When I lived in Sydney a couple of years ago, it took Primus Telecom 14 weeks to install and configure my DSL from the time I applied. But the state of telecoms in Australia, particularly with regard to internet services, is scandalously bad.

And also in Sydney. Never mind wimpy crickets, the laundries are carpeted with wall-to-wall cockroaches which move like horizontal lava lamps when you first enter.

Hey, BB, apropos of nothing in particular, howzabout a 'recent comments' sidebar? I always track conversations here on yer blog, and keep trying to remember how many comments each post had last time I visited...just a thought.

If Earthlink can get service there, SBC can. SBC is the lec (local exchange carrier) so when earthlink is offering you service, they're just reselling SBC's lines from your house to the CO. The one catch is earthlink has leased square footage in the CO from SWB and placed their own DSL equipment in there, so SBC may not have any more open ports on their own equipment. One possibility (which unfortunately happens a *lot*) is that SBC is intentionally dropping the connection from the earthlink DSLAM to their own network so that you'll dump earthlink and go w/SBC. They've been sued for this more than once (and iirc they lost each time). Check out dslreports.com for alternates if SBC can't hook you up. Sad that I have to recommend going with the local monopoly not because they provide better service but because they use their monopoly power to ensure that competitors can't offer ANY service. And people think MSFT is the worst monopoly we have going?

I'm currently in the process of getting DirecTV DSL out in west St. Louis county. Right now, my connection has allegedly been tested, and I'm just waiting for my DSL gateway to arrive.

Rev, SBC isn't in my area, and that also explains why I'm having so much trouble with Earthlink - I am extremely remote and the signal is too weak. But Earthlink won't admit that it can't really cover this area.

I had some good suggestions from Head Lemur and decided to go with Cable Modem for now. If this doesn't pan out, SBC is installing remote stations for DSL end of August.

Remote transmissions were a bit of an issue (and I most likely won't be able to go remote networking) cuz looks like we're extremely close to an AM transmission tower. I gather this can cause problems.

I'm not a networking person, being grossly dependent on networking support in all my gigs. This experience has been good - kicks my butt out of this complacent dependency.

i wrote some a broadband point-to-edgerouter speed (bandwidth + latency) measurement software (speedcheck @ www.connectcheck.com) awhile back. the aggregate results show a significant difference in speed between dsl and cable in st louis. cable is faster here.

Thanks for note Ben. I think the cable choice was the best at this time. I just hope I don't have problems cancelling Earthlink - they're known to keep billing people even after cancelling.

BTW, Stavros, didn't answer your earlier question - I'm using dotcomments not MT's built-in comment system. I could hack what you're talking about but too many things on plate at this time. Hopefully later I'll have something more sophisticated.