[Major Payne]

A friend of mine and her family live in a motel where you have to dial 9 for an outside number. They are connecting to the Internet using Dial-up this way.

I want to know if the phone company could set up a number for use with DSL where you can dial 9 for an outside number without having an actual line installed (which is a no-no for the motel)?

For economical reasons, other alternatives are not viable right now to get a faster connection.

Ron

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Major Payne,

Unless there has been some MAJOR development with ADSL technology in recent times - the answer is NO, this is NOT possible. A telephone line cannot become ADSL "on demand" - but rather, must be pre-connected to a DSL "DSLAM" at the LEC's (Local Exchange Carrier) site.

If you're using dialup in this environment, the best you'll be able to do is 56K dialup, provided you have a 56K modem, access number and dialup Internet account.

Many hotels now provide high-speed Ethernet ports and/or WiFi Internet access for their guests (sometimes free - sometimes as a cost to the guests). Provided your computer HAS WiFi and/or Ethernet capabilities - you may want to check with the hotel as to if Internet access is available.

Hope this helps.

- John

[John Hook]

Major Payne,

Unless there has been some MAJOR development with ADSL technology in recent times - the answer is NO, this is NOT possible. A telephone line cannot become ADSL "on demand" - but rather, must be pre-connected to a DSL "DSLAM" at the LEC's (Local Exchange Carrier) site.

If you're using dialup in this environment, the best you'll be able to do is 56K dialup, provided you have a 56K modem, access number and dialup Internet account.

Many hotels now provide high-speed Ethernet ports and/or WiFi Internet access for their guests (sometimes free - sometimes as a cost to the guests). Provided your computer HAS WiFi and/or Ethernet capabilities - you may want to check with the hotel as to if Internet access is available.

Hope this helps.

- John

[Major Payne]

Thanks for reply, John. Dial-up is "killing" her and I was just hoping the company could provide them a line accessible via the "9 out" for external line way without having any actual connection until she does that. I'm sure once she could do it via a 9 for outside number leased to her, modem would stay connected.

As stated, for economical reasons nothing else will work. The motel is almost like "a slum lord" type and they are not about to bother providing high-speed Ethernet ports and/or WiFi Internet access for them. This family is living there is all I know about there situation. I was just hoping I could call their phone company and see if it was possible to just get a phone line set to connect to DSL via the dial out number.

Thanks for info.

Ron

[John Hook]

Major Payne,

Again - to the best of my knowledge, there is no way to "dial-up" a DSL line. DSL is something that has to be PHYSICALLY wired to the phone line in question - NOT a service that you can simply access on demand. DSL is based on a DSLAM being physically connected to your phone line at your phone company's Central Office. Chances are, this hotel has a local PBX, which accesses a fixed number of outside trunk lines with the local telco - when you press '9'. That said, you're even further removed from the possibility of DSL access as your PBX would ALSO have to provide DSL access.

Unfortunately - dialup is really the best you're going to do.

Here are a few thoughts you may want to consider:

1) Does this PC have WiFi access? If so, you may want to scan for WiFi hotspots near your hotel. Many cafe's offer free WiFi access - so if you're near one and have WiFi capability, you may be able to snag an Internet connection that's faster than dialup.

2) All of the big, national cellular carriers (i.e. AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, etc) offer wireless broadband services in most major metropolitan areas. I've not done pricing on this - but I suspect that the plans are somewhat pricey. Anyways - you can subscribe to these services and access them one of two ways 1) install a cellular modem in your laptop or 2) Connect a compatible cell phone to your PC via a USB cable - making your cell phone into a cellular broadband modem. Again - these options require you to subscribe to the wireless carrier's cellular Internet service. If the area you're in has access - you should get FASTER speeds than 56K dialup.

Hope this helps.

- John

[Major Payne]

I've already ask them to look into wireless. Waiting on an answer. Keep in mind that they can not afford much at this time. I'm hoping they can afford a wireless PCMCIA card for the laptop and that there are some hot spots for them to use.

I think you misunderstood me. I've used a DSL model before. I know you can not dial up using the DSL modem. She will be doing the dialing manually for 9 for the outside line and then the number the DSL modem can connect to. Once this is done, the DSL modem will run normally. I just wanted to know if the phone company will set up the phone line with a number for her to use? I mean, she can connect to any number in the world once she has the outside line. It doesn't matter if they disconnect to use the phone normally as long as they can go through the same steps to get the outside number to connect the DSL modem to when she wants to go online.

Ron

[John Hook]

Major Payne,

You cannot access one phone line, dial another, then access DSL this way. DSL is something that is HARDWIRED to a SPECIFIC phone line - NOT something you can access by jumping or dialing from ONE phone line to ANOTHER phone line that happens to HAVE DSL. All of this said - the ONLY way you could have DSL in the hotel you're describing is if this HOTEL has subscribed to DSL on a DEDICATED line that's running into your hotel room. This is VERY unlikely as MOST hotels have their phones connected to switches or PBX's - which are a completely SEPARATE telephone system which has the ability to access outside lines.

I can say with almost 100% certainty that the hotel you've described is NOT going to allow you DSL access!

If you need something faster than 56K dialup - you'll need to look at Cellular Broadband or WiFi, provided there's an open WiFi hotspot within connection distance to this hotel.

Hope this clarifies your question.

- John