Re: considering covad

[Steven Pritchard <steve@silug.org>]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2004 at 02:25:58PM -0600, dsavage@peaknet.net wrote:
> Perhaps. I'm a bit leery about doing that because I'm not all that sure
> what hidden "gotchas" might attend. For example, can one connect a V.92
> analog modem to a wall plug that's actually an ISDN 2B+D port? How about a
> normal analog telephone (of which I have several)?

No, you have to have your ISDN modem/router feed the phones in your
house.  It's fairly easy to set that up though.  When we switched from
analog service to ISDN in Springfield and when we moved in here, the
Ameritech service guys took care of that for us.

> Do the special codes (like *69 and *71) work the same?

Honestly, I don't know.  I never use that stuff.  Call waiting and
such do work though, although some of that stuff is dependent on the
ISDN hardware.  (For example, call waiting freaks out our crappy
Toshiba ISDN router.  It works OK on our Pipeline 75.)

> If I answer an inbound telephone call, does the data rate drop from
> 112kbps to 56kbps for the duration?

Yes, if properly configured.  And it's 128Kbps/64Kbps.

> See what I mean? I really wouldn't mind trading off the $45/month cost of
> two analog lines for better overall service. If it's all plusses, great. 
> But if there are some minuses, I'd like to know in advance. If someone out
> there actually has upgraded to from classic analog to residential ISDN,
> I'd like to learn about their detailed experiences before I take the
> plunge.

We've had nothing but ISDN for 4 years here in Fairview Heights, and
for over 2 years in Springfield before that.  It's not all plusses, as
you say, but I'm not complaining.

The biggest issue is that our neighborhood has some *really* crappy
phone lines, so around twice a year one of our circuits (either the T1
or one of the two ISDN lines) starts getting noisy, until a couple of
weeks later it just completely fails.  SBC tends to not find the
problem until it is completely out.  (Although we like the repair
guys, and they certainly try to find the problem, but unless it just
totally fails it tends to be hard to locate the fault.)

The other issues are minor.  For example, caller ID has to be handled
properly by your ISDN hardware, and that tends to be kinda
hit-and-miss (mostly miss with older stuff).  We get phone numbers,
but no names.  Not a big deal, but it's an issue.  And then there's
the problem with call waiting, which goes away with decent ISDN
hardware and decent analog phones.

Steve
-- 
steve@silug.org           | Southern Illinois Linux Users Group
(618)398-7360             | See web site for meeting details.
Steven Pritchard          | http://www.silug.org/

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