Tech Break

In case you’ve been here before and are now questioning your sanity, yes, this is a different WordPress template than what this blog used to use. Also, I’ve gone back and tagged all Tech Break posts with keywords relating to post content, in case you want to, say, pull up all posts relating to Google’s Android operating system. The tags aren’t quite perfect, but my intention is to tag every post from here on out to make things easy to search.

I also have added “more tags” on posts so most posts aren’t displayed in full on multi-post blog pages. This should make Tech Break slightly easier to browse through, rather than having a very lengthy page for each collection of posts.

Last but not least, I corrected a few punctuation, capitalization, spelling and typographical errors in my previous posts. I didn’t catch ‘em all, but things should look slightly better now.

Hope you like the changes!

In all fairness to Qwest, the last post about their sly-fox DSL pricing schemes was a bit harsh. The company is in a mountain of debt, and yet they are trying to roll out next-gen internet speeds in “select areas”. But what exactly is this next generation internet, and what makes it different from what’s available right now? Well, here are some answers (twelve, to be exact):

1. Qwest’s medium of choice from here on out is VDSL2.
2. AT&T also uses VDSL, albeit a generation older (for now), for their U-Verse network.
3. Unlike AT&T, Qwest isn’t going to try to run a TV service over their VDSL network, leaving more bandwidth for internet-only service.
4. VDSL2, unlike VDSL, works over copper “loop” lengths longer than a few thousand feet, albeit at speeds comparable to Qwest’s older “Fiber to the Node” ADSL2+ system.
5. Due to (4), all Qwest upgrades will be to VDSL2 equipment, with no ADSL2+ intermediate step.
6. VDSL2 requires a special modem, in contrast to garden-variety ADSL2+. Qwest’s VDSL2 modem is the ActionTec Q1000, which has built-in 802.11n wireless, gigabit Ethernet and backward compatbility with older DSL systems.

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Welcome (a bit early) to the 2009-2010 school year. For those of you moving off-campus, you’ll need internet access. Get Comcast if it’s available to you. Get US Cable if it’s not. If neither provider is available then (and only then) get Qwest DSL. Be creful though; Qwest’s pricing can get crazy quickly, once all the promotions are peeled away.

Qwest does business a little differently than Comcast. Whereas Comcast’s website tends to emphasize non-promotional pricing for internet tiers (which run $35, $55 and $65 per month without TV, depending on whether you want 1 Mbps, 6 Mbps or 8 Mbps download speeds, s=respectively), Qwest prefers to tuck non-promotional pricing away behind a few layers of internet fluff. The result: Qwest’s deals seem better than Comcast’s…and they are, as long as you ditch their service when their promotions expire and rates steepen dramatically.

Even with Qwest’s “Price For Life” option (which requires a two-year contract on service), you can’t lock in Qwest’s best promotional rates. Price for Life just shaves $10-$13 off of Qwest’s after-promo price, turning highway robbery into something more palatable.

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