Now that is funny.....

 

Hum, I am in the country but still have cable.

 

Well im here in the sticks with you too guys...and girls Live in a town of about 600 and the place has their own phone company, wich is also cable tv, internet. They do offer DSL at $70 a month..what a joke, but now they just recently intorduced ADSL which has a download speed of 1000 kbps and a upload of around 400. With the two different speeds and it comes through my regualr phone line it is cheeper at $35 a month so I went with it. All I have to say is SWEET can not beleive the difference, no Im even faster than my mom's Direct Way service.

 

The only good thing about this dial-up is the price.
I went with a company called www.porchlight.ca

$14.95 a month if you pay monthly, or $9.95 a month if you pay a year up front, so naturally I just paid the $120. up front, and that's it.

I do enjoy not getting the cable bill for $50 a month anymore, but like I said, if I had a choice, I would pay it.

It is unlimited, but believe me, your patience sets its own limits

 

So Habibi, are you back for good now since you are back online?

 

I live in the stix and still have 1.5Mbs DSL. Getting ready to upgrade to 5.0Mbs probably next month. It is a connstant on connection. As long as your modem is on you are connected. Your modem does dial in to a Dslam when you first turn it on. But after that you don't have to turn it off to use the phone or anything. It runs over standard copper line to the house and uses a single split phone line so you can't tap into your neighbors with out sharing thier persoanl phone like a party line. I'm pretty sure they would notice and not be appreciative. LOL Plus you'd have to somehow run phone line from thier TNI (Telephone Network interface) box on the side of thier house to your DSL modem. Both costly and not safe.
If you talk to them you could buy a wireless router for them to hook to thier modem and depending upon distance it may require an external outdoor antenna. You buy the equipment and offer to pay a portion of the bill. Maybe even offer to pay the difference to upgrade thier pacakage.
A 1.5 connection thru sprint is only $39.95, the 3.0 is $49.95 and a 5.0 is only $59.95 a month. So for less than $100 of equipment for the wireless router and outdoor antenna, plus if they have the 1.5 connection and you upgrade them to the 5.0 for you two to share. Then total cost is $100 or less then $20 a month. You'll get 5.0 most of the time unless he is downloading then it will act like a cable connection and he will take a portion of you bandwidth or visa versa.
But with say a linksys wrt54G wireless router, cost $49.95 at walmart and the free Sveasoft firmware. You could allocate 2.5Mbs to each of you. Then if he is not downloading or uploading anything you get 5.0. If you are not using it then he gets 5.0. But if you both are using at the same time then you both get split evenly and both get 2.5 each. As soon as either one stops using it then the other one automaticaly instantly gains 5.0 back again.

It'd be a win win situation for both of you providing that he has the 1.5 connection now. He'd always be faster than that and you would get high speed. The only person getting screwed would be the phone company. Serves them right, they should have just gave you your own connection.

 

In my situation, dial up is just as expensive as cable. I would have to get phone service and dial up service. That about balances what I pay for cable net. I dont do the land line phone thing.

 

Good post PSS, I wish I could do that, actually, if it was possible (for me) I'd offer to pay the entire bill, but for the time being I'll tough it out.

Hi Paul, yes sir, I'm back, it's been a heck of a year, lots of traveling to the gulf, camping half the summer, sold our place, moved outside of town (4 miles north of the main drag, and we are considered to be living in the sticks, lol)
The last couple months we've been busy revonating, still have much to do, but it's coming.

I don't understand it, my friends say "oh, so I guess you carefully plan your trips into town now" you know, they think I live 40 miles away, and are trying to be helpful so I 'conserve" fuel.

"into town", it cracks me up because we technically live inside the city limits.
I drive in every day to go to the fitness club anyway.

So I finally have some downtime, it's hard to believe that for a guy who doesnt work, I havnt had time for much this year, go go go.

Btw, good to see you again, when is the big day?

 

I would too, just becasue I hate our phone service SOOOO much! I'd like to get completely away from them. (Sprint = evil + poor customer service.)
If cable was available to me then I would do that and set up my own VoIP for a phone over the cable. Free phone calls anywhere in the world w/ no monthly except internet! It'd be stupid not to.
Soon we'll have wireless VoIP with acces points in everybody's homes and offices so we won't have to have lan lines. You will beable to use your home phone over you ISP from from anywhere. Cell phones are now indanger of being obsolete too.

 

I know... I live 6 miles from the first traffic light and my friends who live in town are like that too. I am only 1.5 miles from the city limits. I dont plan trips I just leave ten minutes earlier to be some where, than I would if I lived closer to one of the traffic lights. That seems to be what everyone cosiders the edge of town, the "traffic lights".

Apperently there is not suppose to be convience stores, video rental, gas stations, restaraunts, deli's or anything past the traffic lights. LOL

I have a gas staion/deli/convience store 1/2 mile from my house, restraunt 2 miles, and rent moveis off satelite.

 

Connected at 24Kbps. On good days Ill get a 28.8K connection. Sucks major _ _ _.
I live way out there too. 20 miles from the closest town with a wopping population of 420. We do plan our trips to save gas. Try to shove as many things into a trip as possible

 

PSS and for you guys who are sharp with computers, explain something to me plz, because I don't know how it works.

My PC has a 56k modem, I think only twice since Nov has it shown a speed of 52k or something, never 56k, and on an average day it's at 46.6Kbps.

If it's a 56k modem, why doesn't it ever connect at that speed? Is it determined by the quality of the phone line?

Bartak's post reminded me to ask this question.

Bartak, if I lived that far, I'd plan my trips too, the way our trucks suck the juice, even I'm putting in $100 every 4-5 days.
Maybe in the summer when I get past my 'mental block" I'll use my wife's Focus more often, bleh, so small and cramped!

 

Habibi, I have heard the reason why you will never see 56K is because of limits that the FCC sets. Even though you have a 56K modem, if you see 52K you are doing really well. I barely 26K or so on my computer and I have a 56K modem. Even if I hook my laptop into my phone line, I don't connect that well either.

 

When I was on dial up it was actually slower if I got above 48K.

56K is what the FCC alows the you and the ISP to broadcast at. Due to distance and line qualty this drops by the time it reaches the other end. Same is true for DSL. It is rated at 5Mbs but actual reception may be lower. Luckily mine is higher than the package I purchased. I bought 1.5, but I actually ussually get 1.7 unless it rains. Then I drop to around 1.5 for a while.

 

There is one good thing about Maryland, it is a "wired" state. We have DSL for as little as $14.95 a month for 768k and Comcast's standard service is capable of 8mbps with a perfect setup.

I couldnt go back to dial up....I'm spoiled.