Verizon Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Service

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service was introduced in Sun City during October, 2001 by Verizon Online using the facilities of the local telephone provider Verizon Southwest.  Visit the Verizon Online Web site http://www.verizon.net/ for current information regarding the availability and pricing of this service.  Service is available to most of the homes in Sun City but a few loops may exceed the maximum distance limitation of the DSL service.  The above Web site lets you enter your phone number to verify that service is available on your loop.  You may order service from this same site or by phone at 1-877-483-9322.

DSL service is provided using your existing telephone wire loop. It will not interfere with the use of your phone or fax equipment that you may have. The DSL signals are carried over your loop at higher frequencies than those used for voice communications using frequency spectrum that is currently not being used.

If you order Verizon DSL service, you will receive a self-installation kit including an instruction CD, a DSL modem and plug in filters to install on all of you existing phone equipment.  The filters are required to isolate you existing telephones from the higher frequency signal being used by the DSL service. Verizon will connect your DSL service at the Central Office end. Telephone assistance is available from Verizon.

With DSL service you do not share the local loop bandwidth with your neighbors as is the case with Cable modem service.  But this does not necessarily mean that your service won't slow down during busy periods because with DSL there are other bandwith/bitrate sharing "choke" points in the Central office and between it and the Internet.  Both services (Cable modem and DSL) require proper traffic engineering to match the grade of service to the number of subscribers simultaneously being served.

Verizon's email Spam Detector

Verizon provides a free Spam blocking service as a part of your DSL email service. To verify that the Verizon Spam Detector is enabled go to:

http://dslstart.verizon.net/

Click on the "MY ACCOUNT" tab and Sign in by entering your Verizon Online User Name and your Password - then click on "Sign In". The user name is your primary email address and the password is the one you used when you set up your email account. Both were provided when you first signed up for Verizon DSL service. If you don't remember your password, click on the "Forgot your password?" link on the same page and follow the instructions.

Now you should see your "Primary Account" information and below that your "Email Settings". Under "Email Settings" > "Spam Detector" verify that it reads "On" with a green check mark. If it is set to "Off" click on "EDIT" and select "Spam Detector is Currently 'On'". Click on "Submit"

For all Verizon email accounts set up since 2001 the default selection for the Spam Detector is "On" so in most cases it should already be set to "On".

You may view a list of recent messages that Spam Detector has found by clicking on the "EMAIL AND MORE " tab. Select "Folders" in the left panel. You may have to click on "Folders" a second time. When you see the list of folders click on "Spam Detector" in the "Folder" column and you should see a list of the messages that have been marked as Spam with the date each was received. These messages are kept for seven days and then deleted. They will not show up in your in box.

You may want to scan through the list to see if the Spam Detector has marked any legitimate messages as Spam although this is unlikely. You will probably find that the Spam Detector has blocked several messages each day that otherwise would have ended up in your In box. It is normal for some Spam messages to get past the Spam Detector. If you are using an email program such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird, some of the remaining Spam will be blocked by the email program. Just delete any that get through.