Do you have high speed internet or dial up?

I am just wondering how many people on DU have the capability to watch video or still have to stick with reading text.

Because it costs more. But, on the plus side, you get your PHONE back (and if you have two lines, you can dump one, saving money that way), you spend WAY less time hunched over a screen waiting for pages to load, and it is fun as hell to see those videos.

Anyone who doesn't have it, I recommend that they shop around, find a deal where you get a good bargain for six months to a year, and check it out. You will not go back.

Ask yourself--are YOU worth twenty bucks a month? Because on average, that's about how much more it costs, and in some cases less. The time you save and the enjoyment you gain is worth that much, really.

I'm a bit uneasy that many on DU seem unappreciative of the range of economic circumstances people on DU find themselves facing.

It's not like anyone is looking down on those who have dial up. Many people who have a lot of money still have dial up as well. If anyone on DU understands the difficulties of money and getting by, it's DUers.

I am surprised so many on DU have high speed. Almost everyone I know and everyone in my family still has dial up.

all vegetarian and prepared by and for myself. The money that didn't go to convenience food went to my DSL, which I got at a bargain basement rate when it first became available in my area.

That connection provided my entertainment, library, newspapers, magazines, and contact with friends and family. It wasn't much more than premium dialup.

I considered it a bargain.

BUT...if you go to three first run movies a month, give those up and you can afford it; or if you eat way too much cow every week, or you spend your dough on prepackaged sugary shit, stop buying excessive amounts of red meat and junk food and switch to protein rich and better for you beans and rice a few days a week and use that dough to pay for high speed.

People here ARE appreciative of the range of economic circumstances. No one but you is suggesting otherwise, no one is insisting that people get broadband if they cannot afford it. But it isn't as pricy as some people think, if you bundle it especially. If the person has a separate phone line to support the dial-up account, just getting rid of that spare line damn near equalizes the costs.

and yes, I have "high speed"

because it came with the new place when my fiancee and lover of five years kicked me out with very little warning.

Woo.

it is not offered where I live & satellite is not only too expensive, but tree cover would make it useless as well.:-(

No DSL where you live, either?

You'd have to pay a bit extra for a problematic installation, but that's a one time expense. Satellite net access all alone averages, what, fifty bucks a month, worst case, and there are deals where you can get it for less as part of a bundle.

I dunno...I resisted, for a long while. Then, when I finally took the leap, it was life-changing! I recommend it to everyone I meet who still has to deal with the squawking dialup.

$100 a month for the service. Too rich for my blood.

Cheaper services:

http://www.wildblue.com/getWildblue/doServiceAvailabilitySearchAction.do
http://www.starband.com/

Satellite primer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Internet_access

Were you getting quotes from these guys? They seem to be the costliest: http://go.gethughesnet.com/HUGHES/Rooms/DisplayPages/LayoutInitial?Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity%5BOID%5B71A9F5B422ABCE4886D9492F66B5B589%5D%5D

We are on a road that is underdeveloped, but things are changing. Cable, DSL, are all around us, so it is inevitable that we will get something better before too long.
Not willing to pay that much for satellite on teacher salary.....in TN (you can do the math!):popcorn:

Heck, as a teacher, you need those internets to help do your lesson plans!!!!!!!!

because I DO have high speed access at my school! Do you really think this administration would allow a deduction for something like internet access when they have done away with the $250/yr deduction that Clinton put in place for teachers, because we pay so much out of our own pocket for classroom materials that are not purchased by our systems, or for underprivileged kids, so they can do things & be accepted by their peers. We teachers are "persona non-grata"! I plan on insisting that new DEM congress acknowledge our societal contribution and begin to assist us in helping America's youth!:rant:

I was the first to reply.....

Damn my dial-up sucks........

Excellent humor gene ya got there!!! :thumbsup:

It ignores DSL/ISDN and the various connection speeds available on broadband. I, for example, subscribe to a 112kbps broadband service, which is approximately 2-3 times faster than dial-up but nowhere near as fast ass it would take to casually view the various video clips that folks seem to think ("OMG!" "Must watch!") are so seminal. (90% of the time, it's just not worth the wait.)

I couldn't even imagine being back in the dial-up stone age.

Probably because of my location. It isn't superduper fast, but I've got to have high speed for my work downloads and research.

$40 per month, but if I lived 3 miles up the road, I would have DSL for $30. That's what living in the boonies gets you. :7

A Roadrunner cable modem,I just did a speed test below,I also have SBC Yahoo DLS till march,plus have dialup.
Download = 4.855 Mbps
Upload = 373.16 kbps

the only high speed available is satellite which is very, very costly!

I agree that when you are talking six hundred bucks a year, it's something you want to think about. Of course, if you are paying twenty or more for dial up, it's the increase in cost that is the thing to consider, not the total price. And if you can get rid of a full time phone, that lowers the total as well.

If you spend a load of time on the computer, and you enjoy it, and you have several computer users in your family, and THEY enjoy it, it's sometimes not a bad idea to bite the bullet and go for the good connection and the wireless network, if you can swing it. A bunch of my relatives went all out a few years back at Xmas--they eschewed all other presents pretty much and all tossed a few bucks in the pot to get a wireless network and an extra (used) computer or two (smart geek kid with Ebay account kept the costs in line) so they can enjoy their online experiences. They all pitch in to pay the bill, so it isn't as though one person is getting socked with the expenses.

$599 for the dish and $59 a month for the service is out of the question. I'm the only computer user in the family. (I just checked and that is what Direct charges.)

That would save you the cost of even the dial-up account!!!

do you have any idea how far I would have to drive to get to the library? Dude, I'm in the COUNTRY...the BOONIES.

When I want to watch a video or download an email from a friend who's loaded their email with too much stuff, pictures, links etc. I head into town to the local community college and take it in there, usually once every 10 days or so. It sucks but not so badly that it's worth the $1000 for installation and monthly fees/year.

I am sure rural folks like us can't hold out for long though. Many websites are becoming prohibitively problematic to download via dial-up. It's only a matter of time before the internets are de facto classist (if they aren't already!) Spend the bucks or get locked out.

:hi: from an Illinois farmer!

by Comcast and I'm hoping they will start to expand their service. I think they have cable as close as 1/2 mile from my house. Here's hoping. I've been asking Verizon to expand their DSL service but they are too cheap to upgrade the lines.

:hi: from a Virginia country girl.

We move our phone service to VOIP when we picked up High Speed Cable Internet service and save over $20 per month.

Dumped SBC, saved $45+/month. Dropped dial-up, $15/month. $60/month savings.

High speed cable internet, $43/month. VOIP, $13/month (sunrocket). Save $4/month, and get high speed, unlimited long distance, and 100/minutes a month to Mexico.

and I honestly cannot tell much of a difference - and we didn't lose our phone line with dial up - they somehow got around that and we can make a call while on line.

surfing when you answer the phone. If you can talk on the phone AND surf, you're not on dial up, unless you have two lines...

256 kps. I'm a housecat these days, rarely getting out so I allow myself luxuries like broadband, Rhapsody and Napster. I make myself comfortable here.

I have DSL for the main desktop and dial-up for my ancient, little laptop. I dig the back-up factor of having two different types of connections and two different Internet Service Providers.

Works pretty much anywhere

They call it broadband but it's not quite as fast as a cable modem

More like DSL

But a lot faster than dial-up

I get it for $50/mo unlimited and the card was $175
But my ex works for verizon wireless and she let's me use her discount
about a third off

I love it

Way to go if you live on a boat

I guess you were asking about video download capability. My answer is sometimes. I "borrow" a little 802.11g from the town public library from about 100 meters away, which is about the limit for their little router.
Right now I running this through a homemade directional cantenna.

The good news is it is on 24/7 and it's free but if you know anything about wifi it can be fickle as hell, subject to all kids of variables.

If it were not for this I would have zero connectivity here, we have no landline phone and no cable.

to see if any offers are available in my area - no luck so far.

I'm retired now and literally have more time than I have money - and now with all this time is when I need broadband...

Qwest has a good deal only $27 a month for life for 1.5 mb. It is slow compared to cable but it is fast enough for me.

I love the sound it makes when it's connecting. ;-) :D

And don't tell me I could get satellite, I refuse to pay that kind of money. I certainly don't want it for TV! I do just fine with my roof antenna and local stations for news and weather.

Rumors are that DSL might be available in this area someday. I'll wait.

sw

With 56K and a 400Mghz slowpoke computer.

Today it's a bit faster:

2800 Kbps upstream, 30Mbps downstream and a 3 gig dual-core.

I click and it's there.

I've had cable broadband - Roadrunner. I had continuing issues with the mistakes in over-billing by TimeWarner's contractor, BrightHouse. They couldn't resolve so I dropped the service. It's not worth $49/month although downloading videos were fairly quick.

I've used Verizon wireless hi-speed w/laptop from work. It's okay but I wouldn't pay the money for it myself.

I'm back to dail-up, which is costing me about $13.00/month. My local phone line is $22/month. I don't mind dial-up and I don't care for downloading videos when I can just wait a few months and order or rent them elsewhere.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you have a power outage, your phone line supplies its own voltage (+45 volts DC) and it won't die when all the electricity is gone in your house. But cable modems need to run off house current so unless you have your own generator or a reliable UPS/battery/inverter set-up, you're dead in the water until power is restored. That includes your VOIP connection.

example of anti community policies of the republicans. Those of us who live in rural America can thank FDR for the REA program. If it wasn't for that federal program telephones and electricity would be unexistant in the country. If you leave it to market forces not company is going to put the money out to serve customers who will never repay the investment in infrastructure. You can really see this with cellular service which is unregulated - it is strong in the cities and along major roadways-but get off the beaten path onto Farm to Market or county roads and it is spotty as hell.

Now in Great Britain they have huge coverage for broadband which is so popular that TV and Radio is taking a beating.

Hell, cable TV has never been available where I grew up, where my parents live. Still isn't. No broadband, no DSL, no cell phone reception to speak of. (My mom calls me when she drives somewhere). They find it very annoying.

God bless the UK. Though, to be fair, that's a geographically TINY country compared to the US - full coverage is a lot easier.

There is no reason that we couldn't have 95% coverage here but it would take federal and state involvment and that's SOCIALISM:sarcasm:

I happen to live very close to the first repeater they have installed. Last week, I upgraded my computer and had a LAN card inserted. For a few days I got a weak signal, then found out that since the house I live in has metal studs, reception can be spotty. Re-arranged stuff and put my little antenna on a windowsill and...... I now can connect with very good reception.!

Kudos to my community for looking toward the future and giving us WiFi!

it is still city mouse v. country mouse, with country mouse being excluded from progress. However, I would rather be country mouse, as I grew up as city mouse & it ain't worth the grief. Country mice still produce for city mice, but are unappreciated. One would think that at DEMOCRATIC underground, this situation would get a little respect....because the country mice sure haven't gotten respect from the Repugs! Country mice are just not economically feasible when it comes to DSL or cable! :sarcasm:

256k for $19.95
1.5mb for $24.95 From Windstream.

Not sure if these are introductory prices. If they are I will stick with dialup.

I can watch some videos. Crooks and liars usually works for me. Occasionally shorter videos on You Tube work, but more often not. Takes about 90 minutes to load a ten minute video.

My only other option seems to be satelite at something on the order of $80/month. I'll keep my $14 dial-up and use the cell phone.

wish I could afford high speed.

No DSL here. My internet service is packaged with my TV cable bill so I get both for a total of $78.05 a month.

But we split it between two houses and 9 people. I pay six bucks per month. We just have to be careful with Bittorrent.

It's only 3mb/s for $24.95/mo.

I'd cry if I ever had to go back to dial-up.

It's the third cable company in what seems in as many years for the Dallas area.