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Personally, I'd set the firewall to block anonymous calls heh.

SBC offers a service called Privacy Manager (at least in Ohio) that does basically that. I added it after I got sick of telemarketing wardialers calling me and hanging up when I went to pick up the phone. It wasn't bad at first, but when I started getting 5 or 6 calls like that a night spaced 45 minutes apart that was too annoying. Since then I haven't gotten any spam calls. Best $3.95/month I've spent yet. It doesn't actually block them as much as it makes you say your name if you come up as out-of-area or private caller on caller-id and the recipient can choose whether to accept the call or not without ever speaking to the person. Very nice. Again, my main problem was those fucking automated dialers that spammers use to look for active numbers.

I found this from Ameritech's page titled "SBC Ameritech Cares About Its Customers' Privacy" . The link is here: http://www.ameritech.com/content/0,3086,23,00.html

According to their privacy statement, "Customers can call 800-303-7260 at any time if they chose[sic] to restrict their account information."

This is SBC Ameritech's pricing. I have their "Speedpath 768" home user program. 768 down/128 up, dynamic IP. They have the same rates with 5 static IPs for $65. However they also have 1500 down / 256 up with dynamic IP for $60. This is what I'm planning on moving to. This is a helluva deal if you can get it. I use Zone Edit, so dynamic DNS is no problem.

Yes Ameritech's customer service is horrible, but I don't have even have a cable modem alternative, and the local ISPs are a joke. However my DSL has been pretty reliable.

I've been with them from pretty much the beginning, 2 years, and while they started off rocky, they seem to have gotten they're stuff together. 768 / 128, which, by some standards, may not be all that great, it's always consistent.

I've had @home for almost 2 years now and haven't had any major problems at all. The speeds I get on this thing have consistantly been higher than T1 speeds in terms of downloads.

Yes, my uploads are at 128k/s....but so what?!?! I'm not running a server here, nor would I ever need to.

Also, just checked with DSL in my area and the speeds are WAY below what I get on cable...and the uploads are STILL at 128K/s plus they want to charge me more for DSL per month than what I'm paying now for @home.

Don't believe me? check out Ameritech (which is the company providing DSL in my area) and look at their prices and their performance.

Also, head over to Speedtest and see what your speeds are. This may not be totally scientific, but it gives you a pretty good indication.

Using this link I get 2147.4 kbps through my @home connection.

Also, I know everyone talks and talks and talks about how bad Cable is and how slow it gets when people get on the same router etc etc etc. That may be true, but in the 2 years that I've had Cable, I've yet to see any slow-downs.

So tell me again why should I switch to DSL? It's slower, costs more and the company (Ameritech) has customer service issues that would make @home look like heros.

After getting slammed by Qwest and receiving an average of about 6 telemarketer calls a day, I finally gave in and got Ameritech's Privacy Manager.

I know it's a rip off, $3.95 a month to block calls from people who Ameritech sold your name to, but it's worth it not to be called at 8:30 in the morning on a weekend. Which brings up the point of why they can call that early....

Also, the most you're going to get for a single violation (calling back, not slamming) is five hundred dollars. AT&T will either consider that a trifle, or balk and force you to prove that you asked to be put on their "do not call" list.

Slamming is definitely illegal, and given how much the FCC enjoys regulating the phone industry, it sounds like something they would find most interesting. Also, you may wish to call MediaOne and see if they offer some kind of "anti-slamming" protection. My local carrier is Ameritech (owned by SBC), and set me up (notice the double entendre). Now my long-distace carrier can't be changed unless Ameritech gets a signature from me!