Don't touch Ed's DSL line

The speed of business: Career broadband access

February 21, 2001
Web posted at: 2:34 p.m. EST (1934 GMT)

With Ed Curran, Technogadgets

(CNN) -- There's a light on my modem that's flashing orange. It's supposed to be green. When the light flashes orange it means I don't have high-speed Internet access. This is the third day it's orange and I'm not a happy camper.

First, my career message to you: If you don't yet have DSL, a cable modem, or some other type of broadband access to the Internet, take steps to get it today.

It instantly makes everyone more productive. My second career tip is this: Consider a career as a broadband installer or technician. There are obviously too few to handle technical problems like mine.

DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line and it's the greatest thing on Earth.

QUICK VOTE
	OK, show of modems: What kind of Internet connection are you on right now. DSL (Ed approves) Cable modem (that's OK, too) LAN (how are things at the office?) 56K modem (beep-beep) 28.8 modem (we're praying for you) 14.4 modem (bless your heart) Something else (tin cans and string?) View Results

Speeds on DSL depend on how fast you need to go and how much you're willing to pay. We pay about $50 per month for an ADSL line, which means our upload speed is less than our download speed. Speeds in our area can be more than 768 kbps, more than 13 times the speed of a 56K modem.

Your speed may vary due to your distance from the phone company. Our DSL technician, back when we had one, calculated a distance of only 6,652 feet to our telephone switches. Maybe I should just start running a new cable out my window and across the railroad tracks to the phone company.

When my DSL worked, the world was a happy place. It's hard to remember what life was like before DSL until you're without it.

It's now becoming painfully obvious how much my business depends on this low-cost, high-speed, Internet pipeline. It doesn't take long to realize that everything is a whole lot more efficient when you're not handcuffed by your 56k modem. Here at the world headquarters of Curran Communications Inc., everything nearly has ground to a halt.

Our DSL line allows us to quickly update new product news at our technogadgets.com Web site, to do the laborious research necessary to produce several CNN segments every week, and to watch funny movies at ifilm.com.

Instead, I'm limping along at 56K while I comtemplate taking out a contract on the workman who allegedly yanked, bumped, or inadvertently pulled my DSL connection. There have been a lot of workmen in the building lately so we're not sure who did it, or why.

It took a long time to figure out the problem was not that of our DSL provider. Once we scheduled a tech visit, delayed by a weekend and Presidents' Day, we found ourselves drowning under waves of work instead of surfing over oceans of data.

So while I'm waiting patiently for a visit from my DSL technician, I'll e-mail this column using my AOL account at 56K, and I'll wait for that callback from Tony Soprano who's looking for the workman who knocked me into the Internet Stone Age.

Ed Curran has covered the world of high-tech for more than a dozen years and is the publisher of Technogadgets® -- www.technogadgets.com. In addition to his weekly column here at CNN.com/career, watch for Curran's reports on CNN television.

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