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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. :-)
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
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.
I've never had my DSL/Cable connection go out on . . .
You have to be smarter than the machine you're working with.
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!
"Mo-dem speeds"? Wassat?
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
This is not a plug. I'm just a happy consumer, er, I mean, customer ;-)
Exactly. I was on "Unlimited" access with DelaNET. After being online for a bit, I started getting e-mails, something to the effect of:
"By unlimited, we do not mean unlimited. You are using your connection without limit, which is not the meaning of unlimited. You can't possibly use your connection 24/7. What you're doing falls under the category of business connectivity, and if you keep staying online, your rates will shoot up into the hundreds of dollars per month." (from joybenz@delanet.com)
I'm not kidding.
I wrote a script to stop pppd at 2AM and restart it at 6AM. No more annoying emails!
--TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
Well ... I tried something like that once, and my neighbor reacted badly. I apologized once I realized that the offer sounded a bit too Mafia-esque: "hey ... nice LAN. Be a shame if it were to be hacked".