned about down time since we use the Internet daily, including for homeschooling.

Still, I keep looking for a solution to our Internet connection problems. Maybe I can sign-up for U-verse in the near future. What's your experience with U-verse?