Like the title says- thinking of changing my ISP. Compuserve just ain't cutting it for me. Any suggestions?

Dave

 

IMO, just have DSL and have no AOL/Compuserve type software. To me, they are just a highly organized version of the Internet. Compare, you get mail with both, have downloads with both, can IM with both (use AOL Instant Messanger) and can pretty much do all the same things, while saving the extra $20 a month (or however much it is for Compuserve now). I've been without an AOL type system for A LONG time and I wouldn't go back.

 

Get a Cable Modem. It is faster then DSL and Dial up and I only pay $25.00 per month for it. I got it with my digital cable so they gave it to me for a discount. I don't think that I could live with dial up.

 

i 2nd the cable modem, so much quicker and always online... (damn that sounded like a compercial, but its true).

 

Cable, I've had cable at home for 3 or 4 years now and could never go back. Had DSL at work until the guy in charge got cable at home (on my advise), now I have cable at work too. I had compuserve for 10 years before this, AOL before that and the service that became compuserve (forget what the name was, but it involved a 300 baud external modem on my VIC-20)before that. You don't need the fancy proprietary GUI.

 

Haven't got to cable yet, DSL is satisfactory for now.

 

If you just want to spend $10 or less a month, there should be any number of local 'discount' providers. I just set myself up with DSL (Cable fluctuates, no guarantee of speed - as more people in your housing area get it, the speed drops - bleh) with a static IP (I run a web-site and having static is a Huge plus) through DirecTV for ~$40/month. (Oh, doesn't help that I wouldn't have AT&T broadband in my house again if THEY paid ME $100/month - worst customer service of any I've ever had)

It really does depend on what you want though. There are a lot of sites out there dedicated to just this.

 

with cable and dsl your speed depends on who in your area already has it. The line speed bottlenecks at the router box. Say you are the only one on your box that has dsl your speed will be great. If everyone has it and is online all the time your speed will decrease. I was the first in my area to get the dsl and I was running download speeds of 450kbs. Now that everyone has it I top out around 200 on a good day.

I was thinking of installing a chip and boaring / sleeving the cpu to 3.1 ghz to gain some more low end download speed. Also going to install Koni's on my processor fan. That should help on the quick web page changes and cut down on my rennlist posting time. Hoping to get somewhere in the low 10's. I might go with the amaf style twin turbo case coolers.

<img src="graemlins/yltype.gif" border="0" alt="[typing]" /> <img src="graemlins/roflmao.gif" border="0" alt="[hiha]" />

 

If you have the funds cable/dsl is the way to go. If you're on a budget get AOL free for the first month and call back a few days before the cycle telling them you want to cancel. They will give you 1-3 months free EVERYTIME. It's a 10 minute phonecall every month to "cancel" at which point they will ALWAYS extend your free trial. I have been doing this for over a year now. When I go back home from school I intend to get a cable modem but even then I'll keep the "free" AOL service because it is reliable and they always have great service. I can get internet access through my University (that's what I tell them why I want to cancel which is the truth) but AOL always has faster connection speeds through a standard modem.

 

im w/ the cable guys, i dont care if it goes up in price ill still pay for it (even though they charge me an extra 5 bucks cause i dont you their cable tv service ). im pretty sure comcast cable is in your area and right now they're having a special, 1st 3 months 19.99 a month. think of it this way if your getting any of the 20 to 25 dollar dial up isps and paying for a dedicated phone line around 15 bucks you almost are paying the price of cable.

 

heheheh btw i once dl'd at 670kbps....once...usually average in the 400's but i dl in the weee hours of the morning

 

[quote]Originally posted by Porsche5050:
<strong>They will give you 1-3 months free EVERYTIME. </strong><hr></blockquote>

That's true one of my friends had AOL free for a year and a half before he finally got rid of it and switched to cable because it was too slow. It was pretty funny everytime they were gonna cancel they got more free months.

 

[quote]Originally posted by sauerkraut:
<strong>im w/ the cable guys, i dont care if it goes up in price ill still pay for it (even though they charge me an extra 5 bucks cause i dont you their cable tv service ). im pretty sure comcast cable is in your area and right now they're having a special, 1st 3 months 19.99 a month. think of it this way if your getting any of the 20 to 25 dollar dial up isps and paying for a dedicated phone line around 15 bucks you almost are paying the price of cable.</strong><hr></blockquote>

That's how I justified it to my wife, I'd been paying $21 a month and she was on the phone alot, I told her the choice was either a second phone line for $18/month on top of the $21 OR cable for $40/month. For a buck more I got 1530 kbps at the time. Now the system is pretty well loaded up in my area (had the comcast guy tell me that this morning when he came for a service call, yes, Sunday morning) and I'm getting 770-860 kbps for $45/month. BTW that includes modem rental.

 

I used to do PR for Bell Canada, and it surprises me to hear that DSL service quality varies depending on the number of subscribers in the neighborhood. Something must have changed in the last few years if that's the case. The way I understand it, you're using your own connection, not sharing it like cable subscribers. Am I still right?

Anyhow, where I live you have to have cable TV service to use their internet service, and I'd never switch from satellite TV to cable. The quality is too low, and I don't like marketing like that.

The key is to look for what deals you can get through bundling of services.

For me right now, dial-up is fine. Just make sure your ISP is big enough that they won't go out of business and leave you stranded, and that you don't have to dial a few times to get a connection.

 

get a T1.....