DSL has finally arrived

After years of waiting, I finally got DSL yesterday. Right now, Im sitting on my couch, in my living room, using my laptop, equipped with my d-link wireless PCMCIA card, which connects to my Netgear MR814v2 Wireless router, which connects to my speedstream DSL modem.

I have an excellent signal strength and a FAST bandwith connection (1150 kbps). Suprisingly, Im getting the same bandwidth connection speed as my desktop computer which is hard wired to DSL.



Also, suprisingly, setting up my SBC Yahoo DSL was a snap. I was up and running in no time. DSL service was turned on promptly on the date specified. And I even got a letter from SBC congratulating and welcoming me on the SAME day the service started. DSL has really come a long way. I remember trying to set up stacie's family DSL about 2 years ago and it was a complete nightmare.



Here are my DSL package details:

Standard Plus Package

384Kbps-1.5Mbps download

128Kbps upload

$26.95/month for 1 year



The time consuming part was setting up my wireless network. But as usual I learned a lot.

1. SSID - I wanted to disable the broadcasting of my SSID to make my wireless network more secure. But I ran into problems because I kept connecting to a neighboring broadcasted SSID. Also, microsoft doesnt recommend it, but doesnt explain why.

2. MAC address - Another way I secured my wireless network was to limit to my laptop's MAC address using the router configuration. That way only my laptop was authorized using my DSL.

3. Ad hoc vs. infrastructure - Since I only have a 1 desktop and 1 laptop I probably didnt need a wireless router. I could have just set up a ad hoc wireless network by using some USB wireless card to connect to my desktop. Then my laptop wireless card would just feed off of the USB wireless card. But I guess using the wireless router was pretty easy to set up. Too bad Im only using 1 of the 4 ports though.

4. update driver - After setting everything up, the wireless speed on the laptop was very slow. Also, I would get disconnected every 5 minutes and have to manually reconnect. After trying everything, I decided to uninstall and update my d-link wireless card driver. Immediately, my connection was fast, and I never get any dropped signals.