No Problems Whatsoever

This opinion may seem extremely positive, but the Alcatel Speed Touch Home ADSL Modem I use to connect to Sympatico High Speed Edition (DSL service) has worked reliably and given me no problems since I started using it.

Because I rent the modem, I do not know how much it would cost to buy. Sympatico DSL costs $29.95 CA a month, plus $10 a month for the modem rental.

The specifications on the box say 1mbps upstream and 8mbps downstream. At this speed, you could theoretically download a 4 megabyte mp3 file in 4 seconds, assuming you were connected to a fast server. However, the best speeds I attain are 980kbps download and around 130kbps upload. I suspect that the only reason my speeds are not as high as claimed on the box is that Sympatico limits the line speed of their DSL customers.

Installation was very easy for me, I just had to install the network card (very easy in Windows 2000), and install the Access Manager software from my service provider. From there it was simple to follow the instructions and plug in the right cables.

One detail to be aware of is that the modem establishes line sync (the DSL version of "dialing in") as soon as the modem is turned on, not when you connect with whatever PPPoE software you are using. The software only authenticates and makes the connection available to the PC.

Included with my modem were an RJ-11 cord, which is the phone cord that goes from the phone jack on the wall to the modem, an RJ-45/Network cable, which goes from the modem to the Network Interface Card (NIC) in my computer, and a power adapter.


Notes:
8mbps is the same as 1MB/s, which means one megabyte per second.
1mbps is equal to 1024kbps.
PPPoE means Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet, and it is the kind of DSL where you must first "dial in" with a program.