[lug] Cisco 675 vs 678 question

[Prescott Oelke]

I think DMT is a variant of the G.Lite protocol (don't quote me on that 
though). The Cisco 675 was designed back when DSL was just getting off the 
ground and ADSL and RADSL were the only flavors available to home users. I 
still have my 675 (that I paid around $400 for) from a DSL line I had back 
in early 1999. I really loved that router (way better than cable and some 
of the crap they put out for DSL now). I don't think that Qwest is invested 
in supporting the ADSL variants anymore. And with the other DSL vendors 
dropping like flies it looks like the G.Lite junk is here to stay.

Prescott Oelke

At 11:40 AM 8/10/2001 -0600, you wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I recently decided to give up one of my phone lines, and because
>my DSL was on a line with an obscure number, I asked Qwest if it
>would be difficult to move it to the line with my well-known phone
>number. No problem I was told and there would be no cost. Since I
>was about to go on vacation, I asked that the change not take effect
>until I returned a couple of weeks later in order that I could deal
>with any problems that might arise immediately. So the day before I'm to
>leave, I'm working at home when suddenly my DSL quits working. After
>a half hour or so, I realize this is more than a temporary outage, so
>I contact Qwest. The technician tells me that there is no
>record of my phone number having DSL -- this on a line that has had
>DSL from the first month it was offerred by US West. Eventually I
>find out that though installation of DSL on my other line is indeed
>scheduled for July 5, after I return from vacation, for some reason
>my old line has been cut off 2 weeks beforehand, and that it is
>impossible to restore it at least for 72 hours. I won't recite all
>the inconvenience this caused, both to me and my daughter who was
>taking some internet-based college coursework. I'm more concerned
>with what happened after my return.
>
>I returned to find a package with the Intel USB DSL modem enclosed for
>my new DSL connection. I knew this hardware would not work for Linux
>(or for Windows 95, my dual-boot option), but I was not concerned,
>since my plan was simply to switch over the Cisco 675 that had been
>working fine on the other line for a couple of years. When I tried to
>connect the 675, however, it behaved as if the DSL was not activated.
>I called Qwest and found out that the DSL was indeed activated, but that
>I now had a different kind of line (a 'DMT' line I think it is called) and
>that the 675 wouldn't work. I would need to get a Cisco 678 instead, and
>oh, by the way, a 678 is considered an upgrade from the
>Intel USB modem, and therefore costs money -- $275 or so. Well I
>squawked about how I had been told this would be a no-cost proposition
>and complained more about the premature cutoff on the other line, so
>eventually Qwest agreed to give me several months of free DSL which would
>bring my net cost down to $100 or so.
>
>My questions after this cautionary tale are: does anyone know what the
>difference between the DMT line and my old line really is? Second,
>I'm left with a perfectly good, but useless to me, Cisco 675. Could
>anyone find a use for it?
>  -Dave Brown
>  dbrown at ucar.edu
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
>Mailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lug