Getting away from Dialup--need advice

[rhoelsch]

I'm way overdue, in my opinion, in releasing myself from dialup, and am thinking about joining the rest of the world, but I'd like some input from you guys... my primary computer's a laptop, so wireless would be nice.  I have a cab in my game room that would be nice to have hooked up, but I've also got a desk down there with an "old" AMD K62 300mhz that'd be more convenient to use, if it would be feasible. 

I have one local choice for cable and one choice for DSL/voice, and have been delving into the pro's and cons of each from whatever info I can glean from googling...can get DSL with modem included bundled with my voice for ~$53 a month (256mbps max), or just do the DSL alone for $19.99 "for the first year"... upping the speed to 1.5 upps the price to like $34, I think... cable's the same price for 256, then is $30 for 3Mbps (max)....

From what I understand, these prices ain't that great, but I can't use anyone else.  I know for equipment, I'm looking at about $50 for a wireless router, similar for a modem (unless I "rent" one of the providers') and $40-ish for an adapter per computer... wireless would be a no-brainer on the laptop, but my battery only holds about a half hour's worth of juice, so for the time being I'm tethered to a wall outlet anyway.  Caveats and suggestions please!  I'm looking for convenience with security, but with a baby on the way this summer I don't wanna go too steep with anything and am still gun-shy on committing to anything without doing my homework...

[Otraotaku]

D-S-L   /   C-A-B-L-E

your choice, but if you go cable make sure not many people in your neighborhood or community have it or else youll be sharing it... DSL (they ship out a certain amount to you) so theyre almost  matched depending on where you live, (or DSL would be faster) if you play large amounts of games online GO T1! (been praying for it for years)

[TOK]

I looked at your profile to see where you're located... You have Comast there?
If so, go with cable. It'll be a 6 meg downstream soon. I'm in the Philly burbs and its 6 meg down/350 up.

[rhoelsch]

No, I wish.... Comcast is all around us here, but I live in a hole in their coverage... Blue Ridge Comm. is the cable provider here, and of course, they're more expensive than Comcast   I can get you a great deal on a used buggy, though

Can anyone give me a frame of reference to see if 256 kbps download speed would be enough for me (without saying its ~5x faster than what i have)?

[RayB]

Geez man, you've tolerated dial-up this long, I think anything would be fast enough.

[rhoelsch]

Would you take 256?

[pointdablame]

Would you take 256?

no, I wouldn't.

256kbps would be the theoretical max for your speed.  Think of the 56k you are on now, and think of an average download rate you might get.  I really forget what that even is.... 10kb/sec?  more, less? I forget....

But take that number and multiply by 4 to get a ROUGH idea of what you might get.  That is probably a best case scenario though.  You'll be noticeably faster, but really in the realm of broadband if you ask me.

The Verizon deal you talk about for $20 isn't that bad, considering you're probably paying $20 already for an ISP, so the "free" jump in speed may be worth it for the first year.  If you are going to spend more money on an ISP than you currently are though, I wouldn't settle for anything less than 1.5down

[AtomSmasher]

I've had dsl twice and cable twice with a total of 4 different companies.  Both times with DSL, the company had horrible customer support, took a week or more to turn on the service, service went out for an hour or so every week, and had higher pings in games.  Both times with cable I had good customer support, service was turned on in a day or two with an occasional outage every couple of months, and had excellent pings in games.  So obviously my feeling is dsl sucks, cable kicks ass.  Your experience may be different so you may want to talk to your neighbors and see what their using and if they're happy with it.  And let me say SBC is the worst internet provider of all, I hate them with a passion.

[mahuti]

Cable vs. dsl... just depends on the provider on what cockamamie junk they've got goint on.

[Crazy Cooter]

I always explain it like this:
Who are your neighbors?  If they aren't going to be downloading pirated movies, then go cable.  It's a bigger pipe, but you share it with your neighbors.

If you live around a bunch of 12-25 year old males (aka pr0n addicts), then get DSL.  It's a smaller pipe, but it's for just your house, no neighbors allowed.

Then get a ~$50 switch/router with wireless support.  Run a cable to your PC, a cable to your MAME machine, and go wireless with your laptop.  Just make sure you look into WEP protection for the wireless connection.  If you want everything wireless, skip paying for it and suck off one of your neighbors unsecured wireless connections.  Then make threats to people and watch the FBI bust in his door  .

[Harry Potter]

Hmmm. I was always under the impression DSL was shared through an exchange in the area and cable provided the user with an independent link..

I got cable and pretty much never have any slowdowns, except for sites from the UK for some reason.

Oh, and get cable. Almost everyone I know who has DSL/ADSL claims it sucks.

[SOAPboy]

DSL Vs Cable depends on area and companys with service..

Sounds like your answer is cable, the dsl there is crap

[Harry Potter]

Tell me about it. Australia went into the whole DSL thing without any testing so when it was rolled out, it stunk and it's just now beginning to unstink itself.

Plus there's a major provider in Australia which still refuses to get with the program.

Example: All other providers (cable and adsl) have implemented the slowdown when you go over your monthly quota. This one charges per megabyte after you've gone over it. One bloke I know told me about his experience with this. The company sold him a cable plan. He asked if there was any extra charges for the plan to which they flat out said no.
1 month later, he gets a bill for $1500. Turns out it's 15c per megabyte over. He took them to court and won because they failed to inform him of this little factoid.

[Crazy Cooter]

Hmmm. I was always under the impression DSL was shared through an exchange in the area and cable provided the user with an independent link..

Nope, other way around.  Cable=Big pipe via coax, but clusters of users.  DSL=smaller pipe, but dedicated line & upgradable.  If you do any hosting, then DSL (SDSL specifically) is your best bet.  The ADSL is asynchronous (sp?) meaning they let you download at high speed, but limit your upload speed to much less.  That way they can make others pay for hosting services .  If everyone had a syncronous line by default, they couldn't compete with the price of cable service.  Too much bandwidth/$.

[Harry Potter]

Can it be done a different way?

By this I mean the following. Apparently, the ADSL users in australia have to hook themselves to the net through a local exchange. This exchange can cater for about 4000 connections at a time. If there's heaps of people online at the one time, the net comes to a crawl. Also distance from the exchange affects speed.

I'm probably wrong but this I heard from the company itself.

[Oils]

Telstra Sux.

[DrewKaree]

Why not just hook up EVERYTHING into a wireless network?  I've got 3 floors in my house, and the way the cable company set it up, the main line comes into the top floor.  I get 75%+ connection 2 floors down, and that's on a bad day.  I normally get 90%+ on all 3 machines I've got hooked in, and if I REALLY wanted to, I COULD do what Cooter suggests, since I'm reading 60% from the other 2 neighbors broadcasting their service for all the neighborhood to use.

Oh, and I'm using Linksys components.  Sam's Club has a setup pack for 2 PC's, and adding the third adapter was a stone cold cinch. 

[Crazy Cooter]

Can it be done a different way?

By this I mean the following. Apparently, the ADSL users in australia have to hook themselves to the net through a local exchange. This exchange can cater for about 4000 connections at a time. If there's heaps of people online at the one time, the net comes to a crawl. Also distance from the exchange affects speed.

I'm probably wrong but this I heard from the company itself.

Satellite.  Upload speeds used to suck, I don't know about now.  I've never used, seen someone else use, or spoken to anyone that has used satellite first hand.  About 4-5 years ago I read that it was laggy for games because of slow upload speeds and lost packets.  It's *probably* better by now, but I'm not the one to ask.  I hear it's big among the RV crowd...

That's the only other way I know.

[Harry Potter]

heh. Lurn somefin new ery day.

[Harry Potter]

Telstra Sux.

Careful. They'll send their goons after you.

but yeah, you're right. The only thing they're good for is mobile phone coverage. Otherwise they suck ass.

[J_K_M_A_N]

Satellite.  Upload speeds used to suck, ...

They still do. My sister has it and she HATES it. It is almost as bad as dial up at 5x the cost.

I believe the sharing thing with cable is a load of crap. I have NEVER heard of someone getting less than 95% of advertised speeds unless there is a problem. I get 6 meg down and 384k up ALL THE TIME. I know there are at least 2 more people in my cul de sac that have a cable connection also. I am not sure how much speed they use but mine is always good.

Also, 256k DSL is very slow. If you have to pay more than $20 a month for that, I wouldn't do it.

J_K_M_A_N

[TOK]

Satellite.  Upload speeds used to suck, ...

They still do. My sister has it and she HATES it. It is almost as bad as dial up at 5x the cost.

I believe the sharing thing with cable is a load of crap. I have NEVER heard of someone getting less than 95% of advertised speeds unless there is a problem. I get 6 meg down and 384k up ALL THE TIME. I know there are at least 2 more people in my cul de sac that have a cable connection also. I am not sure how much speed they use but mine is always good.

Also, 256k DSL is very slow. If you have to pay more than $20 a month for that, I wouldn't do it.

J_K_M_A_N

It is a load of crap. Speedtesting on my provider early in the day normally gets me a bit higher than advertised speeds. Peak time, 9pm to midnight still gets me right on the advertised speed. They've padded the cap to make up for traffic. Most cable companies that had large nodes of 1000 or more subs have split them in half to make up for variations in load.

[hypernova]

as someone who'd been forced in the dialup world up until FRIDAY last week, you MUST get high speed.

My only choice was ADSL.  No cable internet service here yet.  (Adelphia services, and they've sold out, but haven't heard anything more since.  Was hoping Time Warner would've taken over, but nothing's happened yet.)  So went with ADSL.  Downloaded a 5 MB program at around 250-300 Kbps.  Speed went down as it went.  But I didn't care, as it was done within 15-20 seconds, instead of 1.5 hours or so.  I was limited to 28.8 dialup before, which translated into a maximum of around 2.8 Kbps download speed.  So yeah, upping my download speed by nearly 100x was quite nice.  Now I can have WindowsXP update itself.

Our ADSL provider is nice (Cincinnati Bell.)  Package came on time, installation was fairly easy, and service was activated on time.  No issues yet.  Excellent speed so far too.

[hypernova]

Oh, forgot to mention satellite.

Satellite's been available for about two years in my area, but I was NOT about to shell out 50% more the price of DSL/cable for a speed that was a FRACTION of DSL/cable, as stated on DirecPC's site.  More than 60 dollars a month AND a 300 dollar installation fee for something completely inferior to other high speed services (even though they weren't available to me yet) in every way possible?  NOT IN MY LIFETIME.  I was desperate.  But not that desperate.

[DrewKaree]

I was limited to 28.8 dialup before

Don't even third-world countries have access to 56k? 

[Stingray]

I was limited to 28.8 dialup before

Don't even third-world countries have access to 56k? 

56k modems, sure. Sadly, if you live far enough out in the boonies, your phone lines are too noisy to get a decent connection, even by dialup standards. At home, I can usually manage to connect at 26ish. Sucks.

-S

[pointdablame]

56k modems, sure. Sadly, if you live far enough out in the boonies, your phone lines are too noisy to get a decent connection, even by dialup standards. At home, I can usually manage to connect at 26ish. Sucks.

-S

haha... you have tiny bandwidth 

[Stingray]

56k modems, sure. Sadly, if you live far enough out in the boonies, your phone lines are too noisy to get a decent connection, even by dialup standards. At home, I can usually manage to connect at 26ish. Sucks.

-S

haha... you have tiny bandwidth 

pwned

-S

[DrewKaree]

56k modems, sure. Sadly, if you live far enough out in the boonies, your phone lines are too noisy to get a decent connection, even by dialup standards. At home, I can usually manage to connect at 26ish. Sucks.

-S

EEyore (hey, get it, EEyore?!), is that you?

[hypernova]

Don't even third-world countries have access to 56k?

we apparently lived in a newly discovered fourth-world country.

but really...we lived less than 5 miles away from MULTIPLE choices.  our road was becoming fairly populated, and the roads branching off it as well.  that's what made it SO darn frustrating.  our connection was usually 26.something, or on rare occasions, 28.8.  that was it.

i think the newly forming subdivision 3 miles near the beginning of the road helped move things along.  only one unfinished house right now, but i do think it helped.

[emdkay]

$50 router?  I've never paid more than $10 for a router.  Here's one for $9 after rebates:

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?dpno=398689&store=ecost&source=ECOSTCJ&adcampaign=email,ECOSTCJ

I've never not received a rebate that I've followed correctly. 

[RTSDaddy2]

Just ditched AOL for Comcast - and I can't believe I waited this long to make the move from dialup.  Wouldn't go back if you paid me - that 6 mg is incredible.  I mean, when you watch streaming video, the video actally STREAMS now!!

Oh Aunty Em, I knew stuff like this existed! I just knew it!   
 (yeah i've lost it)