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Several Comcast users have written in to say they can't access the website, but we've also heard from at least one Virgin Media customer overseas and a Rogers customer in Canada who are also having problems accessing the site.

Further comments in that thread suggest that it might be a problem with the LAN on their end, perhaps a routing issue or something.

Until site operators decide to properly secure the back-end data on their sites, no amount of front-end security will stop the insecurity designed into their sites.

We are both correct. I wish I could update my other post saying that you added the more common case (and easier to do for ISPs).

In my post, I was talking about the shit Mediacom has been doing.

You still writing those looong AC piled links to nowhere? Notice NOBODY responds to you anymore but me, and I ONLY do so to laugh at you? Why is that APK? Could it be like on Ars everyone is on to your bullshit and nobody gives a fuck what you think? Keep dancing for me monkey boy, while I don't bother reading anything you write it gives me a warm fuzzy inside to see you jump through my hoops and follow me like a little bitch who wants another taste, dance monkeyboy, dance! LOL! Here enjoy some copypasta, hell you aren't even interesting enough to bother responding to with anything else. Enjoy fail boy!

And this coming from poor wittle APK, also know as "Petey, the idiot HOPES file guy"? As in you HOPES that one of the 300,000+ constantly changing array of websites that are infected doesn't happen to be the one you visit today? Or that you HOPES that nobody notices after repeatedly being asked you have FAILED to show even the tiniest shred of mathematical proof that your magical woobie can scale? That you HOPES nobody notices your only "proof" is anecdotes, often by your own sock puppets like Kingsjester?

And I don't have to be exact, because I'm not the one making outrageous claims If someone claims they can stretch their dick into a giant slingshot and shoot themselves to Scotland it is not the readers job to prove them wrong but the posters job to back that up with real prof, not an anecdote that says "well my cousin Joey saw me do it last Halloween!".

I have also shown repeatedly that at the absolute reported minimum number of new pieces of malweare and infections, which you are free to pick whichever reputable website you like Securina, MSFT's malware reports, AVG, which ever, that at an absolute minimum we are talking about 1.2 million sites PER DAY with that number changing by 15,000+ PER HOUR which means even if you typed at 1 IP address PER SECOND, and never slept, and had a perfect list (which doesn't exist) you would be 14 days behind by the very first day with that number growing linearly every single day, making Petey farther and farther behind.

But if you weren't completely batshit insane Petey I wouldn't have to explain this, because this is why everyone makes fun of you. It is so obvious it is like someone arguing gravity is actually invisible pants gnomes trying to steal your underwear. It is the classic "default allow" which has NEVER EVER worked. Because if a piece of malware isn't in magical HOPES file Petey you are royally fucked, and yet again I have shown that it is simply a roll of the dice whether you get creamed or not, simply because you will always be behind.

So it is all on you Petey and your magical HOPES woobie now. You made the extravagant claims, back them up with the math. If you can't? Well then you are full of shit, case closed. Notice how ALL YOU CAN DO PETEY is throw insults and trollbomb? Why is that? I'll tell you why, because math doesn't lie and you just can't show the math You just can't, it would be like trying to mathematically prove you are not an idiot. It just can't be done.

So please, keep dancing to my tune like a little bitch APK, I do so enjoy pointing out the total uber fail of your magical woobie so. I also personally consider it a public service to point people to solutions that actually work instead of relying on magical woobies and anecdotes. And of course bi

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Cablevision-Launches-Network-DVR-In-The-Bronx-112372

Cablevision has already been storing data at the ISP level.

Tell me Petey, does it hurt? Does it eat and your mind, knowing that on every single post I make I not only insult your idiocy but I give a link to a laundry list of your failures? Does it keep you up at night? Does it hurt? I find that....marvelous. Now enjoy some nice insults mixed with the broken glass that is reality, something you sadly can't seem to grasp. Now wallow in your failure monkey boy, and do the dance of humiliation!

And this coming from poor wittle APK, known script kiddie and troll, also know as "Petey, the idiot HOPES file guy"? As in you HOPES that one of the 300,000+ constantly changing array of websites that are infected doesn't happen to be the one you visit today? Or that you HOPES that nobody notices after repeatedly being asked you have FAILED to show even the tiniest shred of mathematical proof that your magical woobie can scale? That you HOPES nobody notices your only "proof" is anecdotes, often by your own sock puppets like Kingsjester and MEK_Lovebug?

If there is ANYONE that should be LOLing it is me, for pointing out there are still morons that believe 16Mb HOPES files can do anything but block ads since ad servers are...what do you call it...oh yeah STATIC, just like your HOPES file, but really you are just kinda pathetic. You're like the idiot that just keeps hanging onto that three years out of date copy of Norton, because he is just so damned sure it still works, only the Norton guy is actually better protected than you are, since it did used to work in the past 5 years.

So please, keep posting APK, I do so enjoy pointing out the total uber fail of your magical woobie so. I also personally consider it a public service to point people to solutions that actually work instead of relying on magical woobies and anecdotes. And of course bitch slapping your around is also quite fun!

And this coming from poor wittle APK, also know as "Petey, the idiot HOPES file guy"? As in you HOPES that one of the 300,000+ constantly changing array of websites that are infected doesn't happen to be the one you visit today? Or that you HOPES that nobody notices after repeatedly being asked you have FAILED to show even the tiniest shred of mathematical proof that your magical woobie can scale? That you HOPES nobody notices your only "proof" is anecdotes, often by your own sock puppets like Kingsjester?

If there is ANYONE that should be LOLing it is me, for pointing out there are still morons that believe 16Mb HOPES files can do anything but block ads since ad servers are...what do you call it...oh yeah STATIC, just like your HOPES file, but really you are just kinda pathetic. You're like the idiot that just keeps hanging onto that three years out of date copy of Norton, because he is just so damned sure it still works, only the Norton guy is actually better protected than you are, since it did used to work in the past 5 years.

So please, keep posting APK, I do so enjoy pointing out the total uber fail of your magical woobie so. I also personally consider it a public service to point people to solutions that actually work instead of relying on magical woobies and anecdotes. And of course bitch slapping your retarded ass around is also quite fun, even if it is too easy!

Are you saying you have fiber in your city? You can see the locations where there IS an affordable home fiber option here: http://www.dslreports.com/gmaps/fios/quote>

Believe it or not, Verizon isn't the only option. I've got fiber from EPB. We're rocking 30 minimum on up to 1 gig.

No I don't know why anybody would want to have a 1 gig pipe in their home.

Are you saying you have fiber in your city? You can see the locations where there IS an affordable home fiber option here: http://www.dslreports.com/gmaps/fios

I would say fiber is available to ~1% of the US population (if that). 80% of the US population live in urban (densely populated) areas but only 50% of the US population can get broadband (defined as anything faster than a single line ISDN).

Cable company FUD. All I have is anecdotal evidence (DSL Reports] should have more information), but the throttling occurs whether or not you happen to be running ther P2P software.
What's more, this is affecting ervices like PSN and XBox Live, but because WoW is just so huge, it's the one attracting all the attention.

Oh, and here's the actual link I was attempting to redirect to.

It's a dslreports thread by someone attempting to find a way to connect to the internet without installing the crapware and features responses from users who claim to be AT&T support representatives.

The post linked to is a summary of the thread that outlines AT&T's policy and why it is evil.

Sorry about the busted link.

First, read the whole post. I practically ended with your last sentence.

Second, the myTouch 4G is more expensive than every phone on AT&T, except the larger capacity iPhone 4. A lot of the smartphones on AT&T are actually quite fairly priced, if you purchase under contract.

Third, the T-Mobile lie is a lie. A bold faced one that they use in their marketing as the basis to switch to T-Mobile. If that's not bad customer service, then I'm not sure what is. Even AT&T originally called them out for it. Unfortunately, T-Mobile persisted and actually forced AT&T's hand, which shockingly tried to do the right thing originally. Now, AT&T is calling HSPA+ 4G.

Finally, I do not know for certain, but I strongly doubt that AT&T and T-Mobile share their towers unless they lack the coverage in an area themselves. Not to mention the need and talk of dualband access (between their 3G frequencies) would not have been mentioned in the merger's press release if it was already done. Besides, it's a distinct advantage in cities to have more towers than the other company considering the bureaucratic nightmare involved in building these towers in large cities.

Now why would they want to do that? Congressmen have to eat, too.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Top-Campaign-Contributor-Since-1990-110351

There is: dslreports

Well if it isn't little poor wittle Petey, aka the HOPES guy, aka the legend in his own mind. Did you program the space shuttle in your badly written Delphi as well? Hell you make VB coders look like kernel developers Petey, that is why everyone made fun of your "apps" on Ars. Any apps in the app store? Oh thats right Apple takes fart apps but not "batshit crazy" apps, sorry Petey.

And I guess you're afraid to touch any of my comments that are attached to current stories huh? Must make you awful sad at how many laughed their asses off at your little HOPES rants last time, but that's what you get when you tie your crazy to a tech older than an 8-track and just about as useful. You really should talk to Twitter, he does it SOOOO much better than you do, pretty sad to be third rate even as a troll.

The simple fact is this: no matter how many times Petey says "1+1 = 3" the math simply proves you wrong and THAT is why all you can do is throw insults. You have 190,000 to 340,000 infected websites at this very moment and that list will change by the thousands per minute as sites are cleaned, new sites are infected, new vulnerabilities found, etc. Now for his HOPES file to actually be a REAL protection and not just a woobie? It will have to dynamically scale and keep up with that ever changing list of infections. Now even if he had twenty fingers and subscribed to every security list on the planet his HOPES file will ALWAYS BE OUT OF DATE and behind the curve. Always.

So please, keep posting APK, I do so enjoy pointing out the total uber fail of your magical woobie so. I also personally consider it a public service to point people to solutions that actually work instead of relying on magical woobies and anecdotes. And of course bitch slapping your around is also quite fun!

Here's the quote for those who are curious: "Granted, Obama did say "next-generation" wireless, but given the current debate around the definition of fourth generation (4G) wireless, that term now technically includes every variety of mobile broadband faster than 256kbps. It's certain a vast majority of the public will see "next generation" 4G wireless within the next five years without the government lifting a finger.

"That makes this promise much like the FCC's promise to bring 100 Mbps service to 100 Million households in twenty years, something also destined to happen organically (relatively inexpensive DOCSIS 3.0 cable upgrades) without Uncle Sam doing anything. In short, the 98% mark is another meaningless metric designed to impress people who don't pay attention."

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Why-Obamas-98-Wireless-Goal-Is-Empty-Rhetoric-112429

Here's an interesting link:
"Why Obama's 98% Wireless Goal Is Empty Rhetoric"
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Why-Obamas-98-Wireless-Goal-Is-Empty-Rhetoric-112429

- "It seems rather important to note that according to the government's own data, we already technically achieved 98% third generation high speed wireless coverage last year."

>>>cost effective network over power cables.

Or the already-existed copper. We could upgraded 99.9% of american homes from Phone service to DSL service very cheaply..... less than the cost of this 4g plan. (It's how the Japanese became the #2 fastest country)

Here's an interesting link:
"Why Obama's 98% Wireless Goal Is Empty Rhetoric"
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Why-Obamas-98-Wireless-Goal-Is-Empty-Rhetoric-112429
"It seems rather important to note that according to the government's own data, we already technically achieved 98% third generation high speed wireless coverage last year."

.

Even easier with the democrat:
obama appoints riaa lawyer as solicitor general
Obama Picks New FTC Boss Former MPAA Lobbyist
Obama Taps 5th RIAA Lawyer to Justice Dept.
Obama Appoints RIAA Defense Lawyer to Key DOJ Position

Full story here.

I've been putting off ordering a new modem since I have a feeling it won't solve anything and will just cost money.

"The funny thing that I am complaining about a hypothetical yet realistic threat; while Net Neutrality seeks to impose regulation to solve a problem we not only have not had but have no signs of having soon."

Really? Really? I mean, really?

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Throttling-Saga-Finally-Ends-Get-bUp-Tob-16-109293

What short memories shills have.

The CRTC has an unfair number of ex-industry executives on the board."

There, I fixed it for you.

* * *

Here is one of the most influential documents sent to the federal cabinet that led to the eventual ressicion.

The cost to switch to IPv6 is not flipping a switch. It will cost trillions upon trillions of dollars globally to migrate.

Whoah there Sally! I can accept the idea that upgrading to IPv6 would be expensive, but.... Trillions? Upon Trillions? That's, eh, 4 Trillion dollars at the minimum.... really? (cough) To give you some idea, the global economy is right now hovering around $74 Trillion per year.

Switching to IPv6 is mostly annoyance factor; Operating Systems have been IPv6 capable for a LONG time. Most routers have also been IPv6 capable for a LONG time. Mostly it's about the human cost of "turning in on" and working out the kinks. It's just a change in protocol. No wires need to be re-run, no servers need to be replaced, and most routers won't even need to be replaced. Even a cheap Cisco 2600 series router can handle IPv6 with an O/S upgrade and sufficient RAM! Mostly, it's the owners of cheap-ass consumer routers that will have to actually replace any hardware, and hardware in this market space usually costs less than $100.

I'm in the industry; as a hosting provider this speaks very directly to my needs. And our estimated material cost of switching to IPv6 is something less, probably considerably less, than $500. For a small niche hosting company doing about 1.5 million annually. So why haven't we turned it on? Haven't needed to. The benefit of turning it on is currently negligible. It's not a matter of "dragging our feet", it's more a matter of deciding to go through the annoyance of doing so and getting nothing out of it.

There are still unlimited options with Sprint. http://www.millenicom.com/ resells Sprint 3G for $70/month (plus $165 startup costs), so the same tower you used with VM will be the one you get with Millenicom. No caps, no contract, month to month, could change at any moment, yada^3.

They also offer a 20GB package from Verizon for $60 (same $165 setup), as a January promotion.

Note they don't tell you who the upstream provider is unless you ask. You can read real user comments about them at http://www.dslreports.com/forum/cover,3165

I was a happy customer until my speed with the sprint service suddenly dropped to almost nothing, and no one could figure out why. After much gnashing of teeth and HW Upgrade$, I gave up and called Comcast to see if there was anything they could do. (They had quoted me $2000 to get on line a few years ago.) They hooked me up to the nearest neighbor's drop for nothing and now I am wired.

And if I give them a magical LOLCat infections rates will go down by 10,000% and magic pixies will appear to rub their little footies and...wait a tick, that is a what you call it, oh yeah an anecdote and doesn't prove jack which is why I put a disclaimer at the front instead of trying to pass it off as proof like you do Petey, but you KNOW this, don't you?

poor wittle APK, also know as "Petey, the idiot HOPES file guy" As in you HOPES that one of the 300,000+ constantly changing array of websites that are infected doesn't happen to be the one you visit today? Or that you HOPES that nobody notices after repeatedly being asked you have FAILED to show even the tiniest shred of mathematical proof that your magical woobie can scale? That you HOPES nobody notices your only "proof" is anecdotes, often by your own sock puppets like Kingsjester?

Remember Petey I'm not the ponce making outrageous claims so it is up to you to show the math instead of wasting everyone's time waving your little shriveled winkie around by making claims with no mathematical proof and nothing but anecdotes as "evidence". After all those that the earth is only 6000 years old have a full boat of anecdotes to back up THEIR claims as well, but we still think they are just as batshit as you, now don't we?

The simple fact is this: no matter how many times trollie says "1+1 = 3" the math simply proves you wrong and THAT is why all you can do is throw insults. You have 190,000 to 340,000 infected websites at this very moment and that list will change by the thousands per minute as sites are cleaned, new sites are infected, new vulnerabilities found, etc. Now for your HOPES file to actually be a REAL protection and not just a woobie? It will have to dynamically scale and keep up with that ever changing list of infections. Now even if you had twenty fingers and subscribed to every security list on the planet your HOPES file will ALWAYS BE OUT OF DATE and behind the curve. Always. Don't like those numbers? Use the ones from Securina, Grisoft, Symantec, any reputable security site. YOU CHOOSE. I have shown mathematically you are full of shit, now lets see you math that proves me wrong PETEY.

Now if you have a mathematical proof that shows how a static .txt file dropped into system 32 can magically scale dynamically? Lets see it. Otherwise it is NOTHING more a magical LOLCat pic backed up by anecdotes. That is the nice thing about math, it doesn't lie or believe in anecdotes. So it is all on Petey and your magical HOPES woobie now. YOU made the extravagant claims, back them up with the math. If you can't? Well then you are full of shit, case closed. Notice how ALL YOU CAN DO is throw insults and trollbomb? Why is that? I'll tell you why, because math doesn't lie and you just can't show the math you just can't do it or you would have by now, but it would be like trying to mathematically prove you are not an idiot PETEY. It just can't be done.

So please, keep posting APK, I do so enjoy pointing out the total uber fail of your magical woobie so. I also personally consider it a public service to point people to solutions that actually work instead of relying on magical woobies and anecdotes. And of course bitch slapping your around is also quite fun!

Hi trollie! Sorry to rip off some classic Dan Akroyd but you know it is usually considered good form to at least make a sock puppet, posting AC to plug your own AC posts? Kinda sad. And for the 400th time Correlation != Causation. I can build an XP Sp2 machine with NO patches, NO AV, and change the desktop to a LOLCat. Now if I only use this machine to check my email and go to my bank I will NEVER get a bug, but I don't think it was my magical LOLCat protecting it, do you?

The simple fact is this: no matter how many times trollie says "1+1 = 3" the math simply proves you wrong and THAT is why all you can do is throw insults. You have 190,000 to 340,000 infected websites at this very moment and that list will change by the thousands per minute as sites are cleaned, new sites are infected, new vulnerabilities found, etc. Now for his HOPES file to actually be a REAL protection and not just a woobie? It will have to dynamically scale and keep up with that ever changing list of infections. Now even if he had twenty fingers and subscribed to every security list on the planet his HOPES file will ALWAYS BE OUT OF DATE and behind the curve. Always.

Now if you have a mathematical proof that shows how a static .txt file dropped into system 32 can magically scale dynamically? Lets see it. Otherwise it is NOTHING more a magical LOLCat pic backed up by anecdotes. That is the nice thing about math, it doesn't lie or believe in anecdotes. And if there is ANYONE that should be LOLing it is me, for pointing out there are still morons that believe 16Mb HOPES files can do anything but block ads since ad servers are...what do you call it...oh yeah STATIC, just like your HOPES file, but really you are just kinda pathetic. You're like the idiot that just keeps hanging onto that three years out of date copy of Norton, because he is just so damned sure it still works, only the Norton guy is actually better protected than you are, since it did used to work in the past 5 years.

So please, keep posting APK, I do so enjoy pointing out the total uber fail of your magical woobie so. I also personally consider it a public service to point people to solutions that actually work instead of relying on magical woobies and anecdotes. And of course bitch slapping your around is also quite fun!

See http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25242764-Mobile-guard-towers-at-Wal-Mart-and-Target-WTH- for videos and a discussion.

And this coming from poor wittle APK, also know as "Petey, the idiot HOPES file guy"? As in you HOPES that one of the 300,000+ constantly changing array of websites that are infected doesn't happen to be the one you visit today? Or that you HOPES that nobody notices after repeatedly being asked you have FAILED to show even the tiniest shred of mathematical proof that your magical woobie can scale? That you HOPES nobody notices your only "proof" is anecdotes, often by your own sock puppets like Kingsjester?

If there is ANYONE that should be LOLing it is me, for pointing out there are still morons that believe 16Mb HOPES files can do anything but block ads since ad servers are...what do you call it...oh yeah STATIC, just like your HOPES file, but really you are just kinda pathetic. You're like the idiot that just keeps hanging onto that three years out of date copy of Norton, because he is just so damned sure it still works, only the Norton guy is actually better protected than you are, since it did used to work in the past 5 years.

So please, keep posting APK, I do so enjoy pointing out the total uber fail of your magical woobie so. I also personally consider it a public service to point people to solutions that actually work instead of relying on magical woobies and anecdotes. And of course bitch slapping your around is also quite fun!

And this coming from poor wittle APK, also know as "the idiot HOPES file guy"? As in you HOPES that one of the 300,000+ constantly changing array of websites that are infected doesn't happen to be the one you visit today? Or that you HOPES that nobody notices after repeatedly being asked you have FAILED to show even the tiniest shred of mathematical proof that your magical woobie can scale? That you HOPES nobody notices your only "prrof" is anecdotes, often by your own sock puppets like Kingsjester?

If there is ANYONE that should be LOLing it is me, for pointing out there are still morons that believe 16Mb HOPES files can do anything but block ads since ad servers are...what do you call it...oh yeah STATIC, just like your HOPES file, but really you are just kinda pathetic. You're like the idiot that just keeps hanging onto that three years out of date copy of Norton, because he is just so damned sure it still works, only the Norton guy is actually better protected than you are, since it did used to work in the past 5 years.

So please, keep posting APK, I do so enjoy pointing out the total uber fail of your magical woobie so. I also personally consider it a public service to point people to solutions that actually work instead of relying on magical woobies and anecdotes. And of course bitch slapping your around is also quite fun!

And this coming from poor wittle APK, also know as "the idiot HOPES file guy"? As in you HOPES that one of the 300,000+ constantly changing array of websites that are infected doesn't happen to be the one you visit today? Or that you HOPES that nobody notices after repeatedly being asked you have repeatedly FAILED to show even the tiniest shred of mathematical proof that your magical woobie can scale? That you HOPES nobody notices your only "proof" is anecdotes, often by your own sock puppets like Kingsjester?

If there is ANYONE that should be LOLing it is me, for pointing out there are still morons that believe 16Mb HOPES files can do anything but block ads since ad servers are...what do you call it...oh yeah STATIC, just like your HOPES file, but really you are just kinda pathetic. You're like the idiot that just keeps hanging onto that three years out of date copy of Norton, because he is just so damned sure it still works, only the Norton guy is actually better protected than you are, since it did used to work in the past 5 years.

So please, keep posting APK, I do so enjoy pointing out the total uber fail of your magical woobie so. I also personally consider it a public service to point people to solutions that actually work instead of relying on magical woobies and anecdotes. And of course bitch slapping your around is also quite fun! Oh and taking a page from your book from now on ALL responses will be THIS post, with only additions being more links to your various trolls and the people making fun of them, so everyone knows who they are dealing with. Have a nice day and be sure you hug your magical woobie...err I mean HOPES file!

If you've been reading /. for the last year and half(which by your UID I'd say you have). You'd know what the CRTC is, what UBB is and why there's been so much shit written about it both in Canada and in the US. Actually it's not my problem if you haven't been paying attention to anything beyond your own special little world.

You can start by going here:
http://www.dslreports.com/
Then use the search function, I also suggest looking at the Cdn. broadband, Teksavvy forums.

See even living in Canada, I pay attention to what's going on in the US. And Europe, and Asia. Because the insular 'me' world, went bye-bye 10 years ago.

Comcast cable internet is rarely the only option for internet in any given community. There is almost always an option to get a DSL product from the phone company. Which means you basically have to have a landline. So you pay somewhere close to the same amount of money for much slower internet. If I was in a community where it was DSL on AT+T copper or comcast I'd probably go with comcast.

In my experience, I've found that what's available varies greatly, even within the same metro area or even city. I used to live in a Northwest Chicago suburb: there were several cable (tv/net) providers, but I lived in a multi-unit building, and Comcast actually owned the building's infrastructure, so they were literally the only option.

I now live in a house in a sparsely-populated part of the City of Chicago, and AT&T and Comcast are the only two options, even though other areas of the city have more options.

I had Comcast cable-based high-speed internet (HSI). I started in on a promo rate that was about $50/month (IIRC) for HSI and basic cable (very basic, effectively local broadcast plus religious, public access and shopping channels). I didn't want the cable, but the promo HSI rate only applied if I got some TV service, so it was actually cheaper to get HSI plus TV rather than HSI alone.

Eventually the promo ran out, and Comcast wouldn't negotiate. I tried calling several times, going straight to the "Cancellations Department", etc etc, and couldn't get them to extend the promo rate. The HSI+TV cost went up to $75/month, and HSI alone was $60/month. To Comcast's credit, the HSI service was generally fast and reliable. But I thought it was too much.

At the same time, AT&T happened to be offering their DSL service for $20/month for the fastest "Elite" tier (6 MB/s). Prices go down from there. I already have a land-line due to having a security system, but I read the promotional material very closely, at it sounded like you could get the same DSL deal without an actual phone line. I was hesitant, but found the DSLReports Forums to be very helpful. One, I was able to ping other forum users to see if there was anyone in my neighborhood with the service (an informal survey of sorts). Two, they have dedicated, private tech support forums where you can actually talk directly to a tech person about the service. In other words, at the cost of waiting a day or two for a response, you actually get a useful answer from someone who knows something, rather than taking your chances with the yahoos at the 1-800 number.

That $20/month is guaranteed for a year, but without any contract (cancel any time), and no setup or equipment fees. I was quite skeptical, but we've had the service for over two months now, and I haven't had any problems. It is slower than Comcast's HSI, but fast enough for streaming HD Netflix, which is our highest requirement.

By the way, my landline is about $16/month, bringing my total monthly outlay to AT&T to $36/month, still cheaper than Comcast. We use cellphones for everything, but need a landline for the security system. If you live in Illinois and have a similar requirement (basic land line service), check out the Citizen's Utility Board. They have negotiated an AT&T plan called "Consumer's Choice Basic", which is as cheap as possible for AT&T. When I signed up for this, it wasn't available online, and I had to call their 1-800 number to get it... and even then, they are shady and try to add services if you don't pay close attention to your order.

Try users' FIOS map: http://www.dslreports.com/gmaps/fios ...

However, not ALL areas in the cities have it. For example for me: I am in Verzion area. My city has FIOS, but not in my neighborhood on the hills. There's FIOS down the hills! I can't even get DSL (20K ft.!). :(

> And I'm not in the boonies, I live near Boston

Depending on _where_ near Boston, this could be http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Boston-Wonders-Where-Its-FiOS-Is-105269 or failures to negotiate TV franchise rights with your actual municipality (as was the case for Boston proper for years) or any of a number of other things....

Because here in the USA we have what is called "cherry picking" where basically two monopolies get together and agree ala cartel style not to compete for anything that isn't "choice" hence the name? Look at the coastal region, they have TONS of choices. Everywhere else? DIAF for all the care. Hell when I was living there there were parts of downtown Nashville that couldn't get anything better than dialup. In my own area NEITHER DSL nor cable has moved a SINGLE INCH since the late 90s. Not one inch. They know the costs of running lines to compete with them is a barrier most will not afford, and if one side doesn't, why should the other?

So I don't know how you got competition in Oz, maybe you have regulators that aren't kissing big corporate booty, but here there is NO competition. for a good example see this FIOS map. Notice how they are ALL clustered into tiny pockets, while the rest is empty? THAT is cherry picking. They pick the nicest most expensive neighborhoods to compete and poor and middle class neighborhoods get Hobson's choice. Short of taking the last mile away from them I don't see it changing either.

Not so.

The law, as originally written, was entirely based on what a person made. And it followed the longstanding legal precedent used in most other laws of this sort, also known as "treble damages."

If you were out selling bootlegs at $5/cd, your "treble damages" would be $15/cd. Enough to take away all your profits, any equipment, and make it absolutely clear that you were being punished.

The first fraud that has been perpetrated in respect to copyright law is the removal of that phrase, which is what allows subhuman MafiAA snakes to put the dumbest shits on a jury that they can and then try to convince them that there were billions of dollars worth of "damages" done by someone. The second fraud is the ridiculous notion of a 1:1 correlation between a shared file and a "lost sale."

Numerous studies have shown that far from being damaging, so-called "piracy" actually is a net benefit to the industry as a whole: the only "artists" who get burned are the talentless, overproduced hacks like Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus who really shouldn't be on top anyways.

I think you're confusing "require" with "prefer". For the "average Joe" who surfs the net

Comcast puts unrecognized modems in a walled garden until the customer downloads and runs a .exe file. I don't know how Mac users are expected to get their cable modem linked to their service.

checks email, types up documents

And prints them on what? I have yet to see either A. a home inkjet printer with a penguin on the box, or B. sales staff in a national electronics chain who know which printers do and don't work with Linux.

plays solitaire and free cell, and views DVDs/YouTube/pr0n

Of course you can play DVD on Linux as long as you don't live in the United States, home of MPEG-2 patents, Dolby Digital patents, and the DMCA. Who will fund their emigration?

All of those others that have specialized sewing apps or do corporate taxes as a hobby at home -- yeah, they might "require" Windows.

You forgot those few video games left that aren't FarmVille.

Do you check your email over WiFi? Have you configured your email to check over a secured connection (hint: very, very few ISPs actually support this!)?

http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FAQViewer.aspx?Guid=b454828c-37a6-459a-9191-2a1b0f2bb20e http://www22.verizon.com/ResidentialHelp/FiOSInternet/Email/Setup%20And%20Use/QuestionsOne/85515
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19960885-northeast-Verizon-FIOS-and-Outlook-2003-Setup -- note the quote "Server Requires Authentication should not be checked."

There are a surprising number of services that do not use SSL (POP/SMTP for email, Instant Messenger, plain old FTP, etc), and even those that do sometimes only protect the actual login process.

I don't mean to sound paranoid, but you may be revealing more of your "secret" data than you think. Security is not accomplished using a single layer of protection. Particularly not when the single layer is woefully incomplete.

BTW if you ever need to load billions of records (restore or upgrade) into a DB be prepared to wait for hours. Hope the boss/customer doesn't expect it'll be done in just an hour or so ;).

This guy took 45 minutes to insert 40 million rows:
http://www.justincarmony.com/blog/2009/01/12/mysql-40-million-rows-myisam-innodb/

This guy probably did better:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Mysql-and-a-billion-rows-using-innodb-87890

At a prev work place they were using an older version of MySQL and the DB guy had to resort to switching from innodb to myisam just to load in a multiGB DB (he was restoring from a backup). Not good to lose transactions just because of this limitation, but given they picked MySQL, I doubt they cared that much about data integrity (the company did lose data or have it corrupted because of MySQL more than once, but hey the company survived it ;) ).

Having IPv6 on your LAN doesn't mean you lose IPv4 connectivity. Both protocols can and do co-exist on your network. Hosts on my networks that are dual stacked IPv4/IPv6 include Windows XP, Windows 2000 (there was a developer pack a while back), Linux and MacOS X.

Originally when I first started playing with IPv6 on my network I took one of my MacOS X machines, got a subnet from Sixxs (tunnel broker) and installed Aiccu (their client software). With a little extra configuration to setup the machine to do router advertisements and make it act as router everything was up and running. All the machines that had IPv6 activated got themselves a routable IPv6 address and were able to connect to IPv6 web sites.

Later on I decided to buy myself an Apple Airport, which has IPv6 support and then simply enabled 6to4. Ideally I would have connected to Sixxs again, but there is a firmware issue when using PPPoE, that they have failed to fix thus far (if they want better advertising then they should have a longer firmware maintenance window).

Because of the limitation of the Apple Airport, I have been keeping my eyes open for alternative solutions. For me any viable solution needs to provide a GUI for configuration. OpenWRT and DD-WRT both have IPv6 support, but not from the UI last time I looked. The one that seems the most interesting is Tomato, which has a UI and is the one that a Canadian ISP known as Teksavvy is playing with (see here). Buffalo seems to have IPv6 in its firmware, but it is not a feature that is marketed, so I will need to try one out before going for it.

It should be noted that much of my knowledge on IPv6 has been garnered by spending time on the Sixxs.net forums and wiki.

For the most part once you have IPv6 installed on your network most people shouldn't notice. One thing to make sure is the router has a properly configured IPv6 firewall.

Please tell that to ARIN:

IP space limiting competition in Canada

Then with this connection you have a 100Mbits line...

Without competition, they have no reason to give you a 100Mbit/sec line.

America is far behind in the bandwidth race with an average of only 3.9Mbit/sec. We rank 18th in the world and there are seemingly no major plans to increase bandwidth further. We are now at a standstill because the monopolies have no reason to improve service.

You are never going to get 100Mbit/sec service from your current providers as things stand right now. Only allowing extensive competition will get us there, and that also moots the whole net neutrality thing.

Where are you getting these numbers? Where is Japan and Korea on this chart? Because they always top the other charts

Anyway, average total bandwidth is wrong metric to be using. What you want is average home bandwidth available, and average home bandwidth per dollar, or some other way of measuring how evenly distributed the bandwidth is among the population. Average is astupid because it makes no distinction between the apartment complex in Seoul, and the bums sleeping in Akamai's dumpster, since both groups have an average bandwidth of 45 Mb/s. So what if in one case it's 10 people each with 45 Mb/s and in the other it's 1 person with 450 Mb/s and 9 people with 0 Mb/s?

It's transparent that average bandwidth is being used to whitewash over the inefficiencies in the American market when every other study places the oh about 33rd in the world, and all the ads are touting "super fast" 3 Mb/s links that rarely reach 2.5 Mb/s in practice.

It certainly appears that the free market has failed America once again. (And no one even start with rant that problem is too much regulation, when "socialist" Scandinavia kicks your ass, it ain't that.)

Got any comparison figures that include the costs per month? Compared to those 30/40 USD/month the high speed connections seem to come at high prices:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r24289091-Extreme-105

Ask your question in this forum. Comcast techs hang out there and may give you a better answer.

You can buy your own cable modems, at least with some providers (I have no idea if this is FCC mandated).

e.g. http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Users-Can-Now-Buy-Comcast-DOCSIS-30-Modems-101500

I live in a former Bellsouth region, now lovingly reunited with its Ma Bell. The DSL modems we get are combination ADSL/router units. The problem is the unit has all the software capabilities of a "router" (NAT, DHCP, etc.) but none of the ports. That's right: it has one Ethernet port and no wireless capabilities. That makes installing a real "router" even more difficult. If you try installing it with the typical instructions, you WILL fail. The fix is not in the manual for the router and of course the modem doesn't come with a manual, but you can find out how to set it up on DSL Reports. Basically, either the modem or the router needs to get lobotomized, setting it as an Ethernet bridge.

Essentially, we have two options: tamper with the telco-provided modem and deal with the consequences, or get an all-in-one unit (either from AT&T or bring your own modem).

I don't have a TV with the proper inputs anymore.

Old T.V. would be optimal, but there are folks out there doing a/v conversions of 2600s/selling A/V converted 2600s. Check the hardware part of the AtariAge forum or post there and ask about it. Just from a quick search found this post that might help also. And there is the Flashback 2 (if you can find any on eBay, etc.). If you want to use Stella though, buy a few classic USB joystick controllers from legacyengineering. It took a while for Curt to get the first batch made, but they've continued making them (in different colors also). Classic gaming rocks.

International copyright is bound by WTO treaties and other international law. The USA acknowledges international copyrights. The DMCA may have controversial portions, but much of it is good, providing means and method of having infringing data removed from the internet and requires certain compliance by intermediary parties (i.e. hosting companies) of infringing content.

Yeah, like printers. http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Send-Your-Enemys-Printer-A-DMCA-Warning-95089

You're funny. Privacy is a myth. Public place or not. Others know where you are all the time, what you buy/eat, what you were searching for, and people just hand out personal info on sites such as Facebook and Twitter now. There's no need for cameras. Hah!