Sick of dial-up and contracts about up: - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Gilly · #1 09-09-2005, 07:38 PM

What's the next step up for me? New computer probably next year. Averaged out my drag-ass dial up is only costing me $9.95 a month. I'd be willing to go up to $20 or so a month.
I'm not up on all the fancy abbreviations, I DO know what "56K" means and I rarely get up to even half that on this thing. A couple options I see:
"Charter High Speed Internet" is from the cable company we are with. They are offering 6 month teaser rates, we'd need to up out cable service to Digital Cable TV (6 month teaser rate 54.99, we are paying nearly that now, but I don't know the post-teaser rate), and then 19.99/month for whatever type of computer service this is called (promises "up to" 3 Mbps). The other option is from the ISP we are with now, here is a link to what they are offering:
http://www.nationwide.net/residsl.htm
That's DSL (what does DSL mean anyways, sounds like an abbreviation for "Diesel" which sounds pretty slow unless it's at least 6 cylinders and has a turbo) Broadband (not that I know what "broadband" means either, sounds like "Radio Free Hooters" to me

. Sticking with the current ISP means I can keep my current email address, but the service from my ISP says "new subscribers only", maybe this means me as I just have their dila-up service now. I have to have a certain phone service for this DSL, which is the one I am with anyways, is DSL Broadband a cable or something else? What difference does it make to them what phone company I'm with, unless it's over the phone wire, which makes no sense to me.
Thanks for any enlightenment you guys can give me on this. Is what I want possible? Price is big factor here, $20, maybe $25/month.
Gilly

diametricalbenz · #2 09-09-2005, 07:53 PM

Gilly, DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. It is one of the broadband options. DSL is piped down the phone line on a different frequency which requires a modem device to translate and interface with the network. If you're far away from the phone line mains, service may be limited and or unavailable. They provide a phone line splitter and your phone goes to one line and the DSL modem goes to the other. To hook up your computer you will need to go one of two ways. If you go cable, and you will need an "ethernet cable" which is a 8 wire twisted pair cord with phone jack like connections and an ethernet card (I can mail you one for free, I have a pile of them but they often include one with the DSL purhase). The other option is to go wireless if you're too far from the modem connection which will require a wireless card and wireless modem.

Another home boradband option is "cable modem" piped through the TV cable. It too requires a modem and it is spliced into the TV cable line. With that you can go wired or wireless as with the DSL.

I haven't tried http://www.nationwide.net/residsl.htm but I do have SBC DSL and it is decent. Not perfect as the line drops from time to time but it has decent performance. Check the Yahoo SBC site for availability. http://promo.yahoo.com/sbc/

Hope that helps!

Gilly · #3 09-09-2005, 07:56 PM

Sure does, thanks much. I can check with SBC also and Yahoo independently I would assume. We have SBC local phone service, so may be easy to do. We use Cell Phones for long distance.
Gilly

Gilly · #4 09-09-2005, 08:03 PM

diametrical:
OK, checking out SBC Yahoo, stumped already, BUT I do like the price on "DSL Lite" or whatever they call it ($14.95 or so). I am unsure what they mean by "dynamic" and "static" services.
Any comments on DSL Express? Good price and has got to beat the hell out of dial-up. What type of stuff do you see that I'd have to pay for up front? Also would I need to change my email address (no biggie I guess) and would "Yahoo DSL" then be considered my ISP?
Gilly

Larry Delor · #5 09-09-2005, 09:21 PM

Go for the DSL Lite (or whatever its called). For $15 a month, it's gotta be way better than dial up.
Static and dynamic refers to the IP address assigned to you. Dynamic means it changes every so often. Static means it's yours until you quit paying your bill. I doubt you have the need for a static address (I wouldn't want one unless I was running a webserver).
Equipment is no biggie. Getting on the www will be almost instantaneous for you with DSL vs. dial up.

If you get DSL, let me be the first to welcome you to the latter half of the 90's

kamil · #6 09-09-2005, 09:34 PM

Probably arrogant on my part but I always wondered how people still had Dial Up. I went to my friends house and I wanted throw out his computer out the window. I love clicking on a website and it comes up right away with literally no delay at all. We have used cable for a few years now and it has been the greatest thing ever. I am not sure how my my parents pay though

I think it's around 50 bucks a month which is a small price to pay for what you get. My household wastes money for stupid things.... can you interpret this one: we have two satelite dishes and my dad still subscribes to regular cable just so we have it in the kitchen (a little crazy if you ask me).

If I were you I would look into cable for the computer. Try it out just to see how you like it....I bet you will keep using it and will not terminate the service.

We also use a wireless modem in the house so if I ever go to "poop" I bring the lap top with me and I am surfing the web at cable speeds. You can walk around the house with the lap top and you can even bring it in the yard. Cool thing about colleges now is that they are all wireless....I can sit in any of my classes and surf the web.

Oh yes, we use Comcast Cable which is our local provider.

diametricalbenz · #7 09-10-2005, 01:42 AM

Gilly, sorry about the late reply but I would agree with Larry, go with the dynamic IP. The static as he mentioned is designed for a webserver so the address doesn't keep moving.

The DSL and dial up price gap is getting pretty narrow now so at $15 it's a pretty good deal. I am sure there is fine print but even at twice the price it's hard to live without once you have 20x the bandwidth.

The only gear you need is the DSL modem, line filters (you have to put these inline before the phones so it removes interference and they are usually included), and an ethernet card. That is the most basic setup. If you want to go wireless, more equipment is required.

The "ISP" is the company you pay for internet service. If you upgrade to DSL from the dial up service using the same company then you can usually keep your email address. If you jump to SBC Yahoo (which would then be your ISP) you will likely get a yourname@sbcglobal.net email address.

Hope that helps.

#8 09-10-2005, 02:18 AM

www.dslreports.com

Broadband is worth every penny. It is a whole different world and don't look at it like you do dial up. Penny pinching on broadband and trying to get it down to dial up cost is a bad idea currently. I have been paying $35-$109 per month for the past couple years (depending on whether I was running webservers or not) and I haven't regretted a penny. I will never use dial up again ever. I will get satellite first.

Get 768kb/second down and 128kb/s up at least. Cable is probably a better option because it is usually cheaper and faster and sometimes you can save even more by combining it with your cable tv.

glenmore · #9 09-10-2005, 04:13 AM

Gilly,

You will LOVE DSL, and you'll never settle for anything less.

I think the SBC/Yahoo promotion is $15/month for the first year and then it MAY rachet up. I signed up in January this year and the promotion then was $27/month for the first year and then the regular rate of $50/month. (I postponed getting DSL for the longest time. My strategy was to make it painful for my kids to be online too much and it worked. Now that they are older, they REALLY appreciate DSL and don't abuse it.) Could have been just sales talk but the SBC person said don't worry, when the year is up, there will be another discounted rate. Simple installation. Just a modem to plug in. They also give you a bunch of filters to put on all your other phones to cut the static. There are three huge advantages. Huge speed increase. Your phone line is open for calls. And DSL is on all the time. Your usual routine may have been wait for computer to boot up and then wait for dialup. Now you just tap your computer awake and you are online. Much more convenient.

glenmore

Azimyth · #10 09-10-2005, 04:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kamil

Probably arrogant on my part but I always wondered how people still had Dial Up. I went to my friends house and I wanted throw out his computer out the window. I love clicking on a website and it comes up right away with literally no delay at all. We have used cable for a few years now and it has been the greatest thing ever. I am not sure how my my parents pay though

I think it's around 50 bucks a month which is a small price to pay for what you get. My household wastes money for stupid things.... can you interpret this one: we have two satelite dishes and my dad still subscribes to regular cable just so we have it in the kitchen (a little crazy if you ask me).

If I were you I would look into cable for the computer. Try it out just to see how you like it....I bet you will keep using it and will not terminate the service.

We also use a wireless modem in the house so if I ever go to "poop" I bring the lap top with me and I am surfing the web at cable speeds. You can walk around the house with the lap top and you can even bring it in the yard. Cool thing about colleges now is that they are all wireless....I can sit in any of my classes and surf the web.

Oh yes, we use Comcast Cable which is our local provider.

We lived on a couple of acres in the boonie forest before we moved to AZ. There was no other viable option for us. Now we use cable. I can never go back to dial up.

Gilly · #11 09-10-2005, 04:34 AM

No SBC Yahoo for me, checked out my phone number on the SBC Yahoo website and they say "NO". There is still the other broadband service available here in Evansville through my current ISP though(see first post on this thread), weird thing is that they do require SBC phone service (which I have). Sorry I'm so cheap, NO WAY an I paying over $30/month to get this done.

Gilly

#12 09-10-2005, 07:54 AM

Gilly, another thing you may want to look at is internet via your cell phone. Sprint allows dial up networking on their phones and its only $10.00 a month. Wisconsin is TDS telecom country if you can get their DSL consider yourself lucky its the highest rated dsl service in the country.

check this out when shopping www.dslreports.com you may have resellers in you area.