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Installation

It will be a great day for Web surfers when they can just plug their computer into the wall and get the Internet instantly, as if it were National Public Radio on their stereo. But at this point we're nowhere near that kind of plug-and-play simplicity.

In the case of cable modems and DSL, different companies supply different parts of the service. The wire comes from your cable provider or phone company, and choices are limited to those in your area. Analog modems sell in stores; you just plug them in and go. But installing DSL or cable entails a visit from a technician. (Some providers, such as US West, mail you the equipment and walk you through installation over the phone.)

Once you're connected, an ISP supplies the Internet services--maintaining your e-mail address, news server access, and IP address. Your phone or cable company may offer to serve as your ISP, and with DSL you can also choose from other providers. For now, cable companies still require you to use them as your ISP, but that may change (for example, AOL claims it will open its cable lines to other ISPs). Moving to broadband may sound daunting, and the past is littered with grim horror stories (see February's "Broadband Blues"), but that situation is changing rapidly. Typically you can get started with cable modem or DSL service sooner than you might think. In our reader survey, 80 percent of cable modem users were promised installation within two weeks--and the same percentage had their broadband access up and running within that time frame. DSL services were a bit tardier: Only 60 percent of DSL customers were assured of installation in under two weeks, and about 54 percent got it that quickly. Even so, few of the readers we surveyed waited longer than a month to get hooked up.

Please Hold

What's the holdup for people who do have to wait? For starters, most providers ship you the equipment, and you must arrange with the installation technician to get it set up, if you don't do it yourself. Network engineers then add hardware to the phone company's network hub to accommodate the new signal.

DSL uses the phone line that runs from the telephone pole to your house. Inside your home, it travels via wiring that connects to an existing or newly installed phone jack. Cable modem service comes into your house the same way cable TV does--through a coaxial cable. If your computer is in the same room with a cable-connected TV, a technician will add a splitter in that room to provide two lines and will put a filter in the line for the TV. Either you or a technician will need to install an ethernet card inside your PC (if it doesn't already come with one). Finally, a cable runs from the wall to an external modem, and then an ethernet cable spans the last few inches or feet from the modem to the ethernet card within your PC. (Some newer PCs are equipped with internal DSL modems, eliminating the need for an external box.)

It may sound straightforward, but not every customer experiences a smooth installation. John Williams, an engineer in Severna Park, Maryland, signed up for DSL service from Covad and Toadnet, his dial-up ISP, in November 1999. He ran into trouble, he says, because Covad relied on Bell Atlantic (a DSL competitor) to participate in the installation, and the Bell Atlantic technicians kept missing appointments. "It became obvious that the local phone company was stalling. If I were the phone company I would be pushing [DSL]," he said, "but [big companies] are hard to change." Ultimately, Williams got his connection, but only after several phone calls and false starts.

One hope for the future is over-the-counter DSL and cable modem kits, available from select major retailers across the nation. Though they supposedly permit do-it-yourself installation, these kits aren't quite up to par yet. There are myriad slightly different versions of both technologies, and many of the kits work only with a specific provider in a particular geographical area. To see for ourselves, we tested a DSL kit--and ran into nothing but trouble (see "DSL From Hell").