Wideband connections: Worth the cost?

Bill Llewellyn · From: San Jose, CA

On other threads I've perused here, I see folks paying $400/year or more for wide band connections (DSL, cable, RF link, etc.). That's a lotta money, as I see it. I'm still on a 56k modem at home, and reluctant to upgrade to prevent yet another incessant cash exfusion (my term!). We don't have cable or satellite TV that might allow us an "add on" a fast ISP connection, so if I were to go to wide band I'd have to go DSL or RF.

Really, is it worth all that money?

------------------
Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?

Ken Lang · From: Simi Valley, Ca

Without question, it is worth the money. No one who has broadband would ever go back to dialup unless there was no choice.

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

Worth every cent, and I pay $70/month (!).

But if it means you'll be spending more time on the net, make sure you have a good firewall and virus protection.
My PC is on the net from I get up til I go to bed (mostly for the emails), I use ZoneAlarm firewall and Norton AV and has never been in real trouble. Oh yes, I've installed AdAware too, can't be too careful these days.

Steinar

------------------
www.gregertsen.com

Doug Brumley · From: Nashville, Tennessee, USA

It really depends on several factors, some of which are: how much you use the Internet, if you are frustrated with your dial-up speeds, if you are downloading media files that are larger than the typical text file or web page, if you want to stream Internet radio with decent sound quality, if you'd like to be able to talk on the phone while being online (without buying a 2nd phone line).

For me and my 'net usage habits, it is definitely worth it. (I've got DSL.) And my bill makes the $400/yr. you quoted look smallish. But if you've never been bitten by the broadband bug (many get used to a high-speed connection at work, so the dial-up at home won't do anymore), you can probably stick with dial-up. I can tell you one thing (as Ken said above), once you get a high-speed connection, you'll never get rid of it... so plan accordingly.

Doug Brumley · From: Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Also, I don't believe you have to have cable TV service to sign up for Internet access through your cable provider. I may be wrong, but that might still be an option for you unless you live somewhere where you don't have access to cable. I prefer DSL anyway, as the speeds (albeit somewhat slower than cable in most cases) are a bit more consistent and there aren't the potential security issues I hear about with cable access.

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

I would give up the internet intirely. before ever giving up DSL. Unless something better comes along. Rarely ever a disconnect. Stays on line all the time. You only need 1 phone line. Can still talk and receive calls on your line while on your computer.

DSL allows you to have other computers on line at the same time using the same DSL line. And with a wirelss "router", you do not have to run additional lines in your home.

Plus the cost of DSL includes your browser. So this cost you can deduct from your DSL costs, unless you want to use say AOL in addition. As an example, I was paying 24.95 a month for AOL plus about that much for a second phone line. I got rid of the extra phone line and my Bellsough DSL line cost 49.95 a month. So in essence it cost not a penny more. Since I did NOT have to keep AOL it worked out great.

As soon as the DSL modem is shipped to your home, you install it, (requires an ethernet connection card in your computer if you do not already have one), load in some included software and when your computer boots up you are connected to the internet.

No listening for dial tone and waiting forever to connect, only to often get disconnected. And you can leave your DSL modem on forever. Computer also, but if ya wanna turn it off, that's ok too.

The average throughput speeds even on a 56K modem are rarely anywhere near 56K. And speeds on downloads can be as slow as 1200 baud (or lower) using a dial-up line.

Relatively speaking, the same is the case with DSL. But because the average speed is soo much higher to begin with using broadband (DSL, etc), you will not believe the difference in speed, particularly on downloads. Websites often pop up instantly. Some are slower than others, but no comparison to the snail speed of dial-up modems.

My DSL gives me a free Website at no additional cost and I can include pictures on this forum using it. Or direct others to multiple pictures using this built in DSL webpage.

Cost is relative always in life. Of course never throw caution to the wind, but do reach for the sky. You will be glad you did. And often man adjusts and the means come if we are honest and diligent and do a "hard days work for and honest day's pay".

May Jesus bless you in your quests,

carl

Lem Smith · From: Long Beach, MS

I have to agree with the others. For years I labored with dial-up internet access. Finally I was able to get DSL. Theres NO going back.

It's kinda like getting used to playing the best D10 (insert favorite brand) pedal steel made, and then trying to play the same stuff on a $19.95 guitar laid across your knees, and using a butter knife for a bar!

Imho, anyway.
Lem

Lou[NE] · From: Weston, NE USA

Absolutely worth it, especially if you have multiple computers and everyone wants to be on line at the same time.

I got rid of our 2nd phone line after our local phone company "improved" their phone lines for DSL and reduced my dial-up connection speed from a consistant 33.6k to 22k or worse. Also the ISP I had wasn't that great, but they were the only game in town (so to speak - I live in the country) unless I wanted to pay long-distance charges.

I seem to have the bargain broadband here, possibly because I subscribed when they were just starting business. I pay $347.40/year for my 384K RF connection, after $400 up front for the radio card and antenna installation. It has worked great for me.

Ditto what Steinar said about having a firewall and AV protection - if you go the always-on-line route you MUST have them, or you WILL get bitten.

Let your budget, and they way you use the internet, be your guide.

Good luck.

Lou

[This message was edited by Lou[NE] on 05 August 2004 at 09:25 PM.]

Bill Llewellyn · From: San Jose, CA

Thanks for all the replies, guys. I do have a broadband connection at work, so I know what good connection speed is like. My home modem gets about 50kbps consistently, so that's been nice. It has also been reliable in staying connected for long periods (read: for big downloads, like OS updates or software purchases that can take 8 hours). I also kinda resent hemorrhage-type payments such as cable TV or satellite, because over the period of years the costs really add up. It's like buying a new TV every year. (We also avoid the pay TV hookups because some of the content just isn't what I want coming into my home; broadcast material is bad enough in that regard. In addition, I know I'd get addicted to the science and learning channels on cable or satellite, and who needs more excuses to spend even more time in front of the tube?)

As it is, I pay 35/mo for two ISP accounts (me and my wife), dialup. I use my Mac daily, probably for 1-2 hours. Mostly for the Forum and email, but I also buy music from iTunes. If i had a faster connection, I'd audition much more of the iTunes stuff (the previews take about 2 minutes to load....too long!) and probably buy more, too. I'd love streaming music & video. So broadband is very tempting. But $400/year? A strong disincentive.

------------------
Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?

Gene Jones · From: Oklahoma City, OK USA, (deceased)

If it was required to retain access to the internet by using a "dial-up" connection, I would trash my computer and revert to the Pony Express.

The remaining life that I have is too short to mess around with dial-up connections!
www.genejones.com

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Ron Page · From: Penn Yan, NY USA

I used to have dial-up and teenagers... and a 2nd phone line. For me that made the move easy because it was about a wash cost wise because I dropped the 2nd phone line. Now that we all have cell phones I probably wouldn't need the 2nd phone line, but like Ken said, I'm not going back.

Now if I could just learn to type faster.

------------------
HagFan

PS: Ray you or someone must have given us that advice on WORKGROUP before, because I set it differently this time remembering that.

[This message was edited by Ron Page on 06 August 2004 at 07:34 PM.]

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

Bill
You say that you're paying $420 per year now for dialup, and that you can get DSL for $400 per year. So I don't understand your concern about the price.

If you get DSL I suggest, based on my personal experience:

1. Do not under any circumstances use SBC Global as your DSL provider.
2. Don't but service from any company unless you first talk to a satisfied custoumer whom you trust.
3. Do not under any circumstances use SBC Global as your DSL provider.
4. Do not commit to any agreement longer than month-to-month with no penalty if you terminate.
5. Do not under any circumstances use SBC Global as your DSL provider.
6. Ignore 1,2,3,4,5 if you don't mind long interruptions in service, and if you enjoy leisurely talks with Indians.

Peter · Posted 7 Aug 2004 12:51 am

Bill, why don't you ask at work if you can "piggyback" their connection? Maybe you can save some subscription money.

------------------
Peter den Hartogh
1978 Emmons S10 P/P; 1977 Sho-Bud D10 ProIII Custom;
1975 Fender Artist S10; Remington U12; 1947 Gibson BR4;
Internationally Accredited 3D Animation Academy

Lem Smith · From: Long Beach, MS

Earnest,
Does this mean you wouldn't recommend SBC Global?

Lem

Edward Efira · From: California, USA

"As it is, I pay 35/mo for two ISP accounts (me and my wife), dialup. I use my Mac daily, probably for 1-2 hours. Mostly for the Forum and email, but I also buy music from iTunes. If i had a faster connection, I'd audition much more of the iTunes stuff (the previews take about 2 minutes to load....too long!) and probably buy more, too. I'd love streaming music & video. So broadband is very tempting. But $400/year? A strong disincentive."

Bill, I pay about the same ($35/month) for my DSL and it came with 10 email accounts and 200 MB of storage.
we have 3 macs online all the time, and I never experienced any slowdown even when they are all 3 into heavy downloading.
Ed

------------------
ShoBud Pro III 8&5 ,ShoBud Pro I 4&4, Fessenden D10 8&8, Mullen D10 8&8, Sierra Crown SD12 7&5
63'Vibroverb, 64'Showman, 65' Deluxe Reverb, 65' Super Reverb, 65' Princeton Reverb and more...

Bill Llewellyn · From: San Jose, CA

You guys bring up a point that I should have clarified. Yes, I pay 12 x $35 per year for dialup, but adding DSL (et al) would be additional cost. Those of you who get DSL plus storage and other services for $400 or so are going with a big provider such as SBC who furnish both the connection and the ISP-like services. I've been with my present ISP for over a decade and really don't want to switch. The reason is that they are a high level Unix/Linux ISP for advanced users and provide lots of sophisticated services, very good support, and thorough spam filtering. If I wanted to up my connection from dialup to DSL, the cost would be in addition to my current subscription fees, unfortunately because I would be using a new connectivity provider just to connect to my existing ISP.

I just moments ago looked at a DSL discussion on an internal forum at my ISP. Somebody asked essentially the same thng I have here. People were talking about the following DSL providers:

Speakeasy
Covad
Sonic.net
SBC/Yahoo
DSLextreme
rawbandwidth.com

Sonic.net seems to be the favorite. Let me look into their pricing....

------------------
Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?

[This message was edited by Bill Llewellyn on 07 August 2004 at 09:22 AM.]

Ken Lang · From: Simi Valley, Ca

I have had SBC since the change from Southern Bell and am satisfied. I have both phone and DSL thru them. I can call anywhere, anytime for $0 on my phone bill, for just $10 a month.

I did have to talk to India once to a person who was vedy vedy hepfull but was totally wrong in his diagnostics. My kid came over and said Oh, it's your modem, whipped out a new one and case closed.

There will be problems with any provider chosen, sooner or later. Good luck.

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

The thought doth occur to me that if the American companies had chosen to use Africa instead of India as their "calling centers"; and had this person posted every word that my friend dear friend Ernest Bovine posted; with the lone exception of subsituting the word Africans for Indians;

HOW many of you would care to venture a guess as to HOW many on this forum would send me hate emails and use racists euphamisms about me on this forum? Like I got yesterday and today.

Interesting. But I believe it proved my point once again. Political correctness is indeed VERY VERY selective.

Jesus said, "There is none so blind as he who will not see"

carl

Marc Friedland · From: Fort Collins, CO

Bill,
There were a few reasons why it was important enough for me to spend the extra money for DSL. I've had it for about a year and find it's worth it.
The main way it has helped is being able to communicate quickly with other band members. When I had dial-up only, I used to have to insist that they make a CD copy and mail it to my house. This cost them extra money and just took too long. Now they can send me a half dozen songs on MP3 over the internet, and I can be listening to them right away and be ready to talk about them or perform or record them that night. I'd say this occured about 20 or more times this past year, so I needed to get a high-speed internet connection or I would have possibly become a liabilty because of my lack of speed in listening and communicating about music. Now that I have it, I also appreciate the faster navigating and downloading features as well.
-- Marc

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Carl, what does Africa vs. India have to do with the subject matter at hand?

The truth of the matter is that most of Africa does not yet have the infrastructure necessary to operate call centers. India does have that infrastructure. There are many geopolitical reasons for this.

There is also the fact that English is spoken more in India than in Africa. So, Indians are better prepared to operate call centers for American companies. Which isn't to say that they do a good job - they don't, IMHO, and I doubt that Africans could do any better.

Carl, if your comment was designed to seriously talk about Indian vs. African call centers, then we can continue. If, however, you are trying to divert this topic to call attention to the politics of race in America, I object to your use of the Forum for that agenda.

------------------

Bobby Lee
-b0b- quasar@b0b.com
System Administrator

Bill Llewellyn · From: San Jose, CA

I'm resurrecting this thread (it's over a year old) because I just took the plunge and got SBC Yahoo! DSL. It's the basic $15/month package with a maximum of 1536kbps downstream and 384kbps upstream. Fortunately, my modem gets the full subscribed speed (they only guarantee 384/128). In fact, I briefly got to see the speed I could get before they turned on the limitation in my connection... the modem actually negotiated 6144kbps/down 644kbps/up prior to the imposed speed restriction. So there's room to speed up if I want to pay more. (After a year SBC automatically upgrades customers to the next level, unless you stop them.)

The new-found speed is nice. Much better than a 56k modem! (I have a talent for stating the obvious.) Now watching news videos and listening to music snippets (plus buying more iTunes!) have all become practical.

[This message was edited by Bill Llewellyn on 10 September 2005 at 02:10 PM.]

Charlie McDonald · From: out of the blue

Twenty bucks for AOL dialup, twenty bucks for DSL. And it's SBC. Seems all right by us. There were more interruptions with AOL.

Sorry to hear about the hate mail, Carl.
I've never seen any reason for you to get any. I personally haven't had an increase in it with SBC.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I have Cable/RoadRunner. It's $44 per month, which is higher than many DSL providers, now, but I'm in a location that can't get DSL. You have to be within a certain distance from the Telco central office (I think it's 15,000 ft)and be on straight "copper" (no repeaters) to be eligible for DSL.

I had DSL at my previous location (GTE/Verizon) and it was a nightmare and I had a lot of problems with the line. I was glad to get rid of it.

Like others, it would be hard to go back to a dial-up after being on broadband.

Bill Llewellyn · From: San Jose, CA

DSL was about the only option for us since we don't have cable or satellite, and I don't want to get either of them (added expense, too much opportunity to watch yet more TV {I already get too much!}, and too much rough and tumble programming available for our 8-year-old). Though my cable-connected buddies get faster downloads, I'm pretty happy with the DSL connection speed; as mentioned, it is at the top of the current subscribed limit, and it could have turned out to be less. And a friend of mine who has a 4M cable connection was told by his service that his speed is at the point of diminishing returns--that is, he's limited by typical network congestion and server loading at the far end, so he seldom gets data coming in at the full 4M download speed.

I'll admit getting DSL started was a hassle, but I think my case was an exception. I went out of my way to make sure I had a clean line running from our outdoor junction box (NID) to the modem jack (new twisted pair wire I dragged through our cramped and dirty crawl space), and put a DSL filter right at the NID for the line that runs to all other phones in the house. That seems to have worked, because in my trouble calls to SBC they would often comment on how good my modem connection was. The problem was that after I got the modem hooked up and powered-up, it negotiated a clean connection to the central office (CO) but couldn't get out to the net. After a couple calls to SBC, they noted that they had done an incomplete hookup (no ATM circuit). They got that fixed within 24 hours (pretty snappy) and I was up and running. I'd say I'm a pretty happy camper right now.

Forum Index > Computers	Goto page 1, 2 Next	Next oldest topic :: Next newest topic