OT: just a suggestion

[Scott Lurndal]

So, you feel that pirating the software is the answer to their desire to profit from their labor?

[Doug Miller]

Trenbidia wrote in news:n4srll$mnb$ [e-mail]:

I'm using it on my landline.

Works just fine on digital landlines.

[Doug Miller]

"Mike Marlow" wrote in news:n4ssk5$48t$1@dont- email.me:

*Digital* landlines, i.e. DSL service such as AT&T U-verse -- which is what I have.

[krw]

Uverse is fiber, not DSL (or "phone" lines at all). DSL uses normal "phone" wires, where Uverse does not. DSL is as much "analog" as any other modem technology.

[J. Clarke]

Do you have DSL or do you have U-Verse? They are not the same.

[Leon]

IIRC and I could be wrong, while DSL does come over the normal phone wires, DSL is digital Subscriber Line IIRC. And not all Uverse comes over total fiber optics especially in older established communities.

IIRC Swingman had/has Uverse many years ago with problems from squirrels eating through twisted pairs of wires up on the poles.

[John McCoy]

Leon wrote in news: [e-mail]:

DSL = Digital Subscriber Loop. That meant something decades ago, but now DSL is just a name.

The difference between DSL and cable modem technolgies is that DSL is baseband - if you're sending 10Mbit of data, you have a 10Mbit signal on the wires. Cable modem uses a radio frequency carrier which is modulated with the 10Mbit signal. Both are analog technologies.

The problem with DSL is it's _very_ dependant on the quality of the connection it goes over. If you have fiber all the way to the house (very uncommon) you get excellent results. If you have twisted pair part of the way (the normal case) you get indifferent results - mostly because the twisted pair is usually ancient and in pretty crappy condition.

Now, as far as landline phones go, if the phone puts the voice signal directly on the wire, that is what's called "analog landline". If the phone converts the voice signal to digital data, and then sends it over either DSL or cable (where it's an analog signal) it's called "digital landline". If that digital data is additionally formed into IP packets and sent over the Internet, then it's called VOIP.

John

(who doubts anyone really cares about the technical side of phone lines...)

[Bill]

Well, as for me, you were mistaken. Thanks for taking the time to try to educate us. Who wants to be computer network illiterate (CNI?) these days?

Bill

[J. Clarke]

UVerse works on pure fiber, fiber to the node, or in some fring areas DSL multiplexing. It is not the same as ordinary single-line DSL.

No, it is a technology. People who don't know any better might call their cable connection "DSL" or their fiber optic connection "cable" but the people who install it certainly know the difference.

Nope. DSL has multiple 4.3 KHz carriers on adjacent bands going from somewhere between 10 and 100 KHz up to whatever limit the particular loop can carry. If it's carryine 10 Mb/sec it multiplexes that data over however many channels are required. But it's bloody rare for DSL to hit a speed that high.

The technology on which DSL is based.

I've never seen a DSL connection with phone service in which it is necessary to plug the phones into some kind of converter box in order to use them. The filters are needed to make the DSL work, not the phone, and they do not do signal conversion, they simply isolate the frequency bands.

DSL with phone uses analog phone service. There may be a repeater at the street that moves the CO closer to your location, but your connection is analog to the CO.

And why would a cable company use analog phone signalling? That would just add complexity to their system and tie up bandwidth that could be used for other purposes--you seem to have DSL and cable reversed in your mind.

[Jack]

I have comcast triple deal, phone, internet and TV. We only have the LL because it's cheaper than with out it. We've had the same LL phone number forever, so we also for some ungodly, unknown reason, are attached to it. We rarely ever get calls other than salesman, politicians and so on and they are switched to an answer machine after two rings. I keep telling my wife not to answer the thing, everyone we know calls our cell phones, but she can't resist, which of course results in more calls.

I tried to use the PhoneTray thing-ee as it looked perfect for what I wanted, but it doesn't work with Comcast, it needs a voice modem. I was thinking of trying out a cheap voice modem, found a bunch for under $15, but not sure if that would work or not. Has anyone used something like this with Comcast? I have an old USRobotics Modem in my shed from the pre-internet days, but I don't think I want that answering calls, or maybe I do. Not sure I know what a "voice modem" is?

[Bill]

For what it's worth, when I switched over to Tracfone, I took my landline number with me. One just has to wait a day or so for Comcast to release it (Tracfone will take care of the details). That said, I noticed yesterday that the price of Tracfone minutes has gone up 17% over the last few months. I'm still come out far ahead this way. If you spend a lot of time on your phone, your mileage may vary (but you can compute it in advance and see!)

Bill

[krw]

Nothing is digital, in communications. ;-) The digital data is encoded on an analog signal, just as it is with a modem so there really isn't a difference.

I believe it is, at least to the curb. That's the only way you're going to get enough bandwidth to carry Internet and a few hundred channels of video (plus on-demand).

From the pole to the house, perhaps. It was probably fiber, or perhaps coax, on the pole.

[krw]

I haven't had a landline phone in almost a decade. We had a line once, because they refused to sell "naked" DSL (required a phone line) but there was never a phone attached to the line. About a year later they allowed us to drop the phone "service".

[krw]

UVerse is fiber to the house, at least here. They said they were "investigating" copper from curb to house technology but they weren't offering it. It was either fiber to the house or nothing. It took them a while for it to sink in that we had fiber in our front yard, so connecting us wasn't a huge deal (we've had UVerse for a couple of months).

[Doug Miller]

krw wrote in news:vvun7bdcs5vtc5v91p3bqm3n343sbdgf8g@

4ax.com:

@dont-

No, it's not.

Well, I have Uverse. And the lines coming to my house are copper wires, not fiber.

What, exactly, do you suppose the D stands for?

[Doug Miller]

krw wrote in news: [e-mail]:

[...]

And therefore everywhere, eh? Perhaps you should learn not to make such hasty generalizations....

[Doug Miller]

"J. Clarke" wrote in news:MPG.30e5d9da650913c5989d33 @news.eternal-september.org:

@dont-

True, you're right, it's Uverse. Anyway, nomorobo works with it.

[krw]

Miller, you are an ass. I said nothing of the kind, in fact the opposite ("...at least here").

[krw]

Ok, asshole, define "digital".

[J. Clarke]

Either fiber to the node, which means that the copper runs to a fiber termination less than a mile away, or multiple copper lines.

Not what you think. It's digital carried on multiple analog carriers.