Switching From Landlines to Mobile Phones

 
User avatar
LsFarm
Member
Posts: 7383
Joined: Sun. Nov. 20, 2005 8:02 pm
Location: Michigan
Stoker Coal Boiler: Axeman Anderson 260
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Self-built 'Big Bertha' SS Boiler
Baseburners & Antiques: Keystone 11, Art Garland

Post by LsFarm » Tue. Apr. 08, 2008 1:23 am

As a suggestion for those depending on a hardline for DSL internet.. Sprint, Verizon and probably a few more Cell service companies offer wireless internet either with a separate reciever plugged into the USB port or the PCM slot.

Also,, at least for the treo 650-700-750, you can get software called PDAnet [google it, from 'juneFabrics] this ~$34 software allows the use of your Treo phone as your ISP provider.. it is fast, as fast as DSL. I use my phone for my ISP at hotels that don't provide free internet, I use it in the cockpit [on the ground] to look at the weather that is causing ground stops and delays, and I use it when a tree falling or an ice storm takes out the cable on my road.

With the right service from Sprint,, I have unlimited web access..

Greg L

.


 
ken
Member
Posts: 1259
Joined: Sat. Apr. 21, 2007 11:35 pm
Location: thompson , ohio

Post by ken » Sat. Apr. 12, 2008 12:41 pm

hi Greg. your post got me to doing some research. i'm now getting EVDO from the cell tower. I have emerged from the stone age. it's really fast compared to dialup at 42.6kp , I went to speakeasy site to check my speed and it's now about 190kp. I can watch videos. it's like I got a whole new PC. :) costing me about $20 more a month , I should be able to swing it. thanks for the tip , ken

 
User avatar
CoalHeat
Member
Posts: 8862
Joined: Sat. Feb. 10, 2007 9:48 pm
Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert

Post by CoalHeat » Sat. Apr. 12, 2008 2:06 pm

Hey Ken,
Glad you got out of the stone age. I don't know anyone who still has dial-up. My DSL is $35/month, I'd rather be paying less, but dial-up is just way too slow, especially with the current graphics and video. Even with DSL downloads seem to take too long. I'm going to look into cable.
I'll check with Verizon Wireless as well, but the cell signal here is weak. I know where the tower that serves this location is, my house is in a little bit of a valley.

Checked my DSL speed, 247 down/137 up.

 
ken
Member
Posts: 1259
Joined: Sat. Apr. 21, 2007 11:35 pm
Location: thompson , ohio

Post by ken » Sat. Apr. 12, 2008 3:43 pm

hi John , i'm in the middle of nowhere. I was looking into a dish , but reading alot on it people that have it really don't like it. when your so use to dialup , you get use to it.lol I have 20 days to see if I like it at no cost. so far so good. i'm getting EVDO , I guess the next step is rA. my card is trying to hook to that. so hopefully in the future things will get even better. :D

 
User avatar
CoalHeat
Member
Posts: 8862
Joined: Sat. Feb. 10, 2007 9:48 pm
Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert

Post by CoalHeat » Sat. Apr. 12, 2008 5:59 pm

ken wrote:hi John , i'm in the middle of nowhere. I was looking into a dish , but reading alot on it people that have it really don't like it. when your so use to dialup , you get use to it.lol I have 20 days to see if I like it at no cost. so far so good. i'm getting EVDO , I guess the next step is rA. my card is trying to hook to that. so hopefully in the future things will get even better. :D
What does EVDA & RA mean???
I'm in the daRK!

 
User avatar
spc
Member
Posts: 1801
Joined: Sat. Jan. 06, 2007 9:51 am
Location: Rhode Island

Post by spc » Sat. Apr. 12, 2008 7:39 pm

Wood'nCoal wrote:What does EVDA & RA mean???
I'm in the daRK!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution-Data_Optimized

 
User avatar
Richard S.
Mayor
Posts: 15123
Joined: Fri. Oct. 01, 2004 8:35 pm
Location: NEPA
Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert VA1200
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/Anthracite

Post by Richard S. » Tue. Apr. 15, 2008 5:11 am

Wood'nCoal wrote: Checked my DSL speed, 247 down/137 up.
You're getting ripped, you can just about get cable for that price. Cable is king. :D These speeds are consistent too, 24/7 almost. Rarely do they differ. Now if they offered the DSL for about $20 with speeds around 1500kbps download then it might be competetive...

Attachments

speedtest.jpg
.JPG | 21.9KB | speedtest.jpg


 
User avatar
CoalHeat
Member
Posts: 8862
Joined: Sat. Feb. 10, 2007 9:48 pm
Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert

Post by CoalHeat » Tue. Apr. 15, 2008 6:54 am

Richard S. wrote:
Wood'nCoal wrote: Checked my DSL speed, 247 down/137 up.
You're getting ripped, you can just about get cable for that price. Cable is king. :D These speeds are consistent too, 24/7 almost. Rarely do they differ. Now if they offered the DSL for about $20 with speeds around 1500kbps download then it might be competetive...
Thanks for the wake-up call. I will look into cable.

 
User avatar
Richard S.
Mayor
Posts: 15123
Joined: Fri. Oct. 01, 2004 8:35 pm
Location: NEPA
Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert VA1200
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/Anthracite

Post by Richard S. » Tue. Apr. 15, 2008 10:16 am

Sppeeds may vary where you're at but it will be much faster than what you are getting.

 
User avatar
CoalHeat
Member
Posts: 8862
Joined: Sat. Feb. 10, 2007 9:48 pm
Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert

Post by CoalHeat » Tue. Apr. 15, 2008 11:36 am

I have been getting mailers from the cable company about it.
We didn't have cable internet access here until about a year or so ago.
We have Service Electric Cable here, oddly enough. They had set up cable internet in PA first, there was a lot of upgrading to the system that needed to be done here before we could get internet service.

 
User avatar
Richard S.
Mayor
Posts: 15123
Joined: Fri. Oct. 01, 2004 8:35 pm
Location: NEPA
Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert VA1200
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/Anthracite

Post by Richard S. » Tue. Apr. 15, 2008 11:48 am

Pennsylvania' is actually the bithplace of modern cable, it was first set up in the late 40's or 50's so they could get clear reception and only served a few customers. If you're familiar with PA's geography you would know its all hills and valleys so reception even for local stations is not always that great, even in the Wyoming Valley some people have issues. I could be wrong but I believe Service Electric was the company that resulted. They simply rebroadcast the major stations from New York and anything else they could get in. Wilkes-Barre, about 8 miles from here was the first place HBO was available in the early 70's, the first premium channel.

 
User avatar
CoalHeat
Member
Posts: 8862
Joined: Sat. Feb. 10, 2007 9:48 pm
Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert

Post by CoalHeat » Tue. Apr. 15, 2008 11:59 am

That's correct, actually it was Mahanoy City.

**Broken Link(s) Removed**

 
User avatar
e.alleg
Member
Posts: 1285
Joined: Fri. Feb. 16, 2007 10:31 am
Location: western ny

Post by e.alleg » Thu. Apr. 17, 2008 11:58 pm

you want to talk about getting ripped? I have Hughes satellite. average speed on a good clear day: 200 up, 500 down. Sometimes during peak times it's 50 up/200 down. Download more than 400megs per day or more than ~150mb per hour and you get shut off for 24 hours. Fair Access Policy. If the weather is bad, no internet. Snow and Ice on the dish?, get out the ladder and clean it off or no internet. $69.99 a month plus the $600 upfront for the dish and modem. Unfortunately the only other option is dial-up which is unbearable or Verizon cell phone internet which is slower and the same price. The high speed cable is 2 miles away on the main road, I'd gladly sign up for a lifetime contract if they would string the wire. Hughes also has the worst customer service. They promise "1500kbps down, 600 up" and then in the same breath "not guaranteed". They oversell the bandwidth so there is a constant traffic jam, I'm waiting for the class action lawsuit but without it I would be using dialup or sitting in Dunkin Donuts all the time getting WIFI.

 
User avatar
Richard S.
Mayor
Posts: 15123
Joined: Fri. Oct. 01, 2004 8:35 pm
Location: NEPA
Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert VA1200
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/Anthracite

Post by Richard S. » Fri. Apr. 18, 2008 9:54 am

It's common practice for every company to oversell their bandwidth, same thing goes on with hosting companies. They do it under the assumption that your average user is not going to be using it, but you have P2P now and lot of other bandwidth hogs like youtube or any other site that serves video. The chickens are coming home to roost so to speak, there is major "crisis" in the U.K. because the BBC launched a player for watching its shows on the internet. In the past your major abusers of the network would be the P2P users so if they got kicked off there was little sympathy to them however now you're going to see a lot of legitimate uses with high bandwidth uses.

Simply put they need to change their pricing structure with tiered pricing and enforce bandwidth limits on them. Instead of being shut off completely like your company does I would instead suggest they give you very limited access bandwidth.

Coincidentally heraings ointhis started the other day: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/arti ... 00025.html

 
User avatar
CoalHeat
Member
Posts: 8862
Joined: Sat. Feb. 10, 2007 9:48 pm
Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert

Post by CoalHeat » Fri. Apr. 18, 2008 9:45 pm

e.alleg wrote:you want to talk about getting ripped? I have Hughes satellite. average speed on a good clear day: 200 up, 500 down. Sometimes during peak times it's 50 up/200 down. Download more than 400megs per day or more than ~150mb per hour and you get shut off for 24 hours. Fair Access Policy. If the weather is bad, no internet. Snow and Ice on the dish?, get out the ladder and clean it off or no internet. $69.99 a month plus the $600 upfront for the dish and modem. Unfortunately the only other option is dial-up which is unbearable or Verizon cell phone internet which is slower and the same price. The high speed cable is 2 miles away on the main road, I'd gladly sign up for a lifetime contract if they would string the wire. Hughes also has the worst customer service. They promise "1500kbps down, 600 up" and then in the same breath "not guaranteed". They oversell the bandwidth so there is a constant traffic jam, I'm waiting for the class action lawsuit but without it I would be using dialup or sitting in Dunkin Donuts all the time getting WIFI.
That sucks.
Friends down the road live way back from the utility poles. Service Electric Cable TV wanted them to pay for stringing the wire from the road to their house. They went with satellite, first the huge dish, then the 18" (was fun taking the huge dish down, didn't survive the drop to the ground very well).


Post Reply

Return to “Technology”