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Always-On Internet For Cheapskates?
chuck writes "I like my broadband Internet access because of its always-on nature, but my usage doesn't really justify paying $40-$50 each month for hundreds of kb/s when all I really do is read and write email sporadically, light web browsing and IM. Are there any options for cheapskates like me to pay less for lower bandwidth (modem speeds would be fine) but still have an always-on connection for cheaper than cable or DSL? I have a $5/mo ISP that I use when I'm out and about, and my 2.5G wireless phone can give me internet access on a shoestring (with free evenings and weekends) but neither of those has that always-on quality. Any ideas?"
Piggyback on your neighbor's unsecured WAP. :-)
Get dial up then have a dedicated 2nd phone line just for it, and leave it connected 24/7. I did this in college and never had a problem. There are lots of free programs out there to do stuff like keep your connection alive, redail on dissconnect, etc.
Good luck.
Or atleast co-oping with some neighbors to save money.
feel like you're always on by having your computer connect as you enter the room ;)
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Make sure everybody calls your cell and use your land line for internet. I did that for about two years before DSL was available in my area.
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In the UK, over the last couple of years, there's been a rise in the number of broadband packages that offer fairly high speeds but with low usage rates (1-3GB a month). Some can be had for as cheap as £14 (~$25). Sounds like just what you need. So emigrate.
Tin cans and string?
I only pay US$27/mo for SBC DSL in California.
Not much more than the cost of a second line + dial-up account.
No.
There are a few companies that offer DSL/cablemodem service for $25/month or so, but not many. And there aren't ANY that do it for less than that. There's just no money in it. Hell, there's not that much money in DSL/cablemodem service even at $45/month.
hotspots ! go live in your local mickey d's ;)
:(
jack a neighbor's wireless!
i have no ideas
I sell out to The Man every day.
I have a cable at 256kbps and 2Gb monthly data transfer for 9$ i`d be glad to pay just 40-50$ for a conection like your`s. For a unlimited transfer and 1Mb/s speed my friend gives 125$/month.
Think like a hacker, act like a hacker, but never become a hacker !
my usage doesn't really justify paying $40-$50 each month for hundreds of kb/s
Cancel your cable TV subscription and get BitTorrent. Your broadband cost will suddenly be justified.
The coolest voice ever.
You already have dirt cheap Internet compared to most other countries in the world and yet you still want more for less?
My guess is if you can't justify $40 a month you don't need it to be always on.
Why don't you check what $40 a month will get you in some of the worse off countries, like say Greece or South Africa.
Nothing, thats what.
Typically a second phone line + a dialup ISP isn't significantly less expensive than the cut-rates that DSL costs. I pay $20/month for DSL. A second line would cost $10 & a dial-up provider would be $10 more too.
on if you already have a land line or not, and if you're willing to have it tied up all the time. A second phone line + dial-up will probably cost you just as much as a cheap DSL would. Heck, if you don't have any line at all, it'll probably cost you more for a phone line + dial-up. 3 the tele monopolies.
I've never had my DSL/Cable connection go out on . . .
You have to be smarter than the machine you're working with.
Dude, pack your bags and move. There's many nice countries in this world, and I bet there's one to your likings that doesn't have such outrageous prices for online access.
some of them have slower connections that you can get for less money(though they don't like to advertise them). For example, the cable at home I can get for $25, or you can get a faster connection for about $40, of course YMMV
Monstar L
Many ISPs here in Canada (Montreal) have "lite" tiers of DSL/Cable that are about $19.99 per month Canadian. That'd be about $16 per month US.
How about if you just pony up like the rest of us. You won't get "always on" for $5/month in the foreseeable future.
When BOPL starts getting rolling, maybe overall prices will go down because of competition but I doubt they'll go as low as you'd like.
How about you find a way to lower the market price of always on high-speed connections and don't try to compromise to the detriment of everyone else?
BellSouth offers DSL Lite; a 256/128 dsl circuit for $24.95 per month. Perhaps your local DSL provider offers something similar.
Or, download NetStumbler and sniff out an open WAP in your neighborhood and leech bandwidth. There are about 5 I can reach from my house.
"Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
Find a neighbor who's got wireless and offer to pay half the cost. My landlord got wireless a few months ago. I was still on dialup at home at the time, but I had wireless in my laptop for hitting the hotspots. He told me to go ahead and use his connection, since he's paying for it anyway. (I did offer to cover half of the cost, but he simply repeated that he's paying for it anyway, so he didn't care.)
rolling out a cable over the Atlantic is going to cost
Engineering is the art of compromise.
You could try a single ISDN(56k), though it might be more expensive than broadband anyway.
find a neighbor with highspeed intenet pay for a vonage line for it. run a phonline from the vonage box to your house and use it for dialup. im suprised noones thougt of this.
if you like downloading Linux ISOs
or want to download anything else bigger than 50 megs
Find a couple good WAPs in your area, then setup the corresponding number of repeaters so the signals all extend into your area. That way, if one goes down you've still got a couple alternatives.
I'd also set aside some money for a generic wireless card that uses the prism2 chipset, just in case someone decides to enable WEP (laff) encrpytion.
Your only other option is a dial up connection. If you want it to be dedicated however, you'll need a dedicated phone line. That will run ~ $16 - $25 Dollars US add in $5 mo. for your dial-up provider. Worst case you are at $30 best case $21.
The trick is to use a dial on demand linux box. You can have a script that will automatically dial into your provider. When you get kicked, it calls back. Couple this with an ethernet card and you'll have a gateway, and even a hardware firewall to protect you from all the evils that would have their way with your box. You can also use this machine for common services such as a caching DNS server which will speed up page load times over dial-up and as a mail gateway which also speed up perceived mail send times.
What about Dial-Up. If your such a casual user then surely waiting a few seconds for some cheap external modem to connect surely isn't a problem, and you don't download much either.
Infact this topic is somewhat troll like since the answer is right infront of you, and since you seem to want several people simultaniously pointing out your answer, here it is; $18 or less a month for dial up.
Around here, the cable ISP is $45 or so but we also have Verizon DSL which is considerably slower and only $30/month (assuming you have a landline already). What's your per month price limit, anyway?
Instead of swiping a neighbor's wireless, why not make an above-board deal with the folks next door?
If you're within 100 meters, you might be able to run a piece of Cat5e from your house to theirs. Offer to pay half of their cable Internet costs for access...
or, if they don't have broadband, offer them access to yours for twenty bucks a month.
have you ever thought of when ever you need the net, go wardriving? Or start your own wifi for neighbors. Get a T1 line and ration it out a squid server. Your neighbors pay for say 500 kbs. If you get a amp and a good omni you can server your whole neighborhood. or if your town has a wifi compinay leach from them. there a great part in this book http://www.gloop.net/books.htm
I'm not sure what selection you have with ISP's, but where I'm from, Ottawa Canada, all the Broadband ISPs offer capped connections that are about 5-10x faster than dial-up, for about $20-$25 a month. So, you get cable or dsl, always on, but slowed down, for a reasonable price. This is what I get, as the only reason to need a faster connection is to download movies and stuff. I even download Linux distributions, which are slow, about 6 hours per CD. But it doesn't really matter, as I only download a new distro maybe every 2 months.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I know a couple of people who use metronet - VERY low bandwidth cap (200meg) but only £10 a month http://www.metronet.co.uk/adsl/paygo
You'd be lucky to pay just $10 for a second line. After taxes and fees my landline from Verizon with no long distance and no calling features cost $28 a month.
Ask ISP's around if they still do ISDN. Granted, it's 128K, but since most everyone's broadband, the price should be cheap now. Plus, you don't need to light both B channels all the time. Keeping the D channel lighted at 9600 bps for small stuff will keep you online all the time anyway for monitoring (like POP or long, slow downloads), and for harder stuff (regular downloads, surfing, etc) you can light the B's up.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Second line here is $37/mo and DSL is unavailable. Cablemodem is $42/mo + $10 month modem rental.
Try again!
I would suggest shopping around for cell phone plans. Some appear to offer unlimited data service for a around $15-$20/mo extra. I am not 100% on the details but it is worth a look. Have you looked to see if a open Wifi AP exists around you? PS: How can you be a Slashdot users and only use the Internet a little?
Okay, let's consider alternatives to always-on.
Autodial gets you a good portion of the way there. A good autodialer should take only a couple of seconds, in other words, not much longer than you need to focus on the screen anyway.
A cronjob can fetch your email periodically, so you can glance at your screen and see that you have mail. And you don't care if there's a few seconds delay on your outbound mail; let your MTA deal with that.
As for webbrowsing... hmmmm, that's a bit tougher.... Okay, here's one. Put in a proxy. If the net connection is up, then it just works transparently. (And by the way, Squid really does seem to speed up my web fetch times, even from the same computer!) If the connection is down, it brings it up, sure, but what to do in the meantime? Well, if you're visiting /., then it says "Nothing to see here, move along". If you're not, then it redirects to the same URL with a typo (so you'll assume you screwed up), and then displays a parking page. Okay, that sounds pretty authentic.
IM? Piece of cake: grab an IRC server and a bunch of Eliza-bots.
Okay, you're all set! Always-on experience, on a dialup budget!
Not sure if you are in their coverage area, but I set up my grandmother on Qwest DSL, and when asked if I wanted MSN or AOL as the ISP ($40/mo or somesuch), I replied neither, then they finally relented and admitted they could be a no-frills ISP for the line and the whole thing would be $20/month. That was $20 for DSL and ISP services.
Between that, and a hotmail account it beats her paying $25/month to AOL for dial-up.
If your mobile phone is new enough, and your operator supports it, you could use GPRS for surfing/email.
I'm not sure what the data transfer fees are for GPRS data in usa, but here plain random surfing/email gives me ~$5/month extra in my bill.
That would be near your budget if the pricing is same. Though I'm guessing you could even get it cheaper there if the operator just supports it.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
Can anyone speak to using "Amateur Radio" equipment to do this? I think the only ongoing costs would be power -- up-front costs include equipment and licensing, but I think you could get there (modem speed always-on) for under $100 on a budget, and possibly closer to megabit for 1k USD. I also hear that a) you can get into big trouble if your unlicnsed, and b) can lose your license and/or get into bigger trouble if you abuse your licensed privileges. IIRC there are no-code packet license now, which means you don't *have* to learn morse code to pass. This also uses some already-established [public?] radio infrastructure, namely repeaters, if I've made any sense of the subject at all... IANAH (hammer). Am I way off here, folks?
Was it a bat I saw? Racecar. Stack cats. A man, a plan, a cat, a ham, a yak, a yam, a hat, a canal--Panama!
OzForces offer 64K/64K ISDN for $14.99/mo. Of course, this assumes you are in Australia. If you are in one of the 24 other countries which use dollars, perhaps you should be a bit more specific?
"Any similarity between the hooting of a million eager monkeys and Slashdot is purely coincidental." -THEFLASHMAN
Be happy with what you have. I just moved to Lebanon, waited 6 months for a "high speed" connection. That's 30KB/s downloads and 12KB/s upload for a whopping $120USD/mo. I'd take your connection and prices anyday. Funny thing is, this is $200USD/mo. cheaper than the dialup since you pay/min. here. haha...
A computer is only as smart as the person sitting infront of it.
That's for your first line, no? Many providers offer a second line at a considerable discount, but I pay under $20 for my one line, so I guess I'm in a cheaper area than you.
I thought I had it bad in the UK with £7.50/m second line rental and £20/m broadband with £5 cable modem rental (well, that's expired now). No wonder the market in the US is moving away from fixed lines so quickly, save yourself the rental and the telemarketing. Neat.
I thought the US was all 10mbit cable for $20/m with a free hooker visit every three months. Seems like I was mislead.
in the uk, there are ISP's that offer 150kbps always on, unlimited broadband for less than some dial up companies (£14.99 per month, compared to about £15.99 iirc for aol dialup)
if your in the uk, those companies are tiscali, plusnet and probably cpbb.co.uk
From having had numerous friends and family members bemoan that "I just don't use the Internet that much!" as justification for not getting DSL/cable, in 100% of the cases, they've all had worlds open up when they saw how painless things became once their access was so dramatically faster. (Waiting several seconds for a single page like Yahoo! to download gets tedious quickly.)
Their faster access meant more Internet usage (now they're paying bills online, banking, and shopping for instance), which in turn meant they "needed" the higher speed conenction.
Very quickly, they realize how much more than just faster speed, the faster speed meant.
Running 'Nix is like owning a Lightsaber. It's "a more elegant weapon for a more civilized time."
"Try again?"
It ain't my fault you live in the boonies where you can't get dsl, pay too much for a phone-line, and where there is no competition.
Allow me to save you up to $120/year by suggesting you just buy a cable modem--before deals, they cost less than half that. With deals, you can often get them free after rebate.
Only feasable in the microwave bands. This is usually accomplished using off the shelf 802.11b equipment (which falls in a shared used band, which means as a ham operator you can use amplifiers and higher gain antennas, only at the restriction of following the regulations associated with amateur radio).
However, once you're in the microwave band, you're pretty much dealing with line of sight anyway. You're not going to bother too many people with what you do there and its highly unlikely that you will get caught.
How about cut the useless crap like this and find me a way to get broadband without moving.
Unless your neighbors have unencrypeted wireless and don't mind (read as "don't notice" ;) your usage then just get dialup and configure it for autodial and turn the modem noise down.
"Mo-dem speeds"? Wassat?
Maybe you could go ahead and pay the $40-per-month, but then sell the remaining bandwidth to your neighbors in an informal deal, reducing your total costs to about the same as cable. However, then you have to deal with customer service issues from your neighbors.
Table-ized A.I.
light DSL is usually maximally 128Kbits down, but it's ( a very gimped, usually for people that barely qualify for ) DSL.
they usually charge around 15-20ish dollards a month for that kind of DSL access up here in montreal, canada, and it would solve the always-on, cheaper for bling problem you're having.
As for me, nothing will make me part from my fixed ip 3meg adsl line for 60 canadian a month.
Peace and happyness to you, by LullySing
Speakeasy.net will allow you to sublet your DSL connection (not sure of any other providers that officially support this). You might look into just making back some of your cost by subleting out connections to a few neighbors over wireless. Offer a wireless connection and maybe a few other services and price according to how many subscribers you have (maybe divide the cost of the connection evenly?)
I have a friend who does this, and has had some pretty good luck. Biggest thing to watch out for if you do that is to have some sort of document outlining what exactly you offer (especially that you have no uptime garuntee, and what, if any, tech support you offer, and when).
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
If your network uses GPRS (I'm told most 2.5G networks do), then you have a connectionless network, and in theory an "always on quality" is a basic feature. The reality may be that your provider forces a login procedure on you that prevents that. (Just as DSL providers mostly force their users to establish a PPPoE connection, even though the DSL link itself is always on.) There's probably a way around that, but I have no GPRS experience to guide you with.
If you have another protocol, then you might consider switching providers.
No... ;-)
That's Japan
We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
DNS went out on my cable conection, but the vonage phone worked fine, tried a dial up account I use on the road, wouldn't work. :(
Here in Vancouver we have Shaw selling Lite always on cable connections that are "up to 5x faster than dial up" for $25CDN ($20.29 US today) and Telus selling regular DSL for $30 CDN ($24.35 US today) if you sign up for a year. Sounds like what you're looking for. Too bad your local companies don't have something like that.
Hopefully prices will come down for you guys. Prices may come down for us now that Shaw (cable company) is offering digital cable phone services in cities like Calgary, Alberta to completely remove Telus from the loop. Competition is good :)
Maybe I'm missing something, but why not just get a second phone line and leave yourself dialed in to your ISP 24/7? Surely that'll cost you less that $40 per month.
In theory yes (ie. the technology can do it and at the right price or less), but in practice no because the licensing conditions don't allow it.
The very first bit of porn or heavy politics that comes down the line will get the FCC frowning at you (in principle), and conditions in other countries are even more stringent.
This is why amateur radio has basically died, with the exception of long-distance DX'ing on HF which is not really about service communications but about beating marginal path challanges.
This isn't really the solution but it's the on we used 10 years ago to send email. Wow.. Things have really changed in the past 10 years.
Zoid.com
"Sorry darling, no flowers or fancy restaurant tonight...but here's some budget meat and there's the kitchen. Make me a a beautiful dinner while I'm on the computer would you love?" Explains why you're on slashdot mate.
I live in Serbia and pay 40$ for my 256 kbit/s cable connection. Average salary in Serbia is 3,100$/year. And you complain about 40-50$ a month with an average salary in US being around 36,000$/year?
$10 a month rental? I would suggest buying your own. Cable modems can be had for $50-100 these days.
This is not a plug. I'm just a happy consumer, er, I mean, customer ;-)
Cancel your cable TV subscription and get BitTorrent.
Except with many broadband providers, canceling your cable TV subscription will also cancel your high-speed Internet access.
..and if not, how can someone catch you?
-Valiss
Do you think someone too cheap for broadband will pay Philly's %4 wage tax + a local tax on divdends for free wi-fi?
Cox offers a "value" high speed. 128 kb/s up and download, perfect for what you're doing. It runs for $24.99/month if you have any other Cox services.
Oh yeah. And let me say... naive dumbshit.
At many of the big computer surplus stores ( e.g. like Weird Stuff warehouse in Sunnyvale, CA) there are a lot of surplus office solutions that do pretty much what you want.
My favorite? The 3Com OfficeConnect 56K Lan/Modem. It's basically a small router with an integrated 56k modem (does PPP and SLIP), and a four port switch. 3Com model number: 3c886
I've seen them for anything between $5, and $20. They automatically dial the LAN when a network request is generated, and drop the line when a phone is picked up.
Just my $.02
"Don't worry about the problems you have in mathematics, I assure you mine are much greater." - Einstein c.1919
Actually, the expensive lines are in areas where they think they can milk people for the cost, because they're effectively a necessity. Anywhere on the east coast, for example, even in the middle of nowhere, delaware.
I am network admin in one of the larger volunteer networks in the area (Copenhagen, Denmark). We get internet for ~$8.7 a month (50 DKr). We share a 45 mbit line between 2400 apartments, of which 1400 have internet service. Commercial ISP's have about the same bandwidth for that amount of users, perhaps even less.
The cheapest DSL is still 3 times more expensive and I frequently download stuff at 20 mbit. We also provide TV and POTS, equally cheap. Switches in the basements, copper to the apartments, fibre between switches and buildings. Been a huge work, but quite fun and worth it.
You can get started with lot less, just share an single DSL between 10-20 apartments. Here such networks are all the rage, popping up everywhere anytime.
I use Cox Communications Basic service for broadband over cable. They don't list it on their site but you can call and ask for it. It's $25 a month and 256Kbps downstream & something like 64Kbps upstream.
yeah. that's cheap.
for $25 USD you can get AOL w/ unlimited time.
or even a cheaper alternative like $10/month dialup w/ unlimited time
and i personally (since cox has a deal with the local university) pay 25/month for cable, 5mbit down, 512kbit up, and virtually no low usage cap.
While it isn't "always on," the 2 second connect and authentication time lag makes you feel like it is always on. As well, since companies who provide dial-up also compete for ISDN, you are sure to get a very competative rate compared to broadband. Sounds exactly like what you want, and I would seriously recomment that you investigate ISDN options in your area.
I haven't lost my mind!
It is backed up on disk...somewhere...
$10 a month for image compressing 5x dialup or $25 a month for cheap DSL
http://secure.dslextreme.com/
Want something inbetween? Share with your neighbor.
I think your going about this the wrong way. While you might not NEED the speed of high speed Internet, you admit you want the convenience of always on service.
I would urge you to look in a different direction. Instead of dropping the HSI, (high speed Internet), I'd drop my analog telephone service and switch to a VoIP provider. Depending on the optional services and amount of long distance, you could save $40 or much more each month by using an unlimited VoIP package from Vonage, VoicePulse, AT&T, etc versus traditional telco rates. Since you also have a cellphone that apparently works at your home, there's really no downside to this scenario.
If you are dead set about nixing your HSI, your best option is to find an agreeable, nearby neighbor to share their HSI account. But if you do this, definately use wireless -- not copper -- to connect to his/her service. Differences in ground potential between houses can destroy equipment, cause a shock or even be a fire hazard.
You could use something like a Multitech RouteFinder RF500, or any other router that provides a serial port to use an external modem for ISP dial-up. This would give you an always-on dial-up connection. However, since a bare POTS line for your always-on Internet is around $22/mo, plus a bare-bones, unlimited dial-up ISP is another $10/mo, when you add in taxes and fees, you're maybe going to save $5 - 15 per month: not worth it in my view.
ISDN, at least in the USA, is probably not an attractive option, since most telco's charge per minute of use per B channel, plus the ISP's usually charge a higher rate for access. Where the telco does offer unlimited data service it's at a considerably higher rate than $50/mo. So you'll pay more for slower speed via ISDN.
I know several people who have "cut the cord" to the phone company and rely solely on VoIP over the Cable Internet and cellphone for voice calls. They save an average of $30/mo and are quite satisfied with the quality and reliability.--- A man with a briefcase can steal more money, than any man with a gun. [Don Henley]
I had to cut down my monthly expenses and I was torn between loosing the always-on DSL connection I had or saving $30/month by switching back to dial-up. One day I was chatting with my neighbor and he was talking about his slow dial-up connection when I proposed sharing my DSL with him. So, he gives me the $15/month he was paying his ISP and gave him access to my wireless network (which is WAP encrypted and limited to specific MAC addresses). Now he gets high-speed internet and it was much easier for me to chooose to keep the DSL. Oh, and there is nothing in ISP's service agreement against me doing so.
I'm not sure where you live and who your baby bell is but....my DSL ISP, BellSouth, offers what they call DSL Lite, which is always on but has much lower bandwith for less cost, $24.95 a month.
. html
http://www.bellsouth.com/consumer/inetsrvcs/index
"You cannot find out which view is the right one by science in the ordinary sense." - C.S. Lewis on Intelligent Design
You better add up the total cost of dialup and an ISP when comparing it to cable or dsl.
I spend almost $10 per month less with cable that I di with a phone line and dialup.
I get 4MBits/second downloads with Comcast.
If you want cheap broadband, move to Saskatchewan. I get 1.5 Mb up, 300 Kb down ADSL for $25 Canadian/month, and you can get 64 kb download speed package (extra-light) for like $12/month. You just have to deal with the shatty weather.......... Older Price List for Sasktel
Pull my dongle!
Are there any ISPs still putting any effort into dial-up? By this I mean are there any ISPs rolling out v.92, compression proxies or anything else designed to produce a faster, cheaper dial-up experince? Or are they all just killing time until they can drop dial-up for (A)DSL? I'd be particularly interested to hear about any company in Western Australia that specialises in dial-up.
I don't know what hardware and OSs support it easily, but I think dial on demand would be the ticket. It doesn't seem to make sense to always tie up a phone line. If you are typing an email, start the connection and it should be up by the time you are done.
I understand ISDN dials and connects very quickly but it costs more than DSL in most places, last I checked, for me, it was $40 for the line and $40 for the internet service. Ouch.
Yup.
There are, I believe, some internet gateways from the packet service. They'd be email-only, of course.
You *must* have a license. You'll need a terminal node controller of some sort and a basic 2 meter VHF rig. The whole thing is a hundred bucks if you shop smart.
But your communications will be very not private. They're also subject to the "amateur" part of amateur radio -- there's absolutely no guarantee your mail would go through.
Amateur radio is strictly non-commercial. Even a little text ad at the bottom of of an email would violate your terms of license.
Hammin' is very cool, and digital services are its cutting edge. But it's no substitute for an ISP.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
I'm a new ham and I'm curious about operating in this band with high power. If I operate in 2.4 GHz under part 97, how do I identify myself? Is the identification requirement waived?
BellSouth (in NC, at least) offeres a DSL Lite connection for $25. You get the always-on, but lowere speeds. Sounds like just what the poster is looking for.
Surely if we've got it here in Dixie, ya'll should have it elsewhere too. It even includes 20 hours of dialup service.
Yes, move to Japan (or Korea.) I pay $50 a month for 25Mbps Cable-based Internet. Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) is also available, for $80 I can get 100Mbps, cable digitial tv, and an Internet phone.
Face it, America is so far behind that soon other countries will need to outsorce to the US IT jobs.
Point to point over carrier pigeon!
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Up here in Verizon land, they sell DSL for $30/month. And there are a handful of slightly cheaper "naked DSL" providers out there, too - but I'm not really up to speed on them.
I pay $70 for a Speakeasy setup with 1.5 down, 768 up, and a pair of static IP addresses. Since my wife has a home office that she needs to VPN to the main office from, and I self-host my website and e-mail, it's well worth it. If all I needed was surfing speed, I'd use the Verizon plan.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Why do you need "always on" for just email? I've found a mail server using my ISP as a smarthost plus dial on demand adequate for email and news for years. I only went to DSL because it provides faster Web access and doesn't tie up my phone line while I'm reading Slashdot (and it's only $12/month more than dialup).
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
The ID requirement is never waived. That being said, I don't sweat it much on the 100 mW X-band link I use.
That's what i'm doing right now. using Mozilla Thunderbird to rss Slashdot.
Bullring
They had commercials on a long time ago for a dog that could do everything the internet could. You could ask it to get something, say "hotel reservations," and then after you asked it to fetch these things the dog would run away really fast and bring back the plane reservations like they were a stick or a frisbee.
I don't know how much a dog like that costs or how much food he eats (he could run really fast, so probably a high metabolism), but he at least seemed like a nice party trick. If your not married he could probably get you some dates.
I think his name was Lycos or something.
Good flamewar. But you're the naive one: my parents are dead, asshole & I buy everything myself. So please change your moronic one-size-fits-all troll-fighting statement.
Over here in the UK we're currently plagued with cheap broadband that has download limits. 1Mb pipe, £14.99 per month - but you can only download a certain amount (usuall 2Gb). Great if you want always-on and fast transfers. Not so great if you like downloading Linux distro ISO files :)
I don't know about your area but here in eastern Canada, major cable and DSL providers offer so-called "regular" speed connection.
It's usually 2-3 times faster than dialup but is always on and you pay less.
Shaw offers exactly what you want; High Speed Lite internet. You can read about it at shaw.ca. I've just moved back to the states from BC, and though US utility services are generally more progressive than in Canada, the one place they have us beat is cable services, both in price and features.
If Cable/DSL ISPs provide an option of 'unlimited' or 'pay by volume of data downloaded/uploaded', it will solve the problem of people who would like a cheaper always-on connection. Again, the pricing needs to be fixed appropriately so that people using internet for just browsing and e-mail are able to save a lot if they choose the second option.
1) Find like-minded people close
2) Buy powerful wireless router + good antenna
3) Set up in person closest to middle's place
4) Split internet cost
5) All profit, baby.
Offer to secure your neighbor's wireless network for him if he'll let you piggyback, since your bandwidth needs are minimal.
$26 a month and if you sign up now, you get a $50 gift card. What a deal
I cancled my account with SBC, and the line has remained active for more than a year now.
Cheap dialup, for as long as it lasts...
You just need to cram ten housemates into your crib. After you share the cost, you have always on and you are paying five bucks a month. Why not? After all your saving a whopping $45 dollars a month on internet fees.
Okay, that does work for you? Try finding a job where you must maintain a home office and you can expense the internet connection. They are out there, I have one of them.
Okay, that still doesn't flip your switch. Move next to one of those free wireless access points lurking in the city. If you are lucky, you'll get a cool coffee house nearby and a connection you can use for free.
Umm... it's waived for telecommand.
HetNet's cheapest ADSL is 13 euro a month. No idea why you pay so much for broadband.
I'm surprised no one's linked to Paul Boutin's How To Steal Wi-Fi (and how to keep the neighbors from stealing yours)
[o]_O
Why not get VOIP and get rid of your phone instead, you'll save enough money on phone bills to justify the broadband connection. Also host your own site if you have one, seems better to find a good use for the bandwidth you have, rther than to get rid if it altogether. M
On the other hand, if you happen to leave your connection unsecured, and your neighbors just happen to piggyback onto it, you aren't actually redistributing, are you? After all, the user agreement does not oblige you to secure your network. And they haven't signed any user agreement, so they have no obligation to your service provider.
And if the somebody shows up insisting that you downloaded something copyrighted, it might even be to your advantage if anybody in the vicinity could potentially have been the true culprit.
You should check out the starter plans offered by the big telcos down here. THe biggest rip off I have ever seen.
Telstra: $29.95 per month 256/128 200 MB Download
Optus: Same
AAPT: Similar
My father in law signed up to the AAPT plan and now he is stuck on a twelve month contract paying through the nose for a measly 200mb per month. I use to get more than that with my dialup.
Here in New Zealand we have to modulate our own data transfer by beating drums down the phone line, and Telecom New Zealand still charges us a hefty surcharge for the privilege.
Seriously, acceptable quality dial-up Internet for $US10 sounds luxurious to me, while $US25 for 256K with a limit above 3GB sounds like science fiction.
Telecom New Zealand sucks arse.
If you're reading this, and you work for Telecom New Zealand, SHAME ON YOU.
When I had Bellsouth they sent me an e-mail saying I was abusing my unlimited hours. They advertise as unlimited, I pay unlimited. How can you abuse something that is unlimited?
They never took any action though.
Seriously, this may be a case of "score one for the mom and pop ISPs" here. Before I could get DSL or a cable modem connection here, I was stuck with dial-up and wanted an "always-on" connection.
I simply called a guy I knew personally who owned a small regional ISP and explained my situation to him. Despite him having the usual "terms of service" agreement telling you that "unlimited" didn't really mean the same thing as "always on" - he was happy to overlook my always-on modem connection in return for the business.
Especially nowdays, with more competition from the large, nation-wide ISPs and with so many people converting to broadband, the little guys left in the business *should* be willing to make some concessions at this point. (Hey, an always tied-up modem port by a paying customer beats an always unused modem port and no customer.) It really depends on if the ISP in question has more capacity than they're able to fill up, I suppose -- but never hurts to ask.
DISCLAIMER: First off, know that I am not a lawyer, nor have I ever played one on or off of TV. This comment is not legal advice or legal analysis, despite any evidence to the contrary, and any reliance you take on it is evidence of your own stupidity, and you assume the risk inherent in so doing.
But something I've heard about from law school professors (don't ask what I was doing in a law school classroom, I'm not a lawyer, remember?) is that we have a doctrine of adverse possession and its related cousin, prescriptive easement. Adverse possession lets you take ownership of land if you've been trespassing on it for 20 years if you have used it as if you were the legitimate owner for all that time. Prescriptive easements don't require exclusivity or possession - you just have to use property for a long time and then you get to keep using it in the same way forever. Also, the statutory period is often lower for prescriptive easements, like 5 or 10 years.
Enter the digital age. If you use your neighbor's wireless for 5 years straight, you could convince a (very gullible) court to grant you an easement that ensures your neighbor never gets rid of his wireless connection or tries to lock you out of it. And that burden would probably run with his apartment or home, so no future tenant or owner could lock you out of his wireless or cancel his Internet connection.
Yes, the non-lawyer in me definitely thinks this is a good idea.
Not to mention that your hand would get worn out even faster keying in Code than it does with broadband access. ;)
That's the single best solution I've read on this entire thread, particularly if it is not a violation of your neighbor's ISP's terms of service. There's nothing that says you can't be neighborly in exchange for a return of the favor.
modem speeds would be fine????? what do you use, DOS?
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
Everyone - get on my linksys ISP - that way my sniffer can capture all the packet and ...uh
We only have one ISP here who can sell DSL at over 256kbps. oh wait.. you wanted cheap too.. my bad.
I just saw an ad during a futbol game on Azteca America for these cards that sell you dial-up internet access by the minute, kinda like the pay as you go virgin phones, no contracts, etc. I'm not sure if anyone else offers this but it's a pretty good idea. 6 bucks for 500 minutes or 15 "unlimited" days, beats having to pay for internet shops if you're on the road and don't have an ISP. http://www.toditocardusa.com/usaing/preguntas.html /
Es que se me chispotio!
sbc yahoo have been providing dsl for under 30 bucks for quite a while. Go nuts here.
I'm using, Qwest DSL and it's only costing me, $15.00 a month, of course you do need some type of email service and a friend of mine only pays, $6.00. ISP/Vip has a service for around $8.00 and it supports "OutLook". I don't know much about, Tech, I've just been at it 2 yrs. What is the difference between, Broadband and DSL?
OK, I didn't see anyone mention this obvious peice, but it worked for me. I simply called up Time Warner customer service and advised them that I could not afford the then $45/mo subscription to Road Runner internet access, she countered (almost immediately) with asking if I would be willing to pay for the same service at a discount ... I explained that it would be hard for me to justify anything over $30/mo. She placed me on hold for a few minutes, and came back with a locked in rate of $30/mo ...
Your miles may vary, but I've prompted a handful of friends to do the same thing, and Time Warner / RR were very quick to respond with discounts. Even if its a temporary reduction, you just call and ask them to do it again, it works quite well.
think before you write, it'll save me moderator points.
Really how many /.'ers don't have broadband? This is the same group of people the managed to slashdot NASA.
You could try cheap DSL - I pay $25 per month including ISP for 256kb up/down because of the good people at usfamily, and the other people at qwest. Not super-cheap, but reasonable. Whatever your area you may well find something similar.
You just get a modem? You like always on "but my usage doesn't really justify paying $40-$50 each month for hundreds of kb/s when all I really do is read and write email sporadically, light web browsing and IM.".
You like it, but you don't need it. There is already a solution for you. It is called a modem. The justification is simple, you don't need broadband, because you don't use it.
...check out cavtel.com. I used speakeasy for years, and I was very happy with them, but I finally switched because of the cost. I was paying over $100 a month for phone (Verizon) and DSL (Speakeasy), plus a bit more to AT&T for an international plan. Cavtel does both as a package for $50 a month, and their rates for international calls are decent too (you can't choose another long distance carrier when you go with them). It was painful to switch, because Verizon won't start an order for a new carrier while another carrier is using the line, so I had to disconnect speakeasy, wait for Verizon to register that, and then sign up with cavtel - it ended up being 3 weeks without dsl, and when you're used to always on it sucks having to dial up. Cavtel is a bit slower than my Speakeasy was, but really I don't need blazing downloads, like the poster I just want a full time connection and I'd rather save the $600 a year. Plus not giving money directly to Verizon feels good.
This is what my service provider does to lower the cost yet give always on high speed Internet. Connect two or threee computers (of different people ofcourse) into a hub and share the Net connection. Limit the download Kb/s because if you are doing a heavy download, your friends would go really slow at the same time. You can however, keep the upload bandwidth open. Secure the network and restrict access to other computers in the network (very helpful if you don't quite trust your friends). Share the cost and enjoy!
...of the 5$ a month dialup subscriptions and just rotate them. Actually tell the company that's why you are doing it, maybe they'll cut you some slack then on the "always on" part. 10$, still cheap.
BTW, who has 5 clams a month for dialup?
about 2 months ago the modem on my PC burned out for only god knows what reason. I could have replaced it with another modem but my video card takes up 2 slots and my RAID card takes up another slot and my NIC's taking up last slot. so I couldn't replace it. So I just got an old 1 gig athlon machine I had lying around and set it up to permanently dial in and set it up to always restart, always connect and all that stuff. then I just got some cat5 and ran it between the computers and presto! I know have an "always on" dialup connection. Though since I live out in the sticks it could technically be termed an "always on" dialup connection with half the speed, lol
Get a faster line and go into the nospam mail service provider business.
You can make it a profit center!
Check what your cell phone provider offers. T-Mobile's $5/month T-Zones service (GPRS) use to provide unlimited Internet connectivity without blocking any ports. They're blocking most ports now, but 25, 110, and 143 are still open, so I can still use it to check email.
If you can find an anonymous proxy using one of those ports, that's one way to get web browsing going. That, or if you have access to a server with a permanent Internet connection, just setup an SSH or Squid server on one of the above ports, and tunnel your traffic through it. I use the SSH technique to tunnel into a Squid server when I'm on the road.
I bought DSL for some friends as a present for a year for $25 per month from Sonic.net. From what my friends have told me they have been very happy with the service. If you look somewhere like DSLReports.com you might find that DSL in your area costs less than you think.
www.clarke.ca
*knocks a packet off the desk*
What kind of broadband are you paying $40-50/month for? Verizon charges only $29.99/mo for residential DSL (1.5M down / 384k up) and Cavalier Telephone $25 mo for up to 4Mbps both ways. If these telcos aren't in your area, maybe some others with cheap DSL are.
why not work with your neigbhors (who, most likely, have similar usage habits) and share a nice DSL account? If you are feeling particulary devious, just get a strong 802.11b antenna and card and just find an open AP.
Don't hang up.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
When you use their dial-up 24/7, you cost b/w $57 and $100 per month and only pay a fraction of that. It makes VERY little (if any) sense for any ISP to allow 24/7, unless they're facilities based, and not many are these days.
I don't know of any.
I did almost solve that problem using Linux and a Geocities free web hosting page. A Linux dialer application called Xisp has an option to reconnect on disconnect. I used that to connect to my ISP with. If you want a constant IP number then you are fscked. I used a Linux HOWTO. It shows how to publish your constantly changing IP number to a GeoCities(or any other always on web page)by using a bash script that greps your current IP number and ftp's it to your GeoCities web page and edits the IP number variable in the page at each disconnect. I added that scrip to a "run at connect" config file in the Xisp application. If I wanted to know my ISP number for remote connection to my box I would just look at my GeoCites web page and get the current number. The HOWTO even included a sample web html text.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I believe EarthLink limits your Internet dial-up connection for 24 hours straight and automatically disconnects you. Then, you will have to dial-up back to get on.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Webservers and P2P aside that sort of upload sucks. For that reason I haven't gone to Speakeasy either. If I want to upload work or a large-ish datafile to a server I might as well use dialup or ISDN. ISPs pay for out going, not incoming. If I am using it for business I am gonna want both up and down. Especially if I am getting slashdotted.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
The phone company is real good for adding all kinds of mystery fees and surcharges to your bill each month, and a second line simply doubles this.
Clickety Click
I have always thought that WiFi connection owners should be able to secure/encrypt their own signals, and give them 95% of bandwidth, then leave 5% unsecured for 'guests'.
;-)
Chances are that we all would be always able to find a signal.
Perhaps I'm just a hippy at heart
J.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
How to Form a Corporation.
How to Form a Corporation.
AC has an anger problem, but he is correct. All devices that use wire connections and are connected to computers must have the same power feed, including ground. That includes all the computers in your own house.
It has nothing to do with a piece of paper called a license.
The reason is that the ethernet connectors use low-voltage digital logic, which can be overwhelmed if there are differences in voltage caused by dissimilar grounds.
"All devices" means printers, for example, and all computers that share the same wires.
Also, don't plug a laser printer into a battery backup power supply. Laser printers draw too much power when heating.
I'm able to use them here in Paris as easily as I do at home!
Of course I don't speak for my employer. My employer doesn't speak for me, either.
Ultra-Lite - 64Kbps for 19.95
Lite - 256Kbps for 26.95
Express - 3.0 Mbps for 44.95
Extreme - 5.0 Mbps for 44.95 w/99.95 modem purchase
A flavour for everyone!I LIKE TOAST!!!
Make sure you don't flip the wrong switch and zap yourself in the nits.
In the Brazilian Southern region we have a telephony operator that gives us a second POTS line dedicated to their in-house ISP. Just dial 0, no dial tone, basic PPP authentication and you're in for a flat fee.
If I'm not mistaken in Europe there are places with similar schemes for ISDN, where one gets digital, real 64Kbps instead of a maximum theoretical 56Kbps with analog.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
I assume you don't want to hear about my broadband provider in Finland, since you kindly failed to mention even the country you're posting from.
I somehow doubt that Welho.fi would want to string cable all the way to Centeroftheuniverse, California...
I just looked at the nearest ethernet card. The transformer is obviously designed for high frequency, so normal power line noise is not a problem.
However, a Motorola electronics engineering handbook for power line devices that I read about 20 years ago told me to expect an "unusually high-energy spike" at least once a month. My understanding is that a spike could overload the common mode range of the ethernet interface, and possibly blow out the semiconductors that receive the signal.
This all depends on the capacitive coupling from the primary to the secondary of the transformer. If it is properly shielded, the capacitive coupling could be zero.
We are talking about unshielded twisted pairs (UTP) here. A shield connected on both sides, or even one side would likely have problems.
Is what I've said here accurate? Any references?
# select name from countries where inhabitantsThinkItsEntireWorld = true
USA returned.
1/3 of jokes get modded OT. If you get the joke, mod 1 in 3 insightful/interesting/underrated to restore karma balance.
Juste get dial-up...nothing's cheaper,,,,,,,,living in new york for wi-fi piggyback is a bit too much if you want to save money! unless i'm mistaking it's the easiest way! not doing hops and hoops for a free wi-fi in new york.
...
Does it really MATTER how fast your LAN backbone is in those circumstances???
This is of course given that you only have a few computers on your network that aren't passing VIDEO back and forth amongst themselves.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
ROR
Going wireless is a good idea, and just connect to an open network.
This is why more people need to run open networks. Imagine being able to connect to the internet anywhere in the NYC area, and as you move, simply being able to change to another access point and keep on browsing.
If everyone took the advice of the fools saying to close your wi-fi, then this would never be a possibility. Open wireless networks are the best. Share your connection, and others will share theirs.
I'm surprised no one mentioned using an "alarm line" dsl system.
0 551.html
For instance: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Networking/Q_2107
My sig is as boring as you...
The easy way to do this is to make the SSID your callsign.
if you're unlucky enough to live in a place where there is a monopolistic strangelhold on bandwidth then dial up might be the way to go. (BTW what's the cheapest dial-up service these days?) You could setup a wifi bridge in your attic or on your house if you can't find a reliable signal with a wifi card. All kinds of antennas are available these days. wirelessnetworkproducts.com is at least a starting point (don't know anything about them)
Good luck!
http://tinyurl.com/3t236
When 98 of the users are from the USa, what do you expect?
So if I bone the neighbor's wife for 5 years and he moves away does the new neighbor have to let me do his wife also due to this never expiring clause?
Another way to go in Canada, is: 1) Cancel your existing residential Cable TV or Satellite TV service. 1) Order a basic Business Cable Internet service to your home under a business name. This will be much faster than residential cable internet service (both on the upstream & downstream) at a marginally higher cost per month - say $65 monthly. When the cable installer shows up, let them know that you will be getting tv services via satellite - **and more than likely** the cable installer will leave off the filter which blocks the incoming cable TV signal. 2) Then subscribe to a low-cost VOIP provider that will allow you to transfer your old Bell landline # over to them for say $19.95 per month (say Vonage or Talkbroadband). Immediately cancel that old Bell landline. *There is an article comparing Canadian VoIP provider packages located at: http://www.canadianisp.com/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboar d.cgi?act=ST&f=22&t=1796
3)Now you have a faster High Speed Internet connection with better customer service (since it's business), a phone line with your old number, and Cable TV with 70 odd channels all for about $85 monthly.
**The trick is in getting them to leave off the line filter for cable tv. As far as I know though, the installer will want to leave off the filter by default - since this oftens interferes with you getting the strongest possible signal strength for Cable Internet.
98%