Well,
    Have been fighting the battle of  trying to keep connected for over a week now.  Seems the phone company and Basic just want to point finger at each other?  The local phone co. has said since the beginning that they believe the problem is with my modem itself, though is one of the "new" and pretty small ones not much  bigger than a cigarette pack.  Basic ISP our course says the problem is with the quality of the phone line.  I had about a week of trouble when I first got the dsl out here a couple months ago, and since then has worked fine ... until the week before last that is.

    What to do now?  I do not know.  Have had no luck resolving and can't see paying for service that does not work.  I was happy when the phone lines got upgraded a couple months back and could finally support DSL.  Before that I was among the 40 million or so Americans who live in places without viable access to high speed internet.  I do not count the satellite providers, because they are so expensive, as well as they charge you extra for your data amounts and limit without "excess" charges is some idiotic amount like 8 megs a day? 

   So, the phone co. has been out here twice in past week.  Both times saying the line was fine.  I have called in to Basic ISP cust service numerous times.  Each time I have to disconnect the computer because there is no phone in that room.  So it must be moved to another room where I have to hook it up and then call in.  After a couple fruitless hours of trying to get the service working, it must then be shut down, disconnected, and moved back to the bedroom where it is supposed to be at.  It is the same phone line (splitter) so that is not the issue as the phone co. already checked it.  But all I get is a "red" lite for internet on my modem.

   Anyways the last time I was on with Basic Cust Svc., they said leave the 'puter where it was at and they would check with  phone co. and call me back.  They never called back, and because i left 'puter in the dining room, the cat chewed thru the power cord to the modem.  That is why the computer is in the bedroom (cat free zone pretty much).  So what to do now?  I have no clue.  Every time the phone co. come out they want to sell you their internet.  It is cheaper than Basic at $15 a month but you must sign a 2 yr contract.  I did not like the sound of that coz you have to pay it even if you quit (15/mo for each month of 2 yr contract) no matter what...like a cell contract?

anyone have any suggestions?

too bad the dial up is only good for checking the e-mail.  is too slow to do any real work on web or even for listening to music...

chris (disgruntled Basic customer)