Would a UK ADSL modem work in the US?

I will be visiting a mate of mine in Florida in about 6 weeks time.
Currently he is paying AOL $25 per month for a dial up connection!
When I was there last year, I suggested he upgraded to brodband, but
was shocked to find the prices they charge for a pretty slow
connection. (eg $40 for a 512Kb)

Anyway, hopefully when I get there this time, he will be able to get
himself sorted. However, one of the things they were saying to him,
was that he needed to buy their modem. (I dont think it was a
condition) The cost of this was a whopping $70 and it wasnt a router!

Since I have a spare USB ADSL modem he can have for free, I wondered
if our sysem would be ok to use over there? Dont suppose it is, but
worth asking to see if anyone knows?

Cheers

PS - He lives in a place called Jupiter, which is about 10 miles south
of West Palm Beach. There doesnt seem to be a great deal of choice
when it comes to ISPs he could use. Does that sound right?

On 2007-02-12, guv <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> I will be visiting a mate of mine in Florida in about 6 weeks time.
> Currently he is paying AOL $25 per month for a dial up connection!
> When I was there last year, I suggested he upgraded to brodband, but
> was shocked to find the prices they charge for a pretty slow
> connection. (eg $40 for a 512Kb)

That doesn't sound right. I think all of Florida is Bellsouth territory,
and while this is about the most expensive phone company in the USA their
ADSL prices, here

http://www.bellsouth.com/consumer/in...s_compare.html

aren't that terrible. I bought DSL service in south Florida
(in Boynton Beach, 10 miles south of West Palm Beach; I think Jupiter
is north of West Palm Beach) two years ago and the prices were the same
then as far as I can remember.

> Since I have a spare USB ADSL modem he can have for free, I wondered
> if our sysem would be ok to use over there? Dont suppose it is, but
> worth asking to see if anyone knows?

It will work with the ADSL there, but I wouldn't do this. In the USA
the ADSL services are encapsulated with PPPoE which means you can use
quite dumb, inexpensive Ethernet modems which just work better than the USB
versions. Plus, if you are careful, you can usually get the modem from
the phone company for free (see above web page).

Dennis Ferguson

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 02:53:16 -0600, Dennis Ferguson
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On 2007-02-12, guv <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>> I will be visiting a mate of mine in Florida in about 6 weeks time.
>> Currently he is paying AOL $25 per month for a dial up connection!
>> When I was there last year, I suggested he upgraded to brodband, but
>> was shocked to find the prices they charge for a pretty slow
>> connection. (eg $40 for a 512Kb)
>
>That doesn't sound right. I think all of Florida is Bellsouth territory,
>and while this is about the most expensive phone company in the USA their
>ADSL prices, here
>
> http://www.bellsouth.com/consumer/in...s_compare.html
>
>aren't that terrible. I bought DSL service in south Florida
>(in Boynton Beach, 10 miles south of West Palm Beach; I think Jupiter
>is north of West Palm Beach) two years ago and the prices were the same
>then as far as I can remember.

The 256K connection is $25 - but then plus modem - or pay $5 pm for
using the free router. (If I am reading that correctly?) I stopped
when I tried to access the t&Cs for rebates - when it told me I had to
upgrade my Browser to IE. Im using Opera and no wish to downgrade! ;-)

So once taxes are added, it wont be far off $40! It seems thats the
only modem offer - so they'll need to buy one! I'd certainly go for
the faster option, but they are only lite users and will only be using
for the occasional surfing. Its certainly better than the aol dialup
offering they currently use!

>> Since I have a spare USB ADSL modem he can have for free, I wondered
>> if our sysem would be ok to use over there? Dont suppose it is, but
>> worth asking to see if anyone knows?
>
>It will work with the ADSL there, but I wouldn't do this. In the USA
>the ADSL services are encapsulated with PPPoE which means you can use
>quite dumb, inexpensive Ethernet modems which just work better than the USB
>versions. Plus, if you are careful, you can usually get the modem from
>the phone company for free (see above web page).

OK cheers Dennis. I'll have a look at best buy for modem options.

I did try to use an online DSL checker and used their address and
phone details. It only came back with 4 options (and Bellsouth wasnt
one of them!) I guess we have far more options open to us in the UK.
They do use Comcast for cable TV - not sure if they use them for phone
also - I guess that will make a difference in what they have available
to them if they do? Anyway, the comcast site doesnt seem to even give
details of the speeds - and entering their details says they cant find
them on their system! Weird since they are customers!

On 12 Feb, 23:08, guv <g...@msn.com> wrote:

> Since I have a spare USB ADSL modem he can have for free, I wondered
> if our system would be ok to use over there? Dont suppose it is, but
> worth asking to see if anyone knows?

I don't have any direct experience or expertise, but the setup
instructions for ADSL provided by Plusnet in the UK says to set 'data
link encapsulation' to PPPoA and not to use PPPoE which is for the
USA. So if your modem offers PPPoE you are perhaps at least part way
there.

I have set up a dozen or so ADSL connections with various ISPs and
modem brands in the UK, and they all seem to offer a variety of more-
or-less undocumented options. I find it best to start with the
manufacturer's default set, apply any specifically recommended by the
ISP, and then if it still doesn't work, either call their support
(often surprisingly helpful) or try to find another working example
and copy the settings across one by one. So far I've never failed to
get it working.

As someone else remarked, you will of course need to deal with the
voltage difference for the power supply.

Peter CS

On 16 Feb 2007, "pjcs" wrote:

>On 12 Feb, 23:08, guv <g...@msn.com> wrote:
>
>> Since I have a spare USB ADSL modem he can have for free,

>As someone else remarked, you will of course need to deal with the
>voltage difference for the power supply.

Hopefully, not, as it was a USB modem being offered...

On 16 Feb 2007 02:03:06 -0800, "pjcs" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>On 12 Feb, 23:08, guv <g...@msn.com> wrote:
>
>> Since I have a spare USB ADSL modem he can have for free, I wondered
>> if our system would be ok to use over there? Dont suppose it is, but
>> worth asking to see if anyone knows?
>
>I don't have any direct experience or expertise, but the setup
>instructions for ADSL provided by Plusnet in the UK says to set 'data
>link encapsulation' to PPPoA and not to use PPPoE which is for the
>USA. So if your modem offers PPPoE you are perhaps at least part way
>there.
>
>I have set up a dozen or so ADSL connections with various ISPs and
>modem brands in the UK, and they all seem to offer a variety of more-
>or-less undocumented options. I find it best to start with the
>manufacturer's default set, apply any specifically recommended by the
>ISP, and then if it still doesn't work, either call their support
>(often surprisingly helpful) or try to find another working example
>and copy the settings across one by one. So far I've never failed to
>get it working.
>
>As someone else remarked, you will of course need to deal with the
>voltage difference for the power supply.

OK many thanks Peter. I have got my friends to try to speak direct
with providers they can use. So far Ive not heard back. But from what
I can see, they should just be able to buy a US modem and plug into
their phone line. Where it becomes confusing is the quote they were
given by someone they know who just signed up with Bellsouth (their
phone provider) and where charged a massive $155 to do so - with a
modem included! I dont know how accurate this is , or if there was
more to it than this, but it sounds a bit steep!

Their cable TV company is comcast, but their website is a little
lacking in speed details! Also the online checking service says it
doesnt recognise their postal address and zip cose! Strange since they
are customers!