dicknite Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 I'm currently, and probably for the foreseeable future, on 2-way satellite.Like the speeds a lot (up to 2.3MB down ) but it does have quirks that have to be dealt with occasionally. Definitely NOT set-it-and-forget-it...d|:^)Dick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 DSL--------------------------> Since november last year, NEVER going back to dail-up,sell the house, sell the car, my shoes, my heart, I"ll hold on to my broadband ! Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scot Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 I know how you feel, Bruno. In 1999 I gave up my cable modem to move two towns away, to a "dry" town. No broadband. Zilch. I was stuck with ISDN, which is -- in Verizon territory -- literally about twice as fast as analog dial-up and about 14x as expensive. There's even a metered charge. It was virtual ****.I think I was traumatized by the loss. I mean, seriously traumatized. Now I have SDSL, cable Internet, and two-way satellite. I'm ready for anything. -- Scot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 Scot: sdsl, cable ánd satelite; you're the man ! ( which is no surprise ! )About dail-up costs: here in Europe you pay for a normal dial-up per minute too, it's a rude rip-off, I did pay far moore for my regular dail-ins then I do for my ADSL today !Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 After all the jokes about the lower speed modems in the last post ....I thought I should probably clarify that we are not still connecting with a 14.4 modem We are currently on 56k dialup ... Dialup is such a drag ... it can vary anywhere from 1.2k to 4.6k ... even on the same connection. I know some of that is individual servers ... but when it is consistently getting 1.2k I disconnect, wait a few seconds and try again .... usually someone gets off of one of the faster modems in the pool and we get can usually get a faster throughput by doing that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quint Posted April 16, 2003 Share Posted April 16, 2003 Would be hard to give up my cable connection, even though Comcast is funny sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 I have Comcast cable here in North Florida and get decent speed from it. Advertised speed is 1500/256 and I usally average about 1300/250. Not quite as high as it should be but much better than the local Sprint DSL options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 We're spoiled rotten here in the Great White North. Peterborough is a small town of about 75,000+ people and we have about half a dozen ISPs, one is Sympatico a national ISP, two provide cable and 4 provide DSL, although three of the DSLs have to rent lines from Sympatico's parent company, the national telco, Bell Canada. My current ISP happens to be a local telco that has it's head office and switches about 20 minutes south of here (a small rural village of 1,300 people and they still have one of the few remaining local telcos in this country!) They also provide both DSL and cable because they offer cable television to the rural areas in the county that the regional cable company doesn't service. I pay $40Cdn/month for 1.5Mbps/128Kbps ADSL service with dynamic IP. They have other packages including 3Mbps service for $75Cdn/month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted April 28, 2003 Share Posted April 28, 2003 As they said in FireSign Theater ... "They never come up into the hills!"LilBambi, A Firesign Theatre fan! "How can you be in two places at once, when you're not anywhere at all?" I knew there was a good reason for joining this forum! ChrisHey-There must be a whole nest of us Firesigners in here. I first saw the light way back in 1792- er, 1972 when I first heard "Electrician". Not Insane! Let's never forget their sage advice on dealing with an alien invasion: "1. Drop beneath the seat of your plane and look away! 2. Avoid eye contact! 3. If there are no eyes, avoid _all_ contact!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted April 28, 2003 Share Posted April 28, 2003 I'm in Verizon territory on dialup. Being a little too far from the Central Office, our pairs all get MUXed together in an A/D converter box about 2 blocks away, whose proper name I forget. This MUX limits top speed to around 28,800, which is pretty much what I always get. Sometimes 26,400 on a bad day. Those lucky guys and gals around here who are closer to the CO often see 44k and on up to about 53K. Nice! The local 'physical plant' has been allowed to deteriorate. No financial incentive for the local Bell Operating Co. to upgrade phone cables. I understand those old multi-pair "pulp" (insulation) lines are a real bear to work on. It's getting harder to find good pairs (better than crappy 'voice-grade'). Bottom line: my telco servicemen tell me I should be happy I'm getting 28.8, and reliably. We have Comcast cable and the neighborhood has been rewired for 'digital' now, but I'm too cheap to spring for it. In fact, I'm too cheap to even spring for CATV. It's overpriced anyway, and we don't have any kiddies in the house that need pacifying. Lots of free over-the-air TV in our metro area. Price difference? For dialup, 18 bucks for ISP and about 17 for a basic line. 35 bucks per month vs. about 60 for cable ISP (they knock it down to about 50 if you also subscribe to CATV) I hear we do not have DSL available in my neighborhood, never bothered to check. Satellite too expensive and not an option anyway on our heavily treed lot- no clear sight lines to the birds.I recently put together a P4 2.4GHz system for my sister and signed her up with one of the national ISPs. So far so good with those guys. 200 hour max per month. She says they're very reliable. For a year signup, only 99 bucks- that's 8.25 per month! I may switch over to them myself after my present 18/mo contract year is up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus K Posted May 7, 2003 Share Posted May 7, 2003 SBC/Yahoo DSL here in Indiana for me. Very pleased with the service (after I dumped all their software, which is unnecesary with XP). I can choose from Comcast and WOW cable also. But SBC's $29.99/mon vs $47/mon for Comcast helped in my decision. Plenty fast at just a few bucks more than dial-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkfan Posted May 7, 2003 Share Posted May 7, 2003 1Mbit/200Kbit cable access for me. We also have DSL in this area so we're pretty well covered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stryder Posted May 7, 2003 Author Share Posted May 7, 2003 SBC/Yahoo DSL here in Indiana for me. Very pleased with the service (after I dumped all their software, which is unnecesary with XP). I can choose from Comcast and WOW cable also. But SBC's $29.99/mon vs $47/mon for Comcast helped in my decision. Plenty fast at just a few bucks more than dial-up.All right, another Hoosier on the board. That makes 3 that I know of, counting me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbredmound Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 About dail-up costs: here in Europe you pay for a normal dial-up per minute too, it's a rude rip-off, I did pay far moore for my regular dail-ins then I do for my ADSL today !See! The Europeans are an oppressed people. I think we should get the gang together (George, Dick, Donald, et al), and go free them. We could institute democracy, and then they could have unmetered dial-up! (Is that what they meant by "free world"?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 All right, another Hoosier on the board. That makes 3 that I know of, counting me.Off track - no betting please What qualifies as a Hoosier? Is my daughter a Hoosier for life since I was teaching at IU when she was born? Beautiful state - just too far from the ocean! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stryder Posted May 8, 2003 Author Share Posted May 8, 2003 All right, another Hoosier on the board. That makes 3 that I know of, counting me.Off track - no betting please What qualifies as a Hoosier? Is my daughter a Hoosier for life since I was teaching at IU when she was born? Beautiful state - just too far from the ocean! Yes she is. She is a Hoosier for life!!!! I could not agree more, southern Indiana is beautiful. Especially in the fall. But lacks so much of the beauty and wonders that our country offers......the mountains, the ocean. I lived about 8 years or so of my life outside of the Hoosier state and wish I was not back here now. I miss the ocean and the mountains soooo much. Particularly the ocean. The only thing keeping me here is my daughters attachment to her grandparents and her cousins and vice versa. If I took her out of state, I am pretty sure one of the grandparents would put a "hit" out on me. I come from an Italian heritage, so I am sure someone in the family would know who to call for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 im on a 1mb/s DSL line currently, average 950kb/s almost always. Had a 3mb/s Cable line last year, first in a newly hooked up area (it flew, averaged 2.5mb/s most of time) and then when i moved into a bigger town, their cable usually crawled at a pathetic 250kb/s. only 5 times faster tha 56k . so i dropped then, and went back to 1mb/s DSL, coz at least it stays fast. the DSL provider also offers a 3mb/s DSL line, so i may upgrade later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest genaldar Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 I had earthlink dsl for over a year, but I got rid of that last spring. Great speed, 1.5 down 384 up with downloads of around 170 a second. 250 if I used getright (avoided server caps that way). I had to get rid of it do to cash flow problems (no cash was flowing), resorting to dial up. Then last fall when I went back to school I lived in the dorms, so high speed again (although not as fast as earthlink surprisingly). Now I'm back at home and since I won't be able to get high speed for just 4 months, it's dial up again. I use a friend's free college dial up account (50 hours a month max, so I won't be here that often). As for coverage we've had dsl and cable here for almost 4 years. In fact cable is so widespread they have it in Crookston (where I go to school). Town of 8,000 or so, largest on this side of the Nodak border in the area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbredmound Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 I was just doing some catching up, and read this article about the new "hi speed" services being offered by Earthlink and Net Zero. Sounds like a decent alternative for those who can't get broadband, but I wonder if they will have local access numbers to serve the people who can't get broadband, since so many of those folks are rural. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Newbe Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 use Dial-up here on a 28.8k line but probably avgs 19k. But what the heck, its 250 hrs with Web/POP3 mail and two connection #s for under $10. a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebone Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 I use Comcast Cable (nee AT&T). I was satisfied with AT&T, but from what the SFNL has said about Comcast, they are going to have to earn my trust/satisfaction. They are not starting off strong with their e-mail consolidation. However, I don't use their accounts, even for junk mail, so I'm going to bypass judgement on that.I chose cable over DSL after being jerked around by SBC (then Pac Bell) for two and a half months. It took them that long to get the DSL up-and-running. Pac Bell would point their finger at the DSL provider (a Pac Bell spin-off) and the DSL provider would point back. I got put on hold for over an hour once during the troubleshooting period. At the end of the hour a recorded voice came on and said that I was hold for too long and would have to leave a message for someone to get back to me. At the transfer, another voice came on and said "Mailbox full" and hung up on me.I went away for a weekend. On my return I noticed that the DSL was actually working. All I had to do was to agree to sign up for one year and I would be surfing at high speeds. I felt that the service did not merit a one year contract. Instead I called PacBell, got a return authorization for the equipment and called AT&T to order cable internet access. The cable was up and running in three weeks, which was the time they quoted to me.I was again away from home for an extended period when the @home debacle hit. But I was able to get the cable up and running in minutes on my return. As others have said, I cannot go back to low speed. I would have to give up heat and garbage collection first. I'd give up electricity, but the cable modem wouldn't work then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 Interesting that to-date, 80% of the people replying to the survey have some form of broadband and only 20% have dial-up. I'm curious how many of the dial-up users don't have the choice of broadband or can't/won't pay for broadband (after all, there are still people running Win95)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greengeek Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 I can't afford broadband so I'm stuck with dial up and yes, I also know people who use Win95 and one office that uses Win 3.1 on an old 386.I bet if I did a survey in this town I'd find quite a few people using 95 or earlier and I already know that there's heaps of old 386 and 486s, also early Pentiums (I get to fix some of them). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 I can't afford broadband so I'm stuck with dial up and yes, I also know people who use Win95 and one office that uses Win 3.1 on an old 386.I bet if I did a survey in this town I'd find quite a few people using 95 or earlier and I already know that there's heaps of old 386 and 486s, also early Pentiums (I get to fix some of them).There are some who won't switch to anything newer or better, even if they could afford it or it was available. Too many are stuck in a fog from the past Any of the Win9x OS's are relics that should be retired once and for all. I hope MS will stop extending the die date for Win9x systems and just stop supporting them. With rapidly declining dial-up use, should there be any special consideration for dial-up users with limited bandwidth? Are we all to be constrained to the lowest common denominator until the last dial-up user gives up the ghost? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GolfProRM Posted May 31, 2003 Share Posted May 31, 2003 There are some who won't switch to anything newer or better, even if they could afford it or it was available. Too many are stuck in a fog from the past Any of the Win9x OS's are relics that should be retired once and for all. I hope MS will stop extending the die date for Win9x systems and just stop supporting them.I disagree here... Windows95 Maybe, but not Win98... While I do think XP is much better, that doesn't mean that everyone should have to switch... What about the people who can't afford to upgrade their PC's to machines that could run XP? Besides, many people who just use the computer for internet/email don't need to upgrade to do that. I don't see why they should have to spend $100+ to upgrade something that still works quite well for them. Money is the key factor here, and the thing to remember is that not everyone has it. My girlfriend still uses a Pentium 100 system. It does everything she needs it to (albeit somewhat slowly), but why should she have to buy a whole new PC just to stay current? She can't afford the $500+ it would take to get her a "current" system, so what about her? Should we just forget about people like her and move on without them? I think not... There are way too many people out there running Win9x systems that until something DRASTICALLY changes, they see no need to upgrade (and personally, I agree with them). With rapidly declining dial-up use, should there be any special consideration for dial-up users with limited bandwidth? Are we all to be constrained to the lowest common denominator until the last dial-up user gives up the ghost?While the poll's percentages may not show many dialup users, you have to remember that less than 100 people voted, but we have more than 1200 members! I would say this is hardly an accurate poll. Also, current reports say, that while broadband use is up, it's still in no more than 40% of internet users households. I would hardly say that it's "rapidly declining". Some people (Joy for example), can't afford the $35+ per month that broadband costs, others aren't even in areas where broadband is available, and still more just don't see the need. There are a lot of people who don't need an "always on" connection. Why make them pay for one when all they do is spend an hour or so a day online? Broadband access is still too new to be the "mainstream" (at least in most areas). Give it another couple years, and that will probably change, but for now, there are still more dialuppers than broadbanders... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus K Posted June 1, 2003 Share Posted June 1, 2003 She can't afford the $500+ it would take to get her a "current" system, so what about her?Well I think it's time that you two got married. Then you could share rent and broadband and computers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
friendofdot Posted June 1, 2003 Share Posted June 1, 2003 In June 2000, I added Sprint DSL, 512k/128k, and thought it was the best thing since ice cream. This year, in January, I got a new computer. A week later, Sprint called with a "special" of 1.5M/256k for $50. Now I can't figure out how I lived without all this speed. As I spend more time on the computer than on TV, I cut back to basic cable. HOWEVER, the main reason I have DSL is that my apartment is right across the street from the phone company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GolfProRM Posted June 1, 2003 Share Posted June 1, 2003 She can't afford the $500+ it would take to get her a "current" system, so what about her?Well I think it's time that you two got married. Then you could share rent and broadband and computers. Well... we do share rent, broadband, and computers (although we can't both be on my machine at the same time... :(Besides, living together is just plain cheaper (by a lot) than living apart. ;)Marriage, maybe after she finishes Grad. school (and I come up with some money of my own). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowpike Posted June 2, 2003 Share Posted June 2, 2003 Voted cableD Link access point connected to Adelphia Powerlink (2 way) 2 desktops ethernetted (new word)2 laptops use wireless cards.Best To Allyellowpike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted June 10, 2003 Share Posted June 10, 2003 With so many new folks ... thought it would be good to sticky this topic so folks will see it. ;)Still on dialup here ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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