how many use dial-up?

[Kali]

Just paid my bill and it made me wonder how many of us are left. Anybody have the real stats?

[quinnox]

1. lol, I can't believe dial up is still around

I thought it was gone a long time ago. I feel for you. I had to use it for years before I got DSL and it was slower than molasses.

[slampoet]

49. You live just 200 miles from one of the Least inhabited areas of the USA.

Eastern Oregon has very little in the way of infrastructure. Take drive through it sometime.

[Jennicut]

2. I used to use Web TV a couple of years ago. No money for a computer back then.

We actually got our computer as a Christmas Present from my parents as a huge surprise. I wonder if it still exists. We have DSL now.

[Odin2005]

51. My dad used to have a WebTV.

It was the first time I ever used the Internet outside of school.

[nonconformist]

60. Holy shit, Web TV is still around?

I had no idea. For whatever reason I thought that idea died out in the late 90s.

[Raine]

71. I'm on the 2 for 1 plan, I have a computer but I also have WebTV

I mostly always use the computer but sometimes when it gives me trouble the WebTV is nice to fall back on.

[NeedleCast]

3. According to web stats at my office

About 4 to 5% of our user bases was on dial up. I bet it's actually double or triple that, because I worked for an education non-profit and most of our users were connecting from their work over broad band connections or T-1+ university lines.

Still, it's not a lot.

[FSogol]

4. My parents have dial up on their old email machine.

But of course, we didn't have a color tv until 1976.

[Coventina]

74. 1976? We didn't get color TV until 1987!

Needless to say, I'm still on dial-up.

I do have a cell phone, though. Although I don't have a text plan. I've never sent a text in my life!

[Romulox]

5. They don't make that any more!

I pay less in 2010 dollars for 3G ($30/month) than I used to pay for dial up ($20-$25/month).

[Statistical]

6. Sadly only 60% of households in United States have broadband internet access.

So 40% are either on dialup, have an always on connection which is slower than FCC definition of broadband (768kbps down, 200 kbps up), or have no internet connection at all.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/us-20th-in-broadband-penetration-trails-s-korea-estonia.ars

* South Korea (95%)
* Singapore (88%)
* Netherlands (85%)
* Denmark (82%)
* Taiwan (81%)
* Hong Kong (81%)
* Israel (77%)
* Switzerland (76%)
* Canada (76%)
* Norway (75%)
* Australia (72%)
* Finland (69%)
* France (68%)
* United Kingdom (67%)
* United Arab Emirates (65%)
* Japan (64%)
* Sweden (63%)
* Estonia (62%)
* Belgium (62%)
* USA (60%)

Yeah we are getting beat by United Arab Emirates and Estonia.

[jdlh8894]

30. You do realise-

Taking Canada out of the picture,all of the other countries(USA excluded also) would be smaller than 3 of our largest states?

[Statistical]

32. That is no excuse.

I remember seeing a report that broadband penetration even in urban areas is bad as is average broadband speed.

The maximize profits at all costs and completely deregulated (do what you want) system is leaving us behind other countries.

[marmar]

52. And the point? This is about percentages.....

[slampoet]

68. Russia is smaller than the USA ?

[jdlh8894]

78. Where is "Russia" on that list? n/t

[Renew Deal]

82. It's there!!!!

Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's missing!!! :evilgrin:

[nonconformist]

56. I'm going to guess that at least 70% of that 40% don't have internet access.

Which even so is difficult to comprehend in this day. I'm not ignorant to poverty, but a home computer with internet access seems almost as common as a television these days. They're so much more affordable than they used to be, too. Our first PC in 1996 cost over $3,000. 120 MHz, it had 64 MB of memory.

I wonder though how many households just choose not to have one. I would imagine that there are plenty of elderly folks that don't have one by choice. I'm sure there are many people that would like to have a computer with internet access that simply cannot afford it, however.

I am assuming that the figures above reflects what people actually use, not what they have access to. I can't imagine that 40% of the country doesn't have broadband available. I saw a figure from 2008 that said nearly 90% of active internet users in the US use broadband.

[DeschutesRiver]

77. In this rural area there is no broadband available

The least expensive option is dialup. What I am seeing is that quite a few of my neighbors who used to have internet dialup service have been cancelling it due to the bad economy here.

Example of the last one who mentioned this to us - she is a grocery checker at a local store (that is fighting to stay in business). It is more practical for her to keep her cell phone to use on an emergency basis if needed (out here, you could be stranded awhile if your car broke down on the way to work, so a cell is most useful) than to keep her landline. Add that savings to the savings of no internet to pay for monthly, and no need to buy a new computer/fix the old one.

The savings of no landline or net service to pay for, and no computer really does add up for a lot of these people out here. I was surprised at how many people here formerly did use the internet (older people, ranching types, etc), and how many are so close to the edge financially that giving this up is necessary to their survival. They don't have expensive toys or homes or cars or anything like that. And now, no internet.

I have dialup. It sucks.

[no limit]

7. I would rather eat a bowl of glass shreds than use dial up.

[Kali]

19. well it beats calling on the phone, writing letters, and driving 15 miles to the library

but I sure wish I could watch the Daily Show!

[hlthe2b]

8. I doubt there are that many on dial-up, but not all "high speed"

alternatives are all that "high speed".... I use a 3G cellular wireless connection which is acceptable for most things (YouTube has to "pre-load" to be watchable) but very large video and pdf files can be a real pain. So, not all alternatives are high speed cable broadband or even DSL. My alternative works best for me because I travel and am rarely working in one place for long, so mobility options for the same $$ outweighs speed.

[Kali]

15. so you use a cell phone modem for a laptop?

that is what I am looking at for an upgrade, what is the general cost if I may ask?

[hlthe2b]

26. Yes... part of a package I've had for more than 2 years

So, I don't know that it applies to current. Two things that you should know. First, not all cell phones let you use them as a modem (VERIFY!). Second, some cell companies limit how much data time you can have--i.e., how much you can download. My package is unlimited, but again, I don't know if I could even get this again at my own company (since they are cracking down).

Obviously, you can also purchase a separate cellular card for your laptop, but I found that to be more costly and I don't use much voice time anyway. This way I get unlimited data on both cell and laptop for one price.

[zipplewrath]

9. DSL

Rather slow versin, but I get it for $10 a month so.....

[quinnox]

10. lol, 10 bucks a month?

How fast is your connection > ?

[zipplewrath]

17. Faster than dial up

They claim:

"Get FastAccess DSL Lite (download speed up to 768 Kbps/upload up to 128 Kbps)."

My experience has been more of the "up to" than "actually at". But it still smokes any dial up connection I've had. Truth is, the only part of the dial up that really bothered me was the frequent re-dials. I don't download that much "active content". I frequently was turning off Shockwave to speed things up. Does make up loading photo's to snapfish a bit faster though.

[quinnox]

22. not bad

for 10 bucks a month that is pretty good.

[SmileyRose]

65. me too. $10 a month if I paid for it, but mine is free.

My husband's medical insurance actually pays for our local service landline and the DSL (with a wireless connection) because of his heart monitor.

[The_Commonist]

11. "fancy schmancy"?!?

Cable or DSL is not fancy schmancy.

[Kali]

16. it is if you are used to 24 Kbps dial up!

:rofl:

[jdlh8894]

25. Or a 300 baud !!

[nealmhughes]

12. I live in No Man's Land: too close to TN for AL to care, too close to AL for TN to care, plus LD to

call across the road from AL to TN on dialup. Can't afford a new connection right now, as I am on SSDI, and my DISH TV is my sole luxury, and that is only the basic, but it is able to get me Democracy Now, Thom Hartmann, and others I can't miss.

I live about 3.1 miles from a HS that has a repeater for DSL, but ATT's cutoff is 3 miles. But at least no blooming new world order agent of the socialist Marxist agenda will get me out here in the woods! Plus the dogs rather fancy the running in the fields daily.

[HillWilliam]

31. Sounds like you've got the same hot setup as we do

:) It's beautiful out here, peaceful, but there are NO "modern conveniences". There's no local dial-up number, no cable, no DSL, but I did spring for satellite. We use our internet access for everything; setting doctor appointments, paying bills, all the things that would require running into one city or the other to do.

And yes, the doggies LOVE their big yard. I fenced in just short of two acres to keep them and the critters apart and they have run of it. Seeing my furkids happy makes me happy.

[Bitwit1234]

13. When we moved to Minnesota five years ago

there was only dial up til some company got with affordable broadband. And to makes matters worst with the dial up, ALL the ISP used the same numbers, AOL, MSN, etc. So you would dial up...wait five minutes get on and just as you started to go to a site get kicked off. Do you know how frustrating that is. I was so glad when the cable company advertised broadband. BUT then they sold out to MediaCom and boy what problems with the internet.

[HopeHoops]

14. I was one of the first to sign up for DSL when it became available here 10 years ago.

It is wonderful.

[Warpy]

20. Same here, I saw them laying cables in my neighborhood

and got the service a week later.

My area was one of the first because I'm close to the university.

[Warpy]

18. Dial up only when the DSL modem fries

and it's pure torture.

[quinnox]

21. I can imagine

Going to dial up from DSL would be like going from driving a car to someplace compared to walking at a snails pace to the same destination.

[sixstrings75]

23. Ahhh... the 'Dial-up' haters are out in full force...

That's OK. Mock us, scorn us. Tell all your friends...

I live in the boonies. All I can get where I am...

Should I get a tattoo on my forehead so people will know without asking?

[Kali]

27. ...

:rofl: :thumbsup:

same here and the phone lines belong in a museum, just a hair better than baling wire and beer bottles hanging from bushes

[TreasonousBastard]

24. I have broadband only because...

it seems there are no files to download under 10MB and apparently there is some new law that web pages MUST include asinine graphics, videos and thousands of frames so that they take 10 minutes to load at 48k.

With broadband, I can waste my time, like so many others, watching every youtube video that I'm told is so awesome I will die if I don't watch it.

(I used to be able to read text as it came in with 300 baud modems. Actually learning stuff was often faster back then.)

[HillWilliam]

28. Satellite

There's not even a local dial-up number out here. No cable, no DSL, no nothing. Satellite claims to be as good as DSL but it's only slightly better than dial-up. Most days. Spring and fall when the atmosphere likes to do funny things it sucks. I get better bandwidth on my cellphone, but it's a bitch trying to handle volumes of email on something as small as a Droid. I usually weed my in-boxes with my Droid then go back and answer what I have to answer on my desktop because it takes forever for anything to load.

Satellite sounds all exotic and the ads promise all sorts of bandwidth, but that's marketing bullshit for ya.

[riderinthestorm]

38. Rural too so my only options are dial up or Hughesnet, both are the same speed.

So I chose dialup - $10/month vs Hughesnet - $800 installation, plus $50/month user fee. And if it rains the satellite doesn't work out here at all anyway. At least with the dial up it creaks down my ancient phone wires reliably, daily (verrrrrrrryyyyyy sloooooowwwwwlllly).

I'm going to look at Verizon's USB internet accessibility tomorrow. When it first came out, not even any of those worked out here. My neighbor just told me they've expanded their range and signal strength so I'll check it out. Only one cell phone company ever had service out here too (T-Mobile) until about 5 years ago when one of my clients came in with a Verizon phone that actually worked here!

I'll switch in a moment if I can get something faster here. It's infuriating not to be able to watch youtube, or open large email files, or download pdf's, or even an Adobe upgrade (last time I tried that, I finally quit after 2 full days trying to upload it. That is not a typo, 48 hours trying to upload a software upgrade that wasn't even finished installing when I bailed).

[HillWilliam]

42. We're so far from the DCO that even phone service sucks

I put up with Embarq's shitty service for a little over a year. Basic, no-frills, no long distance went from $20 and change to $60 for a line you couldn't hear on most of the time. Dial-up won't work under those conditions, let alone have a conversation. They were all shocked when I told them to stick their antique hand-crank crap up their asses in no uncertain terms. I had pleaded with their tech support for most of six months to work on the quality, but nothing ever happened.

With WildBlue, at least I get a sympathetic voice, more than I got from Embarq.

I get the "middle" package for $69 a month bundled with my Dish. When it works, it works, and that's 98% of the time. Again, more than I got out of Embarq.

I waited for a deal on WildBlue. (You have to catch which one, WildBlue or HughsNet) is having a sale which week. WildBlue is usually cheaper, has better packages, usually free install, but their waiting list is always a mile long. It took almost 4 months to get service, but as opposed to no service (and the SHOCKING prices HughsNet wanted) it was worth the wait.

The up-side to satellite is that I'm not required to have any other gadgetry other than my firewall/router behind the transceiver, no foreign software on my machines. A lot of cable/DSL providers now are claiming not to work unless you have their software. (We all know it's bullshit, but they claim it, anyway.) Their heads explode when I tell them (ComCast and TimeWarner especially) that I run Linux, not Windows, don't allow Windows in my house, period. Don't want their shit, spyware, weird stacks that screw up everything else, none of it.

I've got plain and simple, a desktop apiece for my partner and me, and everything works inside all the time. ComCast and TimeWarner both got right testy about not having their software on my machines and I was equally adamant (when I had a choice of providers, sigh) that whoever got my business wasn't going to taint my network. I have three jobs; I don't have time to fix PC problems.

Which reminds me, I've got to get rid of a tupelo in my WildBlue dish's line of sight this weekend.

The joys of rural living...

[CenturyLinkJoey]

73. Can I help?

HillWilliam,

Sorry to hear about the situation that you encountered with Embarq/CenturyLink. I will be more than happy to assist with the trouble. Can you email me details on the situation? My email is [e-mail]. CenturyLink's Customer Outreach has been helping customers online for over two years. Please let us know what we can do to help.

Joey H
CenturyLink Customer Outreach
[e-mail]

[HillWilliam]

83. Let me say this in thanks

for your flurry of emails today. Obviously CenturyLink has done some wonders for Embarq. I've been checking up and it looks like you guys have been rolling truck in Caswell, Person, and Orange Counties.

If we can get the line from the pedestal to my house cleaned up (if in fact service is all the way out to me by now -- I know it has been close), I'm in. I'll drop WildBlue like it's burning.

Thanks for your efforts Joey. Those who work to get and keep my business (and help me take care of my ever-stretched pennies) tend to have my loyalty.

[muffin1]

39. Same here - satellite

It's little better than dial-up and costs $40.00 per month. Youtube is almost more trouble than it is worth - almost - sometimes I can't resist 'New Rules', or some silly cat video when I'm drinking.:P Oh, and the 'smilies' on DU take too long!

[PufPuf23]

29. HughesNet Satellite

Had dialup until 2 years ago as Satellite is $$$.

However, no other choice is available for speed faster than dialup.

There is no cell phone access where I reside either (and there are nearby villages and homes off the phone and electrical grid). My landlines are on a local system off a microwave relay installed in the 1970s).

[HillWilliam]

43. WildBlue is nearly always less expensive

but their waiting list is almost always a few months long. For me, it was worth the wait.

[L0oniX]

33. What's dial up ...some kind of new soap?

[Earth_First]

34. FiOS 50/20 Mbit/s n/t

[madinmaryland]

45. Same here!

[leeroysphitz]

35. I'd rather scoop out my own eyes with mellon-ballers than go back to dial-up. n/t

[wizstars]

36. I'm stuck with it at home, can't afford satellite yet

have high-speed net at work, but company restricts/blocks lots of sites I want or need. For those I have to go to public library or friends. It sucks. My phone company won't upgrade our lines to get anything more than a 28K connection, no matter how much I scream at 'em. I'd love to choke the lot of 'em. Cable cos won't stick their big toes in our area.

[area51]

37. Dialup is cheap. (n/t)

[Kali]

40. I don't know, between it and the phone line I'm paying over $40/mo

that's with all the taxes and shit

[anigbrowl]

54. So is living on bread and water. But it's not good value.

It's possible that you would get more done and thus make more money with access to faster internet. Personally, I value my time higher than wanting to sit around waiting for stuff to load at 56k.

[CTyankee]

41. We had dial up from 1998 until 2003, five horrible years...

Finally I got sick of not being able to use the phone and the internet at the same time and we got DSL...best thing we ever did, along with getting central air conditioning...

[madinmaryland]

46. Central Air in CT??

:wtf:

I lived in CT for over 20 years and never had central air. I grew up in NW Ohio and never had CA there either.

Yeah, I have it in MD with our townhouse. Windows and fans are your friend!

[CTyankee]

67. Two reasons: as we aged we couldn't take the heat on really hot days

AND the houses in my neighborhood were putting in AC. Since we knew we would be eventually selling the house we wanted to be competitive in our market.

I ran the AC for only 2 days last summer...however, we were away for 3 weeks in early August so we might have missed the hottest time...

[EvolveOrConvolve]

44. I get intertube reception through the tin foil on my head

Then, I plug an RJ45 connector into my ass and voila!

[gleaner]

47. I use cable modem ..

but if you know Time Warner you know it is nothing fancy. For a while it didn't work properly because they had not sealed the little boxes they put on the telephone poles and bugs were getting inside. The cable guys were so enthusiastic when they found the problem they showed them to me. Not the high point of my day, but maybe that is because I am old and do not know how to appreciate the finer things. However when I told people my cable modem was "buggy" at least I was not exaggerating.

[Rhiannon12866]

62. LOL! We have Time Warner, too...

Seems to work better than Adelphia, which, years ago, would go out for a time every day. However, Time Warner sometimes still gets buggy, too, at times, especially late at night. Sometimes the screen just freezes, but I don't know if it's the cable or the channel. It happens most often to MSNBC. :shrug:

[gleaner]

64. If it is just one channel, it may be the station ...

the broadcast frequency may not be right. But if you have Time Warner and it is buggy, whatever you do don't ask the technician why. He might show you.:wow:

[Rhiannon12866]

70. Tonight it happened again, but I have no idea why.

I was watching one channel and it froze. It never came on again until it switched on the hour to paid programming... When I turned it to MSNBC, it said it was "unavailable." I don't know if somebody fell asleep, or there's a problem with the cable... :shrug:

[gleaner]

72. It sounds more and more like a broadcast problem ...

that MSNBC is having. I'm not a super technical person, so my best suggestion is to call Time Warner and ask if they can tell you what the problem is. You're their subscriber and you should be getting your whole package. Besides, MSNBC has a lot of very good political analysis. Rachael Maddow is a big favorite of mine as is Keith Olbermann. I think I would go into withdrawal if I couldn't see them. ;)

[Rhiannon12866]

84. Thanks so much for the advice and I feel the same way.

The channel that froze last night was Lifetime. I often watch repeats of "The Medium," and this isn't the first time that's happened. And KO and Rachel are "must see" TV for me, too... Keith's "special comment" tonight ripped my heart out. It was the HD MSNBC that went out last night. Next time, I'll try the regular one... :hi:

[nonconformist]

48. Hey dial-up users! Question.

I have a huge VHS collection that I need to unload. Interested?

I kid, I kid. Kinda.

I thought dial-up had went the way of those ginormous cell phones that were almost the size of a 2-liter bottle. I haven't had dial-up since about 2002, and I live in some serious boonies.

Carrier pigeons are faster than dial-up, if memory serves.

[Canuckistanian]

55. There are VAST rural areas that aren't covered by High Speed

Dialup is the only way for many.

Canada and the US are WAY behind the rest of the world in terms of high speed Internet access. In Europe and Asia, even rural residents would laugh at our pitiable connection speeds.

There's really no excuse for it, other than the total LACK of government regulation over WHERE major providers choose locations to service.

[nonconformist]

57. I've heard that before, I guess I just have a hard time comprehending it.

Keep in mind I'm not posting this from my apartment in Manhattan, I live in a small rural town in one of the poorest areas of the country, and I've had broadband since 2002 (and it was available for at least a year or two prior to that). I have cable, but I also have at least a couple of DSL options. I pay more for the supposedly fastest connection through my cable company, but it's not as fast as advertised. Still, dial-up makes baby Jesus punch kittens, I swear.

I guess I can see that could be the case in very remote areas, like places out west where the nearest store is 10 miles or more away. I guess in those areas, satellite would be your only option outside of dial-up. I guess I do have a hard time wrapping my brain around it, since my poor, rural and somewhat backward Appalachian town has had broadband for a decade.

I'm curious now, though. Does anyone happen to have a map of the country that shows where broadband is available?

[Canuckistanian]

58. Here's a site showing broadband coverage

http://www.cellularmaps.com/3g_compare.shtml
Although those areas don't tell the whole story. A lot of those areas are *theoretically* broadband, but not *practically*.

They include areas that require extra equipment, like antennas and high towers, things that are not affordable to many. Or specialized radio modems that are expensive.

My own situation is weird. There's high-speed wireless access 5 miles North and a few miles South of my location, but not here. And people west of me are totally screwed.

I was offered high-speed once, but I had to add 10' to my already 70' TV antenna and GUY WIRES to my support it. At a price of $500. I said no.

I suspect there are a lot of places like this.

[Odin2005]

50. I have cable. People still use dial-up?

[Canuckistanian]

53. I'm "tethering", using my phone as a modem

Using WAP, about 3X as fast as dialup, but still sucks.

I'm out in the country, JUST beyond the reach of a wireless ISP.

But our Cell company, Rogers Wireless has a new system in place now. HSPA+. And we're in range.

So, I'll be signing on to that soon with 14Mbps, baby. Bye bye, irritating modem noises. Bye bye, tieing up our phone line.

[Ex Lurker]

59. I'm on DSL, but know plenty of people who still use dial-up,

Coverage is still spotty in a lot of rural areas. It only came available here in my small town two years ago, and plenty of areas outside the city limits still don't have it. There's no rhyme or reason to it--one side of the road will have broadband, and not the other. You can get satellite internet, but the cost is prohibitive for most.

[riderinthestorm]

61. Yup, that's how it is in my area.

One side of the road will have access to broadband, or cable, and the other side does not. My (rural) neighbor about a half mile down has a clear sightline to the local wi-fi antenna, I don't because of the profusion of 150 year old oak trees so I'm shitouttaluck (unless I want to take a chainsaw to a huge swath of them...).

The US's patchwork of coverage is pretty damn shitty. I'm only 40 miles west of Chicago but as far as anything but dial-up for me so far, no dice.

I mentioned upthread that one of my clients has a Verizon cell phone that finally works here. So I'm off tomorrow to see if I can score one of Verizon's USB internet ports. For more than 10 years only T-Mobile worked here but suddenly someone shows up with a cell phone that works!! Maybe I can upgrade! I am so excited.

Only those who have been in the boonies and dealt with this understand how frustrating it is.... for those who can't believe that some of us have had no options, well, it's true, some of us have/had no options.

[krispos42]

63. Broadband. I just tested my speed.

8.37 Mb/s download, 1.02 Mb/s upload. It's a small "b", so I believe it is given in bits per second.

Beats 0.054 Mb/s of a dial-up modem!

[Major Hogwash]

66. It's just a series of tubes, anyway.

LoL

[Kali]

69. 17 to 122

and only 4 satellite, interesting

still a few of us left on dial-up, mostly rural with little choice :hi:

[Coventina]

75. Some of us just can't afford any more than $10 per month dial-up.

:hi:

Thanks for this thread.

[riderinthestorm]

76. As of this morning, that's 12% of DU that's still on dialup. That's a pretty large number.

Hopefully people are paying attention. It helps if they post synopsis of links and youtube videos so people can make a choice about clicking on it or not.

I have to say, I picked up a Verizon wireless router yesterday. One of my clients had a Verizon phone out here that worked. So I went to the store and discovered the coverage had finally been extended out to here.

I'm now on broadband, typing on a laptop in my living room for the first time.... ever!! It felt odd to walk past the office and the desktop computer and sit (okay fine, I'm lounging with my feet up) on the sofa, laptop on my actual lap this morning! Someday... perhaps for you too. :hug: (holy shit! the smilies loaded instantly instead of taking 5 minutes...I think I'm going to peruse some youtube videos now.)

[hayu_lol]

79. Rural Oregon east of the Cascades...KFalls...

we have fiber optic in to the business district and the colleges. There are some other broadband servers here but they are considerably more expensive than dial up. On fixed income, I can't justify the extra expense.

At the moment, I have 48Kbs speed. Better than it used to be...dropped once(erratic server)down to 10Kbs. At 48Kbs, youtube etc takes about 5 minutes of download time to get one minute of video. Only worthwhile things are worth the time.

Maybe someday. :^)

[Kali]

81. 5 minutes for a minute of video is lightening fast compared to me

takes about 15 minutes here, hell it takes almost 5 minutes just for the page to load, much less start the video!

There is a SET of fiberoptic cables buried just a couple dozen feet from the house - between it and the barn, but they told me no way to do a connection for just me. I made them swear. (we have natural gas tapped off a 16 inch main line so if I ever find out AT&T could have hooked me to FO I will be pissed)

[Kali]

80. hey that sound great, tell me what all you had to do?

I have verizon cell service. Was it any trouble to hook up? What exactly do you have to do? How many hours do you get and all that. Can you still receive calls? $$$?


and "Hopefully people are paying attention. It helps if they post synopsis of links and youtube videos so people can make a choice about clicking on it or not." THANK YOU FOR STATING THAT!:toast: :yourock:

[riderinthestorm]

85. Just got back on. We're having a wierd spell of warm weather in IL and I'm harrowing and seeding

paddocks like mad before the snow falls again (tomorrow).

So the router itself was $50. I got it at Best Buy who matched the Verizon store's price. I bought a 2 year contract for $48/month and up to 5 computers can use it at a time. It's basically a small black box that plugs into the wall or another computer. I have "3 bars" of signal strength vs 4 bars of potential signal strength but it works perfectly fine. I have 5 GB max of usage which is more than enough for my family and my business needs. We don't watch movies online (a major killer on usage so I've heard).

I don't know anything about the cell service and receiving calls since I have T-Mobile as a cell service (they were the only ones with service out here until Verizon obviously has now extended their range and I'm finally in - yay!) I would imagine you could piggy back the cell service since the router is basically a glorified cell signal as far as I can tell.

My dialup cost $10/month so I think on average, I'm spending about $40/month for this broadband. I'm thrilled with it so far. The hook up was effortless - the Best Buy guys installed it onto my laptop and it works with anyone else's computer that we're tried so far

Good luck!!