I hate AT&T/sbcglobal
 

Really, I do. Been without ISP at home for a week now. At first connection was spotty, now, nothing. After several calls, and several promises of a ticket humber, each time, no ticket and no tech coming to our house, we have someone coming over tomorrow.

Once we're fixed (assuming we are) I am switching over to comcast.

Unfortunately, I suspect Comcast will not be much better.

We have Speakeasy DSL -- they resell Covad, who buys wholesale transport from the local ILEC -- and although it's definitely more expensive than AT&T or Comcast, the level of service is exceptional. Real support people who know their stuff (and speak English) and don't read from a script.

I recommend DSL Extreme (which was recommended to me by Coaster Matt). Great pricing and great service. I had the modem two days after I ordered (and only because it was in the evening when I ordered) and it took me about 10 minutes to hook up. When I have needed to call for CS, it has been excellent every time/

It probably won't help but I have AT&T dry loop DSL. It's a whole other service dept then regular DSL and it's only $23.99 a month.

For every service provider out there you will find 100 stories about how horrible and evil they are and 100 stories about how wonderful and spectacular they are.

Go with whatever works for you.

Well - I hate AT&T AND Comcast so there. We have a cable modem through Time Warner and haven't had any issue that I've had to call and get help with yet (knock on wood - quick!)

Hey - I need to pick an internet provider for Torrance and I don't know whether to go cable or DSL. The place is wired with TimeWarner cable stuff, but I've heard not so good things about their internet service. I wasn't necessarily planning to get a land line phone - would I need that for DSL? I am clueless.

You don't need a landline phone for DSL anymore. AT&T is required to sell "bare" dry-loop DSL as part of the conditions they agreed to when they bought BellSouth. BTD has it. Other companies also sell dry-loop DSL (I have it through Speakeasy, see above).

Speakeasy doesn't seem to think it's available at my new digs, alas. DSL Extreme is. I'll check AT&T as well.

This is the website I used when I set up my Dry Loop DSL.

Modem I think was $50 + shipping. Easy set up, I did the "self install" too. Follow their included directions including installing the software. Trust me ;)

AT&T DSL is also not available in my area. My cheese is sad.

Stay away from Comcmast. They're going to implement a cap of 250gb per month. If you go over, they will probably suspend your account for a year. Time Warner is experimenting with caps in Texas, but theirs is much lower, only 5gb, and they will charge an extra $1 per gb downloaded. It's only in Texas right now, but don't be surprised if they expand it nationwide.

AT&T has also mentioned the possibility of caps, so DSL might not be a safe alternative for long.

Now for my latest crazy idea, for you techies...

Would it be possible to create a city-wide intranet using a series of linked 802.11x routers? Apple says you can extend the reach of their Airport devices by adding additional units. What if we take that to the extreme and blanket all of L.A. and Orange County with these things? Could we create our own free alternative to the Internet?

Are there any other alternatives for creating a neighborhood network?

Well, thanks to a really bitchy roomate, our service is back up. However, I am not convinced it will stay. Thanks to all for the suggestions. I need to do a lot of homework. Fortunately, LoT never steers me wrong!

While I may or may not be in favor of their overall model, the odds of the average home user surpassing 250gb of bandwidth usage in a month are slim to none. If you disagree with the concept and don't want to support Comcast, then don't give them your money, but in terms of evaluating whether the service would fit your needs, consider that in June, the LoT saw a big spike in monthly traffic resulting in the highest bandwidth use in the history of the board: 10.5gb. Yes, it's just a web site with lots of text and small images, but that's 10.5gb between the 40-50 people who check here daily, loading and reloading pages thousands and thousands of times. 10.5gb.

250gb is a LOT of bandwidth. Unless you're downloading movies and music regularly, it's unlikely to affect you.

You might successfully create a city-wide intranet, but you would still need to rely on a service provider for access to an internet backbone.

Idle curiosity, but do you know what caused the spike?

Not a clue. I just looked at the stats for the first time in probably a year and noticed.

I have no backbone, yet I function just fine...;)

Aaah "downloading movies regularly", a term which here means "constantly getting pirated porn off of the newsgroups". :D

Snowflake is TOTALLY gonna go over her allotment. Of ummmm Valentino porn. Mmmmhmmm. ;)

Newsgroups? How very 1999 of you.

Today, it's all about empornium.us.

Er... or so I've heard.

If there were such a thing, I'd be very wealthy from ebay sales! Bwahahahahaha