Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Living Without Internet At-Home Access?
An anonymous reader writes "I've decided that the internet is no longer a positive influence on my life, and am interested in canceling my service. In the interest of not forgoing all digital conveniences, I plan to set up a small intranet, hosting a few resources that I think I'd like to have access to on a regular basis (e.g. a text dump of Wikipedia). I'll also still have access to the internet at my office, and have easy access to public Wi-Fi at libraries and coffee shops. My questions are thus: Does anybody have any experience living without the internet? What major nuisances did you encounter? What resources should I put on my intranet? Is there anything I'm overlooking?"
Porn
I've got some really sage advice for you, but you won't be able to get it...
loyalty above all, save honor
"I think the Internet contains things which are a negative influence on my life, and I haven't the self-control *not to do those things and go those places*."
There; FTFY.
Sounds to me like you are not living without internet. Just disconnecting it and making it on demand.
I have personally gone without the Internet for six months at a time, to only get a taste and go for another six months without. Life just goes on. You go back to writing letters to your family, calling people on the phone and actually getting stuff accomplished.
"Is there anything I'm overlooking?"
Sanity comes to mind. If the net and you don't get along then, fine, I am completely behind unplugging a little. But you're talking about on;y removing the net from home and then only a little bit. It sounds to me like you're going about this completely backward. Try pin-pointing the parts of being connected that are bad for you and look at reducing or filtering those. What you're doing will involve a lot of trouble and inconvenience and half-measures. It would be much better to set up a filter to block things you don't think you should access or talk to your ISP about changing your account options.
Stage one, preparation. For this you will need one room which you will not leave. Soothing music. Tomato soup, ten tins of. Mushroom soup, eight tins of, for consumption cold. Ice cream, vanilla, one large tub of. Magnesia, milk of, one bottle. Paracetamol, mouthwash, vitamins. Mineral water, Lucozade, pornography. One mattress. One bucket for urine, one for feces and one for vomitus. One television and one bottle of Valium.
I think the best thing to do is simply try it for a while. This is as easy as unplugging the physical connection to your ISP. Deal with issues as the come up.
I don't fear computers, I fear the lack of them. -I. Asimov
[quote] Does anybody have any experience living without the internet? [/quote]
Is the *internet* really the best place to ask this question?
"To prevent this day from getting any worse, I'll just read ERROR as GOOD THING" 1GJU8xLuDKDxEs4KLf8fAGyptoDsqvEsBT
I use it for everything. The tv is what i am doing without.
Get cable or satellite for the news and sports
i did it for about 6 months bringing home txt dumps like you said from wiki anf other sites like you said... wasn't a choice though for me it was i moved and my new residence didn't have cable or phone access. after about 6 months i tethered my cell phone i couldn't take it think about that night your at home no one is their nothing to do no internet and you have watched every movie you own...
I tried it for 2 days and had to be hospitalized. I won't do that again!
... the guy only looks for the negative. There is plenty of positive information on the web.
If you only look at child porn, violence, death and whatever you consider negative, then yes it is a source of negative information. But the negative influence is YOURSELF. You are the one explicitly looking that negative information. The internet will not display anything you don't ASK for.
No matter how you disconnect from the world, you will always be a negative influence to yourself. Hiding from your own problems will never get rid of the problem ....
When I was in university I "took a year off" from the Internet. I did so by leaving my computer at the school in a secure place and I made myself stay on campus 8h per day so that I had access during business hours. I cut my cell phone too. It was amazing. I cleared a lot of clutter from my life that year.
Sometimes I had a term paper due and I needed access to submit documents, etc. so I had a land line telephone and the University's dial-in number (not sure if they still offer it though - this was way back in 2004).
I have no internet or intranet whatsoever, barring my access to public hotspots. I have configured GMail to forward my emails to my cell phone via text message, and have re-activated Facebook Mobile, again, controlled via text message.
It sucks. No Netflix, no Cracked.com, no ability to check useless and, more importantly useful information at a whim, which would be helpful as I have recently moved out of my parents' house (again) and have to re-learn maintenance and upkeep of a domicile. Also, my operating system, Fedora 15 has not been updated on my desktop, netbook, or laptop in weeks. Everything functions well, but there's a hell of a lot you miss out on when you don't have internet.
Major withdrawal syndrome... You can trying filling the void with TV or Radio but it's not the same.
And it was fine. Of course, this was prior to your birth, but I assure you - people lived just fine without it.
Yes, Its called life before the early 90s. Pick up the phone and talk to your friends and relatives. Buy a nice pen and paper set to hand-write letters to the newspaper, or grab a typewriter from a garage sale . Visit your local library; sit and read a magazine and make sure you get a library card to check out books. Buy a radio to listen to the news and weather. Get out your old CD player, tapes, or records if you feel like going really retro. Basically what everybody did before the early 90s. Stick with the plan of public wi-fi's when you actually want to get online, otherwise just get on with your life.
Dunno if this is plain co-incidence, I just decided 2 days back that I am going to disconnect for a whole next week (starting Monday) just for the sake of experimenting if I can still live without internet. I have been planning it and am considering whether to even check my mails or not during that time. One thing that put me off recently was intrusion of Google+ after being so deeply connected in Facebook. Let's see how it goes.
It's been over 6 years since I had any sort of access to the internet in any capacity. I don't find that I have any problems with it. You just spend more money on actually buying porn. Otherwise it's no different.
I lived without the internet for about 6 months. I still had browser capabilities on my Blackberry, but I never spent more than moments checking emails/news/etc. It's just an adjustment.
Its sort of like when your internet goes out and you ask yourself "how did we live without constant access?", but we all know that people lived fruitful and fulfilling lives long before the internet. Typically we go out and do other things instead and adjust to the inconvenience and move on with our lives.
I've recently done the same thing. Its really nice, I achieve a lot more, and when I do want to use the internet I am at least getting up, getting dressed and joining civilisation in a cafe or in the Library. I am lucky and live close to a 24 hour free internet through the local university.
I have studied much more and find my self being more creative. I listen to the radio and get my news from Radio 4.
I now no longer have TV or internet at home. I down load programs I want to watch or listen to at work and then take them home.
One problem with this is not so easy access to the pirate versions of everything..
Some of the other down sides, are not being able to look up a recipe or have youtube sessions with friends when they are around.
I have a USB cellular dongle that is deliberately put on a high tarrif, £5 per megabyte, so if I really need internet at home then I can, but it costs!
I don't think that /. is a positive influence on your life... why are you asking this on an Internet based service?
Does anybody have any experience living without the internet? Yes
What major nuisances did you encounter? Lack of internet
What resources should I put on my intranet? A router hooked up to your ISP
Is there anything I'm overlooking? The usefulness of the internet
In all seriousness, good luck.
please excuse my apathy
I admire your determination, let me know if you can actually manage it, I don't think I could (yes, to admit to have an addiction is one of the first steps to cure it).
I'd think even simple things like getting software updates on your machines at home or not being able to look up things like the phone number of your bank or movie times or whatever might turn out to be pretty annoying.
Find stuff to fill your time; as with any addiction, getting rid of it will create a whole you'll have to fill, so plan ahead.
I'll give you the phone number to my parents and they can tell you how they're doing w/o internet. AFAIK, they're living a happy retirement never having looked at a webpage.
I lived without the internet for the first 42 years of my life.
It wouldn't be an easy thing to do now because I pay my bills online and do a lot of my shopping online, but I could go back to the old-fashioned way without too many headaches. Life would go on.
I canceled my Cable TV and Sat Radio, but would never get rid of the internet. Free videos and music is a great boon. Plus being able to talk to friends online, send resume to future employers, and the occassional visit to college girls dot.com ;-)
I just spent the last 6 months in a hotel, on an out-of-state job, and all they had was 26 kbit/s dialup (fast enough for bittorrent; too slow to watch hulu). That was torture enough. I can't imagine going completely without.
Especially for the price. I'm only paying $15/mo. for DSL It's not as if I'm breaking the bank.
So basically I don't understand your motive at all?
It makes no sense to cancel the net.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
"Experience living without the Internnet?" Ask anyone over thirty. Not only did we live our lives without the Internet, we didn't have cellphones or more than four television channels either. So, yes, we've experienced living in an unconnected world. It sucked as i recall.
We moved to a rural area with pocket change left in our bank..it was a very tough time for us and we had no internet for quite a few months. To compound the issue, our only income was a web development company we run with only a few clients. Our first month or so we "sniped" access by driving around the motel district of the closest large city. we could always find a few bars of open wireless and did what we had to do to keep the small flame of our business going. We then found that the library in our little rural town had free internet and started going by there to make our connections and fanned the biz flames a little more. from there we tried dial up and looked into cell/3g with poor results and eventually ended up with satellite..which sucks..but not as bad as sneaking around town. Local libraries are the fall back when you dont have it in the house imho.
Just make sure that you resist the temptation to do a "resources dump" to your intranet of xhamster.
Is Saturday really the right time to be asking on the Web for helpful advise from people who have already foregone the Internet except at work?
"Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life." -- Marcus Aurelius, _Meditations_, Book 9, 37
Aren't those called encyclopedias?
Just make sure to have a smart phone for the convenience of looking up things, getting directions etc.
You want to go off the Internet, so your first instinct for advice is to POST TO SLASHDOT?
A) You've come to the wrong place.
B) You'll never make it anyway.
> Does anybody have any experience living without the internet?
Ask Richard Stallman.
It is trivial to live without "the internet" at home. If you can't you have a very serious problem and I recommend seeking help.
You are asking this question on the internet.
is to simply take an extended camping trip without 3G/4G. Bring some books. Life is quite fulfilling without internet. You don't need it as much as you think. Once you're free from its constant distraction you'll find more meaningful, lasting ways to distract yourself. Take up a physical hobby.
I don't know what pushes you to try to get rid of the Internet in such a half-way. To me and I think to many slashdotters, this seem to be the symptom of a bigger problem. I would suggest that you seek professional help, like a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Facing a problem and using all the tool are your disposals, including professionals will only empower you and make you a better person.
Personally - I wouldn't even bother with the text dumps and whatnot. Just cut it off completely. If you need wiki or whatnot then catch it when you're at work. If it's important enough you'll find yourself at the library or coffee shop anyway.
I've been slowly cutting myself off from a lot of things like that (cable tv, WoW, Starcraft, Facebook, etc) and I find I just fill the voids with other things. I'm currently playing my PS2 more than I have in ages. Not all bad though because my attention span for that is much shorter than the other options (such as hanging out on slashdot). I find I've been hanging out with friends more in person, talking more to my family, and in general just getting more shit done. I've also picked up some more hobbies on the way.
For me I think the next step is getting away from this smartphone craze. Hell, just for the cost it's not worth it. $40/mo extra to do 5% comfortably of what I can do on a laptop? After that I may consider dropping internet but it is a pretty handy tool. Perhaps I'll just wire it to a desktop so I lose some convenience of it to discourage me from using it everywhere in the house.
While some people on here are quick to shun those of us for trying to shed such things - I say fuck 'em, rock on, and good luck. You'll probably enjoy the change.
As another poster pointed out, this seems like more of an issue of self control. I would suggest starting out with a dd-wrt or similar firmware for your router, and a)setting no-internet hours (say, maybe you only have internet for 2 hours after dinner?) and maybe blocking sites you spend too much time on.
These mechanisms could be defeated in an emergency (such as suddenly needing to book a flight, car, hotel, etc to visit a sick relative or for a work trip), but enough to keep you from getting lost in the internet instead of a good book. Another option would be canceling your wired internet connection, but having a tetherable cell. A pain in the ass, but doable if there's a sudden urgent need.
Please help metamoderate.
By need i maen hardware/software Any estimation of memory? How can i do it?
Anyone that's been in the military recently can give you a pretty good of how much of a pain it is, though they are all dealing with far less (no full access at work). Obviously mileage will vary, since some of them have access to wide open internet all the time, and others won't have any for months.
On the carrier, I had access to email pretty much all the time (while I wasn't actively working and the ship wasn't on radio silence), but internet access meant 15-30 minutes on the slowest and most unreliable connection I've ever used. We'd pray that a page would even load, and often it didn't (so no Googling, you need to know exactly where you're going, and don't bother downloading files because they'll fail before they finish). Granted this was for a 2006-07 cruise, and from what I understand they've made some changes since then.
I ran a game server for the department berthing, including one which required SQL and was in development. Prior to that, I hadn't used the software or SQL, and was learning while underway. What I found out, was that not being able to Google an error or download patches and modules was a massive pain. Trying to research anything (an apartment, college, etc) or order anything online was out of the question. I wouldn't ever choose that, even if I cut back on internet.
My point, is that obviously it's entirely dependent on you, your situation, and your usage, and we have no way of addressing your concerns since you haven't even given us a clue of what your concerns are. In general, it's probably whatever you're doing on the internet that's the issue (Facebook, porn, etc), and not access in general. It sounds like you won't be that disconnected anyway, between having access elsewhere, and likely still using a cell phone.
If you need to cut off certain activities, do so. Get someone else involved and have them control access (lock your Facebook profile, set up parental filters for porn, whatever the issue happens to be). Try going to a cafe or somewhere you might normally use wifi, and don't get the password. I do this anyway when I need breaks from the distractions of wifi.
I've gone that route, and the first thing you need to go is ditch the entire intranet idea. There is nothing that you really want from the Internet that won't leave you wanting more.
It's actually very easy to go without the internet at home, and the main side-effect is that you have a lot more time on your hands that will a take a while for you to figure out how to waste and be unproductive.
I think many commenters missed the point that the question was about not having Internet at home and not about cutting off Internet completely. Clearly the latter would be much more difficult as so much of our communications and information/news intake nowadays rely on having Internet access.
I had an experience while studying abroad where I did not have Internet where I lived. It certainly was uncomfortable at first not being able to check my mail or news whenever I wanted. But after a while it became liberating as I spent more time reading books or hanging out with other students. I think the biggest inconvenience was certainly not being able to check my emails whenever I wanted (or I guess fb, g+, twitter now), especially on the weekends since free WiFi didn't exist then and I was too poor to pay for Internet cafes. But otherwise, I think it will just take a little bit of getting used to. If you ever run into issues later, you can always go to a place with Internet access like you mentioned and download the resources you need. Also make sure people can contact you by phone if they previously relied on other electronic means.
I lived in Africa for about a year. We shared a 14.4k modem connection between about 10 people. It that stayed up about half the time. In another place I lived, we had about 30 people sharing a 1.5Mbps satellite link with 350MB/day quota.
In both cases, internet access was possible for basic things like sending emails (without attachments), text browsing, etc., but the latency was so high and bandwidth so low that it took all pleasure out of internet use.
The danger of disconnecting completely is that you'll find something for which you "need" internet and make a visit to the local coffee shop or library where they have high speed access. You can spend a lot of money on gas and coffee that way. Having internet that's just slow and painful to use helps to avoid that.
So, maybe you should invest in a 9600 baud modem and find a dial-up ISP?
Also, as a tip, make sure you have a phone book and some road maps for your area.
I can't imagine how this can work. Computers without internet aren't 1% as useful. If you think about making a Wikipedia mirror, you don't plan to cut back on computer time anyway.
Just take the slowest connection you can find, or share with a neighbor, or use a cellphone for tethering.
If you're hunting for a job, the internet has become indispensable. You go for work anywhere and ask about employment for any position and it's "Oh, apply online."
Same for banking. More and more banks are charging $$$ to use a teller and their ATM fees are ridiculous - I don't believe they have to charge over $0.50 per transaction because it costs them that much.
Library or coffee shop? You're going to send personal stuff over a coffee shop wan?!?
Library! Try just getting on for one. And the same applies to it as the coffee shop.
And if you have a landline, AT&T atleast is making it almost impossible not to have internet with their "packages". I think AT&T is trying to push everyone of their customers into getting $100+ "packages" that have phone, long distance, TV, internet - U-verse shit - yeah try to get a tariff line and basic $19.99/month dsl out of the rep - try it and see!
Yeah, I had that once...it lasted about 24 hours.
It was awful to and it involved bouts with:
Vomiting and nausea..(mainly from having to deal with real life human beings) and fits of hopeless anxiety. The latter from not knowing anything I wanted to know in less than 100ms response time.
Then of course there is working on a machine with a svn or git repo handy for doing latest kernel devel work or device driver debugging.
That didn't make me sick, just very very angry.
So, I wouldn't advise it.
-Hackus
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
The Internet is not responsible for the actions of the users.
i find it a bit sad that someone would pose such a question, have you not the willpower to simple avoid the "negative influences" of the internet? you could even blacklist all but a few useful sites such as wikipedia, perhaps youtube, and maybe an online store or two. If you do want to hop off the internet, why cling to a few of the best things it has to offer? Also you can download condensed versions of wikipedia on DVD images I believe, and you could use site ripping software to get portions of other things, but then thats like getting all of your news and information about whatever from an old book somewhere. Just stop doing the things that you think are negative influences. Spend less time on the web, whatever you think is best. And drop to the cheapest internet that is offered in your area, to save money, or maybe even dialup - that would keep you away from most things one could consider bad influences anyways, and if not that, then make anything beyond simple things like wikipedia so slow as to prevent you from wanting to wait on them.
Hey buddy, why not just ask anybody that's older than say 30, "What did you do before you had internet?" Since internet access from the home isn't that old, i'm sure you can find some things to do and resources to use... for example...
Get a phone book.
Buy a map.
Buy a dictionary/thesaurus
Buy stamps, envelopes and practice writing with this invention called a 'pen' or alternatively a 'pencil'.
Do you miss playing FPS games with your friends? Try paintball.
Miss online racing? Try go-kart racing.
Videoconferencing/skype? Use the telephone and look at a photograph of the person you're talking to. That's a printed photo, not flickr.
You know that area in your backyard, that's probably covered in weeds and crab grass? Try cutting it, planting something and watching it grow. It'll be more rewarding than 'gold farming', infact some of the things you can grow in your back yard are edible or attract other forms of life. Setting up a bird feeder is easy.
Oh yeah, and since you don't have the self control to handle internet access, please cancel your cable/satellite service, since you'll fall into this pit of despair called "Jersey Shore."
Don't do it, Man!!!
You'll go mad!!!
I think the author is showing their age, and obviously wasn't around during the early 90's when the access we did have was about equal to what he's asking for.
I know this maybe a stretch of the imagination but yes, people managed to "live" without it. Also, in this day and age, I'm sure people can't figure out what to do with a computer once the interweb's are turned off, but we managed to use it as a useful tool back then too.
We still could shop from home, except it was from a much higher bandwidth medium: Mail order catalogs.
We managed to still have "social networks", and actually talked face to face with our friends, or spent time in their presence.
We had streaming media, it was called television. Although back in those days MTV and VH1 actually played music.
We had an instant messenger called the telephone. It was really cool, because when you said "hello" someone actually responded quite promptly.
We shared photo's, music, and ideas. Although via different mediums, such as cd's, tapes, paper and the telephone.
Life is not much different now, for those of use that don't spend endless hours valuing our worth by the size of our f@cebook friend roster or the amount of posts off random ramblings from twitt3r.
My suggestion to you, and anyone feeling overwhelmed by the internet is:
- Ditch the "social networks". If you have friends, call them on the phone, or go hang out with them. I promise it's much more rewarding.
- Unless you actually NEED something, keep your browser closed.
- Get a hobby that doesn't include the computer. Believe it or not, there is a plethora of things to do that don't require the internet, or even a computer. A ton don't even require electricity!
There is way more positive that will come from ditching internet at home than there is negative - regardless of the pornography - the whole thing is generally a waste of time.
Does anybody have any experience living without the internet?
Yes, but those people can't see your post to Slashdot.
the internet is having a negative affect on your life, so you ask the internet how to go without it? So what are you over looking? common sense? reason?
1953 to 1993.
Believe it or not, in the 60s, we thought we lived in the modern world.
Of course, today I can't imagine life without internet.
Hipsters need to die in fire
There are some nice communities in Pennsylvania and Indiana you may wish to consider relocating to. Low crime rate, clean living, and none of that pesky Internet stuff.
If you have any type of internet connection at work you will end up overusing the internet at work instead of what you were doing at home. Using the net at work for non-business items can be costly to your career.
I am not a doctor but impulse control disorder maybe something you need to look into.
Beware of those who profit off the docile and persecute the unbelievers.
Yes. I've lived most of my life without the Net.
> What major nuisances did you encounter?
No Slashdot.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Just download everything tonight, cancel tomorrow
I have spent the majority of the past year without a proper internet connection at home. For about 9 months of of the past 12, I didn't have access to the internet through any of my home computers, and would stay after work to do anything I had to, or to download distro upgrades, etc. I did have access through my phone, but browsing on a small screen is inconvenient and not particularly pleasant, and so I did it only when I had no other option for attaining the information I needed. Instant messaging on my phone was less inconvenient, but also less intrusive than on a computer screen, because my phone could move around with me as I got on with things, whereas the temptation to keep heading back to the keyboard is always there when chatting on a laptop or a desktop computer.
Without an internet connection, I found that I was reading a lot more, both fiction and non-fiction, and doing more varied things in my free time, such as making things from wood. I was going to sleep earlier, and feeling more relaxed (I assume) as a result of this.
When my phone's screen broke, I started tethering it to my laptop, and almost immediately I noticed that I had so much less spare time, but with the speed of a tethered phone being so much slower than the cable internet connection I had previously, my time isn't as reduced as it was before. I have no intention to get a traditional connection back any time soon.
It might be worth mentioning, that my reasons for not having a "proper" internet connection were the cost of having a phone line put in to my flat, and the fact that I would be limited to using a service provided by a company that I made a deliberate decision never to support again, due to the terrible treatment of a family member by their representatives. I didn't decide to go without because I thought in advance that it would free up so much of my time.
Very rural area here, nearest town 26 miles away, land-line dial-up over 3/4 mile of CAT4 strung through the woods, the animals & weathers keep me walking it to fix breaks, etc., to Verizon (:() NI which loses *its* connection a lot, every first rain of fall season for example :lol:. Local web server runs on same computer as browser, with my stuff for when connection is down, and many years of downloads. I got to live here while being primary developer for mid-size corporation for nearly 10 years, all over dial-up!!
Suggest a trial limiting access to dial-up speeds, you'll figure it out, what you actually need.
Get httracker to download entire websites when you're connected. I used to use it for all my class material etc.
Why not just subscribe to a dialup service; that will curb your obsession with pr0n.
I already did a couple of moderations in this thread, but decided to post instead. Basically, my impression is that you must be very young. I'm only just 27 (despite a 5-digit uid, which has been mine since my freshman year in high school), but even I remember life before the internet. They have this great things called phone books, which have a listing of phone numbers of businesses and individuals. They also have maps, which tell you where shit is. In the library, they tend to hoard things called books, which have editing, and often peer reviewed information in them.
If you've been so dependent on the internet that you're incapable of living life the way it was before, then either you never experienced "before", or you're just very, very sad. I use the internet to make certain things easier, and, yes, there are certain things that only the internet can do. Most of the thing on the internet, however, you can do in the real world, just slower. You know it only costs $0.42 to send a real letter, right?
Last summer I ditched Facebook and decided to only continue carrying on with people who actually answer the phone when I call, or return my call in a reasonable amount of time. I wouldn't want to do away with the internet as a whole, but if you need to cut out bad influences, it might be easier just to drop in some ACLs in your router's packet filter to keep you from being able to reach sites you need to break the habit of visiting.
Start with whitelisting before you go through with canceling your service. Whitelist Wikipedia and whatever other resources you've got on your list. If this seems to work for you, then dump those resources and unplug your router from the cable / DSL modem for a month. Don't ask other people what resources you should have -- you know what you already use regularly and want to retain access to, or will after a month of whitelisting, and your coffee shop / office internet excursions will allow you to discover other resources which become important for home access in the future. Also, I doubt this life change will do you any good unless you cancel your cable / satellite TV service as well. Without the internet, the multitude of channels will allow you to browse and waste time the same way you did on the internet. Get Netflix or similar to mail you DVDs -- this will make you consider what you really want to see, and you can queue things up from the coffee shop.
do you own a cat?
if you are to leave the internet, you've got to get yourself a cat,
make sure it's a funny one.
Most of what you do online can still be done the traditional way. You can still use phone books to find people and businesses, maps to find places, books for entertainment or to learn about stuff. And so on.
The biggest hurdle will be other people's expectations. Some people simply expect you to be reachable via email, or (depending on your social circles) social networking sites, and so on.
Maybe the best solution to that is to obtain dialup Internet. That way you need to make a conscious decision about when you connect to the Internet and when you disconnect from it. I would not suggest using libraries or coffee shops, since you're really only translating your problem to another place and their hours dictate your hours. (Example: it may be best to grab your email and surf the web between 9 pm and 10 pm. You can't always do that by using someone else's WiFi, so you'd end up spending valuable daylight hours translating your Internet problem to the library and whittle away the evening hours watching TV.)
The biggest challege I faced living without a home internet connection was a lack of reference materials. A text dump of wikipedia is a good start, but also grab anything you have a professional interest in, e.g. all the O'Reilly books. Also a good home repair guide, your car manual, outdoor survival guide, medical texts, home chemistry book, cookbooks, karma sutra, and if you can get a dump of instructables or about.com or wikihow, you're probably pretty good. A general selection of science, art, literature, and philosophy texts should also not go amiss. For fiction, take a dump of Project Gutenberg and/or some large ebook torrents. Calibre is software designed to manage ebooks, specifically in relation to ebook readers, which it excels at, but it is also an excellent way to catelogue a large quantity of ebooks.
If you're into games, the biggest N64 rom was 64 MB (Conker's Bad Fur Day, Resident Evil), so every game and game system manufactured before the introduction of the Playstation should only be in the tens of gigabytes.
It almost goes without saying that you should store information about your online contacts.
It's difficult to predict what information you'll need. Good sources of information are rare, it's wise to have a technical library with a high degree of redundancy, i.e. multiple books on the same subject, especially if it is a subject of high interest or importance (e.g. emergency medicine). Data redundancy isn't a bad idea either.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
I've quit Facebook for a month about once a year, over the last two years. Maybe it's like quitting smoking. In the first day after quitting Facebook, I sense my self control starting to return. Over the month I become empowered to the point that at the end of it, I no longer care to obsessively login to Facebook anyway. Quite liberating. There's no shame in admitting that you're beat and then working to correct it.
I lived without Internet and phone service (one in the same at the time) for two years once. It was actually kind of nice, people new I couldn't be reached except in person or by mail, and my downtime was actual downtime. I was working on a FOSS project at the time (still in college), and if I wanted to work on it from home, I'd sneakernet the source. Then I missed important news regarding the death of my oldest niece. I quickly bought my first cell phone, got Internet at home again, and decided that I'd try my darnedest to never be unreachable again (except by work when I'm on vacation).
There are some things today that I couldn't go back to like doing tax returns on paper, paying bills with checks, not having to wait 30 minutes for an accurate weather forecast, etc. Online gaming, slashdot, facebook, even wikipedia I could do without (really, what's the point of wikipedia without the rest of the internet?). Map sites like google maps or mapquest can be replaced with GPS software.
I've been through this, a few years back when our DSL took a hit and I had to keep our connectivity up anyway.
Living with a slow 56k modem link between your LAN and the Internet will:
- give you a reversible foretaste of what you're planning. Don't like dialup? You'll hate cold-turkey so much that you might not be at all productive.
- highlight your Internet time-waster habits, because the waits for those pages to load will become obvious. This is called "rubbing your nose in it". For anything that's not essential, you *will* find better things to do, or more efficient variants on the familiar. Setting your mail-lists to daily-digest, for instance.
- make it obvious what Internet resources you'll have difficulty doing without. Keep a log of the ones you keep going back to anyway: they're your reasons not to give it all up.
- change some of your Internet habits right there, because there is no instant gratification, instead you have to wait for everything to finishing downloading. You can dovetail some tasks into those waits, such as, getting a cup of coffee while Google News loads, or doing the laundry while waiting for all the new-format Slashdot comments to be visible, or going shopping while a YouTube video is being sucked in for local replay. You'll get impatient and get off your ass just to keep some momentum going because the Internet isn't doing it for you anymore.
You'll get used to prefetching bulky things you really want on hand, and using LAN storage to make it available for browsing. wget will get a lot of scripted use, particularly the "wget -c" option, because it can take most of week to get a CD ISO in. You'll learn to use local tooling to replace online stuff that isn't always there. Early on, for example, I set up a local wiki and a web calendar, to be visible to every machine on the LAN. Then I wrote CGI tooling to fill in my specific blanks. YMMV.
You will likely do a lot of scripting to automate fetching in things you really want or really need, and transferring out your responses. A cron'd mail-check every 5 minutes will keep up a dialup link that idles-out in 15 minutes. This might include bringing the link up in the wee hours to do downloads when nobody's likely to phone, and dropping it again, ready or not, when the phone line needs to have a phone ready for use.
Dialup will have you looking at your computer less as a source of consumed entertainment and more as a creative workspace. If that's what you're after, dropping to 56k might be enough.
Some people like the mistress of the house. Some like the daughter. Some like the stable boy. And some...
I tried going without the Internet once.
After an hour, I got the jitters and the creepy crawlies so I called my dealer and hooked back up.
Maybe you are happy with your life, and the internet is the only problem, so ignore this advice if that is the case.
However, if you decide you are stuck in a rut, I think you need to get out of your routine and cutting out the internet isn't going to help. If you are able, sell everything you own, pick a spot on the map you've always wanted to go, and get on a plane and see how long you can make it there. It's only until you let go of your comfort zone that you'll be able to change yourself.
That was my path, of course. Maybe yours is getting a teaching degree and moving to New Orleans, or moving to a shithole apartment in the Bronx and writing a novel, or getting a job on a farm collective somewhere in Utah and rediscovering your body's ability to work, or tending bar in a pub down the street instead of your current job.
In any case, if you are stuck in a series of safe routines that aren't providing you happiness, get out there. You only get one shot. Take it.
It's quite obvious your addiction is the major problem. In your post you even already mention your escapes : 'can internet at work' (and on smartphone and at friends and offline at home). Others here tell you, and other others even also say internet can no longer be socially avoided. It's like telephone has been for 100 years, TV for 50 etc.
Now, my advise from here would be addiction control. Yes, the AA will tell alcoholics to entirely quit. Such hardly ever works. Any cigarette smoker will tell you the same. Smoke 1 cigarette after 5 years of quitting, and you'r hooked up again. Also, again, as others point out: internet is an essential part of modern society, and as such even its addiction needs special treatment.
My [patent pending] proposal for most addicts is: Addiction control. Quit the idea of quitting altogether, as a regular thc, ethanol and nicotine user i can guarantuee you such idea is prone to fail. It comes down to some self-discipline and yes, technology makes it easy. It can help you, morally.
Chances are you have a modern router. Find 'parental settings' or something, and set a time clock. Of course, you can overrule it (and from an addictive point of view i even say: feel free so, to do so, at any time you wish). But the netto effect is: If you do nothing (have this self discipline) your internet will be on between 19:00 and 20:00, enough to check your email after cooking, and shuts down after. In the morning dito, have a 30 minute timeframe to fetch that mail or facebook.
On older routers, just plug in such simple 24h wall-clock.
Also, leave pc on, purposely, to rediscover the stuff we could do with computers for 30+ years (about since home computer was invented, around 80's) without ever using internet. Yes, the good old cassette tapes etc, maybe you have nostalgia to that times? [personally, nostalgia, yes. longing back to it, no. how convenient 'just clicking download' is these days]. Going off-topic here, cause my key point was: it's about addiction control:
Make appointments with yourself. Try to keep to them. Do NOT feel guilty when you don't keep to them, just review the appointments you made with yourself.
gl from a junkie.
A glitch a day keeps the bugs away.
An Amazon Kindle with 3G access might help you out. Gives access to Wikipedia (in any country), and the web in general if you are in the USA. Though browsing the web with a Kindle is painful and limited enough that you're not going to be feeding your addiction whatsoever. And the 3G wireless would give you your access to Wikipedia no matter where you are.
I went without internet for 2.5yr, due to a disagreement between me and the only local cable internet provider. I called to complain about shoddy service one day and the operator noticed I was being billed at a very low rate. The next bill I received I was back charged for 12mo of the difference between what I was paying and what they said I should be paying--including them doubling my monthly rate. I had no land line and refused to pay $25/mo extra for the privilege of naked dsl, which meant no internet without bowing down to pay the cable co the $400 they wanted. Guess what? Life went on and I started being very much more productive with my computer time. There were always some annoyances though, like finding out phone numbers and directions to places I wanted to go, plus those friends who refuse to invite you out via anything except fb & email. I'd end up keeping a 'shopping list' of topics which I required internet for, and would head to the library or local coffee shop every day or so to take care of them. The internet became a tool and not a time hole. That habit never wore off either. The internet is a very useful utility if you can control yourself to use it mostly for productive matters. Now my only problem is I feel that if I'm on the computer I should be working. Disclaimer: /. did manage to survive the great internet time purge :-p
If you're an obsessive person, don't think that just because you disconnect the internet you won't immediately find some other vice to completely waste your time with. I hope you don't have TV or play video games either, as you'll just be trading apples for oranges. Try and find some other stuff to do. For me its yoga, mountain biking, & disc golf...all three suitable for the completely introverted as well ;-)
First, people have done it before the advent of the internet and world wide web were popular. Of course, it has become so ingrained into our society that there are things that you might miss out on if you disconnect from the grid...
Second, my wife and I did that before the birth of our son. We did it for six months. We got rid of cable, internet, and cell phones and stuck with only a landline. Possible, yes. Inconvenient as all hell? Better believe it.
We wound up going back to all three and ditching the landline. Cable has better entertainment choices, especially adding in Hulu and Netflix. Internet adds tons of possibilities for reference, entertainment, news, etc.
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." General James Mattis
Until I signed up with my current provider, not having Internet for days at at time or crappy service was the norm. There always seemed to be something going wrong. It was a frustrating experience, because I couldn't access my e-mail or the communities that I was part of. I've since left those communities, partly because my experiences were not that positive, but also because my interests have changed. I probably spend as much time as I ever did on the Internet, even if I'm not as vocal or involved as I used to be. Shopping and banking are the obvious uses, but the Internet is such an invaluable resource for information, tutorials, downloads, etc., not to mention software updates, I think it would be a mistake to cut it off completely.
I'm on the verge of the exact same decision, and I'm having trouble finding reasons not to do it. Like you, I have internet access at work, and can manage my affairs (bills and such) there. Failing that, I can use WiFi at a coffee shop (with VPN of course), or go to a friend's house if some emergency pops up when I'm not at the office. Without the inexorable flood of novelty that the internet provides, I'll be much more likely to read more intellectual materials instead of catching up on the latest memes or reading about the latest exploits of Anonymous. Without those distractions, I'll spend more time at the gym, or playing the piano, or getting to bed at a decent hour. There's nothing inherently wrong with the internet, but since there's always something new to see, it's far too easy to lose track of time and forget to do more productive or enriching things.
Well, I was born in 1976, and I spent my entire childhood without the Internet. And, so long as you can take care of any professional online needs (stuff for the office, etc.), you should be fine.
In fact, your biggest problem may be other people in your social circle being too used to contacting you by email or over the 'net, and having to remind them to contact you by phone instead. But, really, I have a feeling that if you have no problems going back to basics (like newspapers for news, etc.), you shouldn't find too many real annoyances.
Robert B. Marks
Author, Demonsbane in Diablo Archive
I think one of the reasons people spend all that time reading stuff on the internet is that at some level it is a replacement for human contact. When you shut off the internet, prepare to feel isolated, and have an urge to talk or be with someone else. Prepare to work hard to increase how much time you spend socializing with others to deal with this.
Your government and press would rather you did not use the internet as a source of information. Some of it is beyond their control and may say things that They do not want you to know.
Throughout the existence of the internet, we have been told about all the bad stuff on it. It has varied from The Anarchists Cookbook, to child porn, to conspiracies to crime and fraud and so on. All things that would also plague you if you walked through the wrong parts of town at the wrong times and looked like a suitable target.
"They" would prefer it if you got your news through proper channels, controlled either by the government or responsible corporations like News International (Fox, Sky, NoTW etc).
Governments like what you are planning, because the internet spreads protests all over the place. The "Arab Spring" didn't just worry middle eastern and Chinese dictators. It will have been noticed absolutely everywhere and steps will have been taken, People like Rupert Murdoch want this stuff properly controlled for similar reasons. In the UK, his organisation is suffering because some of its misdeeds got out and people objected. The authorities must have already known but kindly did not do anything about it. If you choose to get your news from Fox or whatever, you will be spared from hearing about too much in future.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
...so I'm posting about it on slashdot. Irony.
Go for it. I love it. And I'm an IT professional.
i do it all the time, it's called being poor.
what is wrong with people nowadays, i'm sure you'll survive.
It was pretty easy, I must admit. I also lived without satellite radio, cable television, fuel injection on my cars, carbon fiber bicycles and cell phones. So maybe the 18 years since all of that stuff was invented have been less spartan but I can't say I've noticed that there is much negativity. In fact, it's much better.
Get a grip!
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
Its not that hard, but you don't really intend to be offline at home, but be in some grey area middle ground "text dump from wikipedia"? If you are going to "live without Internet at home", then live without internet at home.
Those of us born before 1985 or so can remember we LIVED WITHOUT INTERNET. We got by just fine. We went to libraries and subscribed to periodicals and bought books for information. We wrote letters on paper, used stamps, and waited days for mail turnaround. We read National Geographic for education and other activities. We survived, we liked it, we didn't notice much missing.
No 'net?
Been there.
Done that.
Was nice.
Don't wanna go back.
Pity the person who does.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
Let me try to be vaguely useful here, or at least vaguely thoughtful. The temptation to be sarcastic is strong but I think everyone's gotten all the good lines in already.
- If you like having access to information and media, consider the neighboring area: is there a decent bookstore nearby? video rental place? theatres? You won't have the Internet to get this stuff over. If you're in the burbs, consider moving in town where all this stuff will be much easier to find.
- Your social life will quite possibly become sparser if your friends are accustomed to planning things over the net; you'll be out of the loop unless someone loves you enough to phone you and say "hey Anonymous Coward we're having a party on Sunday, wanna come".
- Phonebooks will stop becoming something you throw away or leave forgotten on the doorstep for a month.
- In general you will need to have room for More Stuff if you keep wanting new books/music/etc. The library can help with books but you're probably stuck accumulating more atoms for music.
I was recently deprived of Internet for most of a week when I went to a regional Burn - out of cel range, out of power for my phone. The only thing I really missed was not having map data for my phone's GPS, and that was just while we were going to the event. But this was a recreational, temporary thing, not a permanent lifestyle choice.
You probably want to go read Thoreau. n.n
egypt urnash minimal art.
George Washington had no internet access -- and now he is dead.
-Erik -- --This message was written using 73% post-consumer electrons--
How about changing the phrasing to such:
I drink alcohol to excess
and when I am intoxicated I make dangerous decisions
such as
a. blah blah
b. blah blah
c. blah blah
d. driving drunk
Getting rid of the car will make choice "d" more difficult to implement (but not impossible, you could borrow someone else's car before going out).
And you lose the benefits of owning your own transportation.
Without addressing any of the other secondary issues (a, b and c).
And without addressing the primary issue (drinking too much alcohol for your metabolism).
Well as the title said, Slate did a series of articles on this where one of their writers went offline for a period of time.
http://www.slate.com/id/2249562/entry/2249563/
Hope that helps some.
Also to all of the old people saying they lived xx years without the internet, imagine doing the same without a phone and your TV. I know there was a time before the internet was a necessity, but today it's almost a necessity. Think of everything that has gone online, it's going to be extremely hard to live without. Yes there was life before the internet, but there was life before telephones, and before that there was life without radio, and before that life without electricity. It's a matter of scope and what you grew up with, but as time goes on these things become more and more ingrained and a part of society.
AKA: the worst years of my life.
Last time I went without Internet, I wrote my first real bash script. It made my flash drive act like a mini apt repository.
It is now 6 years, or a little more than that, that I do not have internet at home. I do use the internet sure, from work, at my parents place, some friend... but at home I do not have it. This is done willingly. I would stay late following things on the net which I like, or when something came to mind I would look it up online, and so on. It seems like a joke, but there are so many little things that actually do take their time, a little bit here, a little bit there.
Now if I need to know something while I am at home, after all it can wait until the next day till I go to work. It serves as a filter too, if it is not important a thing, I will not remember it. I don't know about others but it has done me good. I definitely spend more time out in the real world, when I have free time I call a friend for a beer rather than get online and get stuck for hours, when I have a meeting I' not a bit late like I used to be because I couldn't pull myself from that small little misconfiguration which is so elusive but I know where to look so it is a matter of just one more minute and just one more minute and just one more minute...
As of what to keep at home, I have a desktop and a laptop. I have a wireless with which I reach the files at the desktop (wired connection to the AP) through the laptop when I am lazily lieing down. Two usb storage disks of 2TB each do my replication of the files I consider important and which the desktop originally holds. Quite uncomplicated.
When I first moved into my previous apartment, I was between jobs and had no internet connection for a month. In that time, I picked up the violin again (after childhood), read some of the classics, and finished two coding projects I had on the back burner for years.
Without the Internet, you won't be asking random crowds to help you fundamentally restructure your life. The way you're doing here.
--
make install -not war
I was reading somewhere that someone with a similar problem implemented a 5 minute delay before he could connect to the internet. The delay filtered out the times he went online just for procrastination, or just "because it was there". I find a lot of times I open a browser because I'm waiting for some long-running process (like 25 seconds) and my mind wanders. Even if I had a 60 second delay, I'd probably do that a lot less.
Similarly, Paul Graham said he uses two computers - one for coding and one that sits across the room connected to the internet. He has to physically get up and move to go online, so it has to be worth doing it. That's enough to block out the procrastination type stuff. More Reading.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
i've had lots of experience with living without internet service .... basically from the time i was born till i was in my twenty's when the internet became available to the public ... trust me millions of people have survived without the internet , you'll do just fine without it , possibly even gain a few IQ points ..... back in my day when you wanted to know something you had to walk 2 miles to the library and read one of these things they used to have called books ... imagine that
I've decided that the internet is no longer a positive influence on my life ... is that I caught the missus cheating on me with some dude she met online.
You say the internet is worthless and you want to disconnect, but then in the same breath you want to copy some of it off 'to take home with you' ( in effect ).
So which is it, worthless or not? Sounds to me you really don't have a clue what you are wanting.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If your issue is being distracted and having all your productivity sucked away by various websites (Wait. What am I doing on Slashdot?), Randall Munroe wrote an excellent blog post on how he solved the very same problem. It might be worth trying.
Of course nobody reads the FAQ! If people read the FAQ, the Questions wouldn't be so Frequently Asked.
Asking the Internet how to go without the Internet? Well, I've heard of weirder things. To explain my subject line, though, don't take it negatively: what I mean by perspective is that you need to take some time off, a vacation, not just from work, but from the Internet, and possibly civilization in general. Go backpacking somewhere where there is no cell service, and don't take a satphone with you. At least a week if you can manage it. Take some time to clear your head and ask yourself: do you really need to forego the Internet completely at home, or could you just make some adjustments to your habits and ways of thinking that will help turn the Internet into a vital tool and put control of your experience of it back in your hands.
Nathan's blog
I read a study on this. It went something like this
Day 1: Everything OK. Several subjects complained that they couldn't troll slashdot in the evening while ignoring the TV.
Day 2: Holy shit! The patients have turned into red eyed vicious zombie like creatures. They've started to eat each other and are trying to beat the door down with clubs made from gnawed off limbs. Executing plan GOTTERDAMERUNG!
After that there were no more transmissions from the facility. It seems like the staff improvised a fuel air explosive by flooding the building with natural gas and then detonated it, vaporizing the facility.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Internet? Pshaw.
My grandfather owned a farm which had no electricity, running water, telephone etc. It was essentially a 19th century lifestyle except with the addition of a car which was used to drive the 18 miles into town to pick up mail and ice every couple of days.
For the first 16 years of my life I spent my summers living on this farm.
I loved it. You had time to think.
Seriously. Whitelist the domains you want to have access to and use it like that. If you can't handle that, then having access to the internet at work or wifi hotspots is just going to keep you in your "negative influence" state.
Until my recent move back into civilization, I was living for 8 yrs. without running water, power, or Internet access. I did have a cell phone (no data; charged via car charger-- I was still commuting to work). The phone required climbing to the peak of a nearby hill.
I was more productive (even coding with pen and paper) without the distraction of Internet access, but it is much more convenient when I need to research something to have access at will.
I still have moments of appreciation when I turn on a tap, and water comes out; hauling water was a major daily task. I don't really have these moments when I fire up a web browser. You might not miss it, and you may end up with a lot more time on your hands for productive pursuits.
I've been online since around 1990. There was a time when my social life suffered because I spent so much of my time online, talking to people about software projects we were working on, etc. I still spend lots of time doing that, but it's my job now, so it's legit. Also, being married and having a child, I have other fun stuff to do. Like wiping butts, or doing chores, or finding a babysitter so my wife and I can go dancing or take a weekend to go surf.
It's all about finding a balance. For instance, I have a home connection, but I purposefully buy slow (cheap!) ADSL access. It's just fast enough for one person in the house to watch a youtube clip while someone else surfs. As a bonus, I support a local small ISP. Sure, I could pay $75 a month for a 15Mb connection, but that's overkill.
I have completely eliminated gaming from my schedule. I used to play a lot of Quake and WoW. I got a subscription to MAKE and took some electronics courses. Now I build stuff rather than railing people from the outer platform on The Longest Yard. Right now I am working on building an autonomous surveillance blimp, because I can.
Learning a musical instrument gave me something to study (I like learning stuff) while simultaneously giving me the ability to give other people some enjoyment in a social setting - now that I don't suck as much as I used to.
And seriously, physical activity. DO IT. Make the time for it. Learn to push yourself (nobody else will). I occasionally fill in on a relative's home construction crew for fun and profit when he's down a man. I've learned a lot (yay) and though my arms are still kind of skinny, I'm not as useless without a keyboard and I've made some good friends. I've also endured a lot of teasing. Sucker for punishment? Yep.
The thing with the Internet is that it tricks you into thinking you're doing all kinds of Awesome Stuff, when really you're usually just sitting there looking at the same shit everyone else is looking at. Or arguing with people who never learned to think or write. Or shopping when you shouldn't. Or sharing personal info because you think you are establishing a personal brand. Or fighting ideological battles with True Believers on the other side of the world.
Or posting on Slashdot to share experiences no one cares about.
Shit!
My point is, if the Internet is taking up too much of your time, DO OTHER STUFF. The Internet should have to compete with other things that you love. You do love other activities, right?
Best way forward is to buy a book or two on addiction.
You don't need to see a therapist there is great books online and work you out much cheaper.
A lot of people are struggling with internet addiction.
I live without home internet now. Very successfully. I read slashdot at my public library to keep up with the internet and internet-computer insecurity going down-hill. It is going down-hill faster than I could otherwise keep up with.
I have one computer that I connect with. I download info I need to it and carry it home. I could do the same using a library computer and a usb flash drive.
Have you noticed you have to swim through more and more garbage to get to anything useful on the internet? Do you remember when it used to be full of educational information, instead of advertising and spam? You have to be as old as I am, or older, if you do.
Wikkipedia is the best thing going on the internet today, because it can give alternatives to "accepted" views, for readers to think about and compare for themselves. You just have to keep in mind that EVERYTHING you read is someone's view. And that even wikkipedia slants when they want to, or someone pays them enough to. See theregister.co.uk for info about this.
We who avoid the internet for it making itself dangerous, as well as mostly worthless, are growing in numbers.
a white boy's problem.
http://xkcd.com/597/
I give you an hour :p
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
I once worked at a company where Internet access was strictly limited to legitimate business uses only. I heard they fired several people for just random browsing! But I could bring in my own laptop. I was also on dial-up for awhile after college.
Anyway, I couldn't go to the Internet all the time, but I could and did use wget to set up regular things to download to read while I was offline. Things like Slashdot, my favorite forums, my RSS feeds, etc. The biggest problem with this setup for me was that I could read stuff, but couldn't respond (like this) before someone else did. The biggest problem with this setup for you could be understanding how to script wget downloads.
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
Rogers just cut all my services on Thursday, so I currently have no access from home, but there's a library directly across the street from where I live, and since I can't use my desktop to surf the Web for just under 2 weeks -- I'll be getting access again from TekSavvy -- I have to go and use the slower wifi on my laptop at the library. It's not the first time I've been without access, but it's a pain, I miss downloading from home!
Michael
http://s1.sfgame.us/index.php?rec=58163
1) Get a router that supports Tomato firmware (e.g. WRT54G).
2) Set up access restrictions to whatever sites, services, games, whatever that you want to never touch again (farmville, facebook, youtube, warcraft, whatever it is that makes you want to quit the internet) at the router level, for all clients on your network.
3) Have a good friend or significant other enter a password on the router's config screen
4) Friend keeps password so you can't cheat and disable the settings.
5) Use internet for useful things when needed.
The end.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
I've got some really sage advice for you, but you won't be able to get it...
Take your modem to someone you trust, talk to them about the problem, and leave the modem at their place for a set amount of time(e.g. a few months). Then when you want it back, you can't easily get it, but if you really need it you could get it back. Actually, replace modem with computer and that would work too. A good thing though is that you see the problem and are willing to address it, now you just need to carry it through and get rid of the crap for as long until you think is good for you. Allowing exceptions (intranet instead of internet) will only make it worse. Alcoholics that have quit generally avoid alcohol.
I've decided that alcohol is no longer a positive influence on my life, and am no longer going to drink continuously. To prepare for this, I am planning to stock a small cellar with wine, beer and some specialty liquor.
I'll still be drinking at work, and can frequent bars and taverns.
My question is thus: does anybody have any experience living without a steady stream of alcohol? What major nuisances did you encounter? What and how much should I put in my cellar? Is there anything I'm overlooking?
Lynx.
No single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood.
Why can't I mod poster +/- 1: Troll?
Seriously, this is just like when people moan about having cell phones, then in the next breath wonder how they ever lived without them. Simple, you made plans, stuck to them, and used pay phones. I'm 32, and I didn't have a computer with any sort of connection to anything outside of my house until I was 18. I was fine. My father never had Internet access, and managed to lead a full and productive life using things like stamps, telephones, and books. I recently spent a week at my father-in-law's in a part of rural east Texas where, for reasons of both coverage and terrain, cell phone service was nil, and Internet access was inconvenient. We spent most of our time sitting outside in the shade, drinking beer and cooking brisket, or out on a lake fishing. Talking, playing music, that sort of thing. Lacking Internet saturation wasn't a problem, and I daresay my wife benefited from a lack of Facebook and TMZ.com.
At the risk of minimizing your addiction, or at least your fears of having one, I would suggest you do two things.
One, ask yourself what you use the Internet for. Think of it as a tool, and then describe what it does for you. If it's both utility and entertainment, then ask yourself if swapping another tool for one of those functions (say, television) would result in a better use of your time, or just a different use of your time. It may be that it isn't the Internet that's the problem, but rather how you're spending your time.
Two, stop using computers (including smartphones) for about a week, insofar as you are able to do so. Obviously, if you use computers for work, there's nothing you can do for that, but try to avoid them as much as practically possible for a little while. You will surprise yourself with how easy it is to get by without electronics, and you'll kick yourself for how much of life you miss out on by relying on computers for entertainment and information. For the same reason I think everyone should, at least once, bake their own bread, obtain their own food (fish, hunt, grow veg, whatever), and take a crap in the woods, abandoning modern convenience, at least for a little while, is a great object lesson in self-sufficiency, and teaches you just what you really need to get by.
Check out a book titled "Industrial Society and Its Future" by Ted Kaczynski for some helpful tips! I agree with Hatta above: "Canceling your internet as a time management method is like realizing that you drove drunk last night and deciding that your problem is the car ownership. Is that not a valid way of dealing with the problem? If you know you can't control your drinking, this seems like an effective way of mitigating the damage it causes. -- Censorship is obscene. Patriotism is bigotry. Slashdot is unusable without noscript."
Instead of going internet free, I'd recommend you downgrade to a dialup connection. You can still do some of what you'd like to do, but you need to really think carefully about things. I wrote about my experience here: http://therandymon.com/content/view/188/98/ and would probably do it again. All the high bandwidth stuff I didn't really miss (no flash video? Oh noes!) although these days I'd miss skype. This way you've got minimal access if you need it, but are forced to radically downgrade your addiction.
That's about when you'll find your house is full of good books to read. Screw the downloaded wikipedia - you don't need it. Go walk the dogs and learn the guitar. (I can recommend a great website .... ha ha ha ha).
If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
Well, you need to prepare. A 10 GB RAID NAS chock full of a.b.e. newsgroup binaries ought to do ya for a few weeks...
OH BOY! let me tell you, it sucks! Don't get me wrong, parts of not having internet at home are awesome, but other parts aren't. The internet can become a distraction, but is also more valuable than having an encyclopedia, chilton car manual, are any other reference material you can think of.
When I moved out the country (for various reasons) I was first very excited. I have a gentoo server which takes care of my storage and services for my 'intranet'. I use a modded original XBOX to run XBMC and enjoy all of my server's content from any TV. This lasted about two weeks until I had a client that needed help. I had to drive to the office or their location. Then came the issue of ordering parts. I forgot how my day usually became so busy that I did most of my ordering or parts from my home computer. Now I had to set aside time to do any 'homework' at the office. This included but is not limited to, ordering parts, responding to emails, finding odd time to work on a website or misc repairs. Work aside, I love cooking amazing meals, are did not realize how much I relied on the net to find good recipes or tips when I was feeling like improvising. In the end, I wasted a lot of gas getting back and forth to places that had internet, and I pissed of customers some times.
On the plus side:
I spent more time tending to the lawn, it looked great. My garden looked better than it did anywhere else on account of the extra time.
I did enjoy having fun in the kitchen with no where to bounce ideas off of, but some meals certainly did not turn out as good as they could have.
I repaired the motorcycle I had never had time for.
The experience taught me a lot about planning ahead.
Conclusion: I bought satellite internet because the internet is a great tool. In the end, I learned to just manage my time better.
Just cancel your service and turn off your computer. If you load up a server with everything you might miss on the internet, and have access to it at work then you are not giving up the internet. You are just trying to convince yourself that you are. If you are going to do it, go cold turkey. Get rid of it all and buy a set of Encyclopedia Britannica.
I'm going to go way outside the Ask Slashdot box here and actually respond to your question in the spirit in which it was asked. I spent most of last summer home-Internet-free after moving into my own place for the first time, because I couldn't afford to get it set up for a while. Not having Wikipedia, Google Maps, and so on at my fingertips was by far the biggest inconvenience, but I missed having a search engine too, and that (as well as mapping sites, as far as I'm aware) isn't something easily intranetted. Online banking is obviously another loss, if you use such.
The main thing I'd be concerned with apart from the above, if unplugging from home access, would be security. Like it or not, your home net connection is likely to be the most private and secure data line you have - you're in direct control of the router, you're the only one (on the customer end) who's in direct content with the provider, and so on.
How about you exercise some self-discipline and stop letting the Internet be a bad influence on your life?\
The Internet is necessary in today's world. Saying you're going to quit the Internet is like a fat person saying they're just going to quit eating. It can't be done.
I lived in the US for 4 months, while doing some math research. I did not get internet since I could only get 10mbit, MPAA have much more power there than in Sweden, and I needed for pay for tv and telephone service as well, which I did not want.
I had access to internet at the university, a 5 mins walk away, so I could easily check emails, skype etc.
My experience is that I was definenty more productive; I did a lot of research that I probably would not had time to do.
I rented a lot of movies, but might be because it was way cheaper to rent movies compared to Sweden ($3 for 3 movies 3 days, compared to like $10 for 1 movie here in Sweden). I also went to the library more for the movies section. (Note, I did not have a TV).
I spent 2 hour a day in the gym, mostly for compensating for all the takeout I ate, but I certainly had a lot of time on my hands.
On the other hand, I moved to a new place, so no gf or friends that took time.
Anyway, in short, you'll get used to it.
I've decided that the internet is no longer a positive influence on my life...
Seriously, just turn it off. There are few if any "necessities" on the Internet so why bother.
You mention Wikipedia as an information source you would like to "rip" and keep. One, that's illegal. Wikipedia is still copyrighted material. Two, there are far more accurate resources of information-like books, journals, magazines, etc. Now, they might not be as up-to-date as Wikipedia, but they are certainly as accurate if not more so.
Email will probably be the most missed thing about the Internet. The ability to stay in touch with people and send important documents electronically are probably the biggest things to lose. Heaven forbid you call someone or mail them something.
I know plenty of people who live in areas where Internet access is limited to non-existent and they lead happy productive lives, just like their Netizen friends. People lived for thousands of years before the Internet and I guarantee that we can still live without it.
Does anybody have any experience living without the internet?
See my user ID...
What do you think? But I digress...
Surely, you would agree that there are a great many positive things that ready Internet access provides. Why then, would you want to deprive yourself of those? Sounds to me like you have other issues that you need to deal with in a more focused and effective manner than just pulling the plug at your house.
I think he's actually unemployed and out of money and needs to save his $$$
The summary suggests otherwise: "I'll also still have access to the internet at my office"
Whatever parts are "no longer a positive influence", simply ignore them and use the rest. Don't shitcan the whole thing unless you have some compeling reason (like maybe the feds are spying on you?).
Would you consider living w/out electricity? How about w/out running water?
OK, maybe in the Maslow hierarchy the internet is not as important to some as electricity or running water, it was not too long ago in this country that neither electricty nor running water was common in houses, and people lived just fine and happy lives. So you can probably live w/out internet and be just fine..... and I do know of one person who lived totaly w/out electricty for over a year, in a city, but he came to his senses and finally got back on the grid.
Anything like mine and you'll discover they still haven't accepted the push button phone (versus rotary) that hangs on the kitchen wall.
She lives without The Internet now. She also has no need of an intranet or even a mobile phone.
I asked her about you question and she laughed and called you idiot.
The previous Slashdot article is about the NSA trying to live without the internet -- they say it's about trying to set up an independent network, but experience has shown 1,000 times over that networks get connected -- that's what they do. Especially for NSA, they clearly *have* to be connected to the internet, that's where the communications they are trying to surveil are. And the rest of their job, making finding the human connections that bear on the message traffic they intercept all desperately needs the internet.
It's just as true for you -- cutting yourself off from the 'net altogether is really not that different from cutting off your head. There's just an expectation of access to information, and the world doesn't work if you don't have it.
I agree with others that what you really want is therapy. Find out what your issues are, and deal with them. You're not going to get to the bottom of an addictive behavior by putting something somewhat out of reach.
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
Other than telling those people that believe that everyone must have internet access... The biggest problems are dealing with software updates. You may be drinking A LOT of coffee.
When I was in my sophomore year of college, I found myself playing Descent from my dorm room more often than studying. I soon realized how bad my situation really was, and I hocked my computer. All of it - after which I had no computer in my dorm room. I used computer labs for all internet and word processing related needs.
That was a perfectly enjoyable year. My grades were awesome. I actually started to enjoy my classes. And I found things to do elsewhere.
A lot of what is found on the internet now really isn't that helpful. It's very convenient, yes. And it offers a portal through which we can easily contribute to our communities. But absolutely necessary, it is not.
Well, I'll tell you one thing and that is that instead of using the Internet at home like you do now, you will be spending time at your office and at the public WiFi spots using it just as much as you did before.
There is no sig...
Does anybody have any experience living without the internet?
Run upstairs and ask your parents.
|Yes, the AA will tell alcoholics to entirely quit. Such hardly ever works. Any cigarette smoker will tell you the same. Smoke 1 cigarette after 5 years of quitting, and you'r hooked up again.
I'd suggest AA's approach does work as evidenced by its spread and the experience of members. The common misconception is that AA recommends abstinence in isolation. Rather, members have discovered that what works is to accept the problem exists, seek the support of others with the same problem, adopt new practical spiritual principles (like helping others helps oneself), follow a program of life renewal based on members experiences etc. Abstinence is a feature of the approach - and a particularly daunting one - but it is only part of a comprehensive solution. ...and we only take it one day at a time.
WiFi isn't secure.
Do you bank online?
Do you vote? I like to pull the ballot down a few days before elections to research candidates and other items "they" like to spring on voters at the polls.
If you are sick and can't go to work, is your job one, like many people, where you could work from home if you have VPN access?
Pron?
Hulu? Netflix? Are you keeping cable TV?
Imaging you are snowed in or sick for a week. You'll get pretty bored .. if you're like me.
Before you cut it off, unplug your router for a week. See how that goes.
I decided to stop having the internet at home a about a year and a half a go. I use it at coffee shops and like right now, in the library. " What major nuisances did you encounter?" Are you kidding? Everything I've experienced has been very positive.
At first, I had to remember what patients is. You have a thought, you go over to the computer, but realize you have to wait. Not every thought needs to be acted on as soon as you get it. That is the biggest change. Soon you realize there is a time to do, talk to, or find out when you need to, not right now.
After a while, you will look at others as weak. Nobody can wait for anything. You will gain self control while others have less and less. You will realize the others who have to do it now, are like little kids.
Chris.
I gave up internet at my home about five years ago. Just didn't want to spend the money.
The biggest nuisances I found were how shitty the local phone books are (It is amazing how poorly organized the 4 different local phone books are and how little info is in there such as business hours or reviews) and the lack of internet video. I had become accustom to watching shows at my convenience on the computer. I had to dust off the old vcr to tape things and go to the library to check out a dvd or tv series.
"Is there anything I'm overlooking?"
You're overlooking the irony of asking Slashdot.
Ok, I think more than enough people here have done the best witty cracks on you asking on slashdot, on the web, on a saturday night, about going cold turkey on Inet access. So I'm going to skip that. And while it is true that the problem is your habits and your management of them - i personally have 'LEAVE YOUR COMFORT-ZONE', 'MANAGE YOUR HABITS' and 'LOW INFORMATION DIET' spelled out in big black-on-yellow signs on my desktop wallpaper - I do get that you consider going cold turkey on an uplink is a good option.
But here's the deal:
I personally think you're cheating yourself if you replace an INet uplink with an intranet. If you want to quit the web in this day and age that's fine. But then you should quit all but the most rudimentary electronic media alltogether. Otherwise you'll just find yourself getting hooked on some other sort of techie-gadget stuff. Or TV. Which is way worse than the web, btw.
I've considered quiting on the screen-staring and going back to perfoming arts a few times since the beginning of the year, and it wouldn't be the worst option. However, I have to make a living and I have a daughter who needs my support and programming is the best way I can give her that, so it's computers all around again. If I were alone, I would have ditched the computer stuff allready, but I aint. So there you go.
You on the other hand should, if that's what you're all about - and so it seems, otherwise you wouldn't have asked - should unplug right now, turn off your comp, get off your ass, go out and start learning Kung-Fu, Aikido, playing the violin or Tango dancing or some other kind of thing that offers enough fullfilment for two lives. You will feel much better and lead a much more fulfilling life. Take that from someone who, as of three years ago, spends most his evenings out Tango dancing and away from the keyboard. Me sitting here on a saturday night and answering your /. question is a wide and far between exception these days.
Whatever you do, you should definitly *not* worry about setting up an intranet for a time after you've unplugged. That's just being stupid. Got get a life and don't look back.
CU there.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
What is this... Internet? I live on the tubes, bro.
I've been without home internet for over a year now. I'm typing this while sitting at the bar down the street from my apartment. Here is what I've learned:
-Cost savings are probably a wash. My fiancee and I bring computers to the bar on the weekend if we need to do something requiring internet access. We probably spend enough on drinks to cancel out any money we've saved by not getting internet at home.
-Make lists (mental or written) of things you want to know about when away from the internet. I have unrestricted web access at the office and my first order of business in the morning is to consult wikipedia for things I need to learn about.
-Make sure to take care of the bills and non-work emails while at work. Pretty self explanatory and very easy once it becomes routine.
-I save lots of pdf's of interesting articles to my computer. Anything I see that I'd like to read on the train home or over the weekend gets saved to the desktop and deleted after reading. The same goes for things like travel directions.
Overall, while its a minor inconvenience not having internet access anytime I desire it, I've found the corresponding gain in freetime to be positive. We've been spending lots of time reading books and not talking to each other, as this is what I've been told married people do.
Regarding alcohol and cars, if drinking and driving is a problem, simply live closer to your bar. Or, brew your own beer and drink it at home.
You'll be without internet for what, six hours of the day? What is so vital on the internet that it can't wait until you go to work or the coffee shop? I'd be better off spending my own time outside instead of responding to this inanity.
Since making the leap to an Android phone, I'm finding I spend a lot less time parked in front of a PC,
I find that the phone will handle about 90% of what I need from the 'Net, but in a sufficiently limited capacity that there's not a great incentive to just surf randomly. Because stuff - even e-mail and Twitter - is a lot less convenient, I get away from the habit of immediately responding to everything.
At the same time I unsubbed from almost every e-mail list, RSS, and Twitter feed, reducing my incoming flow of crap to a fraction of what it was.
Three Squirrels
I had the same feeling about TV about 10 years ago. I was out of the demographic of interest to the advertisers (if I'd ever been in it), and it was no big loss when I moved and sold my set. The Internet is trickier, because web chat, home banking (which I will not do over public wifi) and certain resources are of value to me. But I frequently unplug for a couple of days at a time (usually at a weekend), and put the router somewhere where I can't get at it without a considered decision to do so. The effect is quite pleasant. So I can see the appeal.
What I suggest is a series of lengthening dry runs, to test out living without immediate access to internet. That will allow you to identify any other tasks or resources that need a fall-back plan.
Also think about whether you will be transferring (via USB or other) files downloaded from the Internet to your computer after you unplug, because if so, you will need a way to keep your system patched and virus/malware protection updated.
If you are really serious about this, I would try just unplugging your modem for a week and see how it goes. No need to jump into the deep end at the start. However, it seems there are other issues at play here, so you're really only treating a symptom, not the cause. And what ever negative influence you feel is plaguing you at home is just going to continue to be an issue at the other places you choose to connect. But really, you're going to find it miserable. We don't really realize just how much we depend on our connectivity in our daily lives. Not to mention the fact that so many things are dependent on digital communications these days. So yes, you can be Amish, but you can't expect the rest of the world to accommodate you.
I worked on an Aussie sawmill in the early 80's. We had water and electricity but the kitchen stove, hot water, and heating were all wood fired. There was a public payphone at the mill which you could use to ask the mailman to bring you stuff like bread and milk ( the alternative was a one hour round trip ). There was no TV or radio, the library was a three hour round trip, the cinema was a 5hr round trip. I loved the lifestyle, the (now ex) wife hated it.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Back in the 90s we used these things called modems. They had a really slow speed of about 56kbps. Dog slow by today's standards. So if you wanted to get something online it had to be worth the trouble. Email and light text web browsing were ok. But casual surfing and video was totally out.
The amount of time it took to load a single web page meant that you were not going to waste time looking at pictures of cats.
My suggestion to you is to get a cheap dialup line and throttle yourself.
You will find yourself doing more stuff offline just because you will become bored with slow page loads. But if you really NEED the net for email or for research you can still access it. Heck, you can even DL a movie overnight.
I spent ten weeks hiking in the Rockies and then six months living and working on an organic farm in Montana in 2009, completely sans internet. You know what? It was the most fun I never want to have again. I saw and did some great things, made some great friends, but relying on a telephone, newspapers, and the postal service for contact with the outside world for half a year sucked wang. DON'T limit yourself to "just at work" because then "work time" gets reclassified as "internet time" and your boss probably won't be too happy about that.
My Internet connection didn't work for four consecutive days - not a long period by any means. I'll try to recollect anyway..
I got news over the TV and Radio as I did before I started reading online news.
I missed browsing the net and some social networking sites like facebook and meetup. I called up a couple of people over the phone which turned out to be a positive thing to do and then I didn't miss those. I don't have those apps installed on my phone.
Recipes - another major online information I use all the time but I always have had my own copy of recipes on my laptop and my phone.
A couple of financial transactions - I accomplished those at work through Internet although I have had success with them over the phone in the past. You can still accomplish almost anything with someone on the phone or auto attendants.
I keep some information online on gmail or google docs... I needed to see those a couple of times and I used my phone's 3G connection for those due to urgency. Likewise for google maps.
Could I continue without Internet? No, not for the primary place of residence, but I can reduce my Internet connectivity duration to less than 30 minutes a day on the average, if I plan ahead and go without Internet for a couple of days or even a week. Many folks travel overseas for several weeks visiting friends and family and live happily without access to Internet for 3-4 weeks together.
I also felt like I saved quite a bit of time from browsing aimlessly at times and reading the same news headlines and topics multiple times in multiple places. The experience however has made me think seriously about keeping most of my online personal information synced to my local laptop as well. (google docs, gmail, phone and postal address contact information for people and businesses).
Definitely get a subscription to The Economist. You're probably going to want to know what's going on in the world, and the paper version of this will give you the broad-brushstrokes. Also, I think you're going to get bored and The Economist will kill several hours each week and you'll feel smarter for reading it.
This could be a real money saver...
Since you aren't planning on giving up the internet entirely and plan to use it at work and via public wifi, given that you are addicted, you wont be spending any time at home.
That means you can put all your goods in storage, sleep in your car, use the showers at truckstops, and save a bundle on rent/mortgage.
WIn?
even if one's main supply is streaming it off the Internet (YouPorn et al), IMHO it makes sense to save a bit of it locally anyway (maybe your favorites amongst the stuff you find when combing the streaming sites and such)
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
OP: Does anybody have any experience living without the internet?
Yes, that is what life was like before 1993 or so (yes guys..I know it's actually older than that.....) .
10's of thousands of years of human history, pre-internet. We got by. And we will again if needed.
Huh?
Most of my friends are old geezers who don't go online. They do fine. Some of them ask me, "Do you think I should get on that Internet Thing?" If they have grandchildren, I tell them that, if they had a computer and access, they could get pictures of their grandchildren from their kids. That's appealing to some and I've offered to help get them set up. A couple have come to my house and fiddled around with it. Some of my friends have discovered a few things they would like to do and have, at least, figured out how to go to the library and use one of their computers. I guess what I'm saying is that my buddies have lived their lived without internet access and are happy with it. A few have found a few things they wanted to do and find internet access enriches parts of their lives. However, they could most certainly do without it. As to setting up your little personal info-source: forget it. You will spend more time futzing with it to make it would right that you may as well just connect up with the Data Hose and leave it at that.
Unless you have no hobbies or friends, or basically no life, I think this is a stupid Idea.
I suggest using a dial-up connection, or other equally shitty connection. It will be slow enough that it should discourage you to waste tons of time on it, but you will still have access to useful information when you really need it.
First off, you're going to have to go back to spanking it to magazines.
But seriously, the people that give up their internet connection because they have "decided that the internet is no longer a positive influence" are usually porn addicts.
you people are really ripping on this guy. its pretty funny. haven't any of you ever went with out tv for a few months just to see what you would do instead? the internet is useful, i dont know if this person is addicted to it that might be a reason to disconnect.
Cancel your broadband access and go back to dial-up. You can still receive email and look up Wikipedia and perhaps some text only news services, but with anything image heavy or multi-media becoming a right pain in the arse in wait-states, you won't have to exercise too much discipline walking away from all but the essentials.
Of course having full access at work might mean you end up spending more time there.
Heh,
Perhaps you should become a mathematician, move out to bum-f**k, Montana, live in a shack and start mailing care packages to people.
Seriously though, what possible reason is there to get rid of the internet connection? If you are on Slashdot, I'm going to make the assumption that you are technically inclined. If so, the internet offers the only real form of information that you will find. I suppose it depends on what you are using it for. If you find that you are spending too much time online browsing websites just to pass the time, restrict yourself from those types of websites and/or restrict your time online. If you just don't see how time online is of any value, then by all means drop your internet connection as it is just a money sink. On the other hand, if you value the internet and time spent online there, don't drop your personal connection and just access from work, as that means that your social/entertainment access will increase at work and frankly, work time should be spent working and not getting entertainment.
Personally, myself, I chose not to have a landline phone nor do I have any type of broadcast television coming into my house, however, the internet provides my communications, research requirements and entertainment. Internet access is definitely in my top 10 crucial things to have. That being said, I still have a life away from the computer.
What's the real reason for giving up internet access? What possible reason is there to drop service?
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
I'm 48 years old. I have lots of experience living without the internet. Between 1963 and 1995, I had no internet. I don't recommend it. You live in the early 21st century. Take advantage of it. Instant access to information is one of the few things that's better now than it was 30 years ago.
Great posts. I have even got one better... wife and I spent 5 years cruising the Pacific on a 32-foot sailboat we built ourselves. Left in 1980 with one kid (girl, 2-1/2) and came back in 1985 with two kids (boy was born in Mexico). My wife cooked on a kerosine stove while often strapped in next to it to stay in place. We did have solar panels and a (home made) wind generator plus ham radio. The kids absolutely thrived on it and I loved it. The adventure that pretty much became the focal point of our lives. You can absolutely live without the Internet... or even a great deal of civilization... and survive.
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
I haven't had Internet at home (aside from a crappy phone browser) for 3 years.
It can be inconvenient at times, and I definitely don't build websites anymore. On the other hand, I do a lot more reading, and the library provides all the free dvd's I can watch. I do indulge in a cheap Netflix subscription.
I can surf all I like at work. It's worked out fine.
I spent last 3 years without having any sort of access to Internet at home, as an measure to save my limited post-graduate student stipend.
GOOD part of that experiment was, it was calm and relaxing to be back home. No more e-mails or IMs to disturb you once you are at home. So I did enjoy lot of the other activities from reading, watching television, playing old games, freelance writing etc.
UGLY side of this experiment was, you are going to waste quite a lot of your working hours to do the things you should've done at your leisure hours. For an example, I had to skype my parents, write personal e-mails, update my FB, read news/blogs/slashdot at work. On top of that, if I want to go somewhere during the weekend or do something at home, I had to download all the information (be it maps, guides, etc) well in advance. All these eats up considerable amount of productive hours at office. So I resorted to two strategies: a) stay at office late, b) go to office during weekends, both were bad in their own ways.
During emergencies, I had the luxury of accessing WiFi of a coffee shops near by. But it is pointless unless you have a smartphone or a netbook equivalent (I had neither; remember, I was a poor post-grad). Then the internet cafe near my house was reasonable in terms of hourly charges, but aren't they an extincting breed of cafes ?
My advice if you are STOPPING internet at home:
1. Make sure you have a digital repository of everything you need, which can be a dictionary/thesauraus software or list of fast-food-delivery/taxi phone numbers.
2. Buy a large enough USB flash drive/HDD and download a syncing software (on Windows platforms, SyncToy is good). This way you can manage files you need to carry back-and-forth between home and office.
3. Buy a smartphone or a netbook equivalent, and locate nearby free WiFi hotpots, for emergencies.
My PREFERRED solution:
1. Subscribe a basic broadband connection (say 30GB a month, 2Mbps downlink). Which is just good enough to do regular emails, web browsing and bit of youtubing. But you can't do much as bandwidth is restricted (no 1080p video watching). So just enough.
2. Get rid of unnecessary internet memberships/accounts. Slashdot is the last forum I am actively participating. FB is the only social media site I am in. Soon, I will stop reading gizmodo and stick to ARStechnica. I am geared towards simplifying my internet life as much as possible. As it can save quite a lot of time and energy.
3. Think internet as a tool that make possible other experiences (e.g. FB messaging to invite friends for a cup of tea + chat), not the be-all-end-all destination where your life should revolve around.
Wishing you good luck!
good riddance. have fun joining the 3rd world.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
I use my home computer for work in my home office, but outside of that, I'm not much of an internet person. I don't carry any electronic devices besides a phone that's just a phone. So when I say that I don't use the internet for personal life, I mean it, but with the following dumb exceptions:
1. multiplayer games: pick your favourite video games, be they big or small; multiplayer means internet. gone are the days of inviting friends over, and most of my friends are too old to have common free-time hours, so I need to play with strangers.
2. listings. think movie listings, but not just movie listings. There really aren't any non-online places to get these things anymore. So I buy movie tickets online.
3. anything delivered. I'm a big fan of grocery gateway -- in part because I refuse to bring food into my sports car. That means ordering online. it's true of most things that you can get delivered.
4. updates. windows media centre also uses the internet to grab listings. Many of my applications do some kind of updating or upgrading or content refreshing online.
But I'm not a facebook, google whatever, social networking kind of guy. So being online at home doesn't bog me down. Working from home does, but that's why I own a sports car: so I go out.
Oh yeah, and reading slashdot at least twice per day. But that's as much professional as it is personal.
Rather than eliminate the internet at home you might consider limiting it. Many home routers have the ability to limit what times of day access is granted. Maybe you just need to set it up to shut off at 9pm when the rest of the family goes to bed etc.
I was off the 'net for a few days after moving (didn't fully take the http://xkcd.com/466/ route). I did have access at work, but I believe in getting a fair amount of work done at work. :P Also, there are certain things that don't belong in a work environment, whether or not the IT policy specifically forbids them.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
As ironic as it may be I am in a similar boat, I'm an intern at a tech company this summer and in order to live off of my intern salary decided not to sign up for Internet service. Now it's 1:15 in the morning and I'm posting on slashdot from a smartphone.... But that's besides the point here is what I have learned. 1: Banking/bills are much easier to pay online. Like most 22 year olds I've never really had a need for a check book or mailing in bills and wondering if it got there. I ordered checks but by the time I got them I needed to pay bills it's just much easier to pay online than on paper for these sorts of things. Same with checking bank balances and such 2: people assume email exists and you can handle any gigantic file with your 2gb data plan on an AT&T 3G network, I have learned to just accept my mailbox will become bloated, back it up to my computer and sort through things that way 3:news is way better online than on tv, I cant stand any of the tv news I get, you may want to have some rss setup feed into your intranet for the really important stuff, maybe wifi tether from smartphone? (This kinda breaks the I don't want Internet rule) 4: books and magazines are great! I got a library card and have read a lot of great books, learned some cool things and even discovered some great magazines I will probably subscribe to after my internship. I hope this helps, your no Internet is more by choice than mine but I have found that a lot of time and experiences are waisted while browsing the Internet while on the other hand you miss some of the great collaborative communities and freedom of information. Hopefully you find a way to manage this and enjoy life unconnected I have also learned that slashdot does not accept the carrage return on an iPhone so my nicely formatted post turns into an awful rambling mess
He's not going to be able to read it...
I think that the main problem with not having an internet connection is being unable to get software updates.
While you're not very likely to catch a virus on an unpatched Windows machine, if you're not connected to the Internet, updating Linux can be a pain. Fedora, e.g., practically assumes you have an Internet connection, as there's no "Fedora Everything" DVD.
This is the main reason I gave in and got an ADSL connection at home a couple of years ago. Before then, I'd go through various contortions to keep my computer updated using the Internet connection at work: I had installed, on a server at work, every RPM that I had installed at home, adjusting yum not to delete update RPMs, so that I could take copies home and update them by hand. When new Fedora releases came out, I would upgrade my home machine using the upgrade DVD, then bring the hard disk at work, boot my PC with it, and finish the update there. It all worked until I upgraded my home machine to an incompatible configuration (x86_64 vs. x86, RAID vs. single disk).
Apart from this, I agree that having a home Internet connection is not a positive influence. Look at me: it's a fine Sunday morning, and I'm sitting on my computer reading Slashdot!
I gave up on the Internet for half a year in 2001. It was the worst mistake I could have made. I got my 'net through ibook and publically accessible access points during that time and everything seemed complicated. At the same time I got paranoid about getting caught as the publically accessible access points didn't give me permission. If I could live my life again I would not have made this decision but rather keep my DSL on and enjoy the Internet without paranoia.
-p
The Interwebs is full of them and this place is no exception. Guys, there's no logic in all of your stupid comments along the lines of "why you ask it on the Internet". No contradiction. No incoherence. No fallacy. Zero. Null. Nil.
As for the op, don't take Wikipedia with you. It's both the best and the worse of the Internet. A lot articles may be good and precise, but a lot of them are mediocre at best. Then you have a lot of controversial ones that are the feud of Nazi-admins or completely biased smart asses. Without the tubs, you will not be able to verify the sources and if an article is balanced. Go to a library instead, you'll also have the chance to meet much more interesting people.
Your first mistake was posing a question to this sad cavalcade of losers who will never answer your question, just leverage it to assert how superior they think they are.
Just like the film you just need to create a woman like Kelly Le brock. So what would you little maniacs like to do first?
All cows eat grass!
Driver disks, make them (windows PCs).
Linux packages for offline installs (if you need to reinstall a linux OS).
Basically prepare yourself for new installs of OS's.
Porn/roms/games/ebooks for programming languages.
I think that was about it. Might wanna get some USB keys for using public interwebs. Also might wanna have a live cd laying around. Maps of your City, bus schedules, contacts for businesses in your area (phone book), a phone, audio codecs for music. Offline music, or, ripping software.
I think the biggy for me was dependencies in linux.
> Is there anything I'm overlooking?
Yes. The substantial reconnection fee once you've realized what a completely daft idea this is.
Don't you realize that this is why the dinosaurs died out. They couldn't check their horoscopes, went outside when it said "Beware of falling objects" and became extinct. Without the internet, life itself is impossible. How will you keep up with the lives of celebrities? How will you make day to day decisions if you can't check your horoscope? How will your children learn to mate if they can't watch Porn? How will you learn proper risk management if you can't watch all those video's titled "THE FUNNIEST VIDEO EVER"
THink of the CHILDREN. Extinction for you and yours is the only possible outcome of this dangerous decision. Ricky Lake had a show about someone who made this decision and their entire family ceased to exist, Their house disappeared and everyone in the neighborhood swore there never was a house there. EVER. Without a Facebook profile they became NON PERSONS. Just like Stalin used to do in Russia. No LINKIN page and your family NEVER EXISTED. Don't risk it. NO really.
How can u not have an internet? Is this even possible? Isn't the internet synonymous with air, food i.e. a necessity for survival?
Dont know if anyone has suggested this as im too lazy to read all the comments, but why not filter your internet. Get a router which supports basic content/url filtering. Block everything you waste your time on and keep the stuff thats useful and important. Set it to your gateway, configure your current router to only accept traffic from that ip address.
Then forget the password!
asking on the internet how to live without the internet
whiskey tango foxtrot charlie
Boy are you in the wrong place...Instead of asking a group of internet junkies like Slashdot, try asking people who actually live without internet, say at the library or in your community. You know, the people you'll be associating with once you unplug.
As a practical suggestion, in addition to trying to create your own personal intranet with a clone of Wikipedia, go back to print technology. Help keep your local newspaper in business for an extra 3 months by subscribing. Learn to appreciate and leverage your public library.
As it stands now, your plans don't actually disconnect you from the internet, they are just making your internet access more public and less frequent. If the influence of the net is really that negative for you, you'll have to be very careful not to fall into your habitual internet behavior in the public WiFi and other sites.
We are the 198 proof..
Make sure you have some (paper) maps available to you in your post-Google life!
Now you just need a couple of hard drives!
I did that two years ago and I'm very content of that choice. I use the net at work and in nearby library. I carry a memory stick with me and download pretty much everything I think I'd like to read later.
I found net a distraction and from the very first days I found out I can read longer texts and concentrate a lot better.
Being netless is good for brainy stuff like solving problems or learning maths, algorithms, or new programming paradigms. What I call 'brainless' programming (where the main obstacle is insufficient documentation and the only way out is checking the net for if people have tackled it) is of course pretty much impossible.
Another downside is that people without net connection very often have strong body odors, and using a shared terminal is often a little inconvenient.
And, of course, your porn stash gets old and boring very soon. Be sure to download as much smut as possible before you cut the connection.
I wouldn't take it back.
Let's not be so absurd. When shit hits the fan here, the internet is gone anyhow, right? Just like what do you do to prepare for bank closures and you need some cash in hand. How do you prepare for that? Being prepared with your life vs internet is the same thing. If it blinks out this afternoon, what exactly would you do? Get a grip, think about it and start doing it now while you can. Besides that, maybe one day the isps/gbmt etc will piss us off enough to tell them to go fuckagoose. When it happens and everyone leaves comcast, att etc, hoping to influence their control over us, what will we do without our daily fix of Soma?. If we can't decide what to do with out our beloved www, how we gonna challenge them? If we can't drop a day or two here and there, how would we survive a major gbmt attack on us? Puleeze don't say it couldn't happen..
We are not addicting to the internet, but the information and interaction it provides. addictions to tabloid newspaper and TV are just as bad and counter productive.
however, given that we are over-consuming and over-producing physical goods, killing our time with virtual goods might be better for the world?
except for completely wasting time, I find I can get by with the internet on my phone for email, directions, etc. Perhaps the prohibitive costs of mobile data will help you not be on 24/7....
Why is this on /.?
...it doesn't sound like you're ready to make a complete break.
I've been known to ignore the web for months at a time. Once in a while I get bored and decide to reconnect with the world in a more tangible way. Or I'm traveling and don't want to deal with the hassle of public computers. I'll still check my email whenever it's convenient, but I spent a good portion of my life not being constantly available so I don't mind flexing my autonomy occasionally.
Whatever the reason, it's never stressful. In fact, I usually feel more relaxed because I feel like I'm making better use of my free time by accomplishing things I would put off otherwise.
Us geeks tend to look at the past through rose-tinted lenses. Everything was better in the 80s, I find myself thinking from time to time.
When I look back at life before the Internet without wearing those Goggles of Nostalgia +1, I remember that obtaining knowledge was a chore. In particular, the game of chance with the library, hoping they actually had what you wanted, that it was in stock, and that it wasn't horribly out of date (not to mention contending with that evil daystar). Connecting with other experts meant either waiting for a journal or newsletter to be published, hoping it contained what you wanted to know, or personally knowing an expert and endeavouring to contact them telephonically.
You could say life was "simpler" but I really don't think it was, looking back all I can say is that it was time consuming.
In Soviet Russia, the Internet accesses you...
By now ?
I don't want to remember life before the internet! There were only three TV networks, and if the president gave a speech they all aired it - and it cost a bundle to call someone on the phone even in the US, with outrageous rates for international calls - and my "robot" toy was actually limited to having one wind-up mechanism that made it move - and if I took a photograph it would be a week before I could see whether it turned out, if I sent it in to be developed right away - and porn was almost impossible for a kid in a religiously-inclined community to get hold of. I don't even want to think about it! Go away!
Can anyone tell me what it's like to live without these? /end sarcasm
Reference: Dark Ages
- A Frog in a pond utters an azure cry. -
Having moved house more times than I care to remember (and subsequently being without an internet connection for weeks at a time) I'd suggest simply turning your router off at home for a few weeks and see what you miss. I'm guessing that it will be a lot. You don't realise how much you rely on the internet until it isn't there anymore.
As pointed out: you use the Internet to find out how to live without it?!?! Maybe you should reconsider.
You need a plane ticket, best fare. Where are you going to go to a travel agent? More than one to compare if they can get better deals? Time to do that with Internet 30 minutes (?) without it 3 days (?)
Of course you can rely on connectivity at work. I hope your organization and manager are cool with that though.
then try this.
http://www.covenanteyes.com
If you do any gaming, even single player, you could run into problems with this. More and more games are requiring online activation even if the game has no online component. Requiring a games for windows live or steam account is common place and EA is rolling out their new service soon and looks like they are going to tie most of their games to it.
1. Disconnect your Internet.
2. Setup access times/filtering on your router.
3. Setup a squid proxy (authenticated if you want to give others in the house different access). Setup whitelists of sites like Wikipedia that you want to visit and a blacklists of sites you dont and access time acls.
Obviously options 2. And 3. Can be bypassed if you are IT savy so you might want to set it up, test it, put it in a lockable rack and give the key to a friend, family member or leve it somewhere far away (e.g desk drawer at work).
I went with little internet at home for a year and a half. (The only way I could download anything was to signal dance with my laptop in the pantry or bathroom) I found it frustrating at times but also found that I could entertain myself just as well using my computer to play games and make art, watch movies or read books from the library, work on arts and crafts and actually hit the books and study without distraction. You have to plan ahead to download podcasts, audiobooks, epubs or whatever media you want to use offline while you have a connection at work or a coffee shop, but you can keep yourself enriched and amused while not having a constant stream of internet at your fingertips every moment of the day.
If you're really curious how long you can make it, unplug your router and have a go. XKCD may be right and you could only last an hour, but it could be wrong and you may find yourself sitting down and finally enjoying that classic that's been collecting dust on your shelf for a couple years.
Good Luck!
Living without internet is not possible in todays life. Internet becomes a very most important part of our life. I can't think about the life without internet.
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