ISP recommendation?

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Bill - 14 May 2008 22:26 GMT

How many people can use a DSL line, at a time?

I'm looking for a new ISP for my non-profit. I called Covad, I heard
they are the back-end providers for some/many ISPs. They seemed to be
priced higher than the others. They said they provide a "dedicated"
DSL line, so our neighbors don't share it, like AT&T does.

Then they asked how many staff we have. When I said 30, they tried to
sell me a T1 line. They said their standard Business DSL line is for
up to 5 users only, and their "DSL Plus" is for 25 users.

Question: Does anyone know approximately how many users can use a DSL
line at a time?

Also, Would anyone like to recommend a good, reliable ISP?

Do you have a recommendation or experiences for a good web hosting
company? We may move our web site from in-house to a webhosting
company.

Thank you,
Bill Ferguson

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nospam - 15 May 2008 00:11 GMT

In article
<41e02e0f-2df3-4215-8b22-ec71285dcf24@f24g2000prh.googlegroups.com>,

> Question: Does anyone know approximately how many users can use a DSL
> line at a time?

that depends on usage patterns. do the users exchange a couple of
emails and visit a few web pages now and then? or does everyone
constantly stream bandwidth hungry video and audio?

> Also, Would anyone like to recommend a good, reliable ISP?

sure, any particular city? without knowing whereabouts you are, it's
hard to make a useful suggestion.

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Bill - 15 May 2008 02:27 GMT

In article
<41e02e0f-2df3-4215-8b22-ec71285dcf24@f24g2000prh.googlegroups.com>,

> How many people can use a DSL line, at a time?
>
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> Thank you,
> Bill Ferguson

Its a matter of bandwidth. Generally, the more users, the more bandwidth
(bits per second) the connection uses. ISPs, rightly, want to set it up
and price it accordingly.

However, if the usage is very light, you can put a lot of users on the
same network connection via suitable routers; there is no real limit
from the standpoint of purely making the connections.

Signature

Bill Collins
For email, change "fake" to "earthlink"

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Tom Harrington - 15 May 2008 16:57 GMT

In article
<41e02e0f-2df3-4215-8b22-ec71285dcf24@f24g2000prh.googlegroups.com>,

> How many people can use a DSL line, at a time?
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> Question: Does anyone know approximately how many users can use a DSL
> line at a time?

It depends on the users. One user can swamp a DSL line, if it's the
right user; 30 people might not make a dent in it. DSL providers may
have policies in place setting rules about how many users are permitted.
Those policies might be based on their idea of average usage, or they
might be based on their plans for maximizing profits. Regardless, it's
common that residential DSL plans are not available for organizations,
whether corporate or non-profit.

> Also, Would anyone like to recommend a good, reliable ISP?
>
> Do you have a recommendation or experiences for a good web hosting
> company? We may move our web site from in-house to a webhosting
> company.

Depends on your needs. I've been with <http://www.pair.com/> since 2002
and find them to be extremely reliable. There are many good options,
though.

Signature

Tom "Tom" Harrington
Independent Mac OS X developer since 2002
http://www.atomicbird.com/

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Mac Forum / General / Networking / May 2008

ISP recommendation?