> My son and grandson have gone ga-ga over our DSL connection and how well it works with certain computer games. So they decided that they need a connection like that. A few phone calls found the following information:
>
> 1. They are about 100 yards from where they can get DSL.
> 2. DSL is actually transmitted over telephone lines, and they have a telephone.
> 3. They can get a "business" DSL for about $80 a month, but the "residential" DSL, at about $35 a month, is unavailable.
>
> I am somewhat electronically challenged, but that seems like someone is lying to them in an effort to make an extra $45 a month.
> Howard

DSL is distance limited. There is only so many feet of cable that can be between your DSL modem and a piece of equipment called a DSLAM. You've seen those metal, refrigerator-sized boxes around neighborhoods right? Sometimes they're green or gray or whatever...but they are owned by the phone company and that's where all the phone lines for a given section of town are run into. Anyway, the DSLAM's are in those boxes.

As for business versus residential DSL, the difference is the bandwidth, or speed at which data is uploaded/downloaded to your PC. Business DSL is going to be faster and therefore more expensive. For gaming, there's no need to go with business DSL. I'm sure they'll try to sell him on it but in my opinion it'd be a waste of money.

Hope that helped.

-Kelly