As I learned from a Verizon technician a few weeks ago, DSL:

1. “Doesn’t like T-shaped splices in the premesis wiring.”

2. “Doesn't like to live at the last house on the street.”

3. Can have its performance reduced by subtle short circuits in the telephone line connecting the house to the telephone pole, eventually resulting in damage to the DSL modem.

Of course, now that Verizon offers FiOS in some areas, DSL is being retroactively rebadged as a “stop-gap measure.”

If the telephone service is from Verizon, give them a call. They can monitor the line to see how your packet traffic looks (from a remote site in Canada), and they can test the line from the pole to the house (requires them to climb the pole).

What you really need is to see a truck appear in your neighborhood, and then see dangling from the telephone poles thick black cables bearing the legend:

CORNING FIBER OPTIC 600 FEET

You have to picture the letters widely spaced, like the ones on the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

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