It has made me too jittery to think straight.  This dropping-DSL, which has been down for days on end, coming up for 30 minutes or an hour a day, has made me link-light crazy, watching the router nervously for the fatal wink-out of the WAN link indicator.  I'm getting an ulcer. 

Current connection condition as follows (as obtained from DSL reports)

...to New Jersey:
** Speed 1294(down)/442(up) kbps **
(At least 25 times faster than a 56k modem)
Logging result
Finish.

...to San Jose:
** Speed 274(down)/436(up) kbps **
(At least 5 times faster than a 56k modem)
Logging result
Finish.

..to Los Angeles:
** Speed 545(down)/438(up) kbps **
(At least 10 times faster than a 56k modem)
Logging result
Finish.

I don't know what is up with the San Jose test results -- the upload is faster than the download. But if it is connected at all lately, all I can say is 'tsawright. 

The DSL offerings out there are pretty awful.  WorldCom, despite their website propaganda, can't do anything for a Rhythms customer 'cept sell'em a new line.  No assumption of 'customer care' going on there.  Or maybe it is just an unscrupulous sales staff trying to maximize commissions -- the American way.  They want to discard the present connection, hardware and all, and have Covad install everything new.  Such an encouragingly inefficient business practice for lean times -- maximize cash flow without regard for the rest. 

I'm in a bad mood.

They want $150 per month for a 128kbps line (Synchronous DSL -- 128k both ways).  This price means nothing to me since I have not spent a cent on my present line.  But the service I signed up for was ADSL (Asynchronous) which for most of its life has provided me with 1.5Mbps downstream and 300+ kbps upstream.  The price for that was $49.95 a month.  Hmmm.  I think there is some shopping to be done here -- or maybe some strong words to be shared with WorldCom, like... well, I don't know exactly what they are yet.  But I'll let you know.