DSL - Fast Facts
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Talk and type at once. You don’t have to tie up your phone lines when using the Internet. Yes, DSL uses phone lines, but the technology allows you to talk on the phone and use the Internet at the same time.
It’s much faster than dial-up. Dial-up service runs at about 53 kilobits per second. DSL allows you to have downstream bandwidth of about 1.5 megabits per second, and upstream bandwidth of about 384 kilobits per second.
You have your own line. Shared cable Internet service lines can slow the speed and cause connection problems. With DSL, you have your own dedicated line, which reduces problems. On cable lines, the more people using the line, the slower the connection. This isn’t an issue with DSL.
No additional phone lines. Some people think you need to install an additional phone line in order to use DSL. Not true!
It’s always on. No waiting for the Internet to connect as you would with dial-up service. Just open a browser, and browse to your heart’s content.
Always-on is a good thing when you want to connect quickly. However, this also ups the importance of having some firewall protection. A firewall is an application that protects your network from intruders, and when you’re always connected, it’s easier for intruders to get at your computer. This is also true for other broadband Internet services, such as cable Internet.
Digital Subscriber Line technology was originally implemented as part of the ISDN specification.
ADSL technology dates back to 1988, when Joe Lechleider at Bellcore (now Telcordia Technologies) adapted DSL to carry a digital signal over the unused frequency spectrum available on the twisted pair cables running between the telephone company's central office and the customer premises.
The customer end of the connection consists of a DSL modem. This converts data from the digital signals used by computers into a voltage signal of a suitable frequency range which is then applied to the phone line.
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