Pass wind volubly if you have broadband

[Walker]

Being a victim of the ailing British telecoms industry, broadband access weighs heavy on my mind.
But I want proof of its utility and firsthand experience instead of corporate hyperbole before I make the leap.

So, it sure would be nice if you'd tell whether or not you have it, and if you do, what kind, how fast and how useful you've found it. I just don't believe it will heal my digital wounds - I've been told that about so many failures in the past. And BT have a one year minimum contract, so if I go, I don't jump back.

[skywalker]

I have earthlink/mindspring DSL. Awesome for browsing the net, fair for playing games (It goes through a crapload of browsers, and gamespy thinks I'm in africa, though I'm in MD). I get about 1-200 Kbps download, usually the speed limit is due to the server.

I like it, it's stable, etc. although the IP address is a nomad...

[Sans_Shadow]

Why has the poll been closed?!?!?!?!

I have a monkey and I want to throw it at BT! We can't get broadband even though our lines are digital. They can't be bothered to move their arses out here.

:mad: I want to hear no more of their evil, Walker. :flame:

[Alpha_Monkey]

Not yet, but I will have in a week, thanks to NTL.

A permanent 128k line, costing THE SAME as my current narrowband connection. Beat that!

If yer interested, it's £15 a month, plus £25 installation. And I think that £15 includes the basic TV package...

[SquidDNA]

~$21 a month for Cable with two IP's. (Roomate)
AT&T Broadband. Kinda nice. Beats dialup any day, and DSL isnt available in this area.

[iwanthw2]

Well if it's not $21, then how much is it?

[Keith]

I have ADSL service from NBTel in New Brunswick, Canada. They call it Vibe. I love it! The speed test from http://www.dslreports.com/stest/ tells me that I have a 1.2Mbps download speed. I've had dial-up before, and I can't go back. It costs $42.95/month CDN.

[ceejayoz]

The poll is not closed, that's just a bug that the admins (still!!!) haven't fixed.

I have mass broadband... our university has a dual OC-12 connection, which lets us have mass high dl speeds :p

I think my 2 megabyte/second (not megabit, megabyte :D) speed beats you all handily ;)

[sajuukar]

LOL! That poll is hilarious!!

Well, I don't have broadband, I want broadband, but my 56k is as reliable as a donkey... if donkeys are reliable... :D

[Alpha_Monkey]

Hm.
Just got Broadband this afternoon. I have been fiddling with it since it was installed. It is now 8pm.

IT DON'T WORK!!!

*gets an urge to smash something into itty bitty pieces*


I see your donkey, SQ...

EDIT: Wednesday-it works! But now my gf2 is farked. hnng...

[Walker]

My gripe with it is, that given my track record with "upgrades" (not any of my fault, incidentally - problems have ranged from a vidcard I once got that burnt out, to a PSU that blew fusing my proc and mboard, to feedback interference on a telephone line extension I got which had some very weird effects on my connection) I don't believe, with very firm evidence, that things which work for other people will work for me.
Given the state of my connection, and my understanding of ADSL that it merely supercharges your existing line, surely that will mean my ADSL performance would be immensely substandard as well?

Let me make this clear - a friend of mine down the road has ADSL and a comp technically inferior to mine. Using the same telephone exchange as me, he has never had any connection problems, his ADSL is blistering, and his comp runs like an Arab horse. My comp runs about half as fast as it should (no exaggeration), my connection is a dog... ADSL for me can't fail to suck.

And the hilarious thing is there is no way to get an answer. No way to test, no way to check. The only way to find out what ADSL would be like for me is to get it, and assume the position for a whole year while BT ream me for all I'm worth on a product I'm likely to find underperforms, and I aint made of money, by a long shot.

[thefrogprincess]

next year in my house of computer godliness i will have broadband and a server and more computers than people. o yes.

[zenogias]

I very much enjoy my ADSL. Unless I'm accessing a page on a crappy server, I'm flying! We're talking download 100 meg game demos in ten minutes or less here, while doing other net-related stuff, with minimal slowdown.