I noticed that my brother has all these business packages he can get with dsl at his home(sadly Im stuck on cable and can't get dsl or digital lines)

anyway I run my own colocated server at a local place but want to save some money and was wondering besides the power backup, is their any reason to not go through these dsl business solutions that allow people to host servers? Is the connection always gonna suck compared to a colocation facility?

Well you should really look into what speed the DSL connection is:) 1.5/1.5 is great but
784/128 is a no no

The connection will always suck compared to a colo facility. And I hope those hosted websites are that important - because in the end - business class dsl and home-class dsl all look the same to the dsl wholesaler.. They're all just another circuit. I hope you don't have any bad experiences with it - but if it ever goes down for any reason - due to something the local ILEC/CLEC or ISP is doing, then don't expect people to be scrambling to get it up within the next couple of hours. I've seen dsl issues go on for 2 months before anything is successfully pingable and running again. Good luck.

Laterz,
Matt

redundancy of T1+ is the most major thing. do a search of this forums and there are a lot of informative info of why NOT to put a hosting business on DSL.

I have information on my site about it. The condensed version is that unless you're hosting your own hobby sites and they don't need to be up all the time, don't do it. It won't be worth it to you and it certainly won't be worth it to any potential customers.

Speaking about DSL, do you know how far is your phone jack to the nearest hub/router? There is a 5500ft limit, beyond which your connection can degrade drammatically... I once was offerend a DSL, but after knowing that the nearest router/hub is 17000 ft away... I just said "thanks, bye" :D

cheers,
:beer:

At that distance, d., you probably would have had IDSL, which uses ISDN to go the distance. I think it's the only one of the many DSL permutations that can go that far.

thanks for the info I assumed these setups would suck but the cost and the way these companies pitch it is what made me wonder. I was actually gonna run my own sites and try freehosting some stuff with the left over bandwidth.

Some of these providers talk about how these business lines are hooked up differently than residential ones and need different hardware, and claim their priority is on companies that want the speed but not cost of dedicated lines. And support was said to be different than residential customers.

but I assumed it wouldn't be that great for hosting sites although I would like to see it in action.

damac,
may I know how much you are charged for this DSL? Isn't it better to colocate your server somewhere (with much higher redundancy and connectivity than just a DSL), especially since I don't think you are doing much bandwith anyhow?

cheers,
:beer:

A close friend of mine was in the telecommuncations business and sold commercial DSL and other things.

Here's the pricing for one company he represented

Download/Upload Speed Price/mo.
Price/mo. (1 Yr) (2 Yr) New Line Installation Existing Line Installation (LNP)
2 mbps / 2 mbps $400.00 $350.00 $300.00 $200.00
4 mbps / 4 mbps $600.00 $550.00 $300.00 $200.00

They guaranteed the speed, and there was still a distance factor from their equipment. They couldn't help you if you were too far away. I think there was a 3,000 foot limit.

The provider here said they offer two types of services, ADSL for business and T1. The ADSL(2.5 mbps) is about $200 a month, unlimited data transfer while the T1(1.5 mbps) is $1300-2000 depending on various things. I was surprised as to why the 1.5 mbps (T1) is costlier than the DSL because I thought T1 and DSL were just names for the same kind of service which just vary in speed.

Well he said DSL is not as reliable and a break could last any length of time while a T1 break would be at the maximum a few hours. This is due to the DSL going thru many more 'locations' than the T1. He said his customers run servers on DSL too, but choosing to go for DSL or T1 really depends on how reliable a service I am looking for.