Tag Archives: DSL

New Internet Provider

Although it took more a lot longer to actually get around to making the change than I had planned on … I have finally switched Internet providers.

Previously I was using Covad for the midrange.com Internet service and AT&T for personal Internet service.

The Covad service was 1mb SDSL (1mb down / 1mb up with 5 static IP addresses) and the AT&T service was 6mb down & 768k up (ADSL).

The new service, provided by Comcast, is 22mb down / 5mb up and includes 13 static IP addresses.  It’s replacing both the Covad and AT&T service.

In addition to the improved speed, I’ll be saving about $50 / month in cost.

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Splitting the NID

For the past few weeks we’ve had a lot of static & interference on our home phone line … it doesn’t effect the Vonage line, so I figured it was coming from outside the house.

Well, it turns out the ‘NID Splitter’ we have in the phone box is giving out.     A NID Splitter is a device that plugs into the Network Interface Device that acts as a DSL filter for all the inside phone wiring.   A NID is the box where the telephone companies wiring interfaces with the house wiring.   Everything on the ‘Customer’ side of the NID is is your responsibility, anything on the other side of the NID is the telephone companies responsiblity.

It’s called a NID Splitter because it lets you split the phone line signal into two parts … one part that goes directly to the DSL modem, and the other half that goes to the house phone wiring.   The NID Splitter filters out the voice data on the phone line so it doesn’t interfere with the DSL signal.

Since I don’t have a replacement NID Splitter I tried a few things …

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