DSL Internet with No Phone? Yes, It’s Freestanding.

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Tom Sullivan

Cut the cord and save!

DSL has long been the high-speed Internet service associated with phone service. That’s because, traditionally, DSL Internet access could only be delivered over an active phone line. If you “cut the cord” and went without phone service at home, you’d have to turn to cable or satellite Internet for broadband.

But EarthLink has for many years also offered a different kind of high-speed DSL with no phone required. It’s called…

Dry Loop? Naked? We’ll Go with Freestanding DSL.

We call our no-phone-DSL service Freestanding DSL because it stands free, apart from any phone service. This type of DSL Internet service is sometimes called dry loop DSL, naked DSL, or standalone DSL. (But since none of those terms are well known or understood, we decided not to go with “dry,” “naked” or “alone” for our DSL service.)

Freestanding DSL is just as fast (offering Internet connections up to 7Mbps) and just as reliable as regular high-speed DSL Internet service. So, if you don’t have an active home phone line, it’s a great broadband alternative. And if you do currently have home phone service and you qualify for Freestanding DSL, you can cancel your home phone service (using only your cell phone) and save money each month.

No Phone = Big Savings
Cancelling home phone service typically saves consumers an average of $240 a year (based on an average basic calling plan, plus all the additional taxes and surcharges you have to pay). If you have more than the most basic home phone plan, you save even more. This money-saving feature makes Freestanding DSL the DSL of choice for the cell-phone-only crowd.

Where You Can Get Freestanding DSL

If you want to go without a landline phone, EarthLink Freestanding DSL sounds almost too good to be true, right? But it’s for real. The only “catch” is that it’s not as widely available as regular DSL Internet service.

It is available nationwide, but only in areas where Verizon is the local telephone company. If you know Verizon is in your area, you should be good to go. If you are unsure, simply enter your home address and zip code in the Check Availability box on our Freestanding DSL page to see if your location qualifies (a home phone number isn’t required to check availability, but you can enter it if you do still have a home phone). Even if you don’t qualify for Freestanding DSL, you’ll see other high-speed services that are available for you, such as Cable Internet (which also doesn’t need a home phone line).

When to Cancel Your Phone Service

If your location qualifies for Freestanding DSL and you still have your phone line active, it’s best to disconnect your phone service before you place your order for Freestanding DSL. Installation will be easier if phone service is disconnected before you order Freestanding DSL. So call your phone company as soon as you can.

Other Differences Between Freestanding and Regular DSL

As we noted above, in most ways Freestanding DSL is just like regular DSL Internet access – without the phone service, of course.

One minor, positive difference is that with Freestanding DSL you do not need to install phone line filters around your house as you do with regular DSL (if you do get a self-installation kit with filters you can disregard them and skip any set-up instructions mentioning filters).

Another is that Freestanding DSL does not interfere with home alarm systems the way regular DSL services sometimes do. Because Freestanding DSL is a dedicated line with no phone service on it, it should not affect your home alarm service and your alarm service should not affect your DSL.

Installing Freestanding DSL

You can quickly and easily install Freestanding DSL using the self-installation kit and free DSL modem we send you. You can install the modem anywhere in your home that you have a phone jack (as long as there is no active phone service on the line). If you want to use your DSL Internet access in a room that does not have a phone jack, you’ll need to install the modem in a different room (with a phone jack) and then install a wireless router so you can use your high-speed Internet connection in any room over Wi-Fi. EarthLink Home Networking comes with a free Wi-Fi router and everything else you need.

If you are one of our Freestanding DSL customers already, let us know how you like it by leaving a comment below.

And you can all weigh in on the question of what we should have named the service: freestanding DSL, dry loop DSL, naked DSL, or standalone DSL?

Using EasySiteOptimizer Pro for Website SEO – Code Validation

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Tom Sullivan

A few months ago in our SEO Basics post, we showed you how to use EasySiteOptimizer Pro – which is free for all EarthLink Web Hosting and Ecommerce Hosting customers – for on-page keyword SEO optimization of your website.

But that’s not all you can do with EasySiteOptimizer Pro. Today we’ll show how to use the Code Validation features to help you improve your website’s search engine rankings.

So let’s get started…

Sign into your Web Hosting Control Center at with your EarthLink Web Hosting domain name, username, and password.
On the Build tab, click the EasySiteOptimizer button.
From the Main Menu window, click the Optimization link. You’ll see an overview of your most recent optimizations, an optimization statistics graph, and page quality rankings (as shown in the screenshot above).
Click the Code Validation link in the left-side navigation or the button at the bottom of the page. Code validation is to identify common errors on your site that can negatively impact your search engine rankings.
Click the checkbox next to the page that you want to optimize and then click the Begin Code Validation button.
On the Code Validation page, you’ll see a list of Notes on the left (Errors, Ignored Errors, Fixed Errors, and Notices). Click on any of the notes or errors to see a description of the problem and solution. For example, it may say that you are missing ALT tags for images, that you have a low density of keywords in a tag, that your page Title is too short or lacking keyword density, that you are lacking enough body copy, that you are missing one or more META tag (such as description or keywords).
For some problems, such as keyword issues, you’ll have a link to click on to go and fix the problem. For others, such as Title problems, you’ll have an opportunity to correct the problem on the Code Validation page and then click the Fix button. Others, such as increasing the amount of body copy on your page, may require you to go back to the EasySiteWizard Pro tool (also within the Build section of your Control Center) to make substantial changes to your page.
When you have finished fixing the code validation issues, click the Done button.

After you are finished validating your code and fixing problems, you may want to move on to the next step within the Optimization tab of EasySiteOptimizer: creating or updating your sitmap and submitting it to search engines. We’ll cover that in an upcoming post.

For more help with SEO problems that turn up in your Code Validation steps above, see our previous post about how to use keywords for website SEO (this includes help with Title and META tags).

Google Announcing New Products at I/O Conference

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Tom Sullivan

The biggest Internet news of the week is coming from Google, which just yesterday kicked off its 6^th annual Google I/O developer conference.

The conference, which over 6,000 developers are attending at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, is still going on right now and will conclude tomorrow. But there has been quite a lot of buzz about what Google has already announced.

Here’s a rundown of the biggest announcements from the Google I/O developer conference so far:

Google Play Music All Access: This is a new, unlimited streaming music/Internet radio subscription service. It offers access to millions of tracks, playlists and suggestions based on music you already own and like, and let you customize a streaming radio station based on specific songs or artists (a la Pandora). You can stream music on Web or Android phones and tablets. The service will cost $9.99 a month, but if you sign up for a free 30-day trial before June 30^th, you’ll pay only $7.99 a month. CNET has a review of the new All Access service. Or visit Google Play Music.

Google Play social gaming: Google is launching a new platform that will allow game developers to build in more social gaming aspects as well as take advantage of Google’s cloud storage capabilities, so you could play and pause a game on Android devices, iOS decices, PCs or Macs. See the Wall Street Journal for a review.

Google Maps: The popular map and direction service has been totally rebuilt. The next generation of Google Maps offers a more full-screen, less cluttered view with a search box built into the map itself. You’ll get a lot more options with your map searches: more local points of interest, more business information, street view and satellite imagery options, photo tours, and more. You’ll likewise get more options for directions: car, public transportation, walking, biking, flying. The new maps is available for the Web, on Android devices, or iPhone. Google has a preview of the new Maps and links to downloads here.

Google Search: Google previewed its work on conversational search. When it launches, you’ll be able to say “OK, Google, will it be raining this weekend in Central Park?” and get your answer spoken back to you. You can then ask follow-up questions. Google also announced improvements to its Knowledge Graph, to answer factual questions more precisely and fully. And Google Now updates offer reminders based on time and your current location. See Google’s Inside Search blog for more details.

Google Hangouts: Google launched a new Hangouts chat, video chat and unified messaging app that works across platforms. You can use it to text, send photos, or have a group video conference; SMS integration is reportedly coming soon (but not for iOS). The new Hangouts replaces Google Talk and G+ Messenger. It’s now available on Android, iOS, Chrome and Gmail. Read a review of Hangouts on Techcrunch.

Google+: The social network site has been redesigned to work better across platforms (Web and mobile devices). Google+ Photos also features a number of important updates: Auto Backup, Auto Highlight, Auto Enhance, and the more-awesomely named Auto Awesome. Google has an overview of G+ changes here.

That’s not all. Watch for more updates on Google’s Official Blog.

You can also keep up-to-the-minute on Google announcements and even watch live streaming video of the ongoing developers conference here.

Good Domain Names – How Valuable Are They?

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Tom Sullivan

Forbes.com recently published an interesting article by venture capitalist David Teten about domain names.

Though the focus was specifically on whether startups should spend venture capital funding on a domain name, the article was a good reminder of domain name basics (as we’ve previously posted about; see Best Website Domain Names) and provided valuable insight and domain strategies to use when the domain you want is unavailable.

The article asserts that while domain names are currently a little less important (because of mobile and apps), they are still your email identity (as we also wrote about a couple of weeks ago in Domain Email…What Are You Waiting for?) and an important part of your marketing.

A domain name can even be the difference between winning and losing companies, one of the factors that tips the competitive balance from one startup to another; for example, the stronger Mint.com domain winning out over Wesabe.com.

Why? Because a good domain name catches attention, is easy to remember, and easy to find online. It represents your company often before you have any other way to influence potential customers, investors, or even future employees.

Three main domain name factors proposed in the article are:

Fit. This is perhaps obvious, so Teten doesn’t explain any more than to say the domain should match the business. There are, of course, different ways to “match” or “fit.” As we’ve previously written, a domain name that is an exact match or close match to your company name (assuming you’re not a startup with no previous company name) is often the number-one recommendation. Next would be a strong, popular keyword that’s associated with your business, like one of your core products or services. I would say that the domain doesn’t have to be immediately obvious but it should makes sense when you think about it. Like the Facebook domain. While “facebook” wasn’t a popular keyword and people first hearing the domain may have wondered what it was, a social network like this is kind of like a contact “book” with the “faces” (and other personal detail) of friends. So it fits.
SEO. Here’s another push for keyword-rich domain names. If your domain name exactly matches keywords people are using to find the products or services you sell, your website will get a real boost towards the first page of search results (assuming you have a non-hyphenated .COM site). If you are lucky enough to have such a domain (or can get one), make sure you optimize the homepage for your domain name keywords. In other words, the content of the homepage should support the URL/domain.
Linguistic Characteristics. Though we have written about certain aspects of these good domain name characteristics before (notably that you want a short domain, without hyphens or numerals, that’s easy to spell and therefore remember), some of Teten’s other recommendations about the internal sounds of domain names were new and intriguing.

No matter what your domain name means, data suggests that the best ones generally have these linguistic characteristics:

are short
use dictionary words
do no include hyphens or numerals
have initial sounds that are easy to articulate
avoid internal sounds phonemes associated with disgust (like the uh sound in yuck and the ew sound in puke)

The bad news: If you’re going to be bidding on domain names that are already owned, you’ll probably need fairly deep pockets. Average domains are said to go from $5,000 – $20,000, with the very top of the market going in the millions.

The good news: Teten advises most new businesses to start with a free or very low-cost dot-com domain name. If your ideal domain name isn’t available but there is no website yet active at that domain, you may want to purchase a similar domain to launch your business with the goal to transition to the other domain when you can purchase it. These EarthLink Web Hosting services offer a free domain name for one year.

To get more domain name advice for startups, read the full article on Forbes.com.

When you’re ready to get started, here’s a step by step guide to choosing a new domain name with EarthLink.