[Joe Hadenuf]

Thanks general, and to ALL OTHERS for the information and advise.

The gaming is for my son, so it doesn't look like he would be to thrilled about it.

Do you know why DSL over the telephone lines are only good up to about 3 or 3 1/2 miles from the CO? It kills me that we happen to be a little over 4 miles out at our place up in the mountains. What is it, signal loss of some type?

[general_re]

That's it exactly. The signal degrades over distance - if you have a look at this thread from a few days ago, there's a discussion about the technical limits of DSL, and some possible new technologies to extend it somewhat. There are lower speed possibilities - SDSL (symmetric DSL) can go out to 25,000 feet or more, IIRC. But it's slower - like a 128k ISDN line, and comparatively expensive. And your telco may not even offer it.

Have you seen DSLreports? They have a DSL finder that you can try out - plug in your address and your phone number, and it'll tell you to within a few feet how far you are from the switch, and whether there's a provider in your area that will hook you up that far out.

I'm sympathetic, I really am - I'm in the same boat. I'm just a hair over 20,000 feet from the CO, and Verizon won't go any farther than 17,000 or so. So no DSL for me either. :^(