DSL means Digital Subscriber line which is well known for its high speed internet technology over a traditional telephone line. It can used be used for almost every purpose and is supported on frequencies reserved for voice, data, fax etc and till now there is no interference issues known or reported by anyone around the world. It's normally being used to surf the internet, downloading, uploading, streaming multimedia etc. With the purchase of DSL subscription, you will need a phone jack splitter, which can hold both modem connection and as well landline telephone connection.

The signal filters can easily identify if the incoming call has to be considered as data or voice or fax depending upon the signals, thus giving an extra touch of simplicity. The DSL runs over the copper wire with an always on service from your Internet Service Provider and you can work and talk at the same time. There are many who have asked what is xDSL? The symbol x means the different flavors of DSL technology which operate and connect at different speeds and links. Let take a look at each one of them briefly.

• ADSL or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line is a low speed internet connection which provides a maximum downstream connection of 1Mbps approximately and an upstream connection of 512 kbps. Good for normal home use for surfing and checking email with a little download.
• R-ADSL or Rate-Adaptive Digital Subscriber Line which works at the same speed as ADSL and the only difference is the connection speed always remains in sync between the sender and the receiver.
• HDSL or High Bit-rate Digital Subscriber line works in a synchronous connection mode with an upstream and downstream running at same speed which ranges from 1.544 Mbps to 2.048 Mbps. A must type of connection when performing video streaming or conferencing or to maintain a stable two data connection in a head-office branch-office scenario.
• IDSL or the ISDN Digital Subscriber Line can take a connection up to 144 kbps which is same way an ISDN connection would work and the only difference here is it's 'always on' feature.
• SDSL or Single-line Digital Subscriber Line which is very much similar to HDSL in terms of symmetric connection link and speed. The only difference found is in the cable. SDSL uses single copper wire to function where as an HDSL needs at least two to three wires to operate properly.
• VDSL or the Very High Bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line is the quickest and fastest amongst all flavors of xDSL with the transmission rate ranging between 13 to 52 Mbps downstream and somewhere between 1.5 - 2.3 Mbps upstream and that too over a single cooper-pair wire.

The ADSL and HDSL are the ones used commonly by service providers and for the fact that internet requirement are different for different people around the world. You shall find the ISP site providing any of xDSL facility closely in almost every location due to matter of fact that these connections are stretched directly from the ISP and the distance (between subscriber and ISP) may vary depending upon the flavor.