I'm getting broadband.

[glockjs]

people still have home phone lines???

No kidding

I saw a kit on sale that was a cradle/base station for a cell phone. It plumbed the cell phone into the existing house phone wiring and allowed you to use the extension phones to place and receive calls. Prettty clever and allows you to sever your ties with the land line highway robbers

so that way my cell doesnt drop the call when i move 3/4 of an inch

[Capmaster]

If your cell phone is like most you can remove a little plastic plug and expose an RF connector for the antenna. Plug that into a reasonably high-gain directional antenna (3 or 6dB) and point it at the nearest cell tower, and that should be the end of the trouble.

They make those antennas for car kits (omni, no gain), and a patch-type directional gain antenna you can mount on the inside wall or outside the window of the house. Use that with the base station I mentioned and you'd have a pretty decent setup for not too much money

[Faustus]

To people with bad dialup connections. Get a good ISP, stop being cheap and get an actual hardware 56k modem from USR and you'll be much better off.

[ChrisX]

All of us poor bastards still on dialup

Me too. I can't afford broadband and if I can get one, it is very limited here.

I can only get ADSL on the telephone line and this is the only way for broadband here.

[Faustus]

Whats wrong with ADSL it whips the pants off of Dialup. I'd have had it ages ago if it was an option.

[ChrisX]

Whats wrong with ADSL it whips the pants off of Dialup. I'd have had it ages ago if it was an option.

I am not sure if ADSL is real broadband? You know what I mean as below what is recognized as broadband on minimum download and upload speed.

What about below 512 kbps? I am not sure and heard of only 64 kbps after a download limit is reached?

An Australian ISP, Telstra have claimed as broadband on some of its plans and there is some doubts as real broadband there?

There will be another broadband option for me in the near future in Sydney.

This is the one is going around and growing fast everywhere, this is wireless ISP.

I should be able to get broadband Internet access this way via my laptop.

My dialup expires sometime during August next year and this would a great time to review my Internet access option then.

[glockjs]

If your cell phone is like most you can remove a little plastic plug and expose an RF connector for the antenna. Plug that into a reasonably high-gain directional antenna (3 or 6dB) and point it at the nearest cell tower, and that should be the end of the trouble.

They make those antennas for car kits (omni, no gain), and a patch-type directional gain antenna you can mount on the inside wall or outside the window of the house. Use that with the base station I mentioned and you'd have a pretty decent setup for not too much money

yeah but that would defeat the whole point of a wireless phone


and for all the poor people who cant get cable or dsl....get a job just jokin :P

[Capmaster]

yeah but that would defeat the whole point of a wireless phone

True. But I think it would be a workable solution to dumping the land line and its associated plethora of little taxes they add on every bill, and the outrageous LD charges compared to a decent cell account which has LD for free.

I could see getting home and dropping my cell phone into the cradle, making it the house phone. Pop it out in the morning and off you go. But that would only be worth it if you had a real need for the extension phones on the circuit. Otherwise you might as well just keep your cell phone on the nightstand or something

[bazooka]

Whats wrong with ADSL it whips the pants off of Dialup. I'd have had it ages ago if it was an option.

I am not sure if ADSL is real broadband? You know what I mean as below what is recognized as broadband on minimum download and upload speed.

What about below 512 kbps? I am not sure and heard of only 64 kbps after a download limit is reached?

An Australian ISP, Telstra have claimed as broadband on some of its plans and there is some doubts as real broadband there?

There will be another broadband option for me in the near future in Sydney.

This is the one is going around and growing fast everywhere, this is wireless ISP.

I should be able to get broadband Internet access this way via my laptop.

My dialup expires sometime during August next year and this would a great time to review my Internet access option then.

It is broadband. And with Verizon it is kBps not kbps.

[northcat_8]

To people with bad dialup connections. Get a good ISP, stop being cheap and get an actual hardware 56k modem from USR and you'll be much better off.

I have good equipment. My phone company is trash...litterally. I live 37 miles from the phone company and I've called them and asked "WTF??" and they told me that where I live is still the old phone lines and that my area had not been upgraded yet. But they were planning on upgrading soon. (Summer of 2037 I think).

If I take my computer to my mom and dad's house and dialup I connect at 48, same ISP different phone company, but they only live 2 miles away from me.

One of the many reasons I have my home phone line stripped of anything extra, including long distance. **** SPRINT (who is actually owns my local phone company)

[Capmaster]

Whats wrong with ADSL it whips the pants off of Dialup. I'd have had it ages ago if it was an option.

I am not sure if ADSL is real broadband? You know what I mean as below what is recognized as broadband on minimum download and upload speed.

What about below 512 kbps? I am not sure and heard of only 64 kbps after a download limit is reached?

An Australian ISP, Telstra have claimed as broadband on some of its plans and there is some doubts as real broadband there?

There will be another broadband option for me in the near future in Sydney.

This is the one is going around and growing fast everywhere, this is wireless ISP.

I should be able to get broadband Internet access this way via my laptop.

My dialup expires sometime during August next year and this would a great time to review my Internet access option then.

It is broadband. And with Verizon it is kBps not kbps.

I've never seen any communication speed like broadband, modems or the like rated in bytes per second. That's primarily a unit reserved for the PC world ....isn't it? Isn't it always bits?

[bazooka]

Whats wrong with ADSL it whips the pants off of Dialup. I'd have had it ages ago if it was an option.

I am not sure if ADSL is real broadband? You know what I mean as below what is recognized as broadband on minimum download and upload speed.

What about below 512 kbps? I am not sure and heard of only 64 kbps after a download limit is reached?

An Australian ISP, Telstra have claimed as broadband on some of its plans and there is some doubts as real broadband there?

There will be another broadband option for me in the near future in Sydney.

This is the one is going around and growing fast everywhere, this is wireless ISP.

I should be able to get broadband Internet access this way via my laptop.

My dialup expires sometime during August next year and this would a great time to review my Internet access option then.

It is broadband. And with Verizon it is kBps not kbps.

I've never seen any communication speed like broadband, modems or the like rated in bytes per second. That's primarily a unit reserved for the PC world ....isn't it? Isn't it always bits?

Nope.

My downloads usually clock in at 187 kBps.
This one is clocking in at 134 KBPS. If it was bits it would not be capitalized.

[Roundabout]

I have good equipment. My phone company is trash...litterally. I live 37 miles from the phone company and I've called them and asked "WTF??" and they told me that where I live is still the old phone lines and that my area had not been upgraded yet. But they were planning on upgrading soon. (Summer of 2037 I think).

If I take my computer to my mom and dad's house and dialup I connect at 48, same ISP different phone company, but they only live 2 miles away from me.

One of the many reasons I have my home phone line stripped of anything extra, including long distance. **** SPRINT (who is actually owns my local phone company)

NC,

[rant] Exactly the same problem I have. I'm in the middle of the most populous area of SoCalif, yet I have dialup speeds of 26.4 - 28.8 all the time. I questioned this when I first moved here, and was told that it will never be any faster than that until (and IF) the lines are ever upgraded. Their (SBC, the local phone co.) way of doing things...this is a newer area, and to save money, they put in what's called line splitters, which allow them to use less lines and less wire to give a connection to more homes. Their rationale? "We don't guarantee data, only voice". Bastards.

When I lived in a new area in Las Vegas a couple of years ago, I got 50Kbps - 53.3Kbps connections every time. BTW, that was Sprint there.

So here I am, in this huge metro area, and there's no DSL, only cable BB at $54.95/mo. (and I can't afford that). SBC offers DSL in some areas here for $26.95 but I can't get it. And their lines suck, as I just mentioned. I got faster speeds connecting in Ukraine & Russia, literally. I can't believe it.

Do a Google search on "WIMAX", this is the thing that's going to save us, I hope. High-speed wireless internet access that is supposed to be up to 40X faster than cable Broadband. I can't wait.

Meanwhile, I'm stuck with SBC (Stupid Bastard Communications) and their crap. I hope WIMAX comes before DSL here, I'll tell them to drop dead before I'd sign up with DSL.

[/rant]

[Capmaster]

Whats wrong with ADSL it whips the pants off of Dialup. I'd have had it ages ago if it was an option.

I am not sure if ADSL is real broadband? You know what I mean as below what is recognized as broadband on minimum download and upload speed.

What about below 512 kbps? I am not sure and heard of only 64 kbps after a download limit is reached?

An Australian ISP, Telstra have claimed as broadband on some of its plans and there is some doubts as real broadband there?

There will be another broadband option for me in the near future in Sydney.

This is the one is going around and growing fast everywhere, this is wireless ISP.

I should be able to get broadband Internet access this way via my laptop.

My dialup expires sometime during August next year and this would a great time to review my Internet access option then.

It is broadband. And with Verizon it is kBps not kbps.

I've never seen any communication speed like broadband, modems or the like rated in bytes per second. That's primarily a unit reserved for the PC world ....isn't it? Isn't it always bits?

Nope.

My downloads usually clock in at 187 kBps.
This one is clocking in at 134 KBPS. If it was bits it would not be capitalized.

I hate to break it to you bazooka, but it's probably a typo. People misuse "b" and "B" all the time. Even people in the industry. Sorry bazooka but you're wrong, and they're wrong using a capital "B" to represent bits. The correct notation is a small "b" and always has been.

It's like other commonly misused words like to, too and two, they're their and there, your and you're, etc. It's part of the general dumbing down we see nowadays. Nobody cares if what they put out there is accurate or not. It's "whatever" :P

Communications that send a bit at a time, like ethernet, wireless, broadband and modem, are spec'ed in bits, kilobits and megabits per second ...and now gigabits for ethernet. Bits ...not bytes

[ChrisX]

Whats wrong with ADSL it whips the pants off of Dialup. I'd have had it ages ago if it was an option.

I am not sure if ADSL is real broadband? You know what I mean as below what is recognized as broadband on minimum download and upload speed.

What about below 512 kbps? I am not sure and heard of only 64 kbps after a download limit is reached?

An Australian ISP, Telstra have claimed as broadband on some of its plans and there is some doubts as real broadband there?

There will be another broadband option for me in the near future in Sydney.

This is the one is going around and growing fast everywhere, this is wireless ISP.

I should be able to get broadband Internet access this way via my laptop.

My dialup expires sometime during August next year and this would a great time to review my Internet access option then.

It is broadband. And with Verizon it is kBps not kbps.

I've never seen any communication speed like broadband, modems or the like rated in bytes per second. That's primarily a unit reserved for the PC world ....isn't it? Isn't it always bits?

Nope.

My downloads usually clock in at 187 kBps.
This one is clocking in at 134 KBPS. If it was bits it would not be capitalized.

I hate to break it to you bazooka, but it's probably a typo. People misuse "b" and "B" all the time. Even people in the industry. Sorry bazooka but you're wrong, and they're wrong using a capital "B" to represent bits. The correct notation is a small "b" and always has been.

It's like other commonly misused words like to, too and two, they're their and there, your and you're, etc. It's part of the general dumbing down we see nowadays. Nobody cares if what they put out there is accurate or not. It's "whatever" :P

Communications that send a bit at a time, like ethernet, wireless, broadband and modem, are spec'ed in bits, kilobits and megabits per second ...and now gigabits for ethernet. Bits ...not bytes

The dialup goes like this as Kbps and the LAN goes like is as Mbps.

This is the correct way to abbreviate the kilobits and megabits as shown on Windows.

This doesn't really matter and can be as kbps and mbps. As Capmaster puts it, who cares. It's "whatever"

Anyway on my PC: 50.6 Kbps and 100 Mbps as shown for my ISP connection and for my network.

[Capmaster]

@ChrisX - The "whatever" comment was referring to the attitudes of those who are supposed to be making these technical notations correctly so as not to confuse people by putting the wrong units on the spec. They don't care if it's right or wrong.

Then someone like bazooka sees "KBps" and assumes they wrote it correctly, and now thinks his speed is nine times as fast as it really is. It's incorrest and misleading ...but, they don't care :P

[jimmalenko]

My downloads usually clock in at 187 kBps.
This one is clocking in at 134 KBPS. If it was bits it would not be capitalized.

That's in kilobytes. 187 kilobytes = 1496 kilobits. You'd generally achieve something very close to 187kilobytes if you have a 1.5 megabit connection.

Here's one from me:



That circled bit is normally around 165KB/sec for me, and I have a 1.5 megabit connection here at work also. At home I was on a 56K modem, connecting @ 50.6 kilobits. I would get transfers up to 7 KB/Sec according to IE.

Sorry Cappy but I think Bazooka's right on this one. AFAIK Modems are always rated in bits, as are download speeds from ISPs, but most programs default to kilobytes per second when showing progress. A lot of other programs give you the option of displaying in bits or bytes though.

[northcat_8]

Do a Google search on "WIMAX", this is the thing that's going to save us, I hope. High-speed wireless internet access that is supposed to be up to 40X faster than cable Broadband. I can't wait.

Meanwhile, I'm stuck with SBC (Stupid Bastard Communications) and their crap. I hope WIMAX comes before DSL here, I'll tell them to drop dead before I'd sign up with DSL.

Be my luck it won't be available in my area either

I fixed a guy's computer the other day who has SBC DSL, he lives 2 miles away from me. He's an older guy, and filthy freakin rich. ANYWAY...he was mad because his connection was slow. And when I say slow I mean freakin slow. 14 Kbps on a download. He said it was faster during the day time, but every night it was this slow. I tried to explain it to him but he still didn't understand (just like he didn't understand how those porn dialers magically popped up on his desktop one day ).

I don't think I will ever go the DSL route either. I want RoadRunner, but really I would just like to be able to download a 1.5 MB file inside of 30 minutes.

[tekkieman]

What's wrong with DSL? That 1.5M file you want takes me about 3 seconds on a 3Mb connection.

[Faustus]

Do a Google search on "WIMAX", this is the thing that's going to save us, I hope. High-speed wireless internet access that is supposed to be up to 40X faster than cable Broadband. I can't wait.

Meanwhile, I'm stuck with SBC (Stupid Bastard Communications) and their crap. I hope WIMAX comes before DSL here, I'll tell them to drop dead before I'd sign up with DSL.

Be my luck it won't be available in my area either

Well Wimax has a ton of potential. It reaches pretty far, and the guy who created the first Cellphone network claims he's going to build a wimax network.

[Capmaster]

Sorry Cappy but I think Bazooka's right on this one. AFAIK Modems are always rated in bits, as are download speeds from ISPs, but most programs default to kilobytes per second when showing progress. A lot of other programs give you the option of displaying in bits or bytes though

No problem. Not like it's the first time I've posted horseshit fully believing I was correct.

Thanks for the clarification jimm, and sorry bazooka. I thought for sure it was a case of someone using the wrong units because it's so common.

[Faustus]

I get to find out today if it will be this week or next week before its installed.

[Roundabout]

Well Wimax has a ton of potential. It reaches pretty far, and the guy who created the first Cellphone network claims he's going to build a wimax network.

I'm hoping that Wimax isn't vaporware (not in the strictest sense of the word, but you know what I mean). Hopefully it'll really come about and save us from the twin tyranny of the cable company and phone company, both monopolies that don't really compete with each other. The phone company is in no hurry whatsoever to put in DSL in this area, though there are literally many hundreds of new homes here in the $500K - $800K price range, people with money to spend. They're just ignoring the market almost completely, as I mentioned before, even going to using line splitters to hook up the phones in this area.

With Wimax arriving on the scene, these jerks will have to compete, or die. Even though I don't like either, it's necessary for them to survive, just to give competition to the Wimax people. Most likely it'll be expensive to start, since they have bigger pipes (air?), so to speak. The speeds will be incredible. Going at up to 40X the speed of cable broadband, it's smoking!

I'm keeping my eye on it and when I see something new about it in the next year or so, I'll be talking about it here, for sure. At the same time, it seems like we're last to get anything new, usually it's someplace like Orlando

SBC DSL

[ViRaL1]

I LOVE my DSL. I wouldn't give it up. I pay a little bit more than the basic rate but it's DEFINITELY worth it if you're a heavy (or impatient) user. 6Mbps rated (about 5Mbps actual) for $45.

[ChrisX]

I LOVE my DSL. I wouldn't give it up. I pay a little bit more than the basic rate but it's DEFINITELY worth it if you're a heavy (or impatient) user. 6Mbps rated (about 5Mbps actual) for $45.

This is pretty good and this is what I aiming for as 'broadband'.

This would very much better than at 50.6 Kbps as so slow.

[ViRaL1]

SBC doesn't list the package on their site, but if you ask for the 6Mbps dynamic package for $45 (may even be cheaper now), they'll be able to set you up. I figure it's already $37 for the 3Mbps package, why not pay a few extra bucks and double up?

[Faustus]

Well my little wireles package may have to wait a few more weeks. The $200 install fee might be more then I can handle on this pay check.