News is beginning to circulate that AT&T will implement a 150GB monthly cap on landline DSL, as well as a 250GB cap on subscribers to U-Verse beginning on May 2. Will this affect you and your Internet usage? Let us …

High speed Internet customers like their service but 30 percent are willing to ditch their provider if they can find a more affordable service elsewhere, according to a report from J.D. Power & Associates.

Cost savings is cited by 69 percent of high-speed Internet customers and 40 percent of dial-up customers as the main reason they would consider switching providers.

Broadband penetration has increased more than 300 percent since 2002, according to a new analysis from Scarborough Research.

In 2002, 12 percent of U.S. adults had a broadband connection in their household. Now, close to half (49%) have broadband. DSL connections have grown more than cable modems, but both have seen significant growth. Since 2002, cable modem penetration increased 188 percent and DSL connections increased 575 percent.

Comcast’s BitTorrent snafu set off another investigation of a cable provider and yielded similar results. This time it’s Cox’s interference with file-sharing service eDonkey setting Net Neutrality alarms.

AT&T caught so much flak over burying their $10 DSL offer, that they made it easier to find. You just go past the giant displays for more expensive DSL, down and right to the corner of the screen and then click through to another page.

AT&T’s new head is a smooth one, definitely Dapper Dan and not Fop. It takes a quarter-century of industry experience to tap dance around honest questions the way he does.

AT&T’s been sounding its trumpets about new wireless video offerings, especially in advance of the much-anticipated iPhone launch. They’ve kept those trumpets far away, however, from their FCC-required $10 per month DSL.

BellSouth had planned to continue collecting a $2.97 per month fee from its 3.2 million DSL customers, even though that fee had been originally collected for the federal government’s Universal Service Fund.

Just as Verizon has replaced the Universal Service Fund fee customers paid each month with a new fee that goes straight into their bank account, BellSouth will likewise keep the charge in place and pocket the cash.

Verizon Communications Inc. and Yahoo! will announce today their launch of a joint DSL service that is, according to the AP, half as fast but just as expensive as Yahoo!’s SBC Communications link-up. At least the DSL service will still be cheaper than AOL’s $23.90 a month dial-up. One day AOL should change its name to AWOL (America Waiting Online).

Facility sharing requirements imposed on telephone companies that required leasing lines to competitors has been abolished.

The aftermath of a June Supreme Court decision may see DSL deregulated to enable phone companies to compete with cable.

Bellsouth announced today plans to take their DSL services up another notch to 6 Mbps. Broadband users with cable companies like Comcast or Adelphia already had 6.0 Mbps access but this marks the first of the major phone companies to offer the service.

Customers in Washington DC and Chicago can try out the faster AOL service for $29.95 per month.

Verizon announced today a plan to let small business take advantage of high-speed access through their Business DSL program. Rebates will bring the cost down on the first three months of a one-year contract.

The new package will provide users with a more secure Web surfing experience than before.

Verizon announced on Monday that customers would have access to DSL without a local calling plan. The new plan will be offered to its northeastern customers first and more will be added later.

Although high speed internet access may not have reached you yet, it probably will soon. The advantages are obvious, but there’s a dark side: security. I’m not going to talk about the more general aspects of securing your system here (I’ve done that in General Security), but only specifically about the issue of clear text passwords with telnet, pop, and ftp.

Connecting to the Internet

This article is a basic overview to get you started. There are other articles here that cover certain details in more depth. You may also want to read:

• Installing a Small Office Network

• Internet Mail
• OSR5 PPP Setup
• IPFILTER Firewalls
• DSL and Cable Modem Security
• VPN’s and other remote access
• E-Smith Server and Gateway

Everywhere you look someone is offering you free Internet access. How can they do that? Simple, it is not really free. You knew it was to good to be true, right?