I hate AT&T/sbcglobal

[Prudence]

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

[Bootstrap Bill]

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?

[Snowflake]

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!

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Bootstrap Bill

Stay away from Comcmast. They're going to implement a cap of 250gb per month.

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.

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?

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.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

... 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...

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

[Ghoulish Delight]

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

[RStar]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

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.

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

[Chernabog]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

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

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

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

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Chernabog

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

Newsgroups? How very 1999 of you.

Today, it's all about empornium.us.

Er... or so I've heard.

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Chernabog

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

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