 sj |
||
|
||
BS: Broadbanded...at last!
|
|
|
Subject: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: GUEST,Beachcomber Date: 13 Sep 07 - 04:35 PM Ya hoooooooooooooooooooooooooo! After a wait of many years, frustrated by a connection that was totally unreliable (See, u thought it was me ) I can download, open , link in whatever...it's smashing. The downside ? Mudcatters will probably see a lot more of my posts from now on) Now where did I put that telephone lead ? |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Sep 07 - 04:44 PM I am SO jealous. My connection seems to be gettin slower and slower. I saw the AT&T trucks working on our phone excange last month, and they said we'd have DSL any time now. I check their Website every day, and it still says we don't have DSL. So, I wait. And wait. And wait. Have fund with it, Beachcomber. Take a look at Google Earth. My stepson and I had a great time with it on vacation at my sister's house in Wisconsin. She has broadband in old-fashioned Wisconsin, but we don't have it here in high-tech California yet. -Joe- |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: heric Date: 13 Sep 07 - 04:47 PM You've got wild turkeys, deer and clean air though. I'd trade. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Sep 07 - 05:01 PM I have DSL that is slightly faster than dialup most days. I am also envious of those lightning fast connections! SRS |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Sep 07 - 05:12 PM That's true, Heric. The natural beauty here outweighs all the inconveniences. My favorite part of living here is the wildflowers, and the 50-mile view. Soon, I'll have high-speed Internet. The next thing on my wish list is a furnace, so I can stop stacking firewood. -Joe Offer, in the Sierra Foothills of California- |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: pdq Date: 13 Sep 07 - 05:14 PM California has neither clean air nor wild turkeys, unless the latter refers to the politicians. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 13 Sep 07 - 06:45 PM Should the word be broadbanjaxed? |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Sep 07 - 08:00 PM About 8 years ago, I counted 21 wild turkeys in front of my home in Sacramento. Now that I'm in the Sierra Foothills, I see them here and there; and I also see lots and lots of California quail. And yes, the skies are blue and clear here at 2,300 feet. But no broadband yet, and spotty cell phone reception, and our landline phone goes out when it rains... That's one question I have about broadband - I want to keep the phone that shorts out in the rain, because that's the phone number people use to get hold of me - but will a switch to broadband also upgrade my line, so it won't be as likely to short out? -Joe- |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: jeffp Date: 13 Sep 07 - 08:24 PM I found that DSL caused occasional noise on my voice line. When my DSL modem crapped out I switched to Fios (fiber optic from Verizon). Wow. Clean phone, fast connection and a shipload of channels on my TV. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 13 Sep 07 - 10:05 PM Recently, last 6 months, my Telstra phone line has been erratic. It may in fact not be my copper pair to the exchange, but the 'interconnects' that get me to the 13 dialup number, or the 'interconnects' that get from there to the server farms. Anyway, sometimes I can't even get connected to the ISP "no compatible protocols" etc message - other times I get connected (used to get 56K) at anything from 12,000 up to 50,000 ... funnily enough sometime I get the same hassles when trying to dial in from other people's places too. ISP told me that I should reinstall the DUN stuff (98SE) but when the same nonsense happens from Linux boxes... Now why should I get BB from a company that can't properly maintain the copper pair needed for ADSL anyway? I changed back from Optus to Telstra, because the digital cable phone wouldn't give me more than 40,000 - and became increasingly unreliable - taking up to half a minute to generate dialtone - even broke down completely once. Total denial of any problems till it stopped completely and had to be replaced. When it started to go flaky the second time, I switched. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 13 Sep 07 - 10:16 PM Enroll or graduate Make a connection with a university (every backyard cesspool is ready to spawn one) Is free...or at least cheap. If you don't Ping to loud.....or philosophize too deep.
Sincerely, |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: GUEST,beachcomber Date: 15 Sep 07 - 04:59 PM Well, well, It looks as though I'm luckier than I imagined. I live in the countryside (I.m 10miles from the nearest town and 45 to a City, I have wild life all around, coastal and hinterland ,with hills a few miles also} and did not expect upgrading of lines hereabouts for some time yet,oh, and the air is very clean and clear too. Thanks Joe I will look up Google Earth and I may catch sight of you there in beautiful California. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: harpmolly Date: 15 Sep 07 - 05:04 PM Once you go broadband, you can never go back. We lost our connection briefly for a few days last week (departing roommate took an essential piece of hardware) and I thought I would go out of my skull. Even DSL isn't as satisfying, to be perfectly honest. Hey Mr. Tambourine man... P.S. Google Earth rocks! I can see my house from here! :D |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: artbrooks Date: 15 Sep 07 - 05:36 PM Uh...Molly...DSL is broadband. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: Amos Date: 15 Sep 07 - 09:07 PM But not AS broad as cable or sat relay. Joe, when you sogn up for one of the currently popular cable all-service packages you get Phone over IP as part of the package, and you can use the existing phone number. That's the way it went down with us. We get unlimited national calling, plus internet at high speeds, plus cable TV and a digital video recorder for capturing and replaying shows a la Tivo, all for one monthly fee. Works great. In the rare event that the cablemodem snarls up it is usually fixed by a quick reboot. If it is a longer outage we fal back on the cell phone number until its back but such events are very rare. Since you are outside the range of a cable network, I would (were I you) look seriously into satellite based services. Look for a similar package,m but delivered via sat dish. A |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: artbrooks Date: 15 Sep 07 - 10:03 PM Actually, Amos, my Earthlink DSL is a bit faster than cable offers. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: harpmolly Date: 16 Sep 07 - 12:41 PM D'oh!! OK, I'm going back to my cave now. ;) That'll teach me to bandy about terms I don't fully understand... M |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: Bill D Date: 16 Sep 07 - 03:03 PM Well, *I* am conflicted. I have had cable now for about 3 years, and it is, naturally, fast...and fairly simple. They plug it in to the special modem, and zoooommm. But now, I get 'some' of the predicted cable slowdowns related, I suppose, to high use in my area at certain times of the day...(like at 5:30 to 8 or 10PM, as folks are getting home from work and checking email and watching TV.) It really d-r-a-g-s at times. Now, Verizon is offering me VIOS, with more TV channels, fast internet and clearer TV...all at a price $20 cheaper than Comcast cable. But Verizon has a mediocre service rating and phone line connections are inherently more complex, and I don't trust Verizon to KEEP that price if they get any kind of foothold. Plus, I have a LOT of stuff set up on Comcast servers and our email is plastered all over the world as Comcast. Not only that, but I read 'newsgroups' a lot, and look for MP3 music and fonts and animal pics for my wife's craft business...etc...and Verizon carries fewer groups with much shorter retention (weeks, as compared to Comcast's months) I guess I shouldn't complain. ...but I don't LIKE awkward choices. "A man with a good watch always knows what time it is; a man with 2 watches is never sure." |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: Azizi Date: 16 Sep 07 - 03:38 PM Fwiw Bill, I had Verizon and I had all sorts of problems. About 6 months ago, I switched to Comcast. And now I'm satisfied. ;o} |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: Metchosin Date: 16 Sep 07 - 04:19 PM We just got digital phone through our local cable service provider this weekend. I was so ticked with our local land line phone Co. that I finally switched after over 30 years. This despite the fact that the beefed up battery pack that they supply with the digital phone modem is only good for about 18 hours in a power outage. We are now considering getting a propane generator. LOL One thing that I really want in all our prolonged winter hydro outages here is functioning phone, although running water from the well would certainly be nice too. It will certainly be a relief from hauling water in buckets in order to flush the toilet. The beauty of rural living sometimes pales. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 16 Sep 07 - 11:38 PM Actually in Oz, DSL stands for Damn Staticy Line! |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: Bill D Date: 17 Sep 07 - 12:00 AM Yep, Azizi...I've heard stories like that. I suppose Verizon must get SOME of it right, or they'd be out of business...but... |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 17 Sep 07 - 12:01 AM Is it REAL broadband - or is someone capping your time.?
From an older (May,June?) WSJ article: Problem: Not knowing the actual speed of your broadband connection.
Solution:
"Take a free speed test using online meter-readers at site such as Speakeasy, Banwidy Plance and Windows Users Group Network.
"It is also worth chciking to see if you getting the full speed that you are paying for with your cable or phone company.
" Online meter-readers generally just require one or two click to indicate your location. Speakeasy's test is at http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ Bandwidth is at http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/
Widows Users Group Network is at http://www.wugnet.com/myspeed/speedtest.asp
Sincerely,
CAVEAT - Tests are meant to to relative and factors like online traffic and your computer's distance from the testing server can affect accurary |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: Bill D Date: 17 Sep 07 - 12:02 AM (I think it might be like driving a Maserati, if they get it tuned right, it goes zoooom...but, it takes lots of tweaking) |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Broadbanded...at last! From: Amos Date: 17 Sep 07 - 12:10 AM My results: 2.1 megabits per second Communications 2.1 megabits per second Storage 250.7 kilobytes per second 1MB file download 4.1 seconds Thanks, Garg. Appreciate the pointer. A |
