Early last year I signed a 2 year agreement with AT&T, and then business slowed down and I had to cut expenses. I canceled my cable internet 2 months ago, and it's been working great. The PCMIA slot on my laptop broke, so I shelled out the money for a USB model, an 18 inch antenna with a 15 foot cable, and a 16 foot USB extendor cable. Apple has very easy Internet Sharing set up, so I plug it into my Mac Mini and run the antena into my bedroom where I get the best reception (I have a one bedroom apartment). My Mac Mini then allows my laptop to connect wirelessly, and I plug my PS3 into the ethernet port.
When new PS3 demos come out I can download about a Gig overnight, and I can get sustained download speeds of over 100k on my laptop regularly. Ping times are about 5 to 10 times longer than from my cable modem, so it takes Slashdot almost 10 seconds to load instead of less than 3. I can even still do internet gaming on my PS3, but I definitely have signifigantly fewer options because many servers ping times are way too high. When all is said and done it's plenty worth the slower connections than it is to pay for internet access twice.
I remember hearing phone companies were required to provide 911 availability even to non-customers, and the phone system reliability had follow the 5 nines rule, 99.999% availability. Though the Conservative De-Regulation Movement might have rewritten the rules. Didn't Vonage get in trouble recently for a flawed 911 system? People who had their lines cut should plug in a real phone and let their legislators know they no longer have 911 service in case of emergency.
Slashdot Mirror
Early last year I signed a 2 year agreement with AT&T, and then business slowed down and I had to cut expenses. I canceled my cable internet 2 months ago, and it's been working great. The PCMIA slot on my laptop broke, so I shelled out the money for a USB model, an 18 inch antenna with a 15 foot cable, and a 16 foot USB extendor cable. Apple has very easy Internet Sharing set up, so I plug it into my Mac Mini and run the antena into my bedroom where I get the best reception (I have a one bedroom apartment). My Mac Mini then allows my laptop to connect wirelessly, and I plug my PS3 into the ethernet port.
When new PS3 demos come out I can download about a Gig overnight, and I can get sustained download speeds of over 100k on my laptop regularly. Ping times are about 5 to 10 times longer than from my cable modem, so it takes Slashdot almost 10 seconds to load instead of less than 3. I can even still do internet gaming on my PS3, but I definitely have signifigantly fewer options because many servers ping times are way too high. When all is said and done it's plenty worth the slower connections than it is to pay for internet access twice.
I remember hearing phone companies were required to provide 911 availability even to non-customers, and the phone system reliability had follow the 5 nines rule, 99.999% availability. Though the Conservative De-Regulation Movement might have rewritten the rules. Didn't Vonage get in trouble recently for a flawed 911 system? People who had their lines cut should plug in a real phone and let their legislators know they no longer have 911 service in case of emergency.