Re: Looking for new MVEND ISP

[austad@fallon.com]

Even though my line is considered residential and not "high-priority", I have 
at least a 99% uptime.  For $330 a month, I can get guaranteed 100% uptime at 
768kbps.

A t-1's max throughput is 1.544Mbps, about 2 times faster that a 768k DSL 
line.  However, depending on your ISP, they may set up the line as burstable 
and still claim 768k, which means you can just burst to 768k, and then it 
drops off to a lower speed.  The european equivalent of a t-1 is an e-1 and 
has 2Mbps throughput.

For someone looking to run a shopping site out of their home over DSL, Qwest 
(http://www.qwest.com) offers 768k sustained transfer DSL lines for $330 a 
month.  And the guarantee 100% uptime.  I currently have USWest for a 
provider, and if you have the extra money to spend on Qwest, do it.  The 
people who work at USWest will make your setup process hell, and if something 
does break, each department will claim it's another department's fault, and 
you will be transferred around for a couple of hours before you get anything 
accomplished.

Whatever you do, don't even try getting a cable modem for hosting.  90% of all 
cable companies are oversubscribing and they are slow at peak hours, and most 
have strict policies about running servers.

DSL is a great option for running a shopping site, and you have control over 
your own server.  However, I've set up lines at the place I live now, and my 
previous address, and both times the setup was complete and total hell.  But 
it was worth it.  Much cheaper than a fractional T-1, and I still have control 
of my servers.

Jay


>I think you all may be forgetting the downside of a DSL line... The
>major benefit to it is the cost, yes, I agree, however; its NOT a T-1
>line.  A DSL line is also not considered a ``Priority 1'' line either,
>which basically means, if you have the lines go down, a T-1 line will
>have priority over a DSL.  
>
>Speed is also a factor, T-1's can have sustained speeds up to
>2MBit/sec., DSL can have that only one way (unless you work something
>out with your provider) - and that is usually downstream, not upstream.
>
>Basically depending on your situation a DSL line is nice, just like a
>cablemodem is too. However, you need to remember about downtimes, etc...
>you dont want to have a line go down on you and not have your site up!
>:-)
>
>thats my $0.02 :-)
>
>Jason Korkin.