What should I be paying for speed??

[JB]

I resigned from being a 'puter guru when I retired from teaching robotic and automatic control programming 14 years ago.

I have been doing the iboats thing for a bit over 10 years now, and the demands for upgrades never seem to end.

I am on my 2nd box, 4th processor. . .something like a gig, and a gig of RAM. Third monitor, 23", Soooo, I think I am in decent shape for hardware. Latest version of Firefox works okay, too.

Now the problem. I used dial-up for several years. Didn't need to look at video and only needed to do 10 or 15 posts a day. :redface: Now it is more like 200, including videos.:facepalm:

I live about three miles beyond the end of the world. No cable. Copper landline has a BW of about 20KHz. No fiber. So I signed up with a wireless broadband outfit to get .5MB/s download speed for about $40/mo.

.5Mb no longer hacks it. I called and grumbled about it. "Oh, that's no problem. We can upgrade you to 1Mb/s for another $10/mo or 1.5Mb/s for another $20." I accepted an offer of a 1 week trial.

Even 1.5Mb/s is not blinding speed. It will stream most videos, but not all. It does get around iboats a lot faster.

So my questions are: 1. Is 1.5Mb/s mainstream or is it slow? 2. Is $60/mo. a fair price for 1.5Mb/s??

3. Anybody using an AT&T aircard? What do you think about that?

 

[j_martin]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

Three miles ain't that far if you can see it. A couple of past era bridges (Cisco 350 for instance) 2 directional antenna's looking at each other, a 12 mbps mipx circuit in town, and yer good to go. 12 mbps down, about 1.5 up.

 

[hrdwrkingacguy]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

I wouldn't pay that...My cell phones 3G is faster on my droid...Satellite internet isn't bad if you aren't playing online games...

 

[PiratePast40]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

I'm sitting in my living room with the laptop using my wireless network with Comcast cable as the main feed. At the laptop, using Speakeasy and going through Chicago, I'm getting 12 down and 3.5 up. It's a bit better going through west coast servers but wanted to show what it was like going half way across the country. It's running $69 a month for internet alone (we use Direct TV for the TV). I can't imagine paying what you're talkin about for those speeds. Using your cell phone as a 3g or 4g hotspot might be worth investigating for better speed and better price.

 

[JB]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

Three miles ain't that far if you can see it. A couple of past era bridges (Cisco 350 for instance) 2 directional antenna's looking at each other, a 12 mbps mipx circuit in town, and yer good to go. 12 mbps down, about 1.5 up.

What does that mean in English??

 

[Cofe]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

If you have a ATT land line, check online if you can get ATT high speed internet through your telephone line. A bundled package with ATT isn't too bad for price. As far as air cards go, it depends on your area. Verizon has the best connection, speed and price here in the woods.

 

[j_martin]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

What does that mean in English??

Sorry about that. Means getting a friend in town to install a high speed connection, whatever is available, and routing it up the hill with hardware, I suggested cheep cisco ap350 access points with bridge software and a couple of dish directional antennas.

Makes it look like you're sitting in town next to the good connection.

Probably overkill for you.

1.5 mbps DSL at 3 miles on a voice line is doable and about a 30 - 50 dollar a month deal.

 

[JB]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

The 3 miles is from the end of the world. The nearest town is 27 miles.

My land line is Century Link, they tried to scam me with a bogus offer. They are out of consideration. My cell is AT&T; does that ring any bells?

 

[roscoe]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

We've got 2.5 mbps DSL for $54 plus a landline (which we have to have but don't use) total price is $76.


Looks like they have new packages available, 5 mbps with landline, for $82

15 mbps with landline for $99 -- but not available in my town.

 

[Laddies]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

Auh, Century Link thats our local company we can't even get DSL on this side of town and all we need is a updated circurt board at the switching box on the next corner, it was hit by lighting last month and we thought that would get a new board, good old Century Link came up with a used one from some place. They have a monopoly in this area and could care less about customer service. I gave up and went to Verizon wireless, it's a little pricey but at lest it works.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

12 MBPS ATT U-verse for $34. 1.5MBps was what I had which I consider to be a bare minimum if you want to do netflix although the quality is not great. At my vacation house in Lake Tahoe, I pay $20 for 1.5 MBPS for Cable internet.

Before U-Verse I had a WISP like you have because I had no other options and it was $40/month for 0.5MBPS. Believe it or not I thought I was in heaven when I got that.

 

[boaterinsd]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

The 3 miles is from the end of the world. The nearest town is 27 miles.

My land line is Century Link, they tried to scam me with a bogus offer. They are out of consideration. My cell is AT&T; does that ring any bells?

I am not happy to say i now have century link, it was Qwest. But anyway the cellphone is an option, but is the reception good at your place? I use DSL internet and have 7 mb down and .512 mb up for like $49 a month since the contract went out. And i dont have a landline homephone , i use a Magic jack thats plugged into my computer tower. Its $39 for the first year then $19 a year after, we use the cells all the time anyway but its a cordless phone option for the house.

 

[boaterinsd]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

Auh, Century Link thats our local company we can't even get DSL on this side of town and all we need is a updated circurt board at the switching box on the next corner, it was hit by lighting last month and we thought that would get a new board, good old Century Link came up with a used one from some place. They have a monopoly in this area and could care less about customer service. I gave up and went to Verizon wireless, it's a little pricey but at lest it works.

like i had mentioned before in the last post I am SO NOT looking forward to the century link.

 

[The_Kid]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

Our company has several of the AT&T air cards. They run us about $60 a month. It's been a while since I used one of them but I think I was getting around 2 meg down and around .8 meg up.

At the house I had satellite but it was an older Starband setup that ran $49 a month that got me between 200 to 400k down and 100 to 200k up. The newer satellite systems are faster, but the price is also higher.

Right now I have one of the Sprint USB cell cards that I love. I'm able to connect to their 4G network and I get 8 to 10 meg up and down. It runs $59 a month.

 

[stackz]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

have you actually done a connection speed test to see if you are truly getting the 1.5mb/sec?

sounds like you may either be throttled down or you may need to get a better router/modem/ethernet card. something sounds outdated. 802.11b is not as good as 802.11g which in turn is not as fast as 802.11n/n+

just because the service is offered at one speed doesnt mean your equipment can handle it.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

have you actually done a connection speed test to see if you are truly getting the 1.5mb/sec?

sounds like you may either be throttled down or you may need to get a better router/modem/ethernet card. something sounds outdated. 802.11b is not as good as 802.11g which in turn is not as fast as 802.11n/n+

just because the service is offered at one speed doesnt mean your equipment can handle it.

Be careful using those speed test sites and think that they are really reflecting what your true download speed is. Many ISPs open up bandwidth when those sites are used to give you a warm and fuzzy feeling. Best way of seeing what you can actually do is to FTP a know size file.

Also, Any of the wireless standards including B have way more bandwidth than what is required to supply 1.5MBps. 802.11 b can transmit at 11 MBps.

 

[JB]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

I am using the same speed test site that gave me .5Mb/s before. It now gives me 1.5Mb/s. I believe it, as actual download performance is up 3X.

 

[CenturyLinkJoey]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

The 3 miles is from the end of the world. The nearest town is 27 miles.

My land line is Century Link, they tried to scam me with a bogus offer. They are out of consideration. My cell is AT&T; does that ring any bells?

Hi JB. This is Joey with CenturyLink. Sorry to hear about your trouble and wanted to let you know I'm happy to help with your service. Just email us at ReachOut@CenturyLink.com with your name, account information and reference your post here on iboats.com. Thanks.

Joey H
Manager, @CenturyLinkHelp Team
ReachOut@CenturyLink.com

 

[oops!]

Re: What should I be paying for speed??

hey jb.......if i remember correctly.......lady fish used an air card after the hurricane went thru thier area. ask her about the speed....and i think the rates have gone down