Internet Access

[RCLake]

A recent thread was discussing where all are members are from. A separate issue I'm interested in, is how all our members access this site.

We had a storm go thru here Tues. night and lightning knock out our statillite tower. We have wireless service, needing direct line to the tower. They got it going today but it took 35 min. to get my router talking with their radio. Only other option out in this rural area is dial up and we don't have a land-line. The service has been very reliable, but Mother Nature does happen.

I've been wondering how our members from around the world access the net? It has become something we rely on and when it's down it's missed.

[Les]

RC,

A few years ago I dropped cable - they just kept jacking up the price. I went with DSL and have been very happy. I think wireless is the future, but it kinda freaks me out with the US and China shooting down satellites.

Les...

[Inishta]

We have ADSL...........but slooowww. Have just stopped paying for unlimited download because speeds seldom allow large files. Things are better in the town but we still have the pony express in our village. Combine that with power cuts..................

[gjbingham]

Quest DSL. Works well 99% of the time. I could probably use dial up most of the time, though streaming vid is worthless at that speed.

[dusty]

I have cable. But they do think it is golden. Every year for the last three years I have called to cancel because of the price, and every time they have offered me a rate of $29.99/mo. for a year if I will stay. I have stayed. After that year, they go to $59.99....that's out!

dusty

[Xabia Jim]

We're wireless and with a DSL. Pretty reliable.

You get so used to having the internet, it's starting to be taken for granted!

How long could you go without it? I've said it used to be kids got yelled at for sitting in front of the TV, now I think it's the internet....but then they just take their phone with them

[vincent]

I'm a townie so i only have 2 choices at this point in time. It's either dial up or cable. The phone lines here are so antiquated that dial up is incredibly slow. I pay the long dollar for cable but its very fast and reliable.

[Ken524]

BellSouth (Now American Telephone & Telegraph ) ADSL. We get a few minor glitches here and there but overall it's very stable.

[james]

Hey, that's my old industry. Fond memories.

We've seen quite a few situations over the years, including:

1. A house in Italy where we could not get ADSL, tried satellite and did not like it (the latency was too big for web site development), and eventually used land based antennas to beam a neighbor's ADSL (about a mile away) to our house. It was pretty slow and unreliable, but it was a life saver. That has to be my favorite. We set up the antennas, drilled a hole through the wall, used a laser to point the dishes, etc.; it was pretty cool.

2. A house in Italy with no ADSL and no unlimited dial-up. You paid by the minute and we had some huge Internet bills. That and terrible service. Telecom Italia is world famous for being bad, but I wouldn't want the job of repairing all the old and breaking wires in the ground.

3. Our house in Healdsburg was off the ADSL grid (too far from the nearest CO), so we used land based wireless DSL. They beamed it out from the top of the local cinema, and we could just get reception on our roof through a pine tree. Every time the wind blew and the tree swayed, our DSL slowed down (no, really).

4. Here is PB, it's really boring. We get seriously fast 10+mbps cable Internet and it always works. Where the fun in that?

James