For DSL, Does Local Telco Need To Install Wires/Equipment

[Harry]

For DSL, do you have to call your local telephone company and have them come out and install extra equipment or wires in your home? I want to use Winfire and that is not a part of my telephone company and Winfire does not make home visits. So do I have to have my telephone company make any special changes in my home equipment or wiring or can I make these changes myself.

[Xayd]

There are no physical changes, unless your line doesn't hold up to the requirements that DSL has.

If you have perfect phone lines and need zero work done on them to get decent DSL speed (which is very rare) you should have no problems. If you have a line problem, gotta call telco.

Xayd

[SARGE]

Depends. Telcos are not allowed to do any work beyond the "dmarc" on DSL. This is a result of the competitive laws in place. They say it wouldn't be "fair" if local telco sold, maintained outside lines and handled the inside as well. So, your vendor supplies the manpower/equipment for this.

Xayd is all for competition and I laugh everytime I see commercials on tv about your options for another local provider. You're still using the same lines from your jack to the central office - but now you're paying someone else who doesn't invest anything other than an ad. Telcos must still maintain everything.

Some folks can install their own DSL. Ideally, you can do it yourself. Visit your local hardware, Radio Shack or Home Depot, pick up some good wire and a $2 jack. Run the wire from dmarc to the desired location. Telco should place an updated interface outside to make this easier. Your vendor should ship a splitter to use at this dmarc, to separate the telephones and alarm system from the DSL. This is a piece of cake to set up. Problems arise based on distance from office.

[RayH]

It appears that self-installation kits are fairly easy. Either hook them up to a 10 Base T Card (preferred) or USB port. The other end to the telephone jack. Install accompanying software!

[DrZaius]

RayH: You can't just plug the DSL cable into the phone jack. You have to install a splitter that splits the phone line into phone and DSL. Then you add a new DSL jack (for the Cat5 cable) and connect your modem to that.

[wedor]

My DSL jack looks "exactly" like a phone jack, you need a filter on it to use the phone if available but other than that you can't tell them apart. I have 2 phone lines(had 3) and DSL now, all on seperate lines.

[RayH]

DrZaius: A year ago, connecting DSL was a project for professional installers or someone who could follow kit instructions in altering the phone jack!

Installation now is a do-it-yourself job. You plug one end into your computer (network card or USB) and the other end into your STANDARD phone jack! Perhaps the splitter is now built into the DSL modem. Then you run the software!

[DrZaius]

My mistake, sorry then. I was just looking at my setup and that's how it works. As I was typing that I forgot about the splitters that can go after the phone jack (I had the option to get that as well).

[RayH]

DrZaius: My neighbor has a professional installation of DSL from last year that has a splitter after the jack at the main drop.

I've seen the kind where you plug the DSL modem into your computer, plug the other end to a splitter, and plug the splitter into the jack. But now, there is equipment that is simpler to install, just plug it into the computer and the other end into the wall. The splitter must be inside the DSL modem!

I wouldn't be surprised if DSL got down to an internal card in the computer!

[SARGE]

The purpose of the splitter, actually a filter, is to separate the phones/alarm system from the DSL signal, enabling you to talk while online. It's easier to do this at the outside dmarc/interface, and have a separate wire going to the DSL jack. If this isn't done, then you have to have a filter at each jack where you use a phone.

[RayH]

Who knows? Maybe the engineers have come up with something new. Maybe it doesn't work so good. Not an engineer and not currently subscribing to DSL. But Telocity has a specific diagram that shows the DSL modem being plugged in one end to the computer and the other end directly into a phone jack to encourage ease of self-installation!

[SARGE]

Of course, if it's an internal modem, the picture is correct. If an external, a cord goes from modem to jack and a cord from modem to card in pc. This does nothing for filtering/splitting

[Charliey]

It all depends on your telco. With some you need the slitter to go between the modem and the line, with others you need filters on each other phone on the same line.

[RayH]

It appears the do-it-yourself from Telocity only works on a two phone line that doesn't use a speaker phone or have an alarm tied to it!


[Edited by RayH on 12-28-2000 at 06:31 AM]

[wedor]

My DSL supplier has 3 options available, External modem W/Ethernet card, External USB Modem or buy a Compaq through them with internal DSL modem.