I've been working from home for 3 years now using DSL. First at 1536/365, then 3072/768, and now 6172/768. I could probably get 12 mbps if I wanted it, but my margins would be quite a bit thinner and I really don't want to spend more. I didn't really need the faster speeds, I just took advantage of them when a better deal came along. The same speed from Time Warner Cable would be about $15-20 more a month, which is why I chose the DSL. If $ wasn't a factor, I probably would've gone with cable. DSL is a little bit more of a pain to troubleshoot when things go wrong, whereas cable is a bit more like set-it-and-forget-it. Fortunately, I've had very few service interruptions with my telco provider (Windstream). I plan to continue with them unless they give me a reason to leave.

I still use land-line phone, and I can tell you all the poor reception I hear on the calls, long distance and local, come from poor performance of the cellular on the other end. When I call someone else on a land-line the call is clear and never drops out. I returned an Acer notebook early this year because of driver problems and poor technical support, I also note it had Vista. I then looked for a notebook with XP, found a good deal on a Gateway, demo unit, which had XP. I also have a Dell PC with XP Media and the Dell update DvDs to "Upgrade" to Vista. I have not done so, nor do I plan to, and given the good news that there is a SP3 coming for XP, I'm happy with my decision. SP2 is fine, but SP3 says to me MS will support XP for many years to come. PC World ran tests of Vista and picked as one of the test machine the same Dell PC I have. They said it worked ok, but slower than XP. Whatever the eye candy is with Vista, I've missed seeing it.

I loved Verizon fios I was one of the original test houses for the first installs of fios, this was at my previous home. I never had any problems or down time. There will be a battery backup system in your garage or somewhere. When power goes out the battery backup will keep the phone and Internet up for a period of time. It does regular self tests, when you need a new battery that is your responsibility. They provided a specific modem / router that the tech set up while doing the install. I don't know if this has changed. I would have gone with fios here but it is not available. I would say stop worrying about it the install goes pretty quickly and the tech will help you if you need it just ask them. It was an amazing experience being one of the original test houses. One day suddenly my Internet was down, I had a direct phone number to call if there were any problems. I called and with in about 20 minutes I had 4 trucks and a car of suits. It turned out an installer had accidentally disconnected me from the box down the street when he was hooking up some other person. It was quite an experience. I never had the tv just phone and Internet. Good luck!

First, sliders aren’t very secure, so almost any French door is going to be more secure. Years ago we replaced sliders w/ Anlin French doors in the DR. They use a multi-point locking system that is way more secure than the sliders. Ours are outswing, too, b/c if they were in-swing they’d be too close to chairs on that side w/ someone sitting on the chair. We got operating sidelights so we could have air flow w/ doors closed. I didn’t want a screen door for ease of entry/exit & looks w/ V-grooved glass. The sidelights are screened.