Linux friendly local ISP?

[zscoundrel]

You should NOT use CAT5 for voice or analog data phone lines.  It has 
the wrong impedance and you will actually suffer slower modem 
connections than if you buy average quality twisted pair phone cable.

CAT5 was designed for low voltage high speed digital signals.  Phone 
wire (twisted pair) was designed for higher voltage analog voice signals 
and higher voltage (70+) ringer operation.

David wrote:

> Monty:
> 
> Is two-pair all they buried?  Yes and no.
> 
> When I bought the place back in '95 there was apparently two pair in the 
> ground.  When I ordered two voice lines, the second didn't work.  SWBell 
> guy came out, determined that line 1 was using tip/tip from the two 
> different pairs, rather than tip/ring from one pair (classic "split 
> pair" case), and determined it would be best to just run new cable (I 
> think he determined that one of the ring wires was bad).  All he had on 
> his truck was aerial cable, so he said he'd hook me up with that, leave 
> it laying on the ground, and order a new 2-pair buriable cable to be put 
> in.  About two weeks later that aerial cable was "gone" and I could see 
> where they'd buried some cable.  So now there are 4 pairs in the ground, 
> in two different runs.
> 
> Couple months later my phones start acting flaky.  Turns out they'd just 
> buried the aerial cable, rather than running cable suitable for 
> burying.  So new buried cable goes in.  Six pair, in three runs now in 
> the ground.  Two pair in use.
> 
> Later, SWB elects to put in a new major feeder cable into my 
> neighborhood, and in the process replace two older pedestals (which due 
> to a fence installed were on opposite sides of the fence!) with one.  
> Oh, and they'd just run a new set of cables to everyone's house, too.  
> So now eight pairs in four runs in the ground, two pair in use.
> 
> Then I get Sprint ION installed.  Need a new pair for that.  I'm pretty 
> sure they put in a new cable for that, which was presumably a two-pair 
> cable.  So now ten pairs, in five runs, three pairs in use (I had not 
> yet "ported" my old phones to SWB, so they were running as well).
> 
> Later I do port to ION, so I have ten pairs, one in use.
> 
> ION goes the way of the dodo, and I'm now back to my old SWB voice 
> pairs.  So ten pairs in the ground in five runs, two pair in use.  So 
> with ten pair in the ground feeding the house, I use a cable modem. :^)
> 
> FYI, when re-running my telco cable from the NID (replacing old 
> red/green,yellow/black cable), I pulled two cat-5 cables from the NID to 
> my furnace room, which has also become my "wiring closet".  One of the 
> cat-5's carries the signals from the NID to my "wiring closet".  The 
> other CAT5 I use to feed from my wiring closet back to a phone in the 
> garage (where the NID is).  I've put in a nest of cabling such that I 
> now have two CAT5 runs to several places in the house - one for voice 
> (supporting up to four separate lines) and one for Ethernet.  All are 
> "home runs" back to my wiring closet.  I also have one "legacy" run in 
> the wiring closet that's all the original telephone wiring which feeds a 
> couple places where I can't get new cable without tearing up walls.  
> CATV goes in and out of my wiring closet, too, so my cable modem lives 
> there, too (much better than having to have it near the computer).
> 
> David
> 
> 
> 
>