Good news! Comcast is willing to extend their lines the 1.22 miles to get me cable internet!

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honkydory

Member
May 22, 2007
125
1
0
before i moved out of my moms house, we lived in the mountains RIGHT about some sub divisions. i could SEE the people on their internet through my telescope. I was stuck with 48k dialup. really made my rig feel kind of useless (except for the weekly BYOC lan),
 

duragezic

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
11,234
4
81
Originally posted by: Mill
Originally posted by: PingSpike
Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
Internet access at residential homes is dirt cheap, don't complain. It's oversold to hell, but it's not any different at the datacenter level. I'm not sure what my point is, but end consumers really don't have to pay much at all for what they get.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't call a one time startup fee of 23 thousand dollars "not much at all"!

Seriously, I might get ISDN but its just into the realm of expensive enough that I really don't want to pay it...but cheap enough I'm actually considering it.

80/mo line fee, 21/mo unlimited (I think) 10-20 ISP...probably a bunch of BS fees too.

Why in God's name would you pay that for ISDN when you could pay less and get satellite internet? My parents have WildBlue, and it is not bad at all, and is way way way faster than ISDN. It gets DSL speeds (1.5-2.0 meg).
Agreed. Was about to post this cause I was surprised no one else mentioned it.

My first job got satellite internet because Charter wouldn't run the lines a couple hundred feet unless the place I worked at would pay for it. I remember their satellite being fairly expensive compared to what I was used to with cable, but it was pretty speedy. At the time, I'd say it was lowish DSL speeds. That was pretty good, since the cable internet was maybe 1.5-2x faster best case.

A couple of times, we had some downtime issues with the satellite...not sure if it was just weather (didn't seem like it), but usually just had to reconfig and orient. I'd imagine nowadays, there are more and better providers.

As far as broadband being cheap.. I sure don't consider $58/mo for only 3Mbps/256kbps cable internet cheap. Should be more like $30-35/mo being it includes no TV and is the slowest speed they offer.
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
49,606
166
111
www.slatebrookfarm.com
For what it's worth, I got wildblue last fall. It's a bit pricey, but I've been quite satisfied. It does out when rain is somewhat heavy, and the latency is a pita. But, I've been able to do a lot of things that I wouldn't have dreamed of attempting on dial-up. Any attempt at downloading something > 1mb was pointless on dial-up.
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,729
559
126
Originally posted by: Mill
Originally posted by: PingSpike
Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
Internet access at residential homes is dirt cheap, don't complain. It's oversold to hell, but it's not any different at the datacenter level. I'm not sure what my point is, but end consumers really don't have to pay much at all for what they get.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't call a one time startup fee of 23 thousand dollars "not much at all"!

Seriously, I might get ISDN but its just into the realm of expensive enough that I really don't want to pay it...but cheap enough I'm actually considering it.

80/mo line fee, 21/mo unlimited (I think) 10-20 ISP...probably a bunch of BS fees too.

Why in God's name would you pay that for ISDN when you could pay less and get satellite internet? My parents have WildBlue, and it is not bad at all, and is way way way faster than ISDN. It gets DSL speeds (1.5-2.0 meg).

Latency is terrible on satellite, like 4 times worse then dialup latency. It has faster download speeds, but since they cap you at ~7GB per month you can't even actually use it.

ISDN isn't particularly fast for downloads, but its 2-3 times faster then dialup. And it has latency similar to DSL so you can play games on it.
 

Sphexi

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2005
7,280
0
0
Get a cellphone signal? $100 for a laptop/usb card, plus $60/mo, unl internet via cellular signal, probably 150-200kbps.
 

Turin39789

Lifer
Nov 21, 2000
12,219
8
81
Originally posted by: wetcat007
Originally posted by: PingSpike
All I have to do is sign up for a 2 year contract and pay $23,012 and they'll take $45/mo so I can download all the porn I want! Yeah!

That $80/mo for an ISDN line seems a lot more reasonable.

Actually, if I get 12 other people to agree to 2 year service contracts that live between me and the line plant it would be free. I drove down the road today and counted 11 houses between me and where I think the cable ends, that weren't on their own private roads.

Paying for 12 people's service would only be $12,960 over the course of two years... lol

What's the early termination fee? Just sign up for the 12 accounts, and take the $300 ETF on 11 on them. that's even cheaper
 

BuckNaked

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,213
0
76
If your not a gamer, plan on using VOIP, or downloading huge amounts, satellite is your best option. You do have download limits, and you have very limited/restricted upload limits, and weather can be a factor, but it beats dial-up. You can buy equipment at good prices on fleabay and save quite a bit there.

If DSL or cable were an option, I woudn't give satellite a second thought, but when its that or dial-up, it would be satellite hands down. I had it where I used to live and work, and it was my ONLY option, couldn't even get dial-up, as we didn't even have phone lines...
 

Eeezee

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
9,923
0
0
Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
Internet access at residential homes is dirt cheap, don't complain. It's oversold to hell, but it's not any different at the datacenter level. I'm not sure what my point is, but end consumers really don't have to pay much at all for what they get.

Dirt cheap compared to what? America has the least bandwidth for the most money of any western nation...
 

Eeezee

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
9,923
0
0
For that price you may as well get satellite internet. You'll save money and at least get better customer service
 

Bartolo

Member
Feb 6, 2006
168
0
0
In Canada there is a government initiative that has made it possible for small communities out in the middle of BFO to get DSL. My friend lives in an area that is very rural, sure he has people living next to him, but its a community of 1000 over an area of like 10km2
 

Pepsi90919

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
25,162
1
81
Originally posted by: Bartolo
In Canada there is a government initiative that has made it possible for small communities out in the middle of BFO to get DSL. My friend lives in an area that is very rural, sure he has people living next to him, but its a community of 1000 over an area of like 10km2

where?
 

BuckNaked

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,213
0
76
Originally posted by: Eeezee
For that price you may as well get satellite internet. You'll save money and at least get better customer service

I don't know about the better customer service part... We had horrible customer service with Starband... some of the worst I have had with anyone for any issue I have ever had to deal with..
 

MDE

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
13,199
1
81
Originally posted by: Sphexi
Get a cellphone signal? $100 for a laptop/usb card, plus $60/mo, unl internet via cellular signal, probably 150-200kbps.
This is a good option if you can get either an EVDO or HSDPA signal, which is doubtful if DSL and cable aren't available. It's definately worth checking out though.
 

evident

Lifer
Apr 5, 2005
11,894
496
126
comcast has the absolute worst customer service ever, i could write a 10 page essay on how they tried to rip me off in the past, but i'll just sum it up quick

-they charged me for DVR when i didn't have it, nor wanted it
-they charged me for HBO when i didn't order it
-it took them 8, yes 8 trips to my house to fix my intermittent service disconnect problem
-when i cancelled comcrap at my apt to move back home w/ my parents, they "lost" my equipment that i returned to the comcast office, and charged me $400 on my invoice,
too bad i had the receipt and told them to go f themselves
-at the time i cancelled i had a pro-rated refund on the rest of the month i didn't use, and they conveniently "forgot" about it for two months before i called them up to bitch about where my check for that was, and currently still waiting for it now

and the actual "comcast" people that come out to your place are actually knowledgable, but the people whom they subcontract (you'll get these people about 80% of the time, or the first 7 call outs, till they finally realize they need to send out a real comcast d00d) to to do installations and service are absolutely terrible

cliffs:
comcast is a piece of $h1t company which unfortunately i can't live without until FIOS gets here

/rant