Who's using Broadband at home, and Who Isn't?

[famousdavis]

In <a href=http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23596&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=11>another thread</a>, someone quipped that he was glad that he wasn't using dial-up to download some very big files. My initial reaction was, Does any PPC user still use dial-up?

I'm betting that folks who have PPCs are very likely to use broadband at home.

Am I right?

[buckyg]

I recently moved and the phone company fouled up the DSL. So I switched to cable. There was a week or two in between due to the foulup. Boy, was that dialup painfully slow! But it did teach my wife once and for all why we pay extra on the phone and cable bills.

On the other hand, until a year ago, I didn't have either option, so dialup it was...

[JustinGTP]

lol! :D

Well, since my option isnt up there, HighSpeed Wireless Internet, I picked DSL.

Our speed is comparable to T1 - but through wireless connection. We have a small antenna from out house that sends and recieves a signal from a tall tower - fast, wireless, cool :D

-Justin.

[Falstaff]

I have DSL now, but I wish there was cable access at my house. I just moved and my dad wanted to ditch the DSL and phone line so we could get cable and Vonage (or some other VoIP provider). That is my ideal setup, anyone here using VoIP instead of a regular phone line? $30 a month for all the extra features and unlimited US/Canada calling beats any phone company, well, until your internet connection dies....

[Candygogo]

I'm using a free trial dsl for the time being. My trial ends early March and I'll probably switch to cable, but not too sure. The dsl isn't bad, file transfers are definately better than using dialup. Honestly though, unless you're downloading a ton of stuff and viewing videostreams constantly, I can't see paying X amounts of $$ just for the speed.

[Aerestis]

I'm on cable, however I was on dial up for a year before now. I'm wanting a better cable provider, my maximum transfer rate is 13k a second for 39.99 a month CAD. I might be wrong, it might be 49... Whatever Shaw Highspeed is in British Columbia, Canada. It is a truly terrible service here. The Lite users have the same rates, they just get less e mail accoutns or something like that... I will probably switch to Shaw Lite speed.

[wizardmaster2k]

i have COX Cable internet here in Las Vegas. It is great. 39.99 for 1.5 m/b connection (arround 200-400 kb/s download).

[Falstaff]

Honestly though, unless you're downloading a ton of stuff and viewing videostreams constantly, I can't see paying X amounts of $$ just for the speed.

One word: Counter-Strike, 'nuf said.

[ale2999]

lol! :D

Well, since my option isnt up there, HighSpeed Wireless Internet, I picked DSL.

Our speed is comparable to T1 - but through wireless connection. We have a small antenna from out house that sends and recieves a signal from a tall tower - fast, wireless, cool :D

-Justin.

Justin who is your provider, how much do you pay and what part of calgary are u in!!!!!
I am with telus adsl, I was with shaw, and I am still hungry for speed. also do u get good pings if u are trying to play games?

[ale2999]

I'm on cable, however I was on dial up for a year before now. I'm wanting a better cable provider, my maximum transfer rate is 13k a second for 39.99 a month CAD. I might be wrong, it might be 49... Whatever Shaw Highspeed is in British Columbia, Canada. It is a truly terrible service here. The Lite users have the same rates, they just get less e mail accoutns or something like that... I will probably switch to Shaw Lite speed.

aerestetis....... you should call shaw and tell the to wake up. shaw can be bad by overloading their nodes. call them and call complain to crtc, that you are paying for high speed and receiving 2wice the speed of dialup...... That is very odd......
you should try telus, maybe they got some ports in your area. pm me your phone number, I will check for you if u want

[JustinGTP]

lol! :D

Well, since my option isnt up there, HighSpeed Wireless Internet, I picked DSL.

Our speed is comparable to T1 - but through wireless connection. We have a small antenna from out house that sends and recieves a signal from a tall tower - fast, wireless, cool :D

-Justin.

Justin who is your provider, how much do you pay and what part of calgary are u in!!!!!
I am with telus adsl, I was with shaw, and I am still hungry for speed. also do u get good pings if u are trying to play games?

You've got mail (Well In this case, a PM)

-Justin.

[jimski]

My DSL has worked flawlessly for over a year now. No disconnects and no drops. I currently pay $140+US for cable (not digital) with two premimum channels. I refuse to pay them another dime for additional services so have decided to keep my dollars with the phone provider (who are certainly not hurting but seem to charge a fair price for their product). If the cable company offered me Broadband and Digital cable for what I am paying, I would consider a switch.

[dean_shan]

I got DSL as soon as it was introduced to my town. Been using it ever sense, I could never go back now. It's like when you've been using a wireless optical mouse and you go back to a tethered ball mouse. You just can't stand it.

[stitics]

My DSL has worked flawlessly for over a year now. No disconnects and no drops. I currently pay $140+US for cable (not digital) with two premimum channels. I refuse to pay them another dime for additional services so have decided to keep my dollars with the phone provider (who are certainly not hurting but seem to charge a fair price for their product). If the cable company offered me Broadband and Digital cable for what I am paying, I would consider a switch.

Good Lord!!! I pay approx. $120US for Cable Modem (with the HBOs and the SHOWTIMESs) and digital cable (with two converter boxes). AND, I am in Hawaii...so everything (theoretically) should cost more. Although, I can't say my service has been as flawless as your DSL example.

[famousdavis]

lol! :D

Well, since my option isnt up there, HighSpeed Wireless Internet, I picked DSL.

Our speed is comparable to T1 - but through wireless connection. We have a small antenna from out house that sends and recieves a signal from a tall tower - fast, wireless, cool :D

-Justin.

Weird! I never heard of that type of high speed connection. I guess that'd be helpful in rural areas, huh?

As for me? I'm on DSL. I was on-board shortly after it was introduced in my neighborhood, about two years ago now. Initially, the service reliability through Bellsouth was spotty, but over the last 18 months, I've had nearly-flawless connections and reliable speed during downloads.

Even my wife -- who is decidedly non-techie -- appreciates the value of high speed connections. She uses the 'Net just frequently enough that if we ever had to return to dial-up, she'd feel frustrated when she sat at the computer.

[Kevin C. Tofel]

I'm anti-cable....have been on satellite for TV with OTA HDTV for 3 years. I recently moved and transferred my DSL, but I'm not sure how. I used to be about a mile from my CO, and at my new house I'm at least 5 miles from the CO. There must be some new repeater technologies because I thought the ADSL limit was around 18,000 ft (3.5 miles).

In addition, while my distance from the CO has increased, somehow my download speed has also increased from 622kbps to 1220kbps.....I'm not complaining....just don't understand!

KCT

[Aerestis]

I'm on cable, however I was on dial up for a year before now. I'm wanting a better cable provider, my maximum transfer rate is 13k a second for 39.99 a month CAD. I might be wrong, it might be 49... Whatever Shaw Highspeed is in British Columbia, Canada. It is a truly terrible service here. The Lite users have the same rates, they just get less e mail accoutns or something like that... I will probably switch to Shaw Lite speed.

aerestetis....... you should call shaw and tell the to wake up. shaw can be bad by overloading their nodes. call them and call complain to crtc, that you are paying for high speed and receiving 2wice the speed of dialup...... That is very odd......
you should try telus, maybe they got some ports in your area. pm me your phone number, I will check for you if u want

I've bothered shaw about it a lot, I guess I've gone down to their building in town around four times now and called them even more. They claim my rates are fine and that it could possibly be my computer not allowing me to reach higher speeds. At one point a guy came in and looked at my computer, and all he did was... Set my default page in IE, ask me if my 3d Studio Max was pirated, and steal a cable from my home. He was accusing me of stealing cable or something, so he took my loose wire. And did a lot of damage to my floor... he went to the extent of drilling a hole without asking.

I know that makes shaw sound terrible, but it was mostly that guy. They have been ok about addressing my problem. But no, they still haven't fixed my problem, and I am somewhat tired of it. And thanks for the offer, but I am just going to wait this out. It's been about six months that I've lived here, and I'll only be here another four months until I move to Vancouver, so I am ok. Hopefully Vancouver will have better services :wink: If not... Then I guess I'll never be able to watch movie trailors or host my website. I want to see the Shrek 2 Trailor!!

[Hyperluminal]

Unfortunately, I'm still on dial-up...

We can't get cable, since apparently our house wouldn't be too happy with the necessary wiring. And we're just out of DSL range. :(
I want to talk to Verizon about getting it anyway, since I think technically we're good in terms of distance (their limit is like 18,000' from the central office, and we're at 18,400ish, and I've read about people getting service from Verizon a lot farther than us).
Anyway, until then, it's dial-up for us...

[PetiteFlower]

I pay about $115 a month for digital cable (no premium channels) and internet, 2 converters. Not too bad split among 3, if I was living by myself though I would probably have to go back to dialup, or at least downgrade to non-digital cable. See these days around here cable internet alone is about $50, and a phone line(which I now don't have, cell only) and dialup service would be about $40, so that's probably not enough of a savings to get me to switch back--unless I was going to drop cable altogether, or if I for some reason needed to have a land phone anyway.

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Unfortunately, I'm still on dial-up...

We can't get cable, since apparently our house wouldn't be too happy with the necessary wiring. And we're just out of DSL range. :(
I want to talk to Verizon about getting it anyway, since I think technically we're good in terms of distance (their limit is like 18,000' from the central office, and we're at 18,400ish, and I've read about people getting service from Verizon a lot farther than us).
Anyway, until then, it's dial-up for us...

I would definitely speak to Verizon....that's who I have and I'm well beyond 18,000 ft from the CO....

KCT

[JustinGTP]

lol! :D

Well, since my option isnt up there, HighSpeed Wireless Internet, I picked DSL.

Our speed is comparable to T1 - but through wireless connection. We have a small antenna from out house that sends and recieves a signal from a tall tower - fast, wireless, cool :D

-Justin.

Weird! I never heard of that type of high speed connection. I guess that'd be helpful in rural areas, huh?

As for me? I'm on DSL. I was on-board shortly after it was introduced in my neighborhood, about two years ago now. Initially, the service reliability through Bellsouth was spotty, but over the last 18 months, I've had nearly-flawless connections and reliable speed during downloads.

Even my wife -- who is decidedly non-techie -- appreciates the value of high speed connections. She uses the 'Net just frequently enough that if we ever had to return to dial-up, she'd feel frustrated when she sat at the computer.

Thats exactly it - we live in an estate outside the city :D

Look at it here, its called iPath: Pathcom Wireless (http://www.pathcom.ca)

-Justin.

[ale2999]

you guys talking about the distance from the co buffle me. you can be as far as you want from the CO, but maybe your provider dumped a dslam in your neighbourhood or so (dslam is a mini co pretty much). so condition are never the same. beside adsl would work at greater distance too, but it wouldnt be as fast because of the noise on the line, and that is why they dont want to give you service. maybe if you manage to know a tech for the provider in your area they might help you in bypassing the rules.

aerestetis, you should dump shaw and get on shaw lite at least so u can save some money. I hear if you move to downtown vancouver they have fibre optics 100 megs up and down and it is not too expensive. although the traffic limit is just ridiculous....

[ombu]

modem-age ----> slooooow, it took my life away since all of my free time was spent on line.

DSL-age --------> fast, well, I still spend my whole time on line but I don't care any more, I don't want my life back. :D

Seriously, I always carry a CF 56K modem with me and use it to read e-mail where there's no other way to log in, but there's a phone jack everywhere.

Regards.

EDITED: BTW, I use nPOPw to do so, DSL or modem.

[mattbugz]

Cable modem here. I like the download speed. However, the upload is limited to 128k and most of the incoming services are blocked.

[Hyperluminal]

Unfortunately, I'm still on dial-up...

We can't get cable, since apparently our house wouldn't be too happy with the necessary wiring. And we're just out of DSL range. :(
I want to talk to Verizon about getting it anyway, since I think technically we're good in terms of distance (their limit is like 18,000' from the central office, and we're at 18,400ish, and I've read about people getting service from Verizon a lot farther than us).
Anyway, until then, it's dial-up for us...

I would definitely speak to Verizon....that's who I have and I'm well beyond 18,000 ft from the CO....

KCT
Interesting.. Thanks.
I'll have to try talking to them again. The last time I called, they weren't very helpful. But I will try again. Maybe I can get someone helpful (and knowledgable) who will be able to give it to us. I'll see.
Anyway, thanks again for the info :)

[ctmagnus]

The last time I called, they weren't very helpful. But I will try again. Maybe I can get someone helpful (and knowledgable) who will be able to give it to us. I'll see.

A different CSR can make a world of difference. ;)

[dh]

I'm not a Comcast fan, but I must admit their cable internet is great. I used it when we lived in New Jersey and now in New Hampshire.

Never had a single problem in either location, although the Jersey digital cable system is better than the one up here.

The combination of TV and internet is too expensive though, I guess that's the problem with no competition.

[cyclwestks]

[quote="Honda_Civic_Si"][quote="famousdavis"][quote="Honda_Civic_Si"]lol! :D

Well, since my option isnt up there, HighSpeed Wireless Internet, I picked DSL.

That's what I have too. Got lucky enough to get on their pilot program, & had it free for close to a year. We even run our VPN over it at work.

[groan]

I just got a notice from my provider and check this out!


Announcing Increased Speeds for Internet High Speed Packages

Magma is pleased to announce an increase in upload and download speeds for all Magma High Speed DSL services. These changes will be made over the first few months of 2004, providing all High Speed customers with increased speeds by end of March 2004. These speed enhancements will not affect the pricing for existing customers.

The High Speed Service enhancements include:

1. All existing 1.5 Mbps download / 320 Kbps upload services will improve to receive a maximum of 3.0 Mbps download / 800 Kbps upload speeds

2. All existing 3.0 Mbps download / 320 Kbps upload services will improve to receive a maximum of 4.0 Mbps download / 800 Kbps upload speeds

The increase will allow customers to enjoy faster access to online content and large email messages. Performance will increase when downloading digital pictures, Mp3's or using instant messaging programs.

These changes will help Magma's Corporate and Residential customers save valuable time and effort when using the Internet.

For more information visit www.magma.ca or call 613.228.3565 to speak with a Magma representative.

Please note that maximum speeds for all High Speed packages are dependent on local loop length and may not be available to all clients.

[famousdavis]

I just got a notice from my provider and check this out!


Announcing Increased Speeds for Internet High Speed Packages

Magma is pleased to announce an increase in upload and download speeds for all Magma High Speed DSL services. These changes will be made over the first few months of 2004, providing all High Speed customers with increased speeds by end of March 2004. These speed enhancements will not affect the pricing for existing customers.

The High Speed Service enhancements include:

1. All existing 1.5 Mbps download / 320 Kbps upload services will improve to receive a maximum of 3.0 Mbps download / 800 Kbps upload speeds

2. All existing 3.0 Mbps download / 320 Kbps upload services will improve to receive a maximum of 4.0 Mbps download / 800 Kbps upload speeds

The increase will allow customers to enjoy faster access to online content and large email messages. Performance will increase when downloading digital pictures, Mp3's or using instant messaging programs.

These changes will help Magma's Corporate and Residential customers save valuable time and effort when using the Internet.

For more information visit www.magma.ca or call 613.228.3565 to speak with a Magma representative.

Please note that maximum speeds for all High Speed packages are dependent on local loop length and may not be available to all clients.




WOW! I hope that's the sign of the times, and that my DSL provider, Bellsouth, will be doing something similarly. I liked best the part that reads These speed enhancements will not affect the pricing for existing customers.

[groan]

ya, this is going to be sweet.
i am going to be moving this spring/summer, and was considering going over to cable. not any more though...

This provider is a reseller for Bell in Ontario, I don't think the canadian Bell is conneted with the American one,but one never knows!

i hope the love spreads!

[aar0n]

Well, both of my parents' homes are equipped with DSL through SBC. I'm currently living on the campus of Texas Tech University - so I'm rockin' a sweet connection.

[pacemkr]

I have a 10 megabit down / 1 megabit up connection for $49.99. :mrgreen: Cant beat that... :twisted:
I'm using Cablevision Optimum Online Service in NY.

Only one of my friends still has a 56k connection at home. When I try to use his NetZero connection, I notice that my eye starts twitching. :lol:
There is absolutely NO WAY I will ever go back to dial-up. The web is just not a 56k friendly place anymore. There is so much information available to you and a slow connection is just painfully limiting.

[famousdavis]

Look at what a difference just 2 years can make! (http://www.programmersheaven.com/c/userpoll/Poll_archive.htm?PollID=52)