DSL brings high speed network access to homes and small businesses. Cable modem technology is a competing alternative to DSL. DSL utilizes the same cabling used for normal telephones, but it can offer higher data rates through use of so called digital modem technology. Still a relatively new technology that telephone companies and other access providers are in the process of deploying for the first time, DSL remains unavailable in many locations.

DSL is short for Digital Subscriber Line and is an always on Internet connection. DSL service gives you the ability to transmit high speed data and voice traffic over the same telephone line. At high speeds you’ll be able to use your phone while you’re connected to the Internet. The key advantage of DSL over Dialup is speed. DSL is several times faster than a dialup connection. Connection speed, reliability, and the 'always-on' nature of DSL, are the main reasons it is so popular. For small businesses, DSL is also a great way to save money compared to pay per minute ISDN service, or expensive T1 lines.

Traditional phone service connects your home or business to a phone company office over copper wires that are wrapped around each other. The wires are called twisted pair. The digital modem, which may be purchased or rented, located at your location accesses the local phone companies central office where a DSL Access Multiplexer, which translates your DSL signal, has been installed. The signal is then transmitted from the phone line onto a network backbone, and directed to the Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) location, where the ISP verifies the access to the network and delivers users to the Internet through the ISP’s relationship with a backbone network provider.

There are several different types of DSL available and which service you get depends on your location. ADSL, CDSL, DSL Lite, HDSL, IDSL, RADSL, SDSL, UDSL, VDSL, x2/DSL are some of them.

Typical residential offerings usually have a maximum of 1.5Mbps (1.5 megabits per second), but special connections for home and office can be obtained to go well above that. There are two limiting factors that are in place for most connections: the modem and the wiring used to transfer the signal from the modem to the computer. Most home use DSL modems are limited to 10Mbps on the user (LAN) side. The wiring from the modem to the computers is normally Category 5 wiring, or thin Ethernet, and that is limited to 100Mbps speed.

If the local Telephone Company is unable to offer you DSL service it is probably because your property is too far away from the nearest DSL equipped serving office. The maximum distance is 15,000 wire feet (not actual distance) for DSL to work properly. Additionally some properties cannot be served if they are equipped with load coals. Load coils are placed on lines that are longer than 18,000 feet (the distance between the customer and the DSL equipped serving office). The purpose of the load coils is to improve the quality and transmission of the voice grade service. However, these same coils are an impediment to DSL service and can be removed if necessary.

No, you don't need a second line for residential services with the use of a line filter, For the most common DSL (ADSL), the two can coexist on the same wire. You are unable to hear the high frequencies even if your telephone was able to play them as sounds. The DSL signal should not be disturbed by the lower voice frequencies you use when talking on the phone.

Neither DSL or Cable is better all the time under all conditions. The data transfer rates you can get from either DSL or Cable will depend entirely on whatever local providers are in your area. As a rule of thumb, DSL speeds will depend upon the actual distance your building is from the nearest central office of your ISP. For Cable Internet, connection speeds can be affected by the amount of Internet use in your particular neighborhood. And since no objective article on the Internet can tell you how far your individual house is to your DSL-ISP's nearest central office or how many other Cable Internet users are actively using the Internet in your area, you'll just have to do some asking around on your own.

This can vary from 3 days to a week, in some parts of the country, to up to 2 months, or more, depending on what kind of problems there are between the DSL provider. In some areas with straightforward ADSL installs, the whole setup can be done inside 3 days.

Yes. You can share your DSL among computers within a small home network using any of several DSL router products. The product should be capable of IP masking and NAT (Network Address Translation), and include an Ethernet hub (10Base-T or 10/100Base-T). Follow the router's installation instructions to connect your home network to the router and the router to the gateway.

Yes, DSL satellite service. It doesn't require a phone line at all and still operates at DSL connection speeds.

Yes. Although if you start to use the DSL line to view video on demand or other memory and processor intensive functions you may well decide your PC is too slow. For general surfing, majority of sites can quite happily be seen and used by slower PCs.

The Macintosh computing platform accesses the Internet through the same protocols that the Windows computing platform does. This means that theoretically, any type of Internet service Windows computers can use, the Macintosh can as well. Check with your provider for Mac DSL Support.

None! It is up to the end user to install that security (antivirus, firewall,...)

No! It doesn't save you any money. If you concerned about security, though, you can install a firewall.

Probably Not, because you are one of millions of computers and there are not enough hackers to go around, but having a good firewall and taking precautions are a good idea.

A good firewall makes your computer invisible, or at least less visible, to others on the Internet. There are hackers that will try to probe your machine looking for ways to see what is on your computer's hard drive. Some may only be curious, but others may be trying to be very malicious, even to the point of erasing files on your system. They could potentially gain access to your passwords and other private information you may have stored in files on the computer. So having a firewall is highly advisable.

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