RE: Need Geek Advice

[firefighterjake]

At home I have dial-up . . . which is very, very, very slow which means I often don't log on at home . . . or at least not on a regular basis.

The local service provider (we're a bit limited as there is a private telephone company in the area) provides DSL, but it's something like $45 a month unless I go with a bundled phone/DSL package which offers a bit of a discount.

Recently I heard of another company that offers a service where they claim uses compressed data to provide dial-up service that is 6x faster than normal . . . I am not familiar with this . . . does anyone know anything about this . . . i.e. is it as good as DSL? could I download music/videos from the Internet as quickly as DSL? Etc.

[WhereRWe?]

I think your local company is TDS Telecom, which I have here.

Go with the DSL. It's worth it.

This company may be the one you're talking about, and I'd question their speed claims. A lot of it depends on "caching" (appropriate, no?) technology, which slows a computer down and is a memory hog, and pre-fetching, which loads other pages at the site while your looking at the ones already received.

[Cache Maine]

We have TDS Telecom DSL and we are pretty happy with it, compared to dealing with dial up. Cost is 29.95 and it's not bundled. We are not pulling anywhere near what they claim either.....



Here is the site to test TDS DSL.

[firefighterjake]

I think your local company is TDS Telecom, which I have here.

Go with the DSL. It's worth it.

This company may be the one you're talking about, and I'd question their speed claims. A lot of it depends on "caching" (appropriate, no?) technology, which slows a computer down and is a memory hog, and pre-fetching, which loads other pages at the site while your looking at the ones already received.

Actually the company is Unitel . . . I'm not familiar with TDS Telecom . . . do they have local access numbers?

The 207ME company you listed wasn't the same company, but it appears to use the same technology . . . and when I looked at that site it specifically says MP3s and other files (many of which I would want to access if I was to go to broadband service) are not compressed which I can only imagine means it would still be slow to load . . . uh, I mean download.

[WhereRWe?]

Actually the company is Unitel . . . I'm not familiar with TDS Telecom . . . do they have local access numbers?

OK - I thought Unitel was a division of TDS Telecom.

You can't get DLS through TDS unless their your telephone provider - the ones who own the lines provide the service.

But DSL is your best bet. I've had satellite internet, and it's terrible.

[firefighterjake]

. . .

But DSL is your best bet. I've had satellite internet, and it's terrible.

That's good to know since I was thinking about exploring that option . . . guess I'll nix that idea. Sounds like for what I want, it's DSL or stick with the slow dial-up . . . I just hate paying $45 a month.

[WhereRWe?]

That's good to know since I was thinking about exploring that option . . . guess I'll nix that idea. Sounds like for what I want, it's DSL or stick with the slow dial-up . . . I just hate paying $45 a month.

With satellite, you get fast downloads, but are restricted on the amount you can download per day. With HughesNet (formerly DirecWay, formerly DirecPC), their "Fair Access Policy" restricts you to 200mb per day (for the lowest price plan), then you get dropped to dial-up speed. And remember, it's a 45,000 mile round trip tp the satellite and back, creating quite a lag in some cases.