My deal with MSN is about to expire and I'm looking for a new provider. Does anyone have any recommendations for an affordable provider with good connectivity?

Depends on what you find affordable. I couldn't stand our slow dialup, and we went to Comcast cable internet. It is about the same price for us as dialup ($40 vs $18 + $25 phone line), and about a zillion times faster. It has been out once in a year.

I just ran a speed test. We're getting 2141 Kbps (as opposed to the 32 Kbps I was getting with my 56 Kbps modem on dialup).

I think you're right. I'm paying for the phone line and about $22 a month with MSN. I am sick to death of being connected at 19 or 22 kbs. I'm also looking at the Netzero 'hi-speed' connection offer right now...

If you spend any time at all on the internet, you MUST have a broadband connection to maintain sanity. DSL, cable modem, satellite.... Gotta get outta the dark ages! :biggrin:

[i]Originally posted by John Z [satellite.... Gotta get outta the dark ages! :biggrin: [/B]


I've been thinking about a satelite connection why do you think cable is better?

Cable is a whole lot cheaper if you already subscribe to cable TV. If not, they cost about the same because usually the cable company requires the purchase of Basic cable plus the cost of the internet access.

I have earthlink dsl and love it. Out only once due to Verizon problem but was fixed that same day.

Originally posted by John Z
If you spend any time at all on the internet, you MUST have a broadband connection to maintain sanity. DSL, cable modem, satellite.... Gotta get outta the dark ages! :biggrin:

:yeahthat: I've had to go back to dial-up in emergencies (like having to check the forums whenever I'm at my sisters), and I swear, smoke signals would be a faster form of communicating. :jet:

My sister has dial up and they are reasonable.
http://www.aaahawk.com/files/pricing.asp

6.95 a month if you sign up for a 1 year plan. The connection speed is decent for dial up and they have given her good service. I am going to switch from OLG to aaahawk to save some green.

The best way to go like it has been stated is a cable modem. One day I will have extra cash left over and get a cable modem. :)

we pay, I think, $30 a month for verizon dsl and haven't had any problems

I am going crazy checking into the different avenues. I have satellite tv so checked in to that, YIKES, 99 dollars a month. Pinged eartlink on line but they said they don't have DSL in my area? Cable sounds good, although I don't want to pay for basic cable AND directv. Someone mentioned verizon, I'm going to check them next. I'm commited to finding something, as I sit here connected at 19 kbps. thanks all. deb

We have used RCN for two years now. We connect at 50.6. Their website is www.rcn.com. They even have web2mail so you can check your email from work and you get 4 email addresses. I think we pay around $215.00 for the year.

I have the GMPexpress cable internet service due to the fact that I can not get ADSL..too far from switching office...FYI....cable modem =shared bandwidth with all subscribers that are using the system's bandwidth capacity, more users = slower connection, ADSL = dedicated bandwidth... your piece of the pie but after suffering for years with a 14.4, 56k dialup connection getting a cable modem was like going to warp drive. If you are in the GMPexpress franchise area you can expect to get 512kbps downstream and 256 kbps upstream @ 39.95 per month plus the cost of basic and expanded cable TV service for a total of 81.95 per month for both services. Hopefully you live in area serviced by Comcast as the downstream and upstream bandwidth allocated is substantially more generous. I am not certain of their pricing or package offerings. My reccomendation would be definately be get a broadband connection to the world. IMHO.....

I'm posting this in reply to a couple different postings.

Cable is better than satellite internet. It's more reliable. It's also faster. While Hughes and other satellite servicers will tell you satellite is faster that's true only in theory. Because there is a delay in the signal going to & from the dish, cable is actually faster than satellite. Satellite is not much slower than cable.

They cost the same at about $60 a month although if you subscribe to cable TV the cost for cable internet is around $45. There is a posting here that states satellite costs $99 a month. Here's the deal on that: it costs $99 a month for the first year of satellite: 60 goes toward internet access and $40 goes toward paying for the hardware (the dish & receivers). After the first year, the hardware is paid off and you only pay $60 a month.

If you want to get satellite or cable, I personally recommend getting cable. If cable is not available in your area, satellite is a very good alternative. If you don't want to spend $99 a month on satellite, get the hardware secondhand. I've seen the hardware available on E-bay. Also, I have satellite internet hardware which I'm willing to sell cheap. As you might have guessed, cable just became available in our area and I'm looking to switch :)

OK... most major points covered well.... One MAJOR issue with Sat. technology is that you cannot use it for a number of things because of its technological drawbacks. For one, you cannot use Sat. for playing games online, video confrencing, or other situations where you would need a "live" connection".

Cable... not that I would reccomend this, but if you live close to your neighbors (i.e. apartment or townhouse) you could "share" a connection. A lot of people do this in northern VA in Condo complexes by settign up a wireless network and sharing the cost.

Final option... your connection speed is determined by a couple of things... ISP provider, computer, phone line quality, etc. I use to connect at 29.8 KBPS on a HP computer, when I upgraded to a new computer I magically sped up to 48.8 KBPS (same phoen outlet, same provider, same phone #). Now I use Earthlink dial up with an accelorator that speed me up 3 to 4 times faster for "surfing" the net and I am quite happy when compared to teh DSL line I use to have before I moved down here. Keep in mind that the accelorator really isnt speeding up your actual speed, just compressing, caching, and some other stuff. However, it satisfies my needs.

Best of luck.

Originally posted by zoomzoom

Cable... not that I would reccomend this, but if you live close to your neighbors (i.e. apartment or townhouse) you could "share" a connection. A lot of people do this in northern VA in Condo complexes by settign up a wireless network and sharing the cost.


Outstanding idea you got there. Wonder how illegal it is though....I'll have to suggest this to my parents since they're el cheapos like myself.

I am not a lawyer, but.... having shared bandwidth is perfectly legal as long as someone is paying for it. Setting up a local area network is prefectly legal and it is your right whether it be in your home or in your neighberhood. With technology what it is now a days you can set it up pretty securely.

What is illegal is utilzing a local area network without permission and using their bandwidth.

Originally posted by zoomzoom
I am not a lawyer, but.... having shared bandwidth is perfectly legal as long as someone is paying for it.

But can both parties access at the same time?

Mariane, since I have satellite, I don't want to pay additional for cable. Satellite was so expensive. What are you looking for with your satellite equipment?
I was pretty sure I wanted Verizon but Verizon is not available in my area. Actually, I have not been able to find any DSL in my area (Leonardtown). Amazing!

Originally posted by dalopitz
I was pretty sure I wanted Verizon but Verizon is not available in my area. Actually, I have not been able to find any DSL in my area (Leonardtown). Amazing!

I'm in the same predicament. I'm in the Leonardtown area, but can't get anything but cable or satellite. I'm out of range for DSL, at least for now. I love my DirecTV and am locked into their service for another year because I got them to set up my system for free when I moved. I'm not sure about forking out a bunch of money for their DirectWay service.

Right now, I'm stuck with s-l-o-w dial-up from home. :cussing:

Here's a breakdown of costs that I've recently gathered:

Satellite:
equipment & installation: $480-700 for internet (they charge you $480 in twelve monthly payments but also charge you a little over $200 if you need the dish installed on a pole rather than your house). TV installation is usually free with a promotion.

internet service: $60/month. no discount if you have satellite tv service.

TV service: depends on your package. we pay about $40/month


Cable:
equipment & installation: $30 for internet, $35 for TV, $20 for additional TVs

internet service: $58/month. Reduced to $46/month if you have cable tv service.

TV service: $15/month for basic cable. I don't know what their packages cost but figure it's about the same as satellite.


So you see, cable and satellite cost abouth the same amount each month and there's no satellite internet discount if you have satellite TV. The big $ difference is the cost of installing satellite internet. I have a posting on the somd.com classified for my satellite internet. I think I asked about $200 Or Best Offer. But I do have to warn you that you need an FCC licensed person to install the equipment (I'm guessing that would probably cost another $100 but don't really know). So it's not that cheap an alternative. I only recommend it if you're in an area without cable or DSL.

And Zoomzoom is right - there are things you can't do with satellite internet. If you need the Internet for secure transactions you'll have a problem with satellite. You can't establish a VPN or SSL with satellite internet.

There are other options such as ISDN but I have not looked into those in nearly as much detail as satellite and cable. I'm pretty sure ISDN is over $100/month.

I have been thinking about wireless but have yet to be able to get these guys to come do the free survey, I live right on the fringe of their coverage area. They might be an alternative to cable or dish while we await DSL. http://www.somdwireless.com/

You can have as many users on a Local Area Network (LAN)as you desire. However, you are subject to the law of diminishing returns. If you have 5 users all downlaoding at the same time your speed is cut equally by those 5 users. So a 250 KBPS speed gets reduced by dividing it by 5. However, odds are that all users will not be online at the same time or downloading at the same time. Most people just surf pages which are quick and use little bandwidth. You can get as fancy as you want with a local area network including using repeaters to cover more area and different locations. Get a good book on LAN's and enjoy.

Originally posted by zoomzoom
You can have as many users on a Local Area Network (LAN)as you desire. However, you are subject to the law of diminishing returns. If you have 5 users all downlaoding at the same time your speed is cut equally by those 5 users. So a 250 KBPS speed gets reduced by dividing it by 5. However, odds are that all users will not be online at the same time or downloading at the same time. Most people just surf pages which are quick and use little bandwidth. You can get as fancy as you want with a local area network including using repeaters to cover more area and different locations. Get a good book on LAN's and enjoy.

Good info zoomzoom :yay: I'll have to set aside a couple hours to read up in books-a-million.

It's good to know the high speed modem access really is high speed.

There was one major reason I was willing to spend too much $ for broadband in addition to speed: I wanted to use my phone.

At first I had dial up modem. It was slow and I was unable to use the phone while on the net. Not only was that inconvienient, it was unacceptable when I wanted to work from home.

So then we got a second phone line. The cost of the second line was about $40/month. Add to that the cost of an ISP and you're looking at (surprise) $60/month.

In an effort to save $, I got rid of the second phone line and regretted having done so. I tried using my cell phone to make outgoing calls in combination with software that let you know you had an incoming call while on the internet. But that didn't work as well as I had hoped.

So now I've pretty much resolved it will cost $60/month for internet access and am focusing on the quality of the connection.

What about hooking your cell phone up to your computer? Is there a way to do that? If so, people with unlimited nights and weekend plans could use it all the time right?

I have the same problem as some of you...
Satellite TV, no home phone line (my choice, but DSL not available anyway), and wireless signal blocked.