Damn this forum, I love this place!
I used to post on this forum daily, sometimes several times a day, but things have changed in the new digital world. Now I only post once a week or so....but still find the comments intriguing and challenging. The only thing that's constant is me getting drunk and trolling Lewk.
Should I continue to pay $60/month for what amounts to a one-sided conversation, plus $10 for the modem? Or should I save money and get rid of the whole damn thing?
Is this the metaphor for the Trump campaign?
Last edited by GGT; 08-05-2016 at 05:08 AM.
Surely there's things you use the internet for other than this place?
I gotta say, that's pricey Internet. But I think you should keep a decent Internet collection and use it to look at TED-talks and other fun lectures on YouTube
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Switch to Tmobile, turn on tethering. If you don't have or need cable you get unlimited (but sometimes slow) internet and only 1 bill (that shouldn't be as high as $60).
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
It's $60 here, too. Monopolies suck.
Hope is the denial of reality
That is pretty expensive yes. As OG says if you have mobile internet you can just use that, if you don't use that much bandwidth that shouldn't be a problem.
Keep on keepin' the beat alive!
Who rents their modem nowadays? Pay for it and you'll be saving money within a year.
Anywho, I would probably give up a substantial amount of other services before I gave up internet. And $55 here; I could drop it a bit by frequently switching between the two main options here, but that's too much work.
"When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: Why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer for the first." - Werner Heisenberg (maybe)
Wait, you have to pay for the modem/router? Over here they just send you one.
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
You rent it monthly. Didn't used to be that way, but capitalism! It is possible to use your own modem but the "approved" list is a fraction of whats on the market, and is made worse by some providers refusing to move up to docsis 3. If they had their way they'd locked them down to be a required rental and provider specific like they do with TV cable boxes/tuners.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
For a high-tech superpower and the world's strongest economy that's pretty primitive.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
ISPs are also pushing for the ability to charge customers for the option to not sell our usage history with 3rd parties. Not allowing them to charge for such a service will, as Comcast claims, cause “disproportionately harm” to their customers.
We're also ranked 20th in the world for broadband and only this year crossed the 50Mbps threshold.
And lets not forget how much our ISPs hate internet neutrality.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
This is why VPN usage is pretty highly recommended these days.Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
I could run a small office network off the modem-routers and CAT5 cable ISPs have sent me over the years. Never occured to me that they might consider charging for that stuff - don't they want you to use their Internet?
I'd rather tether my phone to my computer and use that for connectivity than pay rental for a goddamn router.
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
nope, they want our money in exchange for as little service as possible. Hence data caps.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
you can by those things for like £20 from Curries. How do they get away with $10 a month?
WAKE UP AMERICA
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
I get the impression some people are put off by larger upfront cost and the risk of not getting official support from ISPs if something goes wrong.
Even so it's just absurd to have to rent even an official ISP modem. I just got mine. I had to return one, once, when I changed ISP; other than that they've never wanted the things back.
I'm sorry they're trying to screw you over GGT. I don't think I can offer any US-specific advice but I guess the Americans here can
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
If your modem dies out of warranty just buy a new one, they cost like £20, not the end of the world.
Wait you rent TV boxes?
Here you either get for free (standard) or if you want a premium box pay an up front fee for it. I've just resigned up for Sky and got a brand new 2 Terabyte HD box (not their new UHD Sky Q box) for free. You normally have a fee for the 2TB box but I negotiated that to be waived.
Wait you have data caps?
How do you put up with that as a consumer? Shocking.
Tech-support. If you call them and say "there's something wrong with my internets" and you have the wrong modem they might be like "sorry u don't have the right modem we can't help u".
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
They'll at least check until they get to the modem, though if it does turn out to be a modem failure, after the hard reboot attempt they may tell you to call the modem manufacturer. I don't think that's unreasonable.
I think they run $80-$120ish here. Decent cable modems may be more expensive than DSL. My cable company will also try to sell you a modem when you subscribe. I think you were right the first time, that the high up-front cost scares off people, and the lower monthly doesn't sound that bad, even though they would have saved money within a year buying their own. I think most cable companies upgrade their modems routinely, so they may not want to miss that opportunity whenever it comes.
Doesn't impact most people right now.
Yes we have to rent. Even if you somehow manage to build your own box they still charge you a rental fee for the cable card that would go into the box.
We put up with it because we have no choice. Monopolies, monopolies everywhere. Even if you manage to create a start up ISP you're at the mercy of the big guys as you eventually have to connect through their networks and they can do all types of shaddy shit to create a subpar experience for your customers. Communities that try to build a public or non-profit ISPs get sued or the lobbyists get it outlawed.
The FCC received 13,000 complaints from Comcast customers for their data caps last year. We currently have an FCC chairman who seems rather proconsumer but the GOP and ISPs are hell bent on defunding and undoing everything he is doing. As consumers we will have no hope under Clinton or Trump.
Last edited by Ominous Gamer; 08-07-2016 at 06:44 PM.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
My Istanbul situation is quite bad, and we also have a monopoly here, but what I read about the US situation in this thread definately sounds much much worse.
On topic; I could not imagine getting rid of my internet connection. Unless my use would be of a kind that mobile/tethering would be an acceptable replacement.
Congratulations America
You really suck at intertubes, guys.
Carthāgō dēlenda est
Cellphones too, or so I hear.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
I rented a modem 3-4 years ago when they slipped that charge onto my bill. Definitely worth it. Had no support issues.
But GGT, surely you use the Web outside of this place, right?
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