ADSL is offered by telephone companies as competition to Wave@Home. As with cable, you are permanently connected to the Internet but through your regular telephone line. You can initiate and receive calls or faxes without affecting the speed of your connection. You must live close to a telephone switching station, because the Internet signals deteriorate quickly with distance over regular copper phone wires:

• Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line - (also a LAN to your home)
• speed: upload (160-640 kb/sec), download (1-8 mbps)
• $65/mo fee, includes modem rental and ISP account
• requires Ethernet card ($50-$100), which may be included in the rental fee
• requires basic phone service ($20/mo fee)
• must live within 4 km of the nearest telephone company switching station
• permanent connection, therefore, no time limit