Good news!

[OSS 117]

Got a call from my ISP this morning as I was about to leave for work. They'll be finishing a digital rollout this summer in my area of LAC and I'll be getting an upgrade on my net connection for free! 200 Mbps down and 15 Mbps down, I believe. Couldn't quite understand what the gentleman on the line said about upload.

Pitiful uplink, but that's cable for you. FiOs isn't any better these days. A big thank you to ATT, Verizon and Comcast/Time Warner for screwing your customers over and my ISP saving face.

The funny thing is this. Around 5 years ago this summer, I had major issues with my ISP and it was the last straw. They came out and did a whole bunch of upgrades; corporate in Missouri bankrolled it otherwise I would have paid around 4-6K. Everything has been smooth sailing since. Not to mention the heavy 3 year discount they gave me among other things. After the deal ended they, corporate, called me wanting to see if I'd want an ultra package. I said sure since it was 'cheap' at the time, $60 for 100 Mbps down. Anyway, they called me this morning telling me if the good news above.

Additionally, instead of paying the $150-ish I pay now for all these services plus a platinum package for TV, they managed to create a bundle for me. No contract, but a 4 year lock-in of, wait for it.. $90 for all of that plus new modems and cable set top DVR thingamajigs.

The catch? It comes with their phone service. *groan* It's not the best and I've had bad experience with VOIP phones. They did say I didn't have to use it and could just keep my regular Verizon line for phone. And that if the phone line ever dies because of a storm or something, I have a cable line to rely on.

No idea if they raised the 500 GB cap, but they've admitted they really don't care about customer usage unless it's constant, like a server.

Ironically, even with all this, I have satellite service too. Mostly for non-American channels. Canadian, French, Italian, British, etc. Can't catch good footy from a US provider. *scoffs*

Having said that, I still know that $90 is still far too much. Plenty of people in Europe get way better service for a fraction of the cost.

 

[Paul B]

Having said that, I still know that $90 is still far too much. Plenty of people in Europe get way better service for a fraction of the cost.

We pay something like £85 per month for landline rental (call charges not included), satellite TV and broadband (~ 7MB DL and .25MB UL).

 

[Andy.N]

We pay something like £80 per month for landline rental (call charges not included), satellite TV and broadband (~ 7MB DL and .25MB UL).

Typo?

 

[Paul B]

Oh, it has actually improved slightly.

Now it's almost 1MB!

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3513150904

 

[OSS 117]

We pay something like £85 per month for landline rental (call charges not included), satellite TV and broadband (~ 7MB DL and .25MB UL).

Is that with the Sky sports package? That's too much. I know Sky is ridiculous in pricing, as is Virgin, but what the...

If it makes you feel better, in 2001-2005 I was paying about 80 quid for a 384 kbps and who knows was for uplink. basic cable and extended, so basically channels 2-99. It was horrible. After that it got even worse, even after I upgraded to a "blazing" 5 mbps connection, and they slowly upped the speeds for everyone a few times. Ever since their last CEO left (AKA got kicked out), they've gotten better. The bill now and for the $90 is still too much. ISP/Cable should really be a utility and cost half at most.

 

[Paul B]

It's the movies and HD package.

The annoying thing is the apartment was built less than 10 years ago but they didn't put any fibre in so it's twisted pair all the way to the box and unlikely to change for some time.

I still remember using dial up

 

[OSS 117]

Apartment? Not a native Brit or Englishman? First time I've heard anything but the word "flat."

I remember dial up too. I remember downloading 3D Asteroids in the summer of 1995. Those were the good days. Having to balance everything otherwise your 23 hour download would have been kaput. I also heard "You've got mail" up until 2003 but that's a different story for another time.

 

[wedgar]

It's the movies and HD package.

The annoying thing is the apartment was built less than 10 years ago but they didn't put any fibre in so it's twisted pair all the way to the box and unlikely to change for some time.

I still remember using dial up

I remember dialup at 300 baud getting business reports at that speed.
1200 baud was the cat's meow when it was available.
2400 baud was top of the world.
14.4k -> 28.8k were big steps.

I had 8 28,8k modems on my dos based dialup bulletin board in the 80's.

We were doing fine then

 

[TPerry]

I had 8 28,8k modems on my dos based dialup bulletin board in the 80's.
We were doing fine then

I had 3 (actually 4 but only 3 for public use) of the V.Everything DS's. Thank you U.S. Robotics for your SysOp plan! Of course, it didn't help that I started out with 14.4k HST's, then got the 9600 DS's then the next step. Good thing my security job money was my mad money.

At 8 of the beasts, you could have almost purchased a good used car of the day.

 

[wedgar]

I had 3 (actually 4 but only 3 for public use) of the V.Everything DS's. Thank you U.S. Robotics for your SysOp plan! Of course, it didn't help that I started out with 14.4k HST's, then got the 9600 DS's then the next step. Good thing my security job money was my mad money.

At 8 of the beasts, you could have almost purchased a good used car of the day.

Yes, one of those lines was my private incoming line to moderate/admin the board.

I think I've still got a US Robotics 56k modem still around.

I think the last move we made with the board was a dry copper pair from the phone company looping to the ISP from the board server which was an Intel 386-25 with 100 megs of hard disk memory.

 

[TPerry]

Yes, one of those lines was my private incoming line to moderate/admin the board.

I think I've still got a US Robotics 56k modem still around.

I think the last move we made with the board was a dry copper pair from the phone company looping to the ISP from the board server which was an Intel 386-25 with 100 megs of hard disk memory.

You had a whole 100? I had to make do with a 40meg SCSI.

 

[OSS 117]

I've got a US Robotics 56K modem too. A few of them actually. I used one of them back a few years ago when I was without cable service. Still works a treat. I have considered ditching cable TV and sat to go with services like Roku or XBMC on a spare computer. However, when I added all the costs required and whatnot, it came out to be as much as cable, and depending on the sports season, it cost more. Cordcutter mentality doesn't make sense unless you decide you're only going to subscribe to NetFlix or Hulu Plus, both of which don't have much to desire.

The way I see it is that I spend most of the week working, and when I do want to watch TV, I'd rather not have issues like you would get with pure net streaming, even if it's on a fast line. Not to mention a large chunk of Roku/Fire/Chrome/Apple apps require an active sat or cable connection to authenticate the account. And some Hulu Plus shows can't be played on third-party devices.

 

[Paul B]

Apartment? Not a native Brit or Englishman? First time I've heard anything but the word "flat."

Welsh.
I refuse to use the word "flat" though because it's just silly in this context.

I'm showing my age now but my very first home "PC" was a ZX80.
I then upgraded to a ZX81, complete with an absolutely pointless thermal printer.

 

[OSS 117]

Yeah, I believe your a way's bit older than me despite not looking it. I would have been too young to use that typewriter looking gadget. My first computer was some awful Packard Bell from the early 1990s, then it was a Mac, then a Gateway, then an AMD Thunderbird build, a Pentium 4, C2D and then I7 and now another new processor and build. I'll spare everyone the details.

My tinkering let to a burnt out board on the Gateway. No idea how I managed to convince them their "faulty" engineering shorted out the computer. Smelled like... remember back in the day when people hoovered it was more common for the belts system to burn or make this awful rubber and electrical fire smell? That.

It was an expensive system at the time. I opted for the latest video card, a 64 MB Voodoo. A Ferrari of the times. I think I've still got their plush cow and the foam cow in storage. And the mousepad, pens, note taking paper, mug, hat, etc.

 

[whynot]

Oh, it has actually improved slightly.

Not really if you recognise your typo!
(MB instead of Mb)

 

[wedgar]

You had a whole 100? I had to make do with a 40meg SCSI.

Started out with with 20 megs initially in a 286 running DOS 3.1.

And we used taglines (one line smarty pants quips) at the end of our posts. The idea was to accumulate as many of them as possible. The reader software allowed you to copy the ones you like from the ones others used.

 

[TPerry]

Started out with with 20 megs initially in a 286 running DOS 3.1.

And we used taglines (one line smarty pants quips) at the end of our posts. The idea was to accumulate as many of them as possible. The reader software allowed you to copy the ones you like from the ones others used.

Dang... now you got me trying to remember the offline reader I BETA tested when I was running QuickBBS. BlueWave or something like that.

EDIT:

Yep, it was Blue Wave and George Hatchew was the guy I BETA tested it for. Talk about a blast from the past.

 

[wedgar]

Dang... now you got me trying to remember the offline reader I BETA tested when I was running QuickBBS. BlueWave or something like that.

EDIT:

Yep, it was Blue Wave and George Hatchew was the guy I BETA tested it for. Talk about a blast from the past.

The offline reader we used wad from Mustang. Can't remember the name right now. (Probably hit me about 3am)

The bbs software we used was the MajorBBS which morphed into WorldGroup. Tim Stryker was the owner/developer.

Good memories.

 

[TPerry]

Yeah, when I got into it in the DFW area the big players for BBS software was QuickBBS, Wildcat!, Maximus, Opus BBS and a few Citadel around.
Ahhhh.. the joys of setting up a REXX script to control a 3 line Binkley FidoNet node so that all would send/receive mail without colliding in the processing. The script was a thing of beauty and ended up being used by several of the other Hubs in Net 124.

Heck, the local computer stores had a booklet that they sold with a list of all the DFW area BBS's in it.

Made me do a Google search and found this. This was after I joined FidoNet. I ran a board for a few years before learning about it.

 

[wedgar]

Yeah, when I got into it in the DFW area the big players for BBS software was QuickBBS, Wildcat!, Maximus, Opus BBS and a few Citadel around.
Ahhhh.. the joys of setting up a REXX script to control a 3 line Binkley FidoNet node so that all would send/receive mail without colliding in the processing. The script was a thing of beauty and ended up being used by several of the other Hubs in Net 124.

Heck, the local computer stores had a booklet that they sold with a list of all the DFW area BBS's in it.

Made me do a Google search and found this. This was after I joined FidoNet. I ran a board for a few years before learning about it.
View attachment 74126

We are definitely dating ourselves.

I remember those BBS software names. There also was a 2 inch thick directory sold in magazine and computer stores that was updated each month listing BBS's around the US in state/city order. You'd thought we had it made once your BBS was listed in that directory.

The MajorBBS had an add-on software package available by a third party developer in the Seattle area called MajorNet that allowed MajorBBS operators to tie their systems together to share forum messages. It was very slick for its time.