I hate Comcast

[Chris]

Been offline for 48 hours because stupid cable was out for my entire area. Idiot monopolistic company.

[Todd W]

Haha funny you mention that.

I just got my 3rd over-due notice in a row yet each time in the pas that I've paid over the phone I've had them set me up for 'auto-pay' like it was before I moved. Still, 3 months later and no auto-pay :flare:

[Chris]

and again today.. all day without it.

[Starting Big]

March 13 is the day I get to tell Comcast they can go to hell, and cancel my service. They'll try realing me in with a promotion, but I won't budge, because my fiberoptic will already be in use. Is there such a thing as binary orgasm?

[Chris]

I wish I could get fiber.

[Westech]

Having the Internet out is the worst feeling in the world, especially when you can't work because of it.

We're building a new house outside of the city. There's no cable or DSL available there. I have to be able to work from home, so it looks like we're going to have to run a T1 to the house. It's going to suck paying that much for an internet connection, but on the bright side I'll have an SLA and it should be much more reliable. I think that will almost make it worth it.

[Kyle]

What about satellite Internet? I haven't researched this in years, so I have no idea what the costs are like lately, or the upload speeds.

[Chris]

My parents have satellite. I think they get 256k but can upgrand to 512, cost is about $50 a month.

But there is a latency issue. Because the signal has to travel so far your downloads start 2 or 3 seconds after clicking.

The best bet for rural highspeed is wimax/wifi if you can get it. In some areas it is available.

[MaxS]

I wish I could get fiber.
FIOS :yawnb:

[Chris]

Ya, not available in my area. It'll probably be years before either Verizon or AT&T roll out fiber here.

I'd love it for TV too.

[Westech]

What about satellite Internet? I haven't researched this in years, so I have no idea what the costs are like lately, or the upload speeds.

Satellite won't work for me because of the high latency. Part of what I need to do involves testing multiplayer online games, which are unusable over satellite connections. Otherwise I'd most likely go with Satellite. We'll need it for TV anyway.

There's a Wimax company near us, but we're just outside of their advertised range. They say they "may" extend their range to cover our area "soon." :rolleyes:

For now it seems like a T1 is the only option to keep me online and getting things done. What really sucks is that most companies want a 1-year (or multiyear) contract. It's very possible that within one year someone could extend DSL or Wimax out to us and we wouldn't need the T1 anymore.

[Kyle]

I'm assuming you won't have strong enough signal, but I have seen some weird things when out of town...

You should bring some friends with different cellphone services to your house. I have Verizon, and when high-speed evdo service is available, an Ev icon shows up on my phone. I then get 1mbps+ download speeds. Upload isn't bad either, around 15kb.

Kyle

[Starting Big]

This may very well be a stupid question since I don't know much about this stuff, but if you ran a T1 line, isn't there a way you can divide it up with some neighbors and share the cost?

[Chris]

At the very least you could share it with neighbors via wifi, there are lots of instructions on the web for building higher power wifi antennas.

[Westech]

Yeah, that's definitely an option, although it might end up being more hassle than it's worth.

[Kyle]

Ya, having to be an 'admin' and collect payment to save a % of the monthly cost...