[sf-lug] Trying to be secure but the ISP knocked down my plans

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):

>     So why did DSLExtreme do this?

>     Well back in May AT&T began to phase out analog DSL service.

FWIW, there is no such thing as analog DSL service.  That's a
contradiction in terms.  The 'D' in 'DSL' stands for digital.

The real story, judging by the reference 2012 DSLreports news item,
appears to be that AT&T is phasing out DSL (not 'analog DSL') service in
favour of some U-Verse-branded alternative -- maybe the ADSL2+-based 
offering.  Problem is that the news item is now out of date.  For one
thing, AT&T dropped the brand name U-Verse some years ago.  What they're
really flogging at the moment is their Fios (Fiber Optic Service)
product, which is currently branded as 'AT&T Fiber'.

FWIW, since 'U-Verse' was a marketing term, it never mapped clearly to
one specific type of service, i.e., in technical discussion one was well
advised to be more specific than that.

> I am stuck with this service for a year. due to contract but next July
> will be looking to find a provider that will let me use my modem and
> my router or offer that combination of  separate modem and router

I'm still quite fond of my plain ol' ADSL residential serice from Mike
Durkin's firm Raw Bandwidth Communications.