I hate dial-up

Post Reply New Topic

I hate my dial-up connection. And I have no money to order dsl or cable connection.

How much does a dsl/cable connection cost in US?

Different broadband speeds cost different money. Perhaps if you search long enough, you will find a price you can afford?

Who provides your dialup?

DSL costs about $30-50/ monthly, and from what I've seen is a bit more problematic than cable.
The fastest DSL speeds are 3.5 Megs Down, 384 K up.

DSL phone filters have a tendancy to go bad, and if you have an alarm system that utilises the phone lines, you have to have a profession installation of a secondary filter outside of your house, which you, ( With BellSouth at any rate) have to pay for. DSL regularly looses sync (Signal) at any number of points between your computer and CO (Central Office) and can take from minutes to days to fix, which is why many DSL providers also provide limited free DUN backup. --In short, DSL sucks.

Cableon the other hand is far more reliable and starts at $40/ monthly for a connection speed of 3.5 Megs downstream, and 384 K up. Cable also offers up to 10 Megs down/ 384 K up, though I believe the upload may be increased to 512 K up sometime this year, if it hasn't been already. The cabe connection that I've been using has been consistently up for nearly two years. The only time that it was down was when my house mate was beta testing ultra high speed, which at that time could only be used with a single computer.--His connection never went down.

Satellite offers so-so download speeds and a maximum of nearly 56 K upload as it uses a DUN connection to upload.

Cell companies like Verizon Etc, are beginning to offer wireless Broadband, though I'm unclear of what the speeds/pricing are for their service. --Coverage through these people will correspond with Regular Cellular service, so if you live in areas W/O Cell Service, you will not get wireless broadband.

At some point Electric Utilities may start offering Broadband via Electrical lines, but I would hate to see the results of a broadband filter malfunction, as 120 VAC applied to network cards/ Routers will fry them, your computer, and possibly you in the process.

The free dial-up connection is provided by Metconnect, but my phone company is Verizon.

I have ADSL internet as it's really the only broadband option where I live. There are no cables and there is only one phone exchange near by that actually supports DSL. We pay the UK equivilent of $30 for 1MB/s or something.

Verizon only charges 17 dollars a month for broadband.

That sounds pretty good, even better if you have SDSL. Is your DSL in Synchronous or Asynchronous mode? --I understand that in EU Countries that SDSL is fairly common.

About a year ago when I was doing Tech Support for BellSouth the rates were as follows:

DSL 'Lite' (Max. 256K Down, 128K up) $29.95/Month (6 Month Introductory rate of $9.95/Month)

DSL 'Ultra' (Max. 1.5M Down, 256K up) $39.95/Month (6 Month Introductory
rate of $19.95/Month)

DSL 'Extreme' (Max. 3M Down, 384 up) $49.95/Month (6 Month Introductory
rate of $29.95/Month

Included with this, was a Westell 6100 Router/Modem loaded with proprietary BellSouth firmware that had a timeout feature built in, so people would always be calling the DSL helpdesk wondering why they couldn't connect. Bellsouth only supported Single computer connectivity issues with the Westell, even though you could get into the firmware and get it to work with a computer hooked up to the LAN jack, and another computer in the USB jack. We would invariably have to get them to surfmodem, check to see if the firmware was up to date, and then get them connected again. If the firmware wasn't up to date, after they connected, we had to get them to update their firmware to the Current version, retrieve UID and PWL have them re-enter them into the modem,( Updating firmware would erase this NFO) and reconnect.

Most could do this with no problem, however the one exception that remains indelebly engrained in my memory was the lady running Windows that could not find the big blue 'E' to serf her modem. She was also unable or unwilling to find the 'Run' Dialogue box in her Start Menu, and was further unable or unwilling to find, or pull up an address bar after opening 'My Computer'. --This went on for 20 minutes before we both gave up, and I almost smashed my workstation.

As an aside, BellSouth was also doing limited beta testing of Max 3.5 M Download rate in certain markets for DSL 'Extreme' customers. If I remember correctly, Premium Grade DSL service was only available for people within 3,000 feet of either a CO or a DSLAM.

I still wouldn't ask Mom to get the broadband connection. I wanna get a job and pay for it myself.

I think it would be pretty hard to get cable/dsl in New York city

I would try People PC

http://www.peoplepc.com/

Last edited by dgd1788 on 28 Apr 2006, 2:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ah, dial-up. The bane of anyone who uses the Internet regularly. Broadband makes things so much easier.

get aol

tell me about it. Netscape sucks as an isp. My comp is frequently disconnected without warning and slow. I'm with you. I wish I could afford DSL

Okay, on Thursday, I asked Mom to order DSL for me from Verizon (3 Mbps down, 768 Kbps up) and she did! So, now the modem and etc. have to arrive and I'll be able to start using my dsl account on May 18th!
I have a question for you, people. Is anybody here on Verizon DSL (3 Mbps down, 768 Kbps up)? If yes, what was your experience with it? Anybody here lives in Brooklyn and using verizon dsl?

I am not on Verizon AOL but I will be getting it soon I think.