Ok everyone, help me chose. I'm ditching my aol and dialup. Ive had enough of the silly aol games and I have to get rid of the SPAM!!! I get so much spam anymore its flat out rediculious. I decided to just upgrade to a better or faster service. Now the question is which one?

I have been looking at Comcast and Verizon. Which do you think is more bang for the buck? I has cable once before when I was living at my parents house about 3+ years ago and I have to say I was not that impressed with it. The only time I found it to be really "fast" was at 3am. during teh day and at night its wasnt all that great because everyone else was on then too. But that was a few years ago and I do not know if its has improved.

Im leaning towards DSL right now because I really only surf the web and I dont "need" to be super fast for downloads... I hardley download anything. I just visit my usual boards and check e-mails... The DSL is cheaper so that helps.

Who do you have and what do you think about them? I'm also open to suggestions of other ISP's.

 

I have never used DSL so I can't compare the two. However since I switched to cable I would never consider using anything else. I have never had a problem with the speed being different at different times of the day. I love it.

 

Comcast cable it's great. I rent the modum and Every couple months they come out with a new modum. So I get them to switch it and I have no problem what so ever. Never go back to anything else. You got get it. I can even hook my laptop up to the cable too. Sweet

 

cable for sure and if you can get comcast thats the fastest speed out there, compare the speed of dsl around 724kbps and cable is any where from 1200 to 3400kbps no brainer for sure

 

I guess I'll try teh cable again. I have Comcast here and I can get it, I would just have to run a cable line to my computer room but thats no problem. I guess my other problem is that I am computer illiterate... sort of. I know the basics.

I picked up an old laptop from work, they were throwing out a bunch of stuff so I rooted thru the boxes and found a Dell Latitude... its a model C510/C610. I know it has a Pentium 3 in it, 256 SDRAM, a docking station, printer, dvd drive, keyboard, mouse, power cord and a floppy drive. I has got to be better than the Dell desktop I have now. Mine is old as dirt with a 500mhz celron processor. The only problem I have is that the laptop needs a new hard drive. The one in it is password protected so I cant get turn it on. No biggie I guess for it all being free. So thats good, I'm glad to know I can hook the cable modem to the laptop. I assume via the usb port on the back? As soon as I get a new HD and a new OS for it I'll call Comcast and get things rolling.

Thanks guys...

 

1) Cable vs DSL have their pros and cons, but I lean towards cable. The only draw back I experience is when the cable for the TV goes out...

2) Spam on AOL, you'll have spam with myname@comcast.net also. I use a program called "SpamBully" on my Outlook Express. Works well enough for me.

3) running cable... come on. Do wireless and then you can have both the old dinosaur PC and the laptop online. It's also great to play online scrabble with the significant bother through something like Yahoo games...
You'll need a wireless router, and wireless adapters

4) I can do this for ya and the harddrive, for a couple of beers.

--ron

 

Agreed.... Nothings more fun than chilling on the couch using the computer B...

 

Yep!!! Sitting back in the big comfy chair, feet up, beer(s) next to me, kinda of watching someone screeching on American Idol, while doing email and some coding for work. Much better than being tied to a corner someplace in the house. There is also the hidden benefit of when the wife decides to rearrange the funiture layout of the room(s). I can go to the garage with the laptop while she moves the couches and tables....
--ron

 

Yes I know I can have spam on the comcast account, but my problem originated with AOL. I never use an address book... All the important addresses I have in my head and I can easily contact a car buddy thru any of the boards. AOL "auto added" email addresses to my address book and I was not even aware of it. Well I screwed a few mailing lists and friends when the spammers got ahold of my address book. So I am starting over and switching ISP's. I dont mind the cable. I dont need wireless this and that, I just want to sit in my computer room and check my mail and surf the net, end of story. Sitting on ym couch with a laptop doesnt get me all that excited... see I have ADD and I cant watch tv and be online at the same time.

But seriously, Ron if you can help me out that I'll go for it. I have that Dell Laptop from work that I want to put a new HD in and upgrade from my current windows 98 to something better. I'll buy everything if you can help me out.


I can make a motor run good, but I'm just not that good with computers... I know the basics. PM me if you want to help me out.

 

done deal, dude!
--ron

 

ONE BAD THING ABOUT WIRELESS. The guy next store to my parents has that. When I take my laptop there I can access the internet throw his router. That is not good. Because you then would be getting ripped off. Better check in to that so people are not robbing off you. He does not even know when I am doing it. Just a little heads up.

 

John, I hear ya. I could care less about spending money on wireless stuff. I already have 250ft of cable on a spool here, its no big deal to drop it into my computer room from in the attic. I dont mind wires, I just want it to get me on the net faster than dialup and for it to not be AOL.

Ron is going to help me out with a few items and hopefully I'll be able to ditch the aol and have my cable up and running in the near future.

 

Most people setup their wireless right out of the box

I change the internal network IP address scheme, give each PC it's own designated IP address and then set the router to allow only those IPs through.. and turn off DHCP... just for starters.

Brian.. your PM is FULL!
--ron

 

blah, blah, blah, blah ... huh? You see, I know basics, you lost me with all that jiberish, lol


Its empty now Ron.

 

Yeah, yeah... sometimes The Carol just gets up after I try explaining something and just hits me. She does this because she thinks my "record got stuck".

But then you guys go on a spiel about engines and I'm like, picking out everyone ten words... "ummmm, he said cam".
--ron