Something Technical about DSL

Okay okay. Something technical.

A question I get asked a lot is how to get high speed internet. I don't know every possible thing about high-speed internet as we have a fabulous LAN at work that I don't have to do much to make work. Someone else takes care of that.

And I know about my own high-speed internet at home because I set it up and I fix it when it breaks.

I can't really answer questions about someone else's network.

But...

I can tell people how it looks and how it works....

For example: DSL.

DSL works over your existing phone lines. Your existing phone lines use 2 of the four wires in your phone cable. (Sure, take out a phone cable and look at it. I'll wait.)

The other two aren't used unless you have a DSL converter in the jack. Then all 4 are in use; two for your phone and two for your internet. And they don't interfere with each other, usually.

The cable from the phone jack with the converter plugs into the DSL converter box (aka cable or dsl modem) and the network cable that comes out can be plugged into the network connector on the back of your computer.

Or...you can plug it into a wireless access point to allow you to use your laptop without any cables. Or...you can attach it to a router to allow you to have multiple computers connected.

And that's DSL.