I recently moved, and decided not to get cable TV service, and go with either satellite or antenna instead. I tried Google Wifi for internet, but couldn't get a connection that was reliable enough. As a result I recently signed up for DSL service from AT&T for my internet access. I don't need or want any phone service from them, and went with the cheapest option available in my area, which is DSL Direct Basic. It provides 768 kbps downstream and 384 kbps upstream, costs $19.95, and requires a one year commitment. See AT&T High Speed Internet Direct Comparison. That's a lot less than Comcast charges for cable internet only, although it's also a lot slower.
Ironically, after researching all this online, I couldn't order this service online, but instead had to call AT&T. I called on a Monday, and they committed to provide service by 8pm Friday. I did not purchase a modem from AT&T, mainly because I had had a good experience purchasing my own Motorola Surfboard 5120 cable modem instead of renting a Comcast-provided model for my cable internet in the past. I also didn't go for the upselling attempted by the rep on the line.
AT&T's price for a DSL modem is $62.05, plus shipping. At my local Fry's I bought the cheapest DSL modem I could find, which was the Trendnet TDM-C400 for $34.99. After I returned home, I did some research on this model, and it turns out it's quite the capable little device. The manual reads like a 200 page primer on computer networking. Reviews at Newegg and Amazon are generally positive. If you are the person whose mechanical engineer child prodigy of a son can't get it to work because it has no drivers for Windows Vista, then you're doing it wrong.
That said it took me a little while to get it up and running. Reading through the reviews, I didn't bother with AT&T support, as they appear to be generally unhelpful when you didn't buy an overpriced modem from them. I tinkered around for some time without any success, until I came across this article: Using Your Own Modem with AT&T Internet Services to Avoid Buying AT&T Modems
The key pieces of information are the default PPP credentials needed to get enough access to complete the registration process, and the IP address to navigate to.
Username: attreg@att.net
Password: attreg
After resetting the modem to the default configuration and entering the credentials above, I was able to load 144.160.97.46, and complete the registration process. As part of the process I had to download a tool. I don't know that it did anything. It tried to communicate with the modem at the end of the process, but failed since I wasn't using an AT&T modem. I simply uninstalled the tool again once I completed the process.
Now I had working DSL internet access, but unfortunately only at a speed of 384 kbps downstream and upstream, which I could clearly see on the 'Home' tab in the modem GUI. After some research, I found out that this ramp up is normal when new DSL service is provisioned by AT&T. For more info see DSL Reports.
Unfortunately, my speed didn't change after more than 10 days. I went online and had a chat with AT&T support, and was asked a few questions, including which modem I used. I told them it's not one of theirs, which they were fine with, but they wanted to know the model regardless. They promised me a call back within half an hour, and warned that I might have some intermittent connectivity while they run some tests on my line. I did indeed, and for a brief exciting moment I also saw the downstream speed jump to 7008 kbps. Alas, that didn't last, and it ended up where it started by the time I received a call back about 10 minutes later. It was an automated system, asking me to press some key if I still had a problem, after which I ended up on hold for about 30 seconds before being connected to a live rep. It sounded like the rep was somewhere at a local operations center. I explained the problem to her, and she was able to fix it within a minute while I was on the phone. Good outcome, but still a little disappointing that I had to follow up. It does make me wonder how many less technologically savvy people never get the full speed that they pay for.
