Recommendations for fast internet access in Merrimack New Hampshire?

[Jon maddog Hall]

[Warning: RANT COMING]

hewitt_tech at comcast.net said:
>  I checked their phone number and according to DSL Reports, they're
> just over 18k feet from the CO. 

For over two years I tried to get DSL service to my house.  By driving my
Jeep from the CO to my garage, watching the cables overhead, I measured it at
about 1.75 miles.  Even allowing for length up the pole, down the pole, slop
inside the CO, slop inside my house, etc. there was no way that my house was
19,800 feet (what the DSL report said) from the CO.  But Verizon refused to
listen.

I had three lines coming to my house:

	o one residential
	o one business
	o one IDSN

After I finally had some problems with my business line I had a telephone
repair guy come out to the house.  He had hair whiter than mine, but no beard.

After he fixed my business phone problem, I told him about my problem, explained
that I had worked for the telephone company for years, knew what a wire was,
etc.  He told me about the tricks they use to 'condition' the lines (most of
which I knew already).  He measured the line with a portable unit....19,800
feet.

He went up on top of the pole, spent two minutes, and came down.  Measured
the line again.  12,500 feet.  Magically my house had jumped over a mile
closer to the CO.  If an earthquake had done that, it would be rubble.

He told me to give the telephone company a week and ask for another test.
I did.  19,800 feet.  Seems the people doing the "testing" were in Virginia,
and test as they might, they got the same answer.  I told them what happened
with the repairman.  They tried to tell me he was using "different techniques
than they used".  I told them that I was watching him over this shoulder while
he dialed into the CO and ran the same diagnostics that they used.

What really ticked me off was that my neighbor, who was at least fifty feet
FURTHER AWAY from the CO was registered in the "DSL database" as being
eligible for the highest grade service, if he had wanted it.  He does not
even own a computer.

I got mad and wrote a letter to the Public Utilities Commission of New
Hampshire, Consumer Advocate.

To make a long story a lot shorter, one week later my house was finally
"located" at 7,500 feet, capable of 7.1 Mbits/second and I had DSL installed
and working (although I opted "only" for 1.5 Mbits/second, since I am away so
much).

Sooooo, maybe your friend's office really is 18K feet away.  Or maybe they
loop his wire around at the end to make up for a break some other place, or
maybe they add pull-up resistors to help solve ringing on the line, or to help
leak off extra capacitance.  But it is surely worth actually physically
locating that central office to see how close it really might be.

As a short check, try the DSL database with some of the telephone numbers of
his neighbors.  Or simply ask them if they have DSL (particularly the commercial
ones).

As an after-story, since I got my line, some friends of mine slightly up the
street (who also had been a "long, long way away from the CO") were able to
convince the telephone company that they were a lot closer.  But before I
went on the war-path, they just thought the telephone company knew what they
were doing.

(sigh)

md
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director           Linux(R) International
email: maddog at li.org         80 Amherst St. 
Voice: +1.603.672.4557       Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
WWW: http://www.li.org

Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association

(R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries.
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