Your Internet Connection
 

Another thread just got me curious about this - what internet connection are you using? The 56Ker's out there (of which I am a faithful member) seem to take great pride in their slowness, but I think its all for show. ;) Personally I'd get a cable modem if I had the dough.

~Tom Fairchild~, who believes that if he's going to be slow anyways, might as well take pride in it. ;)

P.S. The reason that I allowed multiple choices is to allow for different connections at home and work (school as well, for that matter).

I have a cable modem at home (I love my cable modem :)) but at work I have a T-1 connection. It actually was cheaper for me to get a cable modem than to keep my 33.6k modem (for AOL, and the extra phone line 'cause otherwise the phone would've been constantly busy :D). So, it wasn't that hard convincing my mother about. Hehe.

~Christina

It is cheaper for us to use dial-up cuz' we have to have like 3-4 phone lines for my mom's work. She works from home, and if you can, add 1 for the t1 from my school, i didn't vote for that too, but i too am a proud 56k user!

Yeah, I think all of us 56K users would gladly turn in our modems for a cable modem and router, but you gotta do with what you have. I think its kinda funny that we're all so proud....woohoo! So yes, i have a 56k here at home, but our school leeches from the T3 at a nearby university. When I download there, I only get ~30k, which is better than the 2.5-3k (yes!!) i get here at home, but its not at all t3 performance. We have a second line here at my house, and Compuserve patched itself for Windows XP, and now it doesn't boot me off for inactivity, so I'm always on. I think my record was 3 days straight on AIM - then when i tried Alt-Tab'ing between Unreal Tournament and Tribes 2 (with a lot of other progs running), my system said, "I hate you, I'm turning off." :rolleyes:

56k......
 

Here at my house i have 56k which i love greatly......but at school we have either T1's or T3's which can get super duper fast download speeds (>150k per sec. sometimes)....

:)

Well, I would say I have cable, but guess who my ISP is? Yep, you guessed it, those lovely folks from California, Excite@Home!! I think we've heard enough about @Home, so I'll stop there so I can stop tying up my phone line with my wonderful circa-1996 56k "x2" modem. I miss cable......

I use AT&T 56k......it is good and i pay only 7.95 a month...the problem: if you are idol for 10 minutes it boots u offline...also it has this annoying At&T banner that has cheezy ads pop up every 2 minutes...it gets anoying when i try to play Midtown Madness 2 or Half life...anyone know how to get rid of it?

I have a 56K at home and it looks like I'll never have anything faster. I really don't care, anyway. The only thing I ever d/l is MP3s and I could usually care less about how long it takes to d/l them. We have a T1 at school that's super slow, but they're putting in a new server (yes..you do need a new server when you suddenly add 100 plus computers to a network). I wish I could take advantage of the fast phone line, but they have it all so protected that you cant' upload or download anything but photos. Really sucks.
~Angela who's now going back to d/ling MP3s for people

There was (is?) a way to bypass the whole "NetZero" User Interface. It was really pretty funny. Usually, to log into the network, you had to open the NetZero prog on your computer, type in your user name and password, it encrypts it and sends it to the main server where it determines validity. Then, when it sees that you are a member, it tells the program that you're allowed in, and it in turn, loads up the ads and banners. Well, everything your computer sends and receives is kept in the "PPP log" all you have to do is enable it and it records the encrypted user name as well as password. After you have that information, you could just open a "My Connection" and type in the phone number you usually dial, and the encrypted username/password, and you were set. Completely bypassing the NetZero software: on with no time limit and no ads! I think they changed something and you can no longer do it. <what?, no its not like im speaking from personal experience...no...this is just...uhhhh...what i read, yes that's it> ;)

What are these 'modems' people speak of??? hehe, my consolations to those that use them.

I currently split a roadrunner (cable) connection with 9 others with a router, and it's pretty fast. Last year I had a T1 or T3 in my dorm (very fast either way). At home in MA my little town of 10000 people finally got cable within the last year, so my family has that. I recently read an article (i think in USA today) about how there are certain companies who think wiring the entire country for high-speed internet should be a national priority, and that the government should be involved with it. There are senators who are backing these proposals as well. It was pretty interesting, I wish I remembered more of it. It is actually quite possible that doing so would do a lot for the economy and the USA's technological progress.

Patrick

on the survey, I see someone has selected "Other"....would the "other" = 33.6 or 28.8? If not, what else is there?

9600, 2400, and 1200 baud ;) All are from the old days of the modem, back around 92-94.

Mike

I'm the one that selected other. There are things quite a bit faster then T1 and T3 ;)

I also selected 56k, Cable, and DSL. It all depends on what computer I'm using.

Mike, are you too young to remember modems running at 120, and then the blazing speed increase to 240 and 300? :p

Well, I'm on dsl here... not as impressive speeds as cable but I always get the same speed, no matter what time of day. So I can't complain :-)

- Dave

I know about 9600...i originally used it in 1991 or so when i was on the prodigy network..im just suprised that anyone still uses anything slower than 56k...

wooohoooo!!!! @HOME cable modems RULE!!!!!!!! i can never go back to that 56k junk

I have a DSL modem but i also have a bootleg wireless link to my schools T1. I created a wireless link with a router and some cisco antenas. I use VPN to encrypt it. Dont tell the school. It is super fast.

Hey David......
 

I heard on the news that Comcast and Insight have like 3 months to make their own servers or internet service or something.......and if they cant they will be hurting like excite@home.....

Re: Hey David......
 

yeah, thats what they have been telling us for a while. hopefully they will get it done in time. the alternative they were offering was NetZero. Febuary 28 is the official LAST day of Excite@HOME


fingers still crossed

Who checked the other box on the survey?! and what do u have?

Concerning the "other" option...

Other could also mean satelite
One of my friends have that and like it, as for me I have a 56k @ both my mom and dad's houses, a slow T1 @ work (sharing bandwidth with multiple company locations sucks) and a very nice T1 @ college!!!

I am looking into making a network at home for two computers with a cable modem, does anyone know how I go about doing this??? What hardware do I need on the computers and also what other hardware do I need?
Both the computers already have a network card.

ah i see now...ok...i was worried that someone still uses 28.8 or something slower

I am proud owner of the almighty "56K Modem That Actually Gets 56K"! OK, not exactly 56K, but still up there.

New DSL users here, we just transferedfrom 56k a few weeks ago, you got to love broadband connections, also we are running a wireless D-link router in my house now so that all 3 of our computers have the DSL works pretty well 95% of the time.

Brian Savitt

If both computer already have NIC Cards, then all you really need is a switch and the cable modem that you probably are required to use from your provider. Other than that, the cable company should be able to answer any questions you might have about it.

~Tom Fairchild~

As Tom said, you could go out and get a switch, but then you'll have to pay your provider an extra $5 or so per month for multiple IP's. I'd recommend getting a router instead. It allows you to use only 1 IP from your ISP, and it provides more security. What the router does is isolate your LAN from the rest of the world. If any hacker-wannabees try to get at your computer, they'll have to go through the router first. Plus you can open up file sharing on your computers and not worry about other people seeing your files. The only drawback is it's more complex to set up, and you may have to do some fancy (but easy) work to set up some apps that make direct connections to other computers (like AIM). A decent site for beginners is www.practicallynetworked.com

Mike

as i answered in the poll i have a 56k connection but it is a very nice connection. We had to get a special line all the way out to where we live in my town just to get it for my dad's computer, so we have a direct connection. Lately we have been looking into Cable Connection for all of our other computers but that will take a little longer unfortunately:(

Actually, it's not quite that complicated.

Just spend 80 bucks, and buy a NetGear Cable/DSL router. It'll do everything automagicily. I've been using it for about 4 months now to share my cable modem with 3 other people.