Brightnet DSL Questions and Answers

Q: What is DSL?
A: Digital Subscriber Line provides high speed internet and voice service using only one phone line. At home or at work, you get a fast connection to the Internet and your phone line can be used to make or get calls while you're online.

A simple explanation is that DSL works like a high pitched dog whistle. The DSL modem can hear the high frequency part of the signal, while a splitter or micro-filter prevents you from hearing the DSL 'chatter' on the voice part of the call.

DSL uses all of the total capabilities of the local phone loop, which is why it's a distance sensitive service. (That is, you've got to be within 2~2½ miles of the telephone central office.)

Think of this analogy: You can hear the fire whistle almost anywhere you live in town, but you've got to be very close to the fire station to hear the sirens on the fire trucks. In this analogy, the voice portion your phone line is like the town's big fire whistle, you can hear it for miles and miles. The sirens on the trucks are like the DSL signal, you've got to be close enough to the fire truck to hear them.

Q: How fast is DSL?
A: The chart below gives you a comparison. A T-1 (pronounced tee-one) is a high speed digital connection used by businesses that are directly connected to the Internet and have high speed data needs. Even with a T-1, most businesses still use 256k or less. The base speed for DSL, (which is really ADSL; asymmetrical DSL) is 512k. That's going to be plenty of speed.

On the whole, the Internet is 128k speed. There are some sites that are faster, but 128k is about what you get most days. (Trust us on this, we've been measuring the Internet for years.)

There is just no way that even big, popular sites like www.cnn.com or even www.aol.com go much faster than 128k on a Wednesday or Sunday night. Our competitors talk big talk, but the average user's normal speed is going to be 128k, which is still 4 times faster than 56k dial-up, if you're getting a solid 45.3 to 52k dial-up rate. Here's a little chart to put this all in perspective.

The point of all this is that the whole Internet can only go as fast as the slowest part. You can have a tricked out Porsche 911 Turbo, but if you're stuck in traffic, or behind a string of a hundred '82 Ford Escorts with two nearly flat tires, you're going to go their speed.

The other thing that can slow you down is how much connectivity there is to the rest of Internet, and how that network is designed. Brightnet has the most robust network in northern Indiana. Our competitors are just talk in' trash if they say otherwise.

Q: What can you do with DSL?
A: DSL allows you to do everything you do with dial up Internet service, just a lot faster. Surf the net faster. Download files faster. Watch videos or hear music on your computer faster, or with higher quality. DSL saves you time when you're online.

Q: Will my computer work on DSL?
A: Probably, if you have:
        Pentium 200 computer or faster
       Windows 95 release 2.0 (or higher)
       64 Megs of RAM and 300 Megs of free disk space
       Internet Explorer 4.0 / Netscape 4.7 (or higher)
       A 10 or 100 base-T network interface card (or USB port)

Q: What do you recommend?
I'm not sure what to do.
A: It doesn't cost you anything to send us your phone number and other information on this form. We'll check and tell you by e-mail whether you can get DSL or not.

We won't ever sell your name or e-mail address, and you won't get mail you don't want. If you aren't in an area where DSL is available, the e-mail reply will tell you about other services you can consider.