internet access

[aventurine]

i've had it with dial-up. it's free, and it used to be somewhat reliable, but it's gone steadily downhill. i get booted every 10 minutes and the other day it actually had the nerve to connect at 9.6. so, anyone have any high-speed providers they can recommend?

tomorrow's the first day of school. bah.

Comments

[jjjiii]

SBC DSL is probably the cheapest broadband available in the area. Cable modem may be faster, and if you already have cable TV it might be cost-competitive with DSL.

There are other DSL companies you can look at, as well, such as Speakeasy and APK.net and bright.net.

[aventurine]

what's involved in installing it if i want to do it myself?

[jjjiii]

Depending... if you have the wires running through your house already, you just have to hook up a cable or DSL modem, and plug that into the ethernet NIC on your PC via a CAT-5 patch cable. It's very easy. The ISP may give you a CD with crap that they tell you you need to install in order to hook up to their network, but in the vast majority of cases this is bunk, and you don't actually need to install any special software.

If you don't have the wiring in place in your house, you'd need to run cable -- that's probably something you'd want to hire them to do, unless you know what you're doing.

I'd recommend buying a router to put between your broadband modem and your PC, and then running NAT on it so as to prevent your PC from being totally exposed to the world's hackers. You should also look into installing a personal firewall, such as Kerio or ZoneAlarm, on your PC, if you don't already have it.

[aventurine]

well, it sounds like it's already out of my price range. i really can't spend $300 on installing something that's then going to cost me $30 a month, when it's free right now (if sucky).

[bradochophobia]

i dont know anything about dsl. with cable, you either purchase a modem or rent it for $3/mo. you generally pay $50/mo for service... most cable companies give some type of discount if you can fit it into a package. there is no installation fee, unless you have to install a new cable outlet. then there is like a $20 house call fee. cable is more reliable than dsl. although dsl is high on reliablility.

[aventurine]

i don't have cable tv, i have satellite tv. is there anything i can do with that?

[jjjiii]

There is satellite internet, but it's very expensive. Also, it's only fast going down -- the upstream link is still the sad old POTS dialup.

[aventurine]

that's not such a big deal to me... i could deal with it. i saw some deal on tv after i wrote this about $55/month for the satellite service and the connection. how expensive is it usually?

[dilatedeyes]

adelphia(not sure if you're in adelphia's area or not) is having a deal, 6 months of cable internet for $29.99/mo. that includes a $2/mo cable modem rental fee. i think it goes up to $42.99/mo after the 6 months is up, but you *don't* have to sign a contract, and could cancel in 6 months and go with another company. perhaps the phone company would come out and fix your lines if you complained, then in 6 months you could get the dsl deal for $26.99/mo(or whatever it's down to by then.. last i priced sbc/yahoo, it was $26.99/mo). or maybe one of your tech-savvy friends would be nice and offer to come out and rewire your house's phone lines for you. my uncle installed a phone line at my house, but it works for shit, otherwise i'd have him come over

[whtyger97]

I'd go with Adelphia now while they are running the special and look to switch afterward. Do you sbc for you phone service or some other provider? We use corecomm (a third party phone company) so we cann't get DSL without having to pay extra fees.
And if you are using SBC for phone and decide with to go with a cable modem I would seriously look into switching phone companies if you use services like Call Waiting and Caller ID. I think our plan even includes line backer but i'm not 100% sure because Jim just ends up taking care of everything inside.

[aventurine]

i use sbc, but i don't have cable so i guess i would have to swithc to get cable modem. and i use caller id, but not call waiting. why do those additional services matter... why should i switch phone companies then?

[whtyger97]

Might I suggest First Communications then? They have a package that includes your local service, caller id, and three way calling for 19.95 a month + taxes. You can also get long distance thru them with no monthly fee and 3.9 Cents a minute.

You can have Dish Tv and a cable modem from different companies, you'll just need to run two coax lines into the house, one from the dish and one from the cable company.

[avatar_x]

We have Bright.net DSL here at my house, $30 bucks a month and the service is very reliable. Not sure what they charge for install- but since they're a local company, it shouldn't be too bad.

[aventurine]

never had any trouble with them? do you have to sign a contract?

[avatar_x]

Well, one or two problems- but they've had it taken care of quickly. Not sure about the contract part, but I could ask if ya want.

[aventurine]

yeah, that'd be great... i'd like to know the terms of it. one year or such?

[cocaine_smile]

I know a bunch, but that doesn't really help because they're all in totally the wrong country.

Erm... yah.

[aventurine]

haha :)