How do you connect to the internet?

[Allan Lee]

I use Satellite from necessity, since we can't get cable or DSL, and believe it or not, we are in the city limits of a city of 54,000 people. Still, I'd never go back to dial up. We have the worst phone lines in the state of Texas.

[Martini Lover]

I use Charter Communications Cable and love it. The last thing I did on dialup was check my dial up speed and it was 25. The first thing on cable, I rechecked, and was at 256. TEN times faster. I love it. We have three speeds available, and mine is the slowest you can buy. This works great for me and my family. I have two machines hooked up wireless and I get a lot of enjoyment out of it. I would quit webbing if I had to give up broadband and go back to dial up. The only thing I don't like is the $99.75 for cable and internet. When I think of what I spent for a extra phone line, and dial up service, it is a bargain.

[ibe98765]

Dial-up will fade away...--------------------------------------------------BusinessWeekJUNE 23, 2003 INFO TECH 100 -- INTERNET At Last, the Web Hits 100 MPH The spread of broadband may finally allow the Net to reach its full commercial potential -- and change the way people live Jon Nordmark has been through the e-tail bust, so the CEO of eBags Inc. has learned that the next cool thing is rarely what it seems. Yet he increasingly thinks broadband will be boffo. The evidence: In tests, customers who watch videos about the luggage he sells are 19% more likely to buy than customers who just look at pictures on his site. "We don't go hog-wild on any new idea until we have proven its effectiveness," Nordmark says. "Now we have."Experiments like the one on eBags explain why experts are increasingly optimistic that high-speed Internet access really, finally, will help deliver the full promise of the Web. A new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project says 31% of U.S. Web households now reach the Net via a broadband connection, up 50% in a year. And by the end of this year, at least 7 million, or 39% more, will switch -- a number that could double if more companies follow Verizon Communications Inc.'s lead and slash broadband fees to $35 a month, a 30% drop, says analyst Anthony Noto of Goldman, Sachs & Co.That's why 2003 is shaping up to be an inflection point, when broadband will reach enough people to kick off a round of changes on the Web. What's ahead? Broadband connections are always on, so people don't have to think twice about turning to the Net for news or a quick peek at airline fares. That's one reason people spend two-thirds more time online each day -- around 2 hours -- after signing up for broadband. And once there, they're big shoppers, spending 29% more annually, or around $523, according to a survey by Goldman Sachs and the Chicago research firm Synovate. Speed demons also are more likely to create art on the Web, download music, and try out online gaming.Add it all up, and Pew predicts no less than the emergence of what it calls a "broadband lifestyle," where people watch less TV, spend less time in stores, and live more of their personal and professional lives online. "I really do think it's a revolution in Internet usage," says Pew Senior Research Specialist John B. Horrigan.Over the next five years the impact of broadband will show itself in stages. One reason it won't happen all at once is that it will take three years for speedy access to surpass dial-up. Until then, businesses will cater primarily to those with poky connections. Plus, Web operators are still tinkering with strategies and pricing plans that will take advantage of broadband, such as trying to find the right price point to make online music and game-playing mass-market businesses.Down the road, broadband may pave the way for such struggling business models to succeed. Much of the game industry, led by Microsoft Corp. and Electronic Arts (ERTS ) Inc., is eager to get consumers to pay monthly fees to play online versions of games they already play offline. In other cases, speedy access will force change. Consider the movie business. Downloading a two-hour film is nearly impossible over an old, creaky connection, taking upwards of 14 hours. With broadband, that drops to 45 to 75 minutes, luring more film buffs to the Web. That could put pressure on Hollywood's cherished system for releasing movies, which slowly rotate through theaters, home video, pay-per-view, and cable markets.For now, though, changes brought on by broadband are coming one step at a time. Faster connection speeds are likely to entice consumers and e-tailers to make more use of services, such as chat and product guides, that can take time and many clicks to use with dial-up. That could help the bottom line. At e-tailer Lands' End, new customers are 70% more likely to buy if they talk to a sales rep via online chat.As more consumers have fast access at home, they'll also shop less at work. Buy.com (BUYX ) Inc. is making the most of that by offering four-hour sales that give consumers a reason to also shop at night and on weekends once they have a fast connection at home. The result? Buy.com's best promotions boosted sales 40%. "We saw an immediate increase," says Larisa Hall, marketing director at Buy.com, which began the experiment late last year.Media companies aren't as far along -- yet. Most models to sell broadband content are still struggling to figure out what consumers will pay for -- and what they'll pay. But leaders are emerging. ESPN (DIS ).com found a simple way to turn broadband into a profitable ad medium. Its four-month-old ESPN Motion feature, which lets broadband surfers watch 60- to 90-second video news reports, can handle the same made-for-TV commercials ESPN's cable channels run. This has attracted advertisers such as Universal Studios, which used the service to push its film 2Fast 2Furious. The key innovation: With speedy broadband, clips are clearer because they are downloaded to viewers' PCs, rather than played on the site.Other media companies are following ESPN's bid to rev up broadband-powered businesses. On May 22, RealNetworks Inc. announced RealOne OpenPass, which it sees as a kind of online mall for broadband content. More than 20 companies, from Playboy Enterprises (PLA ) Inc. to Motor Trend magazine, have signed up to sell through OpenPass. The advent of programs like OpenPass shows how experimentation is flourishing as Web operators try to exploit broadband. This happy talk, though, comes with a touch of grim news. The biggest difference between broadband users and other people is that they do more work at home. Lose the weekend, gain the World Wide Web. By Timothy J. Mullaney in New York, with Jay Greene in Seattle

[Autotec]

I use two-way satellite from Earthlink's branding of DirecWay. I've used it now for about three and a half years. I still can't believe what I paid for the hardware back then. It's very frustrating to know that DSL and cable are a couple of miles away. There doesn't seem to be any rush to stretch it this way either. All in all, the satellite service is okay though. I wired our house with CAT5, and currently there are three other machines connected via a router in the basement. Downloads are great, as much as 700-800kbps. But the uplink "lag" time makes it virtually impossible to do multiplayer gaming. For now all we can do is home based LAN parties. Maybe someday we'll get to enjoy the real "broadband" we hear so much about. B)By the way, great topic LilBambi!

[Guest LilBambi]

Thanks Autotech ... although I can't take credit for this Topic ...I simply revived it ... the credit for starting this Topic goes to Stryder ;)Although, I do have a special interest in this topic because as I noted earlier ... no broadband here either except satellite ... but they all seem to require a Windows box as a connection so they can put their software on your computer. Plus the expense is just too much comparatively especially with the prospect of having to use a windows computer to connect.Unless of course you want to pay a fortune for a box that comes with a unix/linux based OS/firewall pre-configured ... but they are only available at a high price tag for businesses.Oh, well ... I've got my email address out there on the Verizon site so they will let me know when and if they ever decide to outfit our CO with DSL capability. I am well within the range for DSL but can't get it.Two cable companies all around us too: Charter on one side and Cox on the other!But no one comes to our little town with broadband! Grrrrrrr.

[zlim]

Add another dial-up user to the poll. I clicked on the view button just to have a look and it keeps telling me I voted so I can't get counted. I keep checking on broadband for my area. My choices are Verizon or Comcast. I'm not thrilled with either but I guess they are improving. I'm leaning more towards cable because it seems less problematic to set up. Prices for both have dropped in the last month.

[Gus K]

I'm leaning more towards cable because it seems less problematic to set up. Prices for both have dropped in the last month.

With XP, DSL pretty much sets itself up. That should not be a concern. In my area SBC set me up for$29/mon vs. $47 for ATT. Although not as fast, I'm more than pleased with SBC DSL and have had not one reason to call tech support. At only a few $ more than most dial up it's great. And athough cable will generally be faster, for on-line gaming I get many sub 50 pings. Cable could not improve on that. I like what Verizon is doing, as now the pressure will be on for decent broadband for about $30/mon.

[ibe98765]

Broadband penetration was at nearly 34 million U.S. users at the beginning of the year, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, and is growing at 9 percent a month, according to Dataquest.