Distance Restrictions In Rural Applications - DSL vs T1

Here's a question often asked by those in rural areas needing dedicated bandwidth for their network applications.

"If someone wanted to have a T-1 line (or fractional T-1) installed in a very rural location, are they subject to the same distance restrictions as a DSL line is?"

The general answer is no. T1's do not have maximum distance "limitation" as does DSL. Network carriers can use multiple T1 repeaters to regenerate (not just amplify) the T1 signal.

However, 2 distance "sensitive" components can increase T1 cost.

First, the T1 access loop. Most local exchange carriers (LECs) (e.g., AT&T/SBC/BellSouth, Qwest and Verizon) charge the ISP for T1 access based on distance between the ISP's router (Internet POP) and the customer's local serving exchange (LEC Central Office.) That is why most ISP's T1 quote tools require the customers local phone number, or at least the 1st 6-digits (NPA-NXX) which identify the local CO exchange, in order to caculate the distance to the ISP's closest IP POP (Internet router).

Second, extrordinary construction costs. If the customer location is a great distance from the closest T1-equipped LEC central office, then the LEC must install additional T1 repeaters and possibly incur other transmission equipment / construction costs to reach the customer. In this case, the LEC has 2 options to deal with construction cost: either absorb cost themselves, or pass it on to the ISP who then pass it on to the end-user customer. I've been implementing T1s for awhile and have seen this situation a few times. Twice the one-time construction costs were $10-$20K and the customer canceled the order. Once, BellSouth had to trench ~200 feet to lay new cable and they absorbed this cost.

Assuming no extrordinary construction cost, there are ISPs that offer flat rate Internet T1s for $750 per month, anywhere in US, with no distance limitations between ISP POP and customer's serving CO. The flat rate cost includes T1 access loop and 1.5 Mbps Internet port. In the majority of cases these aren't always the most reliable providers when you consider long term stability, QoS, and SLA though.

However, for most locatons that are under 25 miles to the ISP POP, we are seeing Internet T1 prices in the general range of $300-$500 per month +/-.

The upside is that it's full speed in both directions, and not subject to the EULA restrictions that DSL lines are. Typically, ISP's don't want you running services behind a DSL line, no such problem with the T1.

Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications....including DS3-Bandwidth.com and Business-VoIP-Solution.com. Michael also authors Broadband Nation where you're always welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, insights, and ramblings for the masses.

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DIY Rally 2008 Submission Form

Think you can top the wildest reader-powered projects of 2007? Get ahead of the pack by showing off your own ultimate home-built invention!

How to get rid of warts and how to prepare a wart treatment that is painless yet highly effective?

One of the most vivid childhood memories I have is of my cousin Jim. I don't remember ever seeing him without a wart, or warts. Hand wart, foot wart - he always had them and felt very bad about them.

We tend to view warts as something bad, something we need to hide. There is no reason for this, as 4 out of 10 people will experience this problem in their lifetime.

What causes warts?

Warts are caused by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). There are numerous kinds of warts this virus causes, ranging from vaginal warts, plantar (foot wart), hand warts to face warts... This viral infection can spread from one part of the body to other, but usually not by contact with other people.

Human Papilloma Virus easily penetrates the skin through cuts. At risk are people who walk barefoot or somehow get exposed to the virus.

How do they look like?

They look like a cauliflower; it is rough and has a pinkish/red spot that are actually capillaries that nourish that wart. If they are not treated, they spread in clusters.

Warts removal

There are many over the counter wart treatments. One of those is a use of salycilic acid that is applied topically on the affected spot.

Cryotherapy is also used by podiatrist in plantar warts removal. It freezes the spot with sodium nitrite that destroys the virus and allows the wart to fall off.

How to get rid of warts: Home remedies for wart removal

Lets see what kinds of wart remedies are available:

Tea tree oil wart treatment

Tea tree oil has a multitude of good uses, one of them certainly is in treating warts. It is an antiseptic that prevents any possible infections that might arise, and almost immediately soothes the skin and clears out the ongoing infection. For this, you need good quality tea tree oil. Use a cotton pad to dab the spot twice a day. The warts usually disappear in a week time or so.

Duct tape warts removal

The famous duct tape remedy! Cut a piece of duct-tape and place it on the wart. Replace it daily. What it probably does to the wart, is that it creates warm environment that soften the skin, and make it possible to remove the wart. Peel the tape gently and apply until the wart is gone.

Garlic wart treatment

Not only can garlic be used as a hair loss remedy, it is also very good as a wart cure. It is as simple as this: peel and cut a clove in half. Rub the spot several times a day.

Banana

Rub the spot with banana peel and then use a duct tape to attach the banana peel to the spot. Leave it on overnight.

Apple vinegar

Dip cotton ball in vinegar and attach it to the spot with tape or Band-Aid. Leave on overnight and you should notice the wart disappear in a week or so. This could be also done with alcohol or limejuice, they work the same way.

For more warts removal recipes and wart remedies, click here.

Biljana Drake is an avid collector of homemade skin care recipes. For more great skin care tips, facial masks recipes, homemade remedies, visit her website http://www.skin-care-recipes-and-remedies.com

Weight Loss Through Lifestyle Changes

Healthy weight loss is about lifestyle changes, not fad diets or programs. Long term weight control should be realistic goals, healthy eating and regular exercise.

Believe it or not, implementing certain lifestyle changes allows you to lose weight naturally without obsessing about your weight. The steps necessary to successful weight loss are quite simple.

1) Establish a realistic goal. If you are relatively healthy you can probably do this yourself. If however, your have health problems or are obese it's wise to consult your physician.

2) Change your diet. This is not the same as dieting. This is a lifestyle change that you should, with intelligent modifications, continue for the rest of your life.

Such changes as eliminating processed food, artificial sweeteners and soft drinks would be a great start. Eating whole grains, fresh vegetables and fruit are healthful and beneficial in more than one way. The first is you'll lose weight effortlessly. The second and just as important, is improved health.

3) Don't eat before bed. Eating before bed is a terrible habit and make weight loss practically impossible. The gain to not eating before bed is increased energy and clarity of mind.

4) Walk! You can accomplish more through an implemented walking program than just about anything else. It's not limited to age and it's low impact.

5) Change your environment. Get the junk food out of your house. When you want to have a treat, go out and have a good time.

6) Many of these lists that provide tips advocate watch your portions. What nonsense. That's how you become hungry. My thought is eat as much good quality food as you wish but chew extremely well. By chewing well (until your food becomes liquid) you'll become satisfied much sooner and improve your digestion at the same time.

7) Another tip that I see all the time is to drink plenty of water. I don't buy it. Contrary to what many believe we are not plumbing systems that have to be flushed with lots of water. While it's true that too little water is dangerous it's also true that too much water is harmful.

The single most important step is to make up your mind, to focus and take action. While it may seem a little odd, you're goal is not to lose weight. Your goal is to establish your ideal weight and to implement these lifestyle changes. If you do that the weight loss will happen all by itself, when you're not looking and effortlessly.

Sign up for our free ecourse: 10 Steps To Lose Weight Without Dieting.

Kathryn Soloff is the mother of 8 children and a natural foods cook for over 30 years. She is co-publisher of http://www.natural-remedy-dot-com.com/losing_weight/ where she provides additional advice, tips and hard to find information on Weight Loss.

Fallbrook Home Builders

The Golf Grip - How Hard Should You Hold It?

Keeping a solid and firm golf grip while swinging is critical to your golfing consistency and success. Now there are many different "ideas" on how hard you should grip the golf club, e.g. hold the grip as though you're holding a baby bird OR hold the grip as tight as you would a loaf of bread etc., etc. But the bottom line really is not so much how hard you hold the grip but it's how hard you don't hold it.

What do I mean?

Well in an ideal world you should hold the golf grip just hard enough so it doesn't slip or move around when you swing. Now how hard that is for you or me varies greatly on the strength of our hands.

If you have very strong hands then you may not need to hold the golf grip as hard as, say, I would. So the defining line on how hard to golf grip a club is by how much it moves and here's a great way to determine your golf grip movement.

Line up 6 balls in a row on tees and then start at the first one and hit it and don't alter your golf grip and then hit the next ball and the next one. And if you come to a point when you can't hit the ball because your golf grip is nothing like it should be then you know that your golf grip has slipped when you've swung. If you can't hit the second shot because of your grip movement then you've got a grip slippage problem that needs fixing fast.

The main key to your grip slipping will most probably be due to your top hand moving. So here's a simple exercise you can do to help fix this.

Grip the golf club as normal. But just before you swing place a golf tee between the pad of your left hand and the golf grip. Now this golf tee should be securely in place by the pressure that you're placing on the golf grip with your left hand. Once it is you simply need to swing as normal and keep the tee in place.

Naturally this can only happen if you don't move your top hand grip. And this will happen naturally just by you being aware of the golf tee and trying to keep it in place. Then after some practice with this exercise go back and do the 6 ball exercise and see if you've improved your grip security.

I'm sure you will find you have improved it. So try this and see for yourself.

Nick Bayley is a professional golfer who has discovered just one golf swing fault that could be stopping YOU from ball striking consistency and success. But luckily for you, now you can take a simple 2 minute golf swing test to see if you have this swing fault or not. So don't delay! Go here to take The Golf Swing Test now.

Expansion Joint Between Sidewalk

Financial Forecast - Floods, Forests, and Fuel

Financial news: Dire times call for drastic measures. Hurricane Katrina; alone, dealt a major blow to our economic infrastructure, causing fuel prices to soar. It's amazing how the oil industry raised prices to offset their additional costs of refining and transporting oil, costs which they attributed to hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. What's so amazing, is that the oil giants just reported a large quarter of earnings. How can that be, when they claimed the loss of the refinery and pipeline in Louisiana burdened them with additional costs? As winter sets in, heating oil shortages can be anticipated, with no immediate, drastic reduction in costs.

Setting that issue aside, and giving due respect and condolences to the victims of the Gulf Coast, the upside is that we project a boom in construction. But there's a problem. Where will the timber come from? Conservationists reject opening more timber land in the U.S., while democratic politicians rebuke importing timber. If we are to rebuild the Gulf Coast, and employ tens of thousands of people alone in that region who are currently out of work due to their businesses being destroyed, there will need to be an immediate resolution to this issue.

No one desires disasters, but at least the recent disasters occurred at a time that may bring economic revival. This Christmas shopping season may lack luster for the retail industry, but every penny gained will indeed help, and to say the tax revenue is needed is an understatement. Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi estimates a needed 63 billion in federal relief funds to rebuild Katrina's damage to South Mississippi. Don't forget, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida also suffered from Hurricanes and flood waters. It could be argued that shopping; versus charitable contributions, may have a greater positive impact on recovery.

But shopping also presents a problem. Now that the new bankruptcy laws are in affect, there may be trouble following the Christmas season if consumers are unable to repay debts, either because of fuel prices or loss of employment income. The key here is for consumers to shop, but not to forego their personal budgets.

U.S. resources are being stretched near the breaking point. Just as in World War II, consumers need to conserve what resources we have. Construction materials and fuel are the top two resources which require conservation.

Partly due to fuel prices, material and labor costs, U.S. automakers will continue to have difficulty with sales. While this may drive down sticker prices, there will likely be fewer consumers who can afford a new auto, particular SUVs and trucks with lower fuel mileage. Anticipate more autoworker layoffs, as well as soaring prices for steel and a possibility of steelworker layoffs.

Also expect lenders to rally for the Fed to lower interest rates. This can help improve housing starts, which we desperately need to encourage, but may present another problem with outstanding debt and lender risk.

In 2006, watch where; and with whom, you invest your money. If the Federal Government relaxes lending restrictions in an effort to boost the economy, the potential for high risk lenders to go under will increase dramatically.

For a healthy economic recovery, we will need to conserve our natural resources, but not place restrictions which would interfere with construction or our nation's infrastructure. Consumers must carryon business as usual with a safety margin of savings to offset any rising costs. And, most importantly, as JFK said: Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

Article by Toni Phelps of Credit Federal, which provides consumer credit resources.

Fallbrook Home Builders

Flooring Jargon & Lingo - Explained in Plain English

The following definition items are some of the more frequent terms in laminate & wood flooring

Laminate Flooring
Usually made up from 4 different layers the bottom layer being the stabilizing layer the middle being the HDF core layer then comes a paper photographic image and finished of with a top layer of very hardwearing laminate it comes as planks and panels in wood, stone, tile, and other looks.

Solid Wood Flooring
This is made up from 100% wood thickness can range from 10mm up to 22mm and comes in an array of species with the most popular being Oak Beech Maple Ash Cherry most solid wood floors can be nailed down through the groove at a 35 degree angle or can be fully glued to the floor.

Structured Flooring
This is made up from 3 different layers all of which are laid on top of each other at 90 degree angles this stops the wood from expanding the bottom and middle layer usually consists of spruce wood and on top of this is a layer of real hardwood which can range in thickness from between 1.5mm and 4mm the overall thickness of structured flooring can range from 10mm to 14mm this can be laid in several ways with the most common being glue between the tongue and groove

Engineered Flooring
This is another name for the above structured flooring

Veneer Flooring
This is very similar to laminate flooring it has a stabilizing base layer and a middle layer of HDF but the top layer is a thin layer of real wood usually around 0.7mm thick this cannot be sanded down the overall thickness can range from between 7mm & 10mm

Plank Flooring
This is when the whole of the flooring board is cut from the wood in one piece and can come in structured engineered veneer or sold wood flooring because it is out of one cut this type of flooring is usually a lot more expensive than 2 strip or 3 strip flooring.

Two Strip Flooring
Much the same as above but this time there are 2 different strips of wood on the surface of the flooring.

Three Strip Flooring
Here the width of the board is made up from 3 different pieces of flooring because these are smaller pieces of wood they are also cheaper to buy.

Oiled Flooring
This is when the surface of the hardwood floor is finished of with usually around 3-4 layers of special oil this gives the floor protection while allowing the natural beauty of the floor to come out.

Lacquered Flooring
This is when the surface of the hardwood flooring is finished off with a lacquer to give the floor even better added protection. This usually consists of 3-4 layers of lacquer.

Unfinished Flooring
This is when the flooring comes with no finish at all just the natural wood it is recommended that you apply one of the above finishes this can be done after installation.

Brinell Hardness Test
This is a test of the hardness of the hardwood flooring which involves pressing a 10mm steel ball against the hardwood flooring this method is now used worldwide on wood as well as metal.

V Groove
This is a groove on the edges of the flooring and can be applied to any flooring.

Completely Floors.co.uk have over 25 years experience in the flooring industry ensuring their technical & service department can answer all your installation questions on free-phone number - 0800 1300 331.

More information can be found at http://www.completelyfloors.co.uk

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Creating A Beach House Bathroom Decorating Theme, Part 1

Bring a breath of fresh air to town bathrooms with a breezy beach-house theme, or create a soothing mood inspired by the natural colors and textures of the seashore.

The beach-house bathroom is a foil of gentle contrasts. Clean lines and a restricted color palette create a fresh, uncluttered look. The colors of sun, sea, and sand are naturally an influence. The style is low-key, romantically rustic, and simple. And the way you put the colors together should reflect these qualities.

Take the cool blues - deepest marine to palest aqua - for inspiration, and choose from the yellows - vibrant sunshine yellow and sand-gold to cream - to provide a contrast. Using white as a foil, you can blend colors to express quite different moods. Opt for a bright and summery seaside atmosphere with strong color brights - use deckchair stripes on furnishings and tiles. Alternatively, choose the sun-bleached looks of a beach cabin - soft whites, muted blues, light sandy-grays, and pale yellows - and echo the weathered tones of driftwood and pebbles with limed and color-washed wood and stone effects.

Creating the Look

For a fresh, airy, coastal mood, paint walls and ceiling white, or in a pale to mid-tone matte latex. A change of texture - tongue-and-groove paneling or plain tiles - will add interest below wainscoting level. A darker color will "ground" the scheme and suggest sea and sky. Choose strong contrasts such as marine blue and white, or go for a subtle distressed or color-washed finish. Pale colors and close harmonies will create a gentle, ethereal look.

Beach-house style has a period feel but it is easy to integrate modern features. Select a simple bathroom suite in white or cream, or a clean-lined retro-style design. Panel the bathtub to complement the wainscoting area, or with natural or whitewashed pine. Otherwise install a freestanding, curtained bathtub. Site a shower cubicle behind a divider "wall" - this can be tiled on the inside and paneled on the other - or screen the shower area with a marine pattern shower curtain or a plain or striped glass panel. If stripped, limed, or painted floorboards are not available, choose vinyl flooring in a coastal color, or cover existing flooring with wooden decking. Natural fiber matting and cork tiles also work well. Stone tiles, quarry tiles, and mosaics enhance the rustic look - make them warm with cotton rugs.

Style Pointers

WALLS

Atmospheric color: soft white, neutrals/aqua/ blue latex/tiles/ tongue-and-groove paneling; stenciled marine motifs; aqua color mosaic details.

WINDOWS

Curtains/simple: pale/white semi sheers; tab-headed, cased, basic gathered styles; eyelet/laced calico panels; improvised driftwood/painted wood curtain rod.

Blinds/shutters: natural wood slatted blinds; roll-up cane; painted/distressed wooden shutters.

FABRICS

Naturals/stripes: rough/smooth/loose weave linens; muslin; waffle cottons; toweling; striped cottons; marine prints.

FLOORING

Natural/rustic: stripped/painted/limed boards; wooden decking; stone/quarry tiles; cork.

Rugs: woven grass/rush mats; nubby cotton weave/rag rugs; wooden boardwalks/cork mats.

BATHROOM FITTINGS

Period style/white: simple, wood paneled bathtub; old-fashioned freestanding bathtub; matching basin; low-key modern styles; traditional cross head brass or chrome taps; see-through shower panels/marine motif/striped shower curtain.

FURNITURE

Weathered wood: country-style cupboards/chest/chair/shelves in limed, distressed, color-rubbed wood, iron frame/wicker.

LIGHTING

Simple/period: glass/metal fishermen's brass lantern; turned wood sconce candelabrum/candles.

ACCESSORIES

Marine/weathered: shell or driftwood mirror frame; porthole shaped mirror; rustic shelves; wooden bath rack; rustic style/period glass containers; cane/wicker laundry basket; color coordinated/striped towels; sea sponges; natural objects - pebbles, shells, starfish; model boats; carved wooden seabirds.

2007, Kathy Burns-Millyard. Want to learn about other types of Home Decorating Styles? Visit the Do It Yourself Home Decorating Network (http://www.diyhomedecorating.com/) now to see some excellent articles and photos, plus be sure to get signed up for our free Home Decorating Tips Letter Too!

Carlsbad Home Remodeiling