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Steve Suppe writes "As an American who is going to be living overseas for a few years (Germany, to be more exact), I'm curious as to what advice/information Slashdot could provide people like me. How much can I expect to pay for dial-up/broadband, and from who? I'd be interested to hear how it differs around the world. Any good reference sites? Thanks!"
You must be more hated there than I am on /.!
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
Don't know who wrote this, but they deserve continuous oral sex 'til completion.
to the tune of: "Model of a Modern Major General", with apologies to
Gilbert and Sullivan...
Model of a Slashdot Personality
I am the very model of a Slashdot personality.
I intersperse obscenity with tedious banality.
Addresses I have plenty of, both genuine and ghosted too,
On all the countless topics that my drivel is cross-posted to.
Your bandwidth I will fritter with my whining and my sniveling,
And you're the one who pays the bill, downloading all my driveling.
My enemies are numerous, and no-one would be blaming you
For cracking my head open after I've been rudely flaming you.
I hate to lose an argument (by now I should be used to it).
I wouldn't know a valid point if I was introduced to it.
My learning is extensive but consists of mindless trivia,
Designed to fan my ego, which is larger than Bolivia.
The comments that I vomit forth, disguised as jest and drollery,
Are really just an exercise in unremitting trollery.
I say I'm frank and forthright, but that's merely lies and vanity,
The gibberings of one who's at the limits of his sanity.
If only I could get a life, as many people tell me to;
If only Mom could find a circus freak-show she could sell me to;
If I go off to Zanzibar to paint the local scenery;
If I lose all my fingers in a mishap with machinery;
If I survive to twenty, which is somewhat problematical;
If what I post was more mature, or slightly more grammatical;
If I could learn to spell a bit, and maybe even punctuate;
Would I still be the loathsome and objectionable punk you hate?
But while I have this tiresome urge to prance around and show my face,
It simply isn't safe for normal people here in cyberspace.
To stick me in Old Sparky and turn on the electricity
Would be a fitting punishment for my egocentricity.
I always have the last word; so, with uttermost finality,
That's all from me, the model of a Slashdot personality.
and frosty piss!
They'll know far more about it than anyone on Slashdot. We don't even know where in Germany you'll be.
CLITORIS CHOPPERS. Hi there you fucking Islamic career clerics, doctors of death, Waffen Schutzstaffel doctor Josef Mengele is a patron saint compared to you fucking ragheads. You suck. You aide and abet terror and death. You are partially responsible for the deaths of other fellow men. For this fratricide you shall pay dearly. Your soul is black with the stains of inaction, ineptitude and sympathies to those who walk the dark side. Your foul life is full of sins, not religious, just heinous, your karma is low, you don't confess, and you aren't in prison where you belong. You are your own dark, kept secret. I see through you, the worthless academic, the pseudo intellectual, the unproven unpublished un patented WASTE OF FUCKING FLESH. You are a drain on society, you are a member of the 1st world but pretend to not be. I hate you, you are a stained man.
Hi clitoris chopper, ISLAM supports clitoris carving. You are Islamic, and of course are a fucking animal. I hate you you pull-start camel jockey lover. Towelheads, Camel Jockies, Sand Niggers, Ackmids, Abeebs, Carpet Flyers, Dune Coons, Rag Heads, Sand Scratchers, Habeebs, Abba-Dabbas, Camel-Humpers, Demi-niggers, Fig-Gobblers, Hucka-luckas (hucka hlacka ghalcka ghugh), Lefties (If you steal, you lose the right hand so, since they are thieves...) Ocnods, Pull-Start-ables (imagine pull starting Ossama's dirty rag like a Briggs and Stratton), Roach-Ranchers (habibs cant kill roaches by a tenant of Is-slum), Sand Moolies.
Shut up all you dirty fucking Islamic pigfucking swinehundts and the pigs, the communist fuckin Islamic terrorist supporter.
Take your fucking Koran and cram it up your ass. The sooner the earth sees Islam leave it, the better off it will be. Your Koran is Goat Piss.
I hope if there is a God and a Hell, you have to drink the liquidy shit from a Pig's ass, and Jewish Rabbis defecate on you.
I hate the stupid ISLAM fucks who read into the trash they come up with. Saddam Hussein [who needs to take a dirt nap] is higher on my sanity list than fucking Muslim "clerics." In fact, I like Saddam more than most of the other Arab leaders because he is secular. We should fucking nuke the Saudis and Mecca and Medina and turn it into rubble, then tell Saddam to remove the heads of all the buttfucking "royalty" in the area.
I want to wipe my ass with Mohammad's shroud. I want to grind his body up into bone meal and fertilize my garden with it.
Our tortured dead scream out in HORROR, asking for vengeance:
Nuke their countries to hell.
Nuke them again.
Death to Islam.
I piss on Mecca. I wipe my ass with the Koran. I shit upon Mohammed. I wipe the cum for a freshly fucked pussy with Mohammed's shroud then throw it in the pig sty so it can mire in pig shit as it decomposes.
er... Use use the Preview Button ?
Friday's WSJ had an article about how some people in Europe aren't happy to have Americans around.
Rob Malda is a 26-year old white male with a stocky build and a beard. His head is shaved. He responded to my ad to be interviewed for this article wearing only leather pants, leather boots and a leather vest. I could see that both of his nipples were pierced with large-gauge silver rings.
Questioner: I hope you won't be offended if I ask you to prove to me that you're a nullo. Just so that our readers will know that this isn't a fake.
Rob: Sure, no problem. (stands and unbuckles pants and drops them to his ankles, revealing a smooth, shaven crotch with only a thin scar to show where his genitals once were).
Q: Thank you. That's a remarkable sight.
(laughs and pulls pants back up). Most people think so.
Q: What made you decide to become a nullo?
(pauses). Well, it really wasn't entirely my decision.
Q: Excuse me?
The idea wasn't mine. It was my lover's idea.
Q: Please explain what you mean.
Okay, it's a long story. You have to understand my relationship with Michael before you'll know what happened.
Q: We have plenty of time. Please go on.
Both of us were into the leather lifestyle when we met through a personal ad. Michael's ad was very specific: he was looking for someone to completely dominate and modify to his pleasure. In other word, a slave.
The ad intrigued me. I had been in a number of B&D scenes and also some S&M, but I found them unsatisfying because they were all temporary. After the fun was over, everybody went on with life as usual.
I was looking for a complete life change. I wanted to meet someone who would be part of my life forever. Someone who would control me and change me at his whim.
Q: In other words, you're a true masochist.
Oh yes, no doubt about that. I've always been totally passive in my sexual relationships.
Anyway, we met and there was instant chemistry. Michael is a few years older than me and very good looking. Our personalities meshed totally. He's very dominant.
I went back to his place after drinks and had the best sex of my life. That's when I knew I was going to be with Michael for a long, long time.
Q: What sort of things did you two do?
It was very heavy right away. He restrained me and whipped me for quite awhile. He put clamps on my nipples and a ball gag in my mouth. And he hung a ball bag on my sack with some very heavy weights. That bag really bounced around when Michael fucked me from behind.
Q: Ouch.
(laughs) Yeah, no kidding. At first I didn't think I could take the pain, but Michael worked me through it and after awhile I was flying. I was sorry when it was over.
Michael enjoyed it as much as I did. Afterwards he talked about what kind of a commitment I'd have to make if I wanted to stay with him.
Q: What did he say exactly?
Well, besides agreeing to be his slave in every way, I'd have to be ready to be modified. To have my body modified.
Q: Did he explain what he meant by that?
Not specifically, but I got the general idea. I guessed that something like castration might be part of it.
Q: How did that make you feel?
(laughs) I think it would make any guy a little hesitant.
Q: But it didn't stop you from agreeing to Michael's terms?
No it didn't. I was totally hooked on this man. I knew that I was willing to pay any price to be with him.
Anyway, a few days later I moved in with Michael. He gave me the rules right away: I'd have to be naked at all times while we were indoors, except for a leather dog collar that I could never take off. I had to keep my head shaved. And I had to wear a butt plug except when I needed to take a shit or when we were having sex.
I had to sleep on the floor next to his bed. I ate all my food on the floor, too.
The next day he took me to a piercing parlor where he had my nipples done, and a Prince Albert put into the head of my cock.
Q: Heavy stuff.
Yeah, and it got heavier. He used me as a toilet, pissing in my mouth. I had to lick his asshole clean after he took a shit, too. It was all part of a process to break down any sense of individuality I had. After awhile, I wouldn't hesitate to do anything he asked.
Q: Did the sex get rougher?
Oh God, yeah. He started fisting me every time we had sex. But he really started concentrating on my cock and balls, working them over for hours at a time.
He put pins into the head of my cock and into my sack. He attached clothespins up and down my cock and around my sack. The pain was pretty bad. He had to gag me to keep me from screaming.
Q: When did the idea of nullification come up?
Well, it wasn't nullification at first. He started talking about how I needed to make a greater commitment to him, to do something to show that I was dedicated to him for life.
When I asked him what he meant, he said that he wanted to take my balls.
Q: How did you respond?
Not very well at first. I told him that I liked being a man and didn't want to become a eunuch. But he kept at me, and wore me down. He reminded me that I agreed to be modified according to his wishes, and this is what he wanted for me. Anything less would show that I wasn't really committed to the relationship. And besides, I was a total bottom and didn't really need my balls.
It took about a week before I agreed to be castrated. But I wasn't happy about it, believe me.
Q: How did he castrate you?
Michael had a friend who was into the eunuch scene. One night he came over with his bag of toys, and Michael told me that this was it. I was gonna lose my nuts then and there.
Q: Did you think of resisting?
I did for a minute, but deep down I knew there was no way. I just didn't want to lose Michael. I'd rather lose my balls.
Michael's friend restrained me on the living room floor while Michael videotaped us. He used an elastrator to put a band around my sack.
Q: That must have really hurt.
Hell yeah. It's liked getting kicked in the balls over and over again. I screamed for him to cut the band off, but he just kept on going, putting more bands on me. I had four bands around my sack when he finished.
I was rolling around on the floor screaming, while Michael just videotaped me. Eventually, my sack got numb and the pain subsided. I looked between my legs and could see my sack was a dark purple. I knew my balls were dying inside.
Michael and his friend left the room and turned out the light. I lay there for hours, crying because I was turning into a eunuch and there wasn't anything I could do about it.
Q: What happened then?
Eventually I fell asleep from exhaustion. Then the light switched on and I could see Michael's friend kneeling between my legs, touching my sack. I heard him tell Michael that my balls were dead.
Q: How did Michael react?
Very pleased. He bent down and felt around my sack. He said that it felt cold.
Michael's friend told me that I needed to keep the bands on. He said that eventually my balls and sack would dry up and fall off. I just nodded. What else could I do at that point?
Q: Did it happen just like Michael's friend said?
Yeah, a week or so later my package just fell off. Michael put it in a jar of alcohol to preserve it. It's on the table next to his bed.
Q: How did things go after that?
Michael was really loving to me. He kept saying how proud he was of me, how grateful that I had made the commitment to him. He even let me sleep in his bed.
Q: What about the sex?
We waited awhile after my castration, and then took it easy until I was completely healed. At first I was able to get hard, but as the weeks went by my erections began to disappear.
That pleased Michael. He liked fucking me and feeling my limp cock. It made his dominance over me even greater.
Q: When did he start talking about making you a nullo?
A couple of months after he took my nuts. Our sex had gotten to be just as rough as before the castration. He really got off on torturing my cock. Then he started saying stuff like, "Why do you even need this anymore?"
That freaked me out. I always thought that he might someday take my balls, but I never imagined that he'd go all the way. I told him that I wanted to keep my dick.
Q: How did he react to that?
At first he didn't say much. But he kept pushing. Michael said I would look so nice being smooth between my legs. He said my dick was small and never got hard anymore, so what was the point of having it.
But I still resisted. I wanted to keep my cock. I felt like I wouldn't be a man anymore without it.
Q: So how did he get you to agree?
He didn't. He took it against my will.
Q: How did that happen?
We were having sex in the basement, and I was tied up and bent over this wooden bench as he fucked me. Then I heard the doorbell ring. Michael answered it, and he brought this guy into the room.
At first I couldn't see anything because of the way I was tied. But then I felt these hands lift me up and put me on my back. And I could see it was Michael's friend, the guy who took my nuts.
Q: How did you react?
I started screaming and crying, but the guy just gagged me. The two of them dragged me to the other side of the room where they tied me spread eagled on the floor.
Michael's friend snaked a catheter up my dick, and gave me a shot to numb my crotch. I was grateful for that, at least. I remember how bad it hurt to lose my balls.
Q: What was Michael doing at this time?
He was kneeling next to me talking quietly. He said I'd be happy that they were doing this. That it would make our relationship better. That kind of calmed me down. I thought, "Well, maybe it won't be so bad."
Q: How long did the penectomy take?
It took awhile. Some of the penis is inside the body, so he had to dig inside to get all of it. There was a lot of stitching up and stuff. He put my cock in the same jar with my balls. You can even see the Prince Albert sticking out of the head.
Then they made me a new pisshole. It's between my asshole and where my sack used to be. So now I have to squat to piss.
Q: What has life been like since you were nullified?
After I got over the surgery and my anger, things got better. When I healed up, I began to like my smooth look. Michael brought friends over and they all admired it, saying how pretty I looked. It made me feel good that Michael was proud of me.
Q: Do you have any sexual feeling anymore?
Yes, my prostate still responds when Michael fucks me or uses the buttplug. And my nipples are quite sensitive. If Michael plays with them while fucking me, I have a kind of orgasm. It's hard to describe, but it's definitely an orgasm.
Sometimes Michael says he's gonna have my prostate and nipples removed, but he's just kidding around. He's happy with what he's done to me.
Q: So are you glad Michael had you nullified?
Well, I wouldn't say I'm glad. If I could, I'd like to have my cock and balls back. But I know that I'm a nullo forever. So I'm making the best of it.
Michael and I are very happy. I know that he'll take care of me and we'll be together always. I guess losing my manhood was worth it to make that happen for us.
Same question - different country:
- Does anyone know about the connectivity in Jamaica?
I understand you can get ADSL - but is it available everywhere or just in a few areas. Any alternatives to ADSL (I hate using modems)..?
we have sex in teh jjhjghjjhjhjjgjhjh
===============D~~~
\
fuck yuo
Keep a US credit card and drier's license, for when you return! Otherwise, TRW etc. forget who you are!!
The Deutsche Telekom sells flat-rate "T-DSL" for about 55 euros a month. The service is extremely reliable as compared to what I was used to in the states. However, it is a bit of pain to get the parts (three separate boxes) and get it turned on. Get some help from a German-speaking friend or soldier. (as a side bonus, with the flat DSL, you can call the US for 4 cents a minute)
They also sell time-based access cards on post, and on the economy, if you don't want always-on access.
Good luck!
Let me take this moment to wish you all a very joyful and hearty Heil Hitler !
with Aryan love,
Your American Cousin
Try typing in 'German Broadband' you bum.
Sounds like you've never heard of Google. Google is a so called search engine, it lets you search millions and millions of websites, looking for pages matching criterions specified by you. If you find it useful, please tell your friends about it, and maybe these search engines will catch on.
Find the local telephone companys and cable companys websites for a start. The find local computer magazines, they ought to have reviews of the local ISPs.
Try out fish, the friendly interactive shell.
From traveling in Germany, my impression is that you are likely to be able to get DSL perhaps more easily than in the US. The computer stores also seemed to have comparable kinds of gadgets, at comparable prices, although technology still tends to be released in the US before Europe (but sometimes it's the other way around). In some technology areas, such as cell phones, Bluetooth, and wireless Internet access, it actually seems a bit better. Dial-up is also very easy, with a choice of no-subscription pay-as-you-go dial-ins and subscriber based services. Again, it seems like more choice than we get in the US.
Everyone knows: Google is the Answer to Everything so remember these simple rules:
You use google.com in the U.S., use google.de whilst in Germany.
Trolling is a art,
ADSL Guide UK
xDSL is availble every where in european since there alot of people living here
:)
Simple huh
I fought the corporate America, and the corporate America bought the law.
The best deal for DSL seems to be from Deutsche Telekom. They have several different rate plans, so make sure you pick the flate rate one. It's like 25E/month. You'll probably get screwed anyway, b/c Telekom is basically the worst company on Earth. Instead of help and courtesy, you get insults and insolence. So be prepared. Also, if you want to get a mobile phone, make sure you get service from Vodafone, (aka D2/Arcor/Mannesman) not Telekom. Vodafone's cheaper, has better coverage, and is a multinational carrier, although you usually don't have any problems with that in Europe. Cheers!
As an American who is going to be living overseas for a few years (Germany, to be more exact), I'm curious as to what advice/information Slashdot could provide people like me.
My advice is this: don't go.
I have a close friend who got fed up with the constant state of (declining) flux here in the American technology job market. He'd had enough and figured to jump ship (no pun intended) and head over to Germany because everyone always said how nice Europe, especially Germany, was to work and live.
Unfortunately, he soon found out that meager pay (relative to the cost of living) was very common, and bad benefits were even more common. He was pulling in barely $32,000 USD per year and was living week to week trying to get by paying bills and taking care of his wife and baby girl.
I would advise you to please consider staying home. "The grass is always greener on the other side" as the popular saying goes. In this case, it firmly holds true.
31 people regularly point & click my G-spot
Actually, timothy, I'm an American living in Germany myself. Of course, it depends on where you are planning on living in Germany. I am signed up with freenet.de which has a couple of options. I am on the plan where it costs 89/100 of a euro cent (about 96 / 100 of a U.S. cent) per minute. There is no monthly fee, however, which means to hit the 20 US dollars per month you'd pay, I'd have to be on for about 37.5 hours. That seems to be the cheapest option for dial-up around here. http://www.einsundeins.com seems to have the best DSL rates. The DSL line will cost you about 20 euros per month (about 21.55 USD) and the service depends on what level you choose. Unlimitted is about 25- 30 euros, I've heard (26.94 USD - 32.32 USD), but I'd recommend looking into one of the time based of volume based plans. For me, it'd make more sense to get the 2GB per month plans for 9.90 euros (10.67 USD) as I can download files over the school's flat rate DSL for free, but I'll be leaving Germany in a few months (anyone know of any openings for an intro level tech job in the Moscow, Idaho area? :) ) and so I didn't want to pay an installation fee or anything like that.
Good luck.
I have no
I pay (I think) around 30 euros per month for 768/128 ADSL flatrate. I'm only not sure how much cause my girlfriend takes care of all of that stuff since I'm far too important (and it's all too complicated for me cause I'm also too dumb).
check out T-DSL, the service offered by the German Telekom, which is the phone company and also the biggest ISP. We got our cable modem thrown in for free when we signed up, don't know if they'll still give you that and they gave us a good price on a router/ISDN system/hub/ISDN modem/USB NIC wonderbox bursting with flashing lights too.
The german might be a problem when filling out the forms but most of the support people on the phone will be able to speak english
Build your own website - full service homepage system your m
This much I know. They have some built in ready to run config scripts for most German ISPs, including dial-up, cable and DSL. (From a somebody which runs SuSE on their server) Too bad they were useless to me, as I live in Canada.
My rights don't need management.
Americans asking stupid questions live overseas!!!
You have just entered room "Fat cock."
SuperPsaturn: Yeah?
SuperPsaturn: What reminded you of that?
sisyphusoni: gay butt
1
ADSL where available either direct from BT or several resellers (there are loads more). 512 down / 128 up costs about GBP 30.00 / month give or take.
There are two major cable operators in the uk, ntl: and Telewest. Both offer cable modem in almost all areas of their networks for about GBP 25.00 / month for 512 and 40.00 / month for 1M.
ntl couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.
Dude, I don't know what you've been reading/smoking, but no one hates Americans in Germany. There are a lot of people who strongly dislike the policies of the current Bush administration (and/or previous administrations), but that is not the same at all as hating Americans. And btw, you will also find a considerable amount of people in Germany who fully agree with Bush's policies and who disagree with their own governments' stance on that issue (even though they probably get hardly any coverage in the US). An anonymous German in exile in Britain ;-)
(I've been waiting for my new account's password to be mailed to me, but the mail just doesn't seem to come through).
If you live Italy, in one of the following cities:
:-)
Milan and province, Rome, Turin, Bologna, Naples and Genoa, thanks to FastWeb you can get 10Mbit optical fiber Internet access for about $70/mo (67 euros/mo).
Quite cheap and works like a charm
Over here in Germany, connectivity is actually no real problem:
w ww.telekom.de
;-)
Wired:
- Analoge and Digital (ISDN) lines, while ISDN is much more popular nowadays. Deutsche Telekom provides most of the normal telephone connections. Visit http://www.telekom.de . Prices for a regular ISDN line are about 25/$ a month for 2 phone lines with a total of 3 phone numbers. Setup is around 50/$.
- ADSL is a widely available option for either analoge or digital phonelines. Deutsche Telekom provides an ADSL-line for about 10 a month on top of your phonebill.
- Flatrates for ADSL are around 20-30 on top of the phonebill which already includes the charge for your ADSL-line.
Wireless:
-WLAN hotspots are coming up everywhere in big and small cities since some months. It's quite amazing how many nodes you can find within a day of WarDriving around Frankfurt, i.e.
-CellServices provide almost a complete coverage of the whole country. GPRS is widely available but still a little on the pricy side: 5cent for 10kb with my cell-provider "O2". Cell rates are usually 10-20 a month, calling-costs not included (average bill around 50 , if you don't hug the phone 24/7)
Hope this helps.
To get into much more detail visit:
http://www.billiger-surfen.de (cheaper-surfing)
http://www.onlinekosten.de (onlinecost)
http://www.mobileaccess.de
http://
http://www.heise.de
or go
http://www.google.de
and help yourself.
enjoy germany!
-benny
The scoop on Paris is that the local cableco monopolist is your best source for high speed. I pay about $44/month (about euros40). The company is called Noos -- www.noos.fr Crazy thing is that the transatlantic connection is fast enough for my Vonage voice-over-IP phone to work perfectly -- that is, the phone dials over IP back to the New Jersey servers, where it gives me a local US phone line. I'd look into that if you want to save on calling chums back in the states.
You will get pretty damn good pricing, if you go to the right area that offers it. Down here in Italy we have to wait for the Phone company to decide if they want to install it or not. I know around Frankfurt you can get a 100k connection for around 18 Euros.
This SIG pulled due to lack of funding. (This damn war is costing too much!)
Since your in the AF or work for them, why not ask your sponser? I'm sure they would have that info and if not the local housing office will.
This SIG pulled due to lack of funding. (This damn war is costing too much!)
OK,
When you get a phone, get at from the Deutsche Telekom and not from any other local carrier.
Why? Their rates might suck, but only if you use Deutsche Telekom can you use ALL call by call carriers which are billed by the normal telephone bill. The majority you can use without registering at the other phone company, so basically you check out which operator is the cheapest for a call, pick up the phone, and dial.
Calls to the US start at 4 cents per minute using Call by Call.
To check the cheapest rate and which call by caller operator to use, checkout www.teltarif.de
ISDN phone lines are very popular over here, you can get a special rate that calls on Sunday are free within Germany. These can also be used to call up an internet provider with "normal" telephone number. www.teltarif.de also has a list of these which you can use together with usernames/password.
Local phone calls are NOT free.
Internet dialup you also usually use call by call ones. Check out www.billiger-surfen.de to find out which operator is cheapest. Cheap ones start like 1 cent per minute. That's about the best rate you can get.
Flatrates for internet dialups do not exist.
Broadband:
DSL is the way to go, you need to get the DSL line from the Deutsche Telekom. And in addition to that, you must subscribe to an Online service, either the Deutsche Telekom's own (T-Online) where a 768kbit down/128kbit up costs 29.99 Euros per month with no limit regarding time or bandwidth. Note that this flatrate is not available if you use the 1500up/192kdown service. 1und1 (www.1und1.de) has better deals if you have less traffic.
Basically, for an ISDN telephone with the calls free on Sunday plus DSL 768Kbit, you would pay 41.27 Euros a month. Add to that the online rate (29,99 for t-online dsl flat)
If you sign up at 1und1.de you get a free USB DSL Modem, for 9.95 you get an ISDN telephone switch to which you can connect analogue phones to, and they pass on your request to the Deutsche Telekom. You also have to pay a setup fee, which is charged by the Deutsche Telekom, but doing it with 1und1 currently offers the best deal.
Hope this helps.
Does anybody know of how to get that kind of rate from the US to Germany? US phone companies seem to charge around 13 US cents per minute even with a monthly subscription (!).
Broadband Reports Specifically their forums and more specifically the international section of their forums
I'm an Australian who lived in America for most of my life and there became a bandwidth junkie, but now I live in Germany.
The transition has been totally smooth. German Deutsche-Telekom sell flat-rate DSL, and it's pretty good in my region - at least as good as what I was used to in LA.
There is less after-market competition - i.e. small regional ISP's, but some parts of Germany have good regional nets. Not really here in the Ruhr, my understanding is that its mostly DT.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Almost certainly not relevant, but you can call the USA from the UK for the price of a local call, if you use this dialthrough (also many other countries):
08452 445 445
http://www.telediscount.co.uk
Just got home from there, and connectivity is nice. Heck, even the mobile phones can get 384k and videoconference.
Geez Louise,
This thread is really getting on me ninnies...
Anyways, I live as an expat in Germany. DSL is trivial to get, try Deutsche Telekom although I do not not know if they are exactly the cheapest.
There is a website that contains a list of all the
German DSL providers (there are loads) but it is in German. Google for it (try DSL Deutschland). 768/128 DSL is available almost anywhere, and some providers (yahoo) does 1500 as well.
As far a cellphones are concerned the service is very good, but do yourself a favour and get a contract from Viag Interkom (now O2). They are the best, especially with their Genion at Home thingie. That is quite cheap.
It is possible to dial fairly cheap. www.billigtelefonieren.de should give you all the details you want on that, again, in German. You usually dial with a prefix code to get the different providers.
If you do not want to go DSL, ISDN is very much more wide-spread and cheap than in the US and pay-per call may be mucho cheaper than a DSL, depending on how much you are online. Now that DSL is getting very popular you can get cheapo ISDN cards second hand. ISDN is pretty OK for most things anywa, and with it you can call for free on Sundays for a few Euros per month extra.
Telekom does take a few weeks to install DSL due to a serious demand-driven backlog (and the !"!"ers do NOT tell you that they have done it, you have to try to see if it works!) but ISDN install is fairly quick (2 days in my case)
Telekom has been banned as of last year to give away DSL modems for free (it was stifling competition) so now you have to pay, a small DSL box with a router with 4 ports that can do masquerading and set with a web box is available for about 70 Euros, and one with a wireless port as well for about 200 (At media markt). I picked up an old Pentium 100 for 25 euros and Linux it and put up a ethernet card and a hub to use as a DSL router behind Deutsche Telekom DSL, works fine but at that time the routers were still expensive so a crouter is probably the cheapets way to go.
You can also get a hosted server (a complete Linux box with full root control) for 39 Euros per month.
Computers are generally more expensive than in the states but not too much. You can pretty much find everything you need, try www.arlt.com to get a feel for prices. (I buy there, do not work for them).
If you wish to know more, drop my a line on my home page.
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
Last I looked (9 months ago) you had to add ~30 EUR/mon for a fixed network phone to Deutsche Telekom's price of ~55 p. month for flat rate ADSL (768 up IIRC, may be 1024 now), because they only sold it together with that.
Ping times in Telekom's network have been notoriously bad, though that may get better. Service is terrible.
QSC has ADSL (1024 up) for ~80 EUR/mon (flat rate) with fast pings. This includes no news server and only 1 email address though. Then there is Arcor and lots of local network providers, prices don't differ much I think, service may
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
I too am an American going to live abroad, but in Canberra, Australia. How much for DSL? Who should I get it thru? And whgat the hell is the deal with metered accounts there?!? Everyplace I've been able to find thus far allows 500megs a month for a reasonable rate, then gouges you to high hell for anything over that!? What gives! Oh yea, and thanks!
"1984" was ment to be a warning, not a guidebook. You hear that Kim Jong-il!? BushCo?!
I understand (from the news) there's a website there that has lost it's webmaster...
Man, you're going to Europe, and your big question is how do I stay connected? Here's some better advice
Visit the Champagne region in France, the caves are incredible
Go to Paris and visit the Louvre and the Jeu de Pomme, and the L'Orangerie, and the Musee D'Orsay and the Pompidoux, and probably a hundred other museums
Go to Munich and visit the Science museum there.
If you're in Strasbourg, go eat a Tarte Flambee
Soak in the culture, don't waste your time online!
Just my two centimes
My other sig is extremely clever...
Forget broadband... rent a nice MB/BMW/Audi and hit the fastest roads in the world.
"Times may change, but standards must remain the same." - George Carlin.
Arcor is pretty nice, they have ADSL going for ?68, which is roughly $68. Here's more (german page).
http://www.broadbandchoice.com.au/
It is a subsite of http://www.whirlpool.net.au/
Whirlpool was originally a user bitch forum for Telstra Bigpond, but expanded to cover most of Australia's broadbnad ISP's. The forums at whirlpool are a good measure of customer satisfaction.
Stay away from Telstra - they prefer to use a sandpaper condom on their phallus.
Yay me!
UK cable unlimited broadband (128K) via NTL - £15 a month, compared to £10 pm for 56K dial-up. Not the fastest around, but since I'm not spending 24 hours a day downloading movies, I can live with it!
You must think in Russian.
What is the connectivity situation in Costa Rica?
I'll be moving to Japan -- probably Tokyo -- in the fall and will also be looking for a broadband connection. What are the services like over there? Any good (English) websites on ISPs in Japan someone can recommend?
I don't know if this matters or not, but I'll probably be using a Mac laptop by then. Will that be a problem over there in terms of internet access?
On a related note, does anyone know about what wireless coverage is like in Tokyo? I wonder if it would be worth getting an AirPort card.
hoser: Slashdot reader since 1987.
Keep your American status as low-key as possible. People will obviously be able to tell that you're from the US or Canada (or at least SOME english speaking country), but people are generally willing to accept you as a good (or bad) person regardless of your home, unless you make comments about how "America is saving the world."
Think this post is stupid? I've seen it happen too often. While wandering through the streets of Paris, I heard an American traveller comment to her husband about how "these people can't even get a Big Mac right!" Other countries have the same problem with their citizens abroad (England is a close second, Germany third in my opinion) but the US has a reputation for it and people will NOT give you a second chance if you make an arrogant comment.
Aside from that, have fun and soak up the culture.
Who cares about the UK? We are talking about Germany...
..you are american and Bush will invade their country if they are not nice to you. They'll probably believe it ;)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Link please??
DO NOT BUY FROM GERMAN TELECOM. Their DSL service is pretty reliable, but they'll send you bills for a year after you cancelled it (happened to me). If you are going to live in Hamburg, buy from HanseNet; they have 2MBit/Flat-fee for reasonable rates. In other parts of Germany, check out QSC - I am in Frankfurt and customer of QSC. No problems, 60Euro/flat-fee for 1Mbit downstream, but it doesn't come with voice connectivity.
1. Learn to speak German
2. Look at some websites, make some calls, do some research.
Why you expect the Slashdot community to RTFM for you boggles my mind. I don't think we should have any patience with lazy-ass posters like you.
Are you travelling to every country on earth, or do you have a destination in mind?
This stuff varies wildly from country to country, city to city.. there is no point in elaborating on the whole world.
The ultimate comparrison for Broadband in Australia can be viewed at: http://www.broadbandchoice.com.au/
For general news and info regarding broadband in Australia, visit: http://www.whirlpool.net.au/
Australia, The land of the free.... NOT!!! Unless you download less than 3GB, pay through the nose for that 3Gb but only when its working..... which is not all that offten... Thanks TELSTRA the big australian telco screwing us all!!
I will be spending some time in Baghdad. Any ideas about connectivity there would be appreciated. I need a reliable connection and I heard the Internet was designed to withstand a nuclear attack...
I don't know. I enjoyed having T1-speed access at my German dorm while I was there! :-)
Hey, I'm a movin' to Greece in the Fall, and I haven't been able to find any decent broadband isp's while searching online. Anyone know the state of highspeed wireless there? Or ground-based, for that matter?
I spent several years in Italy. The internet access there was 33.6 dialup when I arrived. The worst part about it was the fact that there is no "local call" there. Every call is charged by the minute.
Around '96, the ISP upgraded to 56k modems. In late '97 Telecom Italia offered ISDN. the line to the house was 2B+D (128kbps), but in traditional Italian fassion, they fucked it all up. You still had to pay connections per minute, and each channel was charged seperately. A 128k connection to my local ISP was about 2 or 3 cents per minute.
Telecom Italia upgraded, once agian, to ADSL in 2000. And, once agian, they fucked it up. They implemented ADSL using PPPoE. If you have not used PPPoE, your modem establishes a connection using a username/password. ISPs do this so they can monitor how much bandwidth you use. I paid $50 per month for the line, and another $50 per gigabyte of traffic.
I figured all my problems were over when I moved to Japan. Unfortunately, I live in an area (in Tokyo) that is not covered by DSL. I pay $30/month for 90 hours of 56k dialup. My only other real option is to use a cell phone to get wireless service at a cost of $100/month for 128k access. I have tried this, but the actual bandwidth is about 70kbps and the packet loss and delay is way too high to make it useful.
A new ISP is talking about wiring our neghborhood for 128kbps SDSL. They have mentioned a 1GB per month cap with no way to go over that ammount. They also want $50 per month with a $150 install cost. What really makes it hurt is that they guy down the street from me (150 feet away, but no LOS for a 2.4ghz link) pays $35/month for 100mbps fiber. Yep, he actually has fiber running into a modem sitting on his desk.
Sometimes, I wonder who I pissed off to get so screwed on internet access...
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
You want to know about broadband in different countries?
In New Zealand, there is one cable provider which charges NZ$76.95 / month for 256kbps and NZ$109.95 for 2Mbps. This includes the cable modem hire. They are cheaper if you take a package with phone line and/or cable TV.
ADSL, provided by the other telco costs more IIRC.
You make the mistake of thinking you can educate the fundamental stupidity out of people. You can't.
Here in Norway, dialup access was for a long time monopolized by Telenor (aka Telehor, which means Telehore), but over the past years, other providers have entered the market. For those unlucky creatures still on dialup, there are now plenty of available services without a monthly fee, and only ordinary phone rates (which are relatively reasonable here). On the broadband side, ADSL is by far the most common type. For a little while, the Swedish provider Bredbåndsbolaget operated here, offering 10(?) mbit lines for a very good price. Unluckily, only a handful of people (mostly in Oslo) ever got this, before Bredbåndsbolaget halted their activities in Norway. With them gone, ADSL and Cable remain as the connections of choice for private users. Two or three major providers dominate the ADSL market, and a fundamental problem is found here as everywhere else in the Norwegian telecom market: Telenor owns all the phonelines (from the days when they were the state owned "Televerket"). Still, some providers manage to deliver ADSL at a lower cost than Telenor, even though they have to pay Telenor for permission to use the lines. Apart from Telenor, we have only one provider that has its own ADSL centrals (the others share them with Telenor, at a cost). So, all in all, we have two major, competitive, ADSL providers, with their own centrals. As Telenor has recently imposed a ridiculous 1GB/month transfer limit on its cheapest services, customers are fleeing to the other provider. Damn I'm ranting now... anyway, as for the actual availability of ADSL, it is very good in the major cities (Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger in particular), but as Norway is pretty sparsely populated, it just isn't economic to expand the availability too much. Estimates show that half of all Norwegians will never get ADSL, simply because they live too far away from densely populated areas.
I spend each summer in Slovenia doing fieldwork for my graduate degree. Luckily, I have hooked up with a faculty at Univerza v Ljubljani. So I just go to an office and use my laptop. But if you don't have it good like that, my advice is to be careful according to your locale. The American model for dial-up is different from much of the rest of the world. I was shocked to get a phone bill with several hundred minutes of dialup charges for using the phone line AS WELL AS the minutes for connection to the internet. I only know dial-up but my advice in Slovenija is: pazi!.
Also, a caveat to travelers in Slovenia. Internet cafes are kinda non-existant in Ljubljana. You can get online at the Mobitel office across from Mladinska Knjigarna and in the Mueller department store just down the street from the Posta bus stop. That's about it for regularly available spots. If anybody knows of any place that isn't closed or half-open or generally flaky, let me know.
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
I'm in Germany, and was going to write about IDSN and DSL, but given that everybody and their dog has already done that, here's some other advice:
Beaurocracy!
Lots of it. You need the right piece of paper with the right stamp on it, or things don't happen. Probably the worst thing about Germany, this.
Learn German!
Yes, lots of them do speak English, but that's no reason for being lazy. As soon as you have to do anything important, you'll probably find yourself needing to communicate with someone who doesn't speak English. A little German will go a long way, especially in terms of the impression you make.
Get your lane discipline sorted.
Cruise on the right, overtake on the left, and then move back to the right. If there's a BMW behind you flashing his lights, don't worry too much - BMW drivers are like that. If it's some other make of car, you're going to slow - get out of that lane! They make nice cars in Stuttgart, by the way.
Watch out for speed cameras
They take your photo from the front, so there's no "it wasn't me" excuses. There are both stationary cameras on posts and mobile units (hidden in hedges or wherever). More than 30km/h over the limit can result in a 1 month driving ban.
Watch your speed on the Autobahn
Not all of the Autobahn has no speed limit. Where there is one, it's clearly marked. Where there isn't one, enjoy yourself! Be aware that having no speed limit doesn't often help, due to the volume of traffic (and the guy three cars ahead, going way too slow in the overtaking lane).
Most bottles have a deposit on them
So take them back to the supermarket. Germans like to buy drinks by the crate. Look for a "Getränkemarkt" if you're thirsty.
German beer is stronger than US beer
Purity laws and all that. The lack of nasty chemicals means you can get hammered and not have a major hangover next morning. Make sure you get to the world's biggest Fest - the Oktoberfest in München (not called Munich on Germany!), or the second biggest - the Volksfest in Stuttgart. If you want an English-speaking pub, look for an "Irish Pub". It's a chain (I think). There are quite a lot now; they stock Guiness too.
There are no Reeses Pieces
If you find somewhere that sells them, post it on Slashdot :-)
Not as many really fat people
This one will only hit you when you go back to the US...
.... don't tell anyone you're an American.
"She's a West Texas girl, just like me" - G.W Bush Iraqis
answering the fucking question, or shutting the fuck up.
kthxbye
The Speedy is a service of telefônica, a Spanish company which act in Brazil,specially in São Paulo.your packages have much prices and different Speeds:256Kbps until 2Mbps. more informations in your site: http://www.speedy.com.br best regards. Blueice88
Just for comparison
.ee (Estonia, not that you've heard of it :)
In
512/128 cable is about 18$/month flat.
256/64 adsl is 18$/month flat.
When I first moved to Germany in 1994, there was little information available for expatriots. It was all pretty much learning by doing. I recently spent about a year and a half in LA and returned to Germany at the end of last year with my girlfriend, who does not speak German. While looking for orientation materials for her (actually an experienced expat), I discovered that the amount of information has expanded greatly.
One really useful site is How To Germany, which includes a brief overview and a nice link to an online comparison chart. The best computer magazin in the world had an entire section devoted to the best and cheapest DSL/cable internet service at the end of last year. Unfortunately, you will have to learn German to read the article (The issue's TOC is here, if you want it---and this is reason enough to want to learn German.)
Allolex
Since most IT jobs will probably be moving to India from the US, anybody have any similar advice for there?
Although France Telecom's Wanadoo is the biggest player among the general public, Free is generally agreed to have the best offers overall, is the most popular among the tech-savvy, and is very Linux friendly too.
Modem/ISDN Dial-up
An analog phone line subscription with France Telecom is 13/month. ISDN maybe twice as much. And then:
Broadband options
Wireless connectivity
I suugest you inform yourself at the sites like onlinekosten.de mentioned in the other posts. T-DSL is available at 786Kb/s downstream 128 Kb/s upstream as flatrate. Higher speeds aren't flat anymore. When living in a metropolitan area it's often possible to get better connectivity from local Telcos. For Dusseldorf there is ISIS, for Cologne there is Netcologne and so on, in Mannheim you can have Powerline, in some other areas cable. Then there is www.qsc.de, www.arcor.de, www.versatel.de, www.komtel.de and so on. I would avoid the Deutsche Telekom under all possible circumstances!
To the Canadian who so recently reamed the entire U.S. nation:
Yes, America has problems - partly because we have some of the most liberal immigration laws in the world. East Asian "yacht people" and light-skinned Indians are all right, but Canada doesn't allow but a trickle of immigration from Latin American and African countries. America's increased rates of immigration and wide variety of races and ethnic groups may lead to some strife, but they keep our birth-rate steady and our culture vibrant, unlike Canada which can't ever really decide if it actually wants to exist or not and is rife with separatist movements, e.g. Quebec, British Columbia and even Ontario.
http://www.tempestcom.com
They dont charge any monthly fees so you can sign up and only pay for what you use.Canada: land of great beer, free health care, separatist movements, and trolls (both garden variety internet and elected official)
From Slate:
On Wednesday, at the end of a "media scrum" about Iraq, Canadian Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish was captured by TV cameras saying, "Damn Americans. I hate those bastards." When Daniel Leblanc, a reporter from Toronto's Globe and Mail asked her to explain the remark, she threatened to restrict journalists' parliamentary access if it was reported, telling him, "If you guys want to keep the privilege of working in that area without being held back, I would be very careful with this one." The press ignored her attempted intimidation and publicized the remarks.
If you're in NRW, you can get Cable for 45/month. It's 2048/512kbit, flat fee. Phone is only 5 extra.
100Mbps (that's 100 meg) fiber connection
to an apartment: Y10,000 per month (about $80)
from NTT, add Y2,000 per month ($15) for a
dedicated IP address and other ISP services
including netnews, etc.
12Mbps DSL service to an apartment: Y2,900 per
month ($25) from NTT or Yahoo! Japan.
128Kbps wireless service, with stunningly
complete coverage from anywhere in the
country: Y9,000 per month ($75) from KDDI.
[Interesting technology -- wireless ISDN
32Kbps B-channels are ubiquitous. The
card in the laptop bonds four of them for
128Kbps access.]
All numbers and services based on personal
experience here in Tokyo.
Canada's immigration laws are even more liberal than America's. In fact they have come under fire by many in the Bush administration worried about border security. It is (wrongly) perceived that Canada is a sieve for terrorists, that they first enter Canada because it is easier, then cross the border into the US.
As for immigration from Latin America and Africa. Gee I'm sure hearing a lot a Spanish on Canadian streets these days. I'm sure they're not all from Spain. Most blacks in Canada are from the US or the Carribean but more and more are from Africa.
BTW Toronto in the most culturally diverse city in the world and Vancouver is not very far behind.
Yes Canada has its problems with regionalism and sometimes separatism but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
while keeping in mind what everyone else has said, just remember that this is Germany. they will look straight at you and repeat exactly the same thing they just said as if they did not hear your question about what they just said. you will _need_ to have a German friend help you through the mazes of red-tape and bureaucracy.
my father's German wife used to be the Deutsche Telekom liaison for the military in Wiesbaden. you would not believe how many military would not understand the system which is why they had her in the job. she made sure the military stationed over there understood all the ramifications of getting hooked up to DT. just be lucky you are military and won't have to be paying a horsepower tax or a t.v. tax
I'm good with numbers -
Get your computer hardware (Notebook) in the US.
Apple 15" Powerbook:
US:
$2,799
Germany:
~$3.745
Simmilar differences are valid for x86 systems.
Also note:
- Learn metrics and learn to put colons and dots in your numbers the proper way (10.000,99 not 10,000.99).
- Use 24h format
- Drink Paulaner, Bitburger or any Alt only, do not try any flavour of Koelsch.
- Remember: A drivers license is not a valid ID in any country I know, except US.
- Drink your coffee in cafes and not in Starbucks
- Smoke your weed in the coffee shops provided in the netherlands and not in germany.
- get your dsl from t-online, less trouble.
and last but not least:
Shop your food before the shops close! CHECK OPENING TIMES, no shop open after 21
Nobody understands that american something outside of the US.
You do not want some Portugese speak better (int) english than you, do you?
Some hints:
- Open your mouth when you speak
- Say the letters the way they are supposed to be said.
- Buy an English learing tape IN EUROPE (to ensure it is not contaminated with an american teacher speaking), english for beginners is just fine.
If you are in urban area of Tokyo, it's no
problem to gete ADSL. I have 12M ADSL w/ 2,000 yen. Effective connection speed is up to 6M, though, in comparison with a friend of mine's experience in California. I have no complaint.
# The not well-knows fact is Area of Tokyo Met. includes most desolated islands in pacific ocean. be careful.
Some DSL provider are servicing VOIP phone service with very discount rate to call US(1.5$ per hour to call US in my case).
The problem is to get service by English. Every DSL provider is very domestic. The very recommendable first step is to look for Japanese speaking friend knowing ADSL.
ADSL is very popular in Japan. Most of my friend has moved from dial up/ISDN to ADSL. but it depends on segment and industory.
Through companies like Vonage, IConnectHere or Packet8 you can get a US phone number for about $20/month including plenty of minutes for US calls. You also get very low rates to the US (since it thinks you have a US line) and reasonable rates to germany. The quality with a Cisco ATA186 is as good as a landline or with a softphone (headset) is cell-phone like supercheap. And you can just use your mobile phone for calls to germany.
Addition:
- You can not have DSL in Germany without a phone line.
- If you think of broadband in germany, you say DSL.
Unfortunately, you're wrong about the immigration. I say "unfortunately" because Canada is so dim-witted as to allow a slow takeover by the Chinese. Think I'm being stupid? A racist? Consider this: according to the 2001 census, the number one country of origin in British Columbia is the People's Republic of China.
If you don't know why that's bad, then I suggest you look into it. How about this: my dog bringing home parts of a butchered black bear, poached for its gall bladder for use in crackpot Chinese "medicine". The Lonely Planet guide for B.C. mentions the Chinese "colonisation" of Richmond (a Vancouver suburb); a friend of mine was refused service in a store there because she doesn't speak Chinese. And the saddest part is she saw nothing wrong with that.
There's a lot more: forged documents, corruption, faked driver's license scandals, etc.
We have lots of different providers offering different access technologies. Some are good, some are very good and a few are exceptional. :-)
* Dial-up
Dial-up is mostly dead. You never see any ads for it anymore. Usually charged at the same per-minute rate as phone-calls (2c/min). No distinction is made between local calls and long-distance anymore, they cost the same (most of the cost is in the local loop anyway).
* Cable
There are a number of different cable operators. They all have different prices and plans, but it's very common to pay between $20 and $30 for the basic connection (which usually is between 512/128 and 1024/512, all depending on local operator). Available in most cities.
* DSL
One major operator (Telia) has had what can only be described as a monopoly on DSL service. It is getting better, and local DSLAMs from other operators are being set up in the markets with the biggest customer base (large cities). Telia offers a 512/512 plan for about $35 with no UL/DL restrictions. Other operators are now offering DSL up to 2.5M/512, but at a premium and usually only in large cities. Availability is pretty good, and service has been very reliable for all of my friends.
* Ethernet
Several municipalities have set up local fiber or Ethernet networks in the cities. I happen to live in Gavle, the city with perhaps the best local network of them all. Unfortunately I don't live in a house connected to the network. We also have a few other operators that install Ethernet, the biggest being BBB (Bredbandsbolaget). Prices range from $20 to $50. Personally I have a 2M/2M connection that costs $22 (100Mbit Ethernet in my apartment, router in basement that does bandwidth limiting, 155Mbit fiber to local POP for the backbone, VERY nice RTT to most places around the globe).
* Wireless
Don't really know how the market looks like for wireless access points. Haven't seen much about it.
Free your mind!
The powerbook price is including 16% tax.
"Don't mention the war!"
In Moscow it was like 400 bucks for installation and then 80 bucks/month. It was a little better in Kazan -$300 something for installation but still around $70 or $80/month for service. BTW I've been to Latvia and Lithuania... I heard that estonia's nice though.
Ya, over there it all runs off tin cans and string... pompice american fuck
...you're going to need an adaptor.
Blarf.
That some countries also have flushing toilets as well. :P
Broadband via cable TV is available, but cable modems are a fairly new thing over there and many apartments don't have the cable lines anyway. (Take a look at any apartment building in Japan and you'll see dozens of those mini satellite dishes perched on the balconies.) However, if you want cable TV and broadband Internet, you can get a pretty good deal by combining the two -- about 80 USD/month. You might need a local friend to help you, though, because most cable providers don't have English-speaking customer service.
If you just want the Internet access, a better option is ADSL, which has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years. Before ordering, you first need to decide whether you want land-line (as opposed to cellular) phone service. If you want a land line, get ADSL Type I, which includes phone service and Internet access. If you plan to get a cell phone in Japan, choose ADSL Type II, which provides Internet access only, but for a lower price.
The cheapest ADSL service is probably Yahoo! Japan BB, but they don't provide any English support, not even for sales. You're better off going with a company that has a dedicated English-speaking support line such as Global OnLine or eAccess. Unfortunately, these providers usually serve only the larger metropolitan areas, so if you're in a suburb or a smaller town, your only choice might be good old NTT. All you have to do is call the English-speaking sales line for NTT (the number depends on whether you live in the east or in the west) and tell them you want ADSL Type II. They'll be happy to hook you up for about 25 USD/month, and you can rent an ADSL modem from them for another 5 USD/month. Important tip: NTT will send you a CD-ROM containing PPPoE drivers that only work with the Japanese version of Windows, so you should download the freeware program RASPPPOE before you go and bring it along with you. It's compatible with NTT's ADSL modems.
There's another catch: Because NTT only provides the physical ADSL connection, you'll need to find an ISP that supports ADSL. I got mine through OCN for about 20 USD/month. They offer sales and support in English.
The Macintosh has about the same percentage of market share in Japan as in the U.S. (in other words, not much), so you can expect the same level of support and availability over there that you'll find here. I expect it's entirely possible to hook up your Mac to a Japanese ADSL modem, but don't expect much technical support if things go wrong. (I had no trouble connecting through my Linux laptop once I got the Roaring Penguin configuration set up right.) As for 802.11b, coverage is almost non-existent, although just about everyone over there does email wirelessly through their cell phone. Text messaging and services like DoCoMo are far more popular than the Internet in Japan, at least for now.
You should visit the ISP Japan FAQ for more details. You might also want to check out my Japan page for tips on living and working in Japan.
While you are in Europe, you might decide to spend some quality time overhere. I live in Siberia and pay 720 rubles (~$23) for an dial-up 56k intetnet package that comes with free nights plus 50 hours anytime.
Surely a rip-off by us standards, but much better than it was 4-5 years ago. Community local ethernet networks are also very popular, mostly for film/music sharing and game playing.
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
funny.
I'm going to be visiting Germany this summer, and while I won't be living there, I'm going to need to access a computer to stay in contact with people I know in the US. I'll be staying in Potsdam for a few weeks and then traveling around to Munich and then up the Rhine for a while. I'll be mainly staying in hostels while not in Potsdam. Anybody know how I could find places to access a computer while I'm there? I don't need much, just the ability to access my email.
I have friends in Potsdam, so that leg of the trip isn't a problem. And I do speak quite a bit of German, so throw those links this way!
Slashdot is a waste of time. I enjoy wasting time.
First off, you'll want a native German speaker to help you get the right package. Imagine calling SBC (my DSL provider) and trying to get service speaking to htem in German, with your only English phrases being "beer", "toilet", and "I want to pay." Right.
Second, it's Germany, so you might as well use Telekom since they're the dominant carrier and have the best chance of having reliable service in your area. The tariffs are online at the T-DSL site in a pop-up that has something like 13 choices for connectivity, including flat-rate (EUR30/month), per-minute by day, per-minute by night, dial-up, and capped monthly download limits. This is a fine example of that special German rule fetish, but since Germans can actually read and comprehend tables they can get away with it. Once again, get a native speaker to translate; with so many choices one will meet your needs.
Third, you're dealing with a phone company. You might have excellent luck and flawless service in a week, or months of hell and people giving you abuse in a language you don't understand. It's a crap shoot, but it's fun once you get the hang of it. Once it's up and running it should be as solid as DSL in any civilized country and you'll never think about it until you leave. And if you do have problems, at least the beer is good.
ellbee
You can't fight in here - this is the war room!
...that do not wet your bottom when you poop inside. Damn american 'plums klos'.
Thanks for all of your input! I really appricate it! I have done some research previous to the posting. In a perfect world I would have included this info in the first post (stupid non-perfect world).
The best bet I've seen pricing and server host-ability wise (I've got a FTP/DNS/Web/etc server to throw on the line) is FunnelWeb. Anyone have any experience with them? I kinda fancy their 512/128 @ $67 AUD/month (although with that damned 500meg download limit), but it does include a static IP.
So... Canberra, least 128 downstream, least 500meg download/month, static IP? Anyone? I'll be checking out these providers in the next day or 2. Thanks again for all the help!
"1984" was ment to be a warning, not a guidebook. You hear that Kim Jong-il!? BushCo?!
All americans have diarrhea, that's why we do not have problems with flooded toilets.
"Telecom Italia upgraded, once agian, to ADSL in 2000. And, once agian, they fucked it up. They implemented ADSL using PPPoE. If you have not used PPPoE, your modem establishes a connection using a username/password. ISPs do this so they can monitor how much bandwidth you use."
I have to use PPPoE. My modem doesn't do anything with PPPoE - it syncs up with the DSLAM and then my router (or in its absence, desktop computer) establishes the PPPoE connection.
Personally I think PPPoE is a good thing. It gives me a choice of ISPs for a reasonable price. Without PPPoE, I would probably be forced to use my telcos inferior service. My ISP actually offers non-PPPoE DSL access, but it is almost twice the price and would take three weeks longer to set up. Oh, and I have a static IP address with my PPPoE connection. PPPoE allows me to chose from hundreds of ISPs, and be online very quickly.
Finally, PPPoE has nothing to do with monitoring bandwitdth consumption, although it does apparently make it easier via my ISPs Radius server. However, the local cable company has been planning to introduce bandwidth quotas (often miss-called "caps") for some time. They are DHCP based.
After living in Germany for I while I know what you mean about billing not stopping when you want it to. It's not restricted to Deutsche Telekom.
My experience is that German companies don't understand customer service in the same sense we expect it here in North America.
If you need to terminate an account, or contract or insurance or anything else doing it by phone despite them having customer phone service, generally doesn't work.
The billing departments generally aren't up to speed and it can take a few months (if ever) for things to trickle from phone services to them.
>>>> Cancel all contracts etc... in writing with a letter by mail (keep a copy).
All that being said, I've had some nightmare companies here in Canada too... in particular
ISPs. A friend of mine fought for months to cancel a particular ISP account...
----- "Profanity is the one language that all programmers understand."
I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I've had DSL for the better part of 2 years now and will never go back. And it's only 35 Canadian pesos per month. Cheap. :)
Cable modems are a bit pricey, tho. I think they finally came down to ~$45/month, but it slower and you still have the security problems.
You do not need to wear your Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie all the time. ...however, you will have to wear 'leder hosen' if you move to Bavaria, though.
Imagine the look on your face when your european allies say "this is not our war".
Europe unwilling to defend civilization? Well, the look on my face certainly wouldn't be surprise...
ASA
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
IF you read their term and service they reserve the right to bill again you up to after 2 years after a bill if there is a need to be a correction. For example they forgot 1 month of DSL of my bill+montage cost I got billed 15 monthes after.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
No, I would be surprised. That would mean the French hand't already surrendered!
Yes, it's a blog. Sorry if that offends you.
I'm an American living in Malaysia and have had DSL here (TMnet Streamyx from state run telecom)for about 4 months. I pay 20 USD a month for a 384/128 connection. It's great, now I can watch Sopranos & DL just about any movie. The stuff I download looks better than the pirated VCDs you can get here. Cost of living is cheap, I pay 125 a month USD for a 5 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood. Food is great and cheap, about 10 USD for good seafood dinner for 2. ;)
The downside, racism like I have never experienced before in my life - The Muslim Malays get a free ride on the backs of the people that do the real work, Indians and Chinese. The press is censored heavily. People tend to tolerate it because food is good and cheap... And if you make a fuss they will throw you in prison and let you rot without ever charging you with anything.. go figure! Oh, I forgot.. MANDATORY DEATH PENALTY for drugs.. example,, 7 ounces of pot = hung till dead. Other than that... Life is food...I mean good..
It is also a legal issue. In general, German law doesn't allow for oral contracts. If you stay in Germany for a while you will notice that almost every significant transaction is covered by written contract including all leases and matters of employment.
As a result, entering into or cancelling contracts over the phone are discouraged and you will find that most companies will ask you to either fax or mail a contract or cancellation request. Make sure you sign it too or you just wasted at lesat $.50 in postage or whatever you just paid for faxing it.
"Light is faster than sound." - "Is that why people tend to look bright until you hear them speak?"
LUGs, etc. would be of interest as well. thanks
Tech Public Policy stuff
Classifying the whole of Sydney as a DSL disaster area is going a bit far. Where do you live in Sydney? There's certainly no problem with it where I am (Milsons Point).
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Dude, I live near Stutgart. I've been living in Germany for 11 months. All phones are ISDN. I have DSL for about $22.00 per month from T-Online. T-Online is part of Deutch Telecom. Deutch Telecom is a state sanctioned momopoly. There are other DSL providers for about the same price. I know one person who uses a provider other than T-Online and he is satisfied. Check this, it is all PPP over ethernet! T-Online connection software totally sucks. It will totally screw up your computer. I only used the DSL drivers and had no problems. After I installed my little LinkSys DSL Router that supports ppp over ethernet things are okay. I'll provide more info if you want me to. After I signed up and started paying the monthly access fee it too three weeks to get my pass word and that was how the system was supposed to work. Write if you have questions for me. Later jim
Every other country in the world likes to think they are superior to the U.S. Let them. You will never win the argument. Always remember - eventually you get to go home. They are always stuck with what they have.
Err.. not.
We all know why everybody wants to invade Poland.. because of our beautiful women.
There you have it.. German women are nasty. Seriously, I was in Germany this summer for ONE month, and I saw maybe half a dozen hot girls.
But they were all on Television, and from Poland.
Sucks to be you, bro.
POLSKA #1!!@!@!@!@
I am an American and I have been living in northern Germany (Hamburg area) for just over a year now. I pay 29 Euro a month for unlimited dsl. It's pretty reliable. Just make sure you speak fluient German if you want to call tech support they only have a few English speaking people. I haven't been able to get connected to it without using their GERMAN ONLY software package except by using a funky little router (netpassage 15-b). They us their own protocal as far as I can tell and this is the only router I have found that will work with it.
"Sex is a very natural and wholsome thing, but only if it isn't done right." Welcome To Paradox
You asked for rates around the world, so here's what I pay in Bangkok: 1,400 Thai baht (about US$34) for 100 hours of dial-up. Don't know about broadband, nor can I comment on connectivity outside Bangkok. Service here varies from pretty good to impossibly horrible. Convincing your ISP's service desk that you don't use any Microsoft products at all can cause patches of bloody scalp to collect on your floor. Mentioning Galeon and Evolution leaves the ISP rep totally speechless.
Tell people you're Canadian. :-)=
--
bits and peace
Nicholas Daley
which means he is going to be in his US Army base all time, in their little yankee town with a little yankee mc donalds and a little yankee burger kind and a little yankee food shop. drink their coffee in little yankee starbucks. he will drive a huge yankee pickup around the base and pay his gasoline in dollars per gallon and not buy petrol in euros per liter.
those guys need a visa to leave their base and will be treated as terrorists if they want to come back in (coz they left it in the first place. how unpatriotic an you be to leave this beautiful yankee mini town?)
you loosers. and you thought he is going to need your help!
You actually *can* use a different From-line with a T-DSL account. But you have to pay for that - approx. 3 Euros a month. Check out the "SMTP relay" information on the T-Online pages.
of the voltage and standard changes...
makr sure your appliances, especially you computer is dual voltage, and check the settings before you plug in your equipment. Otherwise, boom ! Fried power supplies.
If you take your DSL router from the US, as in my case, I had to buy a special transformer for the linksys box i had (220v ac to 24v ac).
As we are speaking dsl routers, make sure that your dsl router supports the terribly long usernames of t-online/deutsche telekom...
Good luck and have fun with relocationg...
In Israel, if you have dial-up this is how your fees get assessed:
1. Pay about $15.00/month to your ISP (ex. Netvision)
2. Pay per-minute charges to your telephone carrier (Bezeq)
In Israel you don't pay a flat rate for local calls per month. You pay per minute:
1. Between 7:00am - 7:00pm it's about $0.03/minute
2. Between 7:00pm - 7:00am (including weekends) it's about $0.006/minute
cheap american bitch!
...after they destroued that anti-semitism bubble and started killink thousands of innocent palestinians for nothing, except wrong politics.
jews are/was respected everywere around the world, even in germany.
Speak German and you will get a real world connection which is much better than any broadband connection.
English speaking people will get a working knowledge of German quickly (in about 3 months my guess) since the languages are both Germanic.
My native language is Danish and I worked in France 12 months. After I learned some French the stay was much more fun, you will probably experience the same thing.
-- From Denmark
I'm an American who has lived in Europe (Germany, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic) now for 8 years. And I won't go back. I'm contracting in Switzerland at around 85US/hr for, get this, VB Script! It is more expensive for some things over here, and cheaper for others, so it takes some getting used to. And nothing beats the quality of life here. For example, the crime rate in Germany, and Switzerland especially, is next to nothing. I couldn't give Europe a higher recommendation.
American living in Germany.
Move someplace near the city so you can get DSL, which is relatively cheap here. If you're too far out like me you'll get stuck with ISDN or 56K at a metered rate (don't even consider using Kazaa).
Also if you live near a city you can get a combo PDA/phone from a company called O2 (cheaper than Telekom), with decent GPRS rates. You can even get mobile calls at land-line prices if you're within a certain area you specify.
Where else would we run into things like this.
For performance bench of the various DSL see
http://www.grenouille.com !
To browse offers of various DSL ISP http://www.lesproviders.com
The best at this time is free.fr providing a DSL512k for 29.99 ! When available on DSL zone, if you choose the "degroupage", this extendeds the offer to a DSL1024 for 29.99...
Some other provider also offer quite interesting solutions : http://www.dslvalley.com
thats some crazy shit.
ADSL: Provided by the ex-monopolist Swisscom and many resellers at about 50 CHF (35 /$) per month for 256 kbps.
Cable: Depending on your location, your cable access is controlled by Cablecom (which now also offers telephony services) or small, regional providers. Here's Cablecom's English page. Prices tend to be slightly higher than ADSL.
Just call the corporations I mentioned if you' re interested, virtually everybody in Switzerland speaks English.
but then, who doesn't bitch and moan. It will give you an idea of what most gives people the irrits. Just remember that anyone who has _found_ those forums is probably a 'power user' :P
Yay me!
Skip Oktoberfest in München. It is crowded horrible and bloody expensive.
Thing is, you can get the same Oktoberfest feeling and experience anytime in München by just going there and hanging around in any of the large beergardens OUTSIDE off the Oktoberfest time. Besides, the weather in end September sucks in comparison to say June or April.
Btw, if you DO go to the fest do NOT go on the roller coaster with your boss after drinking 2 liters of beer....
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
i live in korea(s. korea) i don't have a single friend who still uses a modem. ADSL, VDSL is the norm here. ADSL costs about 20$~35$ per month with bandwidth ranging from 1 Mbps to 10 Mbps.
For very verbose Linux configuration guidelines check out ADSL4Linux.de.
Oh, and don't forget to learn german, it will help a lot in everyday life (though you'll manage to survive without).
Get some help from a German-speaking friend or soldier Gib mir T-DSL oder Ich schiess dir!
---
"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
This is offtopic, but beware of foreign keyboard layout if you are going overseas... For example, on German keyboard, 'z' and 'y' are switched compared to US layout (I heard this was due to 'z' being more common in German than 'y'... I only know German a bit, but I think this makes sense) Also, many other keys are switched to accomodate accent keys and other extras.
When zou tzpe zour e-mails in Germanz, make sure it does not look like this sentence... It can even trip some reallz good tzper.
make sure you get a nice router to connect your laptop/pc lan to the dsl connection.
DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT, BUY ANY Eumax equipment. This stuff is usually Telekom branded and it SUCKS bigtime.
I would suggest buying a small netgear DSL router, stable and easy to setup.
There are a lot of posts about T-DSL from the Telekom. While T-DSL is available almost everywhere in germany, there are quite a few local carriers in bigger citys. For example i am a customer of Hansenet, a local carrier in Hamburg.
Hansenet gives you a 2048/192 DSL flatrate for about 55EUR/month including ISDN and free local calls to all Hansenet customers. ( Most of my friends are )
In Germany, dynamic vs. static IP addresses are used to separate business and private Internet connectivity (and dynamic addresses are reassigned every 24 hours). For some applications, this doesn't matter, of course. Actually, business Internet access isn't too expensive either, but you usually pay per volume, so you can't afford all this P2P stuff...
If you also need secure and fast connections to your remote US exchange server
try HiPerExchange , works great even on slow lines and on exchange 2000 with SSL
So, you are traveling to the old Europe, and the most important thing you need to know is the availability of broadband access?
Funny life must be yours, really.
Deutsche Telekom does sell DSL but for only 15 Euro/month. What he is referring to is the additional flat rate sold by T-Online, which is a separate company (but you get your bill through Deutsche Telekom, which is a bad thing, because if there is something wrong, you end up struggeling with two incompentent departments instead of one! I was a T-Online customer, and I know why I am no longer (see my homepage http://www.s2h.cx for the reason (German only)).
There aren't many alternatives to T-DSL (but there are some, see below) but there are many alternatives to T-Online. It pays to look for the best offer, not only money-wise but also in terms of security and hassle.
I myself am using 1&1, who sell a range of T-DSL tariffs: Online time based, volume based and a so called "Fair Flatrate", which means if you stay online less than 100 hours a month, you pay less. (They offer T-DSL based access countrywide.)
In the Bonn/Cologne area there is NetCologne and QSC, both offering phone and internet hookup independently from Deutsche Telekom. Many of my collegues are using Q-DSL from QSC and like it. The main advantages are higher bandwith and a lower ping time (for online gaming), but it is a bit more expensive, if you are not a student.
In other areas of Germany there are also local providers. I don't know much about these.
twm
Don't use this internet service, it's too expensive. Look at www.teltarif.de once you are in Germany. They have definitive information about all the current competitor's prices for calls to any country in the world, and within Germany.
Only thing you need to do is dial a provider prefix. Calls will be billed by Deutsche Telekom, which should be where you get your landline from.
Doesn't apply to calls originating from your cell phone. Cell phone use is NOT recommended for international calls from Germany - too expensive, unless you have an O2 Genion plan and are within your 1km diameter homezone.
Current cheapest offer using a provider prefix is 3c/min - 25% less than the internet service, and better quality.
DSL: Most offers use Deutsche Telekom's hardware for the DSL service. The flat rate, however, doesn't have to be Deutsche Telekom's. Check out www.tiscali.de - they are 10.00/mo cheaper.
For your reference: As an American living in Sweden, I get broadband from a company called "B2" for roughly $20/month. It's excellent: just a plain 'ol RJ45 ethernet jack in my wall (no special equipment), I get as many (real) IP addresses as I want from their DHCP server, and it's 10MBPS to the local switch, which is connected to a fiber loop (don't know how fast, but it's plenty fast). Good luck!
This is some info for DSL in China. It is super cheap! According to the latest information, ADSL service in major cities offers four monthly plans for residential customers: 60 yuan ($7.2) for 45 hours (@512Kbps), 80 yuan ($9.6) 60 hours (512Kbps), 120 yuan ($14.5) for 60 hours (@1Mbps) and 130 yuan ($15.7) for unlimited use. For extra time outside allowance, the charge is .05 yuan a minute or 3 yuan an hour, or .07 a minute or 4.2 yuan an hour for the 120-yuan plan. Access fee for business and residential customers is 900 yuan which includes installation/testing, and modem. There is 400 yuan ($48.2) for access from LAN; 500 yuan ($60) if using a PCMCIA card, and 700 yuan ($84) for USB interface. In March 2002, Railcom began to offer ADSL in Beijing with a flat monthly fee instead of hour-based plans. Its lowest monthly fee is 150 yuan ($18) at 512Kbps; other datarates include 1Mbps and 2Mbps. Cost for ADSL service is falling rapidly; Beijing, for example, has recently slashed installation charge to 300 yuan ($36), and is running a promotion of 50% off regular monthly charges through June 2003. In Shanghai, broadband service has fallen to 180 yuan ($21.7) for installation charges and 100 yuan ($12) for unlimited use.
In Japan letting people know you are an American is a good thing. In fact, if you are foreign, the only chance you have of being respected is if you are American. The Japanese people love Americans on the whole, however are extremely impartial to everyone else. Lately this especially goes for Europeans and any country associated with the U.N. (not including U.S.A.) for what should be obvious reasons (failure to support America causing force diversion leaving N.Korea able to attack easy; being completely neglected by EU nations in any international dealings over and over again; oh and giving N.Korea nuclear material/reactors/scientists sound like a GREAT idea U.N., you FUCKTARDS!).
You may want to check out the American Book Center in Amsterdam, or The Hague, or Leuven. Apart from american books they stock some american foods.
Most of what you say about the US mobile phone system vs the european is true, but you miss some things though.
... and it cost me money/minutes to answer and hear the screeeech sound... :-( )
In Europe you pay phone calls per minute - it's the same with cell phones. Flat rate basically doesn't exist. For example, my cell phone subscription (in Sweden) costs me the equivalent of $8 per month. That includes 0 minutes. I pay per minute, and it gets added to my phone bill. It's 35c per minute daytime, evenings and weekends 2.5c. If I don't use all the minutes on my american account, the swedish/european system might be cheaper. Most months I run a bill of about $25-$30.
Then, the next BIG difference that most people seems not to be aware of is that in Europe you don't pay for incoming calls. (When I lived in the US there was a fax machine that called me every now and then
To me the most frustrating thing about living in the US and the cellphones and all was to see the ads online of the cool phones that were out in Sweden and knowing that it wouldn't be in the US for another six months or so - if at all. I suspect this is changing now.
I don't want to say that either system is better or worse, to me, it's just different.
Enby in Waltham = [nbodley {at] world {dot] std {dot] nospamcom
Sign up for an account somewhere that offers you an SMTP-Auth server. You can then send from any from address.
Signature is usually only demanded in highly formalized situations, though. E.g., contracts between companies, which is a completely different matter. But then, you should see the legal brouhou US companies make for simple company contracts. There one learns about real bureaucracy.
Joachim
People don't write Manifestos any more -- what's going on in this world? [Frank Zappa]
I shared your experience several times (one time I was actually forced to order an analog line due to the fact that they ran out of NTBAs). Lately however things seem to change to the better: They accomplished the awesome feat to get DSL+ISDN switched to my new place in no-time (lines were down for aprox. 4 hours).
Not to mention that I called them 6 days before I started moving.
And that the customer call center (aka the center of customer hell) actually called me back. Twice. To freakin check if they got everything right.
And (now it gets really exciting) that they send a technican who installed the TAE exactly where I wanted it to be. For free.
I know this is far from the service level (if you like to call it service after all) I was used to.
This AskSlashdot was pretty timely. I'm in the middle of looking at foreign exchange programs (through ISEP), and was wondering what it's like in Finland, Hong Kong, and the European continent.
The difference is this: I want to know what it's like from a student's perspective, rather than a professional's.
Can a person really cut it in English-language classes in Finland, HK, or wherever without a decent grasp of the host-country's language? How reasonable is it to start studying the language after getting there? Any recommended English-language CS programs?
All true, saw it with my own eyes!
American Army is the most uncivilised bunch of monkeys in the world.
this was again a good, flaming and trolling thread.
...Csnada clearly won over those americans.
Old Europe and their allies Canada and
Shame on New Europe, which did show no support for americans in this thread.
A.C.
Depending on where you're moving, you might get deals a lot better than shitty T-DSL. We pay about 50 Euros a month for a package of (non-ISDN) phone, cable TV and 2 Mbit/s cable connection, and you don't even have to buy the cable modem. It's limited to my town though, but there are several companies like this in Germany.
If you do have to get DSL, QSC is offering faster lines than the Deutsche Telekom, although I don't know how reliable they are.
Oh yes, one other thing: take everything you know about customer service and flush it. Sad, but true.
Someone is wrong on the Internet!
Where I live....
Internet & Telephone are run by government monopolies.
RACSA is the internet provider, ICE is the telco.
Dialup is available basically everywhere in the country. There are two types of accounts:
Unlimited use ($20 a month about) - these are tied to your phone number at your house. You can't use them on the road.
Metered - (I forget.. it's relatively cheap) - you can use these from anywhere, but you pay for that usage.
It should be noted that there is a fee for local phone calls, though it is quite low. You would not want to stay online 24/7, it would cost you hundreds of dollars a month.
I am unsure if telephone tarrifs apply to calls to the ISP; they may not.
There is 1-way cable (where you still need dialup to connect). It works fairly well, runs you about $20/month for 64Kbps.
There is 2-way cable in select areas in & Near San Jose. It is rate limited (128/32, 64/32, etc). 128/32 runs oyu $50 a month. 256/120 costs you a couple hundred a month, I believe.
That may sound slow.. but the upside is you actually get what they say you get. If you paid for 128/32, you basically always get that speed.. no overselling here.
Cable uses NAT, and not even good NAT.. standard PPTP and whatnot don't work over it.
DSL is in the works, but not available yet.
All in all, the dialup is actually pretty good, and the coverage is good. Despite how it sounds, it's not expensive.
Cable kind of sucks.. the only benefit really is that it's always on.
I'm moving to Graz, Austria in a few months and have been wondering the same thing... I'm not too interested in having a land line for voice or fast ping times (i don't play games) Does anyone have any insight on the best way to go in Graz?
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
We are coming to this discussion from such different arguments that I doubt we can have a productive discussion. You seem to favor internationlism, even impotent internationalism. You seem to come from a Marxist worldview, and you think that America has never done anything good or even benign.
Regarding the American ideal: I'm puzzled that you seem to fundamentally misunderstand the American ideal. Have you not studied here? Don't you know us? Your English is so good it seems you must have. If you knew us, you'd realize that Americans are not primarily motivated by currency markets and covering our dollar-costs. That is a Soviet-fed Marxist fantasy. We do have some Americans that share your view in America, but they are primarily self-loathing Marxist-Stalinists like the A.N.S.W.E.R. folks.
Regarding America's economic motivations: Your assertion that America came out even or ahead economically from the Second World War is untenable. Let's just start with the $13 billion in 1949 dollars spent on the Marshall plan. (Equivalent of $75 billion of today's dollars) What about the $49 billion in lend-lease funds, much of which is still outstanding from Russia? You do realize that we were in the greatest economic depression of our history when we began to release that $49 billion in 1941 dollars. That was not an economic decision - it was a moral one.
Regarding my assertion that you are anti-American: Your arguments give lie to your assertion that you are not anti-American. You have to be anti-American to say that America has never shown benign intentions, good will, or correct foreign policy. What American interest was served in East Timor, Somalia, or Kosovo? For that matter, what American interest was served pulling your fannies out of the fire twice in the last century? A majority of Americans opposed war until Japan pulled us into that war, you know.
Are you honestly saying that Americans shouldn't have defended Western Europe from Soviet Imperialism? REALLY? Do you suppose you'd have the freedom to read and post on Slashdot today in the "Democratic People's Republic of Germany?" You think the Soviets would have stopped their invasion at Berlin of their own accord after Germany had killed seven and a half million Soviets?
Regarding the League of Nations: It failed because it was a tool of British Empire, not a legitimate international body. Nobody was very excited about it. The only way it could have survived would have been with America's leadership. America withdrew because the LoN was poorly executed and tried to limit American sovreignty. Now the UN is going the same direction.
Regarding internationalism and war-crimes trials: You propose that war criminals, Iraqis and Americans, should face international courts. How do you propose to try them without invading? Also, as an American I am not going to take my chances with someone like you as judge. You've already condemned me just for being an American. We reserve the right to try our own criminals.
Regarding Australia: My wife grew up there, so I know a little. Let me know when they complain.
Regarding human rights: There is no reason that any American should go hungry. We have aid to families with dependent children (food stamps), shelters, and enormous domestic food-aid programs. Those that endure hunger have only their parents or themselves to blame because they fail to apply for government aid or they spend their aid money on alchohol. We try hard to make sure everyone has enough to eat. We advertise our welfare programs on TV. Don't give me that 13% of Americans go hungry crap. That is total propaganda. It is true that we have a huge homelessness problem, but it is very complex and has nothing to do with human rights.
Regarding so-called unilateralism: Thirty seven countries are currently backing the U.S. in our war effort. Is there a word for that? Thirtysevellateralism?
Regarding Guantanamo: Detainees have Korans, good food, shelter, and are treated humanely. No American could wish for so much in any Muslim country. Do they have a right to trial? No! They are enemy combatants!
Yes, it's a blog. Sorry if that offends you.
Prably not. You appear in denial. Nevertheless - for your sake and America's sake I will try.
You seem to favor internationlism, even impotent internationalism.
I favour the rule of law. International law will have to be international. Law notNations.
You seem to come from a Marxist worldview,
You can't deal with it so label it with an insult and dismiss it? No, I'm not a Marxist, I'm not a communist. Most people call me right-wing.
re coming to this discussion from such different arguments that I doubt we can have a productive discussion.
Prably not. You appear in denial. Nevertheless - for your sake and America's sake I will try.
You seem to favor internationlism, even impotent internationalism.
I favour the rule of law. International law will have to be international. Law notNations.
You seem to come from a Marxist worldview,
You can't deal with it so label it with an insult and dismiss it? No, I'm not a Marxist, I'm not a communist. Most people call me right-wing.
and you think that America has never done anything good or even benign.Really? read my posts again instead of propogandising about them?Jefferson may have been the most important human being ever. Pity you don't subsc ribe to his points of vies (and call him 'Marxist')...
Regarding the American ideal: I'm puzzled that you seem to fundamentally misunderstand the American ideal. Have you not studied here? Don't you know us? Your English is so good it seems you must have. If you knew us, you'd realize that Americans are not primarily motivated by currency markets and covering our dollar-costs. That is a Soviet- fed Marxist fantasy. We do have some Americans that share your view in America, but they are primarily self-loathing Marxist-Stalinists like the A.N.S.W.E.R. folks.
I don't misunderstand it. You misunderstand the American culture. I have not studies in America. Both my English and my education would be worse if I had - you'll take that as an insult and "it could not possibly be right" - but it is just a statement of fact. I speak English, not A merican. I think that I understand both America and its viewpoint well enough. Probably better than most American as I can see it from outside.
Regarding America's economic motivations: Your assertion that America came out even or ahead economically from the Second World War is untenable.Good, because I never made that assertion. You appear to be trying to convin ce people I did. Have you surrendered argument for propoganda? If you are not going to be honest there isn't much point in continuing is there? If the Marshall plan was a moral decision it should have applied universally, not s electively. And where is Afghanistans Marshall plan? in Afghanistan, America has behaved like the scum of the Earth.
Regarding my assertion that you are anti-American: Your arguments give lie to your assertion that you are not anti-American.
Crap. I don't have to support everything America does and I don't. Yeah, yeah, I know, because I won't like your (America's) arse and say "your're perfect even when you are raping me", yeah that makes me "Anti-America" right.... To you I say "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel". Stop the propoganda. Wake up and smell the roses. Find out some unbiased truth.
You have to be anti-American to say that America has never shown benign intentions, good will, or correct foreign policy.I have to be because you say so... Right, that's the point friend. Neither you nor your country has the right to say or assume that. It is simply not true however much you wish to believe it.
What American interest was served in East Timor, Somalia, or Kosovo?
How can anyone not in denial or impossibly ignorant ask that question. Learn Read. Stop being an ignorant American peasant.
For that matter, what American interest was served pulling your fannies out of the fire twice in the last century? A majority of Americans opposed war until Japan pulled us into that war, you know.Errmm... Whose fanny? I d on't even have a vagina to pull from the fire, I'm a mail. (Please try not to miss that one!).
Regarding the League of Nations: It failed because it was a tool of British Empire, not a legitimate internation al body. Nobody was very excited about it. The only way it could have survived would have been with America's leadership. America withdrew because the LoN was poorly executed and tried to limit American sovreignty. Now the UN is g oing the same direction.The important words there are "limit American sovreignty". That is why America "destroyed" the LoN and why it will destroy the UN. America is interested in only its own sovreignty - and that is the is sue.
and you think that America has never done anything good or even benign.Really? read my posts again instead of propogandising about them?Jefferson may have been the most important human being ever. Pity you don't subscribe to his points of vies (and call him 'Marxist')...
Regarding the American ideal: I'm puzzled that you seem to fundamentally misunderstand the American ideal. Have you not studied here? Don't you know us? Your English is so good it seems you must have. If you knew us, you'd realize that Americans are not primarily motivated by currency markets and covering our dollar-costs. That is a Soviet-fed Marxist fantasy. We do have some Americans that share your view in America, but they are primarily self-loathing Marxist-Stalinists like the A.N.S.W.E.R. folks.
I don't misunderstand it. You misunderstand the American culture. I have not studies in America. Both my English and my education would be worse if I had - you'll take that as an insult and "it could not possibly be right" - but it is just a statement of fact. I speak English, not American. I think that I understand both America and its viewpoint well enough. Probably better than most American as I can see it from outside.
Regarding America's economic motivations: Your assertion that America came out even or ahead economically from the Second World War is untenable.Good, because I never made that assertion. You appear to be trying to convince people I did. Have you surrendered argument for propoganda? If you are not going to be honest there isn't much point in continuing is there? If the Marshall plan was a moral decision it should have applied universally, not selectively. And where is Afghanistans Marshall plan? in Afghanistan, America has behaved like the scum of the Earth.
Regarding my assertion that you are anti-American: Your arguments give lie to your assertion that you are not anti-American.
Crap. I don't have to support everything America does and I don't. Yeah, yeah, I know, because I won't like your (America's) arse and say "your're perfect even when you are raping me", yeah that makes me "Anti-America" right.... To you I say "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel". Stop the propoganda. Wake up and smell the roses. Find out some unbiased truth.
You have to be anti-American to say that America has never shown benign intentions, good will, or correct foreign policy.I have to be because you say so... Right, that's the point friend. Neither you nor your country has the right to say or assume that. It is simply not true however much you wish to believe it.
What American interest was served in East Timor, Somalia, or Kosovo?
How can anyone not in denial or impossibly ignorant ask that question. Learn Read. Stop being an ignorant American peasant.
For that matter, what American interest was served pulling your fannies out of the fire twice in the last century? A majority of Americans opposed war until Japan pulled us into that war, you know.Errmm... Whose fanny? I don't even have a vagina to pull from the fire, I'm a mail. (Please try not to miss that one!).
Regarding the League of Nations: It failed because it was a tool of British Empire, not a legitimate international body. Nobody was very excited about it. The only way it could have survived would have been with America's leadership. America withdrew because the LoN was poorly executed and tried to limit American sovreignty. Now the UN is going the same direction.The important words there are "limit American sovreignty". That is why America "destroyed" the LoN and why it will destroy the UN. America is interested in only its own sovreignty - and that is the issue.
Regarding internationalism and war-crimes trials: You propose that war criminals, Iraqis and Americans, should face international courts. How do you propose to try them without invading? Also, as an American I am not going to take my chances with someone like you as judge. You've already condemned me just for being an American. We reserve the right to try our own criminals.
'Someone like me' eh? I've not condemmed anyone. It seems more like you have condemmed me for not being an arse-licker. You have been the one to turn this into am 'ad hominem' argument, not me. Note that it is considerd a loosing strategy.
Regarding Australia: My wife grew up there, so I know a little. Let me know when they complain.
Australians have been complaining for a long time. Long enough that America manipulated a regime change in Australia in 1975. You're not listening.
Regarding human rights: There is no reason that any American should go hungry.
Dead right
We have aid to families with dependent children (food stamps), shelters, and enormous domestic food-aid programs. Those that endure hunger have only their parents or themselves to blame because they fail to apply for government aid or they spend their aid money on alchohol. We try hard to make sure everyone has enough to eat. We advertise our welfare programs on TV. Don't give me that 13% of Americans go hungry crap. That is total propaganda. It is true that we have a huge homelessness problem, but it is very complex and has nothing to do with human rights.It has everything to do with human rights.
Regarding so-called unilateralism: Thirty seven countries are currently backing the U.S. in our war effort. Is there a word for that? Thirtysevellateralism?Thiry-seven 'bought' nations against how many others?
Regarding Guantanamo: Detainees have Korans, good food, shelter, and are treated humanely. No American could wish for so much in any Muslim country. Do they have a right to trial? No! They are enemy combatants!i
Because you, unilaterally say so. You are behaving outside international law and outside of your constitution by chicanery. If you cnsider that situation just or proper, well... I can't see how that differs from insanity. You invaded them for chrissakes.
Zero Sum (don't amount to much). [root@localhost]
"Fanny" means buttocks in American English and it is a very benign word. I assumed you would know that because your spelling is American, not Commonwealth. I apologize for the misunderstanding. I would never use such an objectionable word.
You do fundamentally misunderstand us. You said that America cannot every be credited with benign intentions, good will, or correct foreign policy. You said that, not I. And I called you on it. Such a sweeping statement is ridiculous on its face, so you don't want me to bring it up? Defend your statement. Address my questions about the Marshall plan and American policy in Europe during the cold war. Don't bring up Afghanistan as a straw man to draw attentiona way from the Marshall Plan. Tell me how the Marshall Plan was not an example of benign intentions, good will, or correct foreign policy or concede that America has actually done something right in her history.
Regarding Afghanistan and the Marshall Plan - America is still in Afghanistan. I'm sorry our performance there is not satisfactory to you, but do you seriously think the Afghans are worse off than they were under the Taliban? Hamid Karzai isn't complaining.
I ask you again. If you want me to believe you, you should answer: What American interest was served in East Timor, Somalia, or Kosovo? Insulting me by calling me an ignorant American doesn't answer that question.
Or are you incensed because I continue to argue? Has no one dared stand up to your irresponsible assertions before? I think your "ignorant American" stereotype has run into a counter-example and it enfuriates you.
I didn't call you a Marxist to insult you, but to describe your seemingly intractable attitude.
It seems to me that you harbor lots of anger at America. You didn't appreciate my reasoned arguments so you called them propaganda. You should address the points I bring up instead of calling names.
America is interested in only its own sovreignty - and that is the issue.
I concede that point. We are not particularly interested in so-called "international law" because there is no true international rule of law. Rule of law in the U.N. is whatever is in the best interests of the constituent countries. No, we will not surrender our sovreignty to Cameroon, Mexico, China, France, Germany, Algeria, et. al. Our government answers to us, not to them. How could you expect us to surrender sovreignty to an entity which allows Algeria to head its human rights commission? The U.N is impotent, corrupt, and worthless. We will not corrupt ourselves by kowtowing to it.
Yes, it's a blog. Sorry if that offends you.