This is the off-topic forum 
I currently have an older computer with Windows ME and I’m also currently using a dial-up connection.
I’m going to pull the trigger soon to get a new “budget” computer and I’m checking into the various options for a faster connection.
I’m curious to what kind of connection (and pricing plan) most of you have.
I have a cell phone but don’t use it much and therefore have a budget plan. My home land line phone is through Century Link. I could use them and get a DSL connection. I haven’t called them but looking at their website it’s hard to get actual prices and details unless it’s for what they are pushing (bloated plans).
I realize I could also cancel my home phone and just use my cell phone but I would have to get a more expensive plan and therefore I will probably just keep the hard wired phone at home.
Cable locally would be through Comcast. It’s faster but more expensive. I don’t have cable TV anymore (didn’t use it enough) so no bundling possible there.
I’m just curious as to what companies and pricing structure most of you are using. For the non-U.S. members the companies you use won’t be familiar but how you connect is still just as relevant.
I am currently connecting via a tethered cellular phone. As long as I have good signal coverage, it's acceptable. I have an older phone with an older plan that had tethering and unlimited data included, but that is no longer available. I was using Alltel, but Verizon bought them out a couple of years ago, and now Verizon doesn't offer any unlimited data any longer.
If you have DSL available for a reasonable price, I would go with that, especially as your house is already wired for your home phone line.
Stay away from satellite internet; that's slow and has hidden data caps as well... I have several friends/family members who tried satellite, and it has never worked well.
I'll tell you just out of curiosity. I live in Rome, Italy.
I pay for the ADSL cable 33 euros (43 dollars) per month.
I pay for calls to Italy, Europe, USA and Canada: 18 €cents (less than a quarter of a dollar), irrespective of the duration of the call. The speed of ADSL is 8Mbps. (real 6/7Mbps).
Compare the cable service bandwidth to DSL - it is probably much faster. If you like watching TV shows, movies and pay per view broadcasts - for FREE - go with that ;)
My connection is via cable but unless you plan on doing los of streaming video or huge downloads DSL should be fine.
I use Shaw cable for internet. Roughly CAD 52/month + taxes. Taxes is another 12%. 125GB data & 10mbps download speed. I think I get $10 off when I bundled my internet and TV together. I go over my data all the time, never had an issue.
Other plans look like this:
$39/month (30BG data; 1mbps download speed)
$55/month (200BG data; 20mbps download speed)
$62/month (250GB data; 25mbps download speed)
Wow it’s quite bad there in Italy!
Here it's like:
100 mbit/s local/international - $15/month
phone (with free country-wide landline calls) - $10/month
TV - if you have internet (from same company) just $10/month, if you don't - $15/month.
This might not help at all.
My phone is prepaid, there is different deal/bonuses/offers you can get.
I chose the $2 per day option, for that I get unlimited calls, unlimited texts and unlimited internet data.
All I have to do is click the "WiFi hotspot" widget on my home screen and my laptops and tablets automatically connect and use my phones internet connection.
The speeds are ok, I download 1-2 movies a night, up to 3 gig or so while I'm asleep.
$2 a day works out to be $60 a month
Where as phone line rental is around $60 a month, the cheapest broadband is around $60 a month (for less data than I currently use) and I was spending around $30 on calls on my mobile phone anyway.
I read somewhere (I think on the Android forums) in the USA they have the same unlimited calls texts and data with some US carrier for $49 a month but I don't recall who it was.
What you could do... is get a cable modem plan (which is going to cost more because you don't have TV service with them so they charge extra for just having cable modem service by itself), but then you could buy an OOMA phone and drop your monthly phone land-line bill. You can even port your existing number.
To have DSL, you have to be within a certain distance from your local phone provider's DSLAM. Most people in the US has cable modems, not because the service is cheaper, faster, or better, but because they are far from the service provider.
So if you're currently paying $40 a month for a land line, drop that, get a $50 a month cable modem package, a VOIP phone, and start saving some money (after you recoup the cost of the VOIP phone of your choice)! I recommend OOMA. I've had it for about 5 years and don't miss paying a phone bill LoL.
I can see I have a little more research to do.
I currently pay $33 for the land line and $20 to another company for dial-up access.
Does everyone pay a monthly modem rental charge within their bill or is it possible for me to buy the correct modem and not have that ongoing charge? Have any of you done that?
4 way to cut landline but you need internet connection. http://www.moneytalksnews.com/2012/01/24/4-alternatives-to-expensive-landline-service/ Magicjack+ or Nettalk duo are cheap. $30 a year
T-mobile has unlimited plan for $30 or $50 http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans
A decent small laptop for $350 (10 hours battery) http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-57411205-58/get-an-hp-pavilion-dm1z-ultraportable-for-$349.99/
wow, thats the best deal in the world. haha.. 12.5 MB's (100 megabits [mbit] is around 12 MegaBYTES [MB] per second for $15.00/USD? You cant even get 100mbit here in the states residential.
That is crazy.
Here in oklahoma, I have 12mbit DSL for $40.00USD. Im lucky, because I actually pull the full 1.4 MB per second because I can see my carriers node from my porch. Others around here pay $60.00 for Cable internet and are lucky to pull 2MB per second while streaming/Downloading torrents, etc.. Then, you can get basic basic cable (around 50 channels for around $20.00) but normal channel amounts (around 200 channels) will cost you at least $45.00 per month. I dont even mess with landline phones anymore. 50% of people in US (and growing) have cellphones, and no landlines.
I to am connecting through a cell phone tethered to my computer. It only costs 10 dollars a month for unlimited anywhere. However it does take some work to set it up though. BTW you don't need to actually get a tethering plan with at&t you just configure a dial-up connection, so if you do decide to go that route pm me and I can help you with that.
Cable for me but you can't go wrong with either cable or dsl. Just get whatever is cheaper in your area. Either one is better and much faster than dial up. good luck.
cable usually is better but like blinders said depends on the area. my coworker recently got OOMA, likes it , you have an initial investment but good after that.
$60 17/4.5Mbps w/30Mbps burst, 250GB/mo
woohoo 100 posts
you can buy a modem from bestbuy or walmart so you don't have to pay the monthly rental fee. usually $7.
You are better off just asking the ISP you choose what your options are, instead of asking people on here. Some ISPs will let you use your own modem, some will not, it can also depend on residential or commercial packages. Some give the modem for free with the bundle you choose. Some rent the modem out at $2 a month but it includes replacement insurance. If you live in an area where your cable system is not grounded properly, you could pop a modem twice a year. If you pay $80 for a modem from the store, it's most likely not going to be covered for power surges through the RF port, the Etherent port, or through your electrical outlet. Keep these things in mind when you way out cost of ownership vs rental.
If you buy Magic Jack or OOMA, and just have a cable modem, and drop your land line telephone - you're going to be ahead of the game in a few months. You'll have to do the math based on the cable modem packages your local providers have though.
Cable is not "better", it usually has "faster" speed packages available though. DSL has a lower latency (may or may not be important to you) and you don't share your upstream with everyone else on a particular node (you might not care if you're an offpeak user).
It a bit cheaper in Spain than in Italy I see, I am paying about 30€ for a 20MB/1MB with free calls within Spain.
I decided to go with DSL, drop my land line phone, get Magic Jack or something like that (after testing the upload speed) and I bought rather than rented the modem so more upfront but no $6/month rental fee.
The speed choices started at 1.7 and went up to 40 but I chose the 7.1 option…only $5 more than 1.7.
I also went with a contract for 12 months rather than a lower price with no contract for 6 months. I’ll pay $35 (plus taxes) for the first year and then the normal current price for the options I picked is about $45/month.
I have a basic cell phone plan that ends up being about $16/month after all the fees and taxes if you don’t use it
It’s $.25/minute when you do use it but I rarely use it and don’t use it for just chatting. If Magic Jack (or something similar) doesn’t work out I’ll just get a different cell phone plan but with VOIP I won’t need to do that.
So all in all my total bill will be lower than it is now and I’ll have a much faster connection.
I have an Acer tower coming Friday that was only $350 (it’s now back up to $430 or something like that). No monitor or MS OFfice but I have a monitor and Works is now freeware more or less. It has a Core 3 chip and although memory is only 2GB adding 2GB more is cheap if I need it.
Thanks for the input everyone. I ended up putting the package together myself online without having to deal with customer service/sales at Century Link.
A friend just went through them and she had to spend all day (it seemed) on the phone dealing with them. The same applied when it came time for the installer technician. I chose to do all that myself so all I have to deal with is…myself