Frequently Asked Questions

Cable companies provide television, music, data and other services over the same cable loop in your neighborhood. There is a limited amount of bandwidth available on these neighborhood nodes, which can service a large number of homes and businesses. This means that if a neighbor or nearby business is using a lot of bandwidth, it is possible that there would be little left for the rest of the customers on that node which would result in very poor performance.
DSL does not use this shared node system. Your DSL connection is your private phone line connecting your home or business with our data equipment. This results in a more consistent and dependable performance.

DSL stands for "Digital Subscriber Line".

No. A Paradyne DSL modem is required.

Traditional modems need to dial a phone number, authenticate and log on to our network before you can access the Internet. DSL is an "always on" connection with no need to log on every time you need to use the Internet.
Traditional V.90 modems have a maximum download speed of 53.3 kbps with a maximum upload speed of 33.6 kbps. Traditional modems are also greatly influenced by phone line conditions, which can cause slow downs and sometimes even disconnects. DSL offers greatly increased download/upload speeds while offering an extremely stable connection.

DSL uses the same copper wire that your current telephone uses. In the telephone companies "central office" a splitter is used to create a separate voice channel from the data channel. These two channels are then sent to your business where the DSL modem can transmit and receive on the data channel while phone filters remove the data channel to allow standard phones to operate normally. This method of using two separate channels allows for simultaneous use of your Internet connection and your telephone or fax without any loss of speed or service.

No. DSL can easily be shared to all of the computers on your network. This may require some additional hardware. There are also some limitations regarding distribution of bandwidth.