Internet Access - Ideas NEEDED, PLEASE!

[Gurm]

Folks,

I have moved to northeastern Pennsylvania. However, the rental market in the area is particularly horrible and we were forced to take a "less than optimal" duplex until such time as our mortgage goes through (which is of course dependent on me getting a new job, which hasn't happened yet... d'oh!).

At any rate, I'm stuck here at least until Christmas. RCN and the local company both offer cable modems, but only one-way. ADSL is just not available on my street.

I've put in an order for a one-way modem, which involves upload speeds of 33.6k (it uses a second phone line). What I need are IDEAS about other alternatives that I haven't considered. I'd be willing to pay a reasonably large amount (even $100/mo.) but of course I can't afford running a T1 to my apartment!

I looked into Satellite, which was similar to one-way cable. Similar speeds (400-500k) down, but the satellite uses a weird wrapper system which of course makes half of the programs I use all FUBAR. Two-way satellite looks promising but isn't available until next year.

What are my other options? Anybody? *sigh*

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Mark F]

Well I have no better alternative for you. But, I had a one-way cable setup for a long time. Much better than ISDN, and it will go two way eventually. Just not that great for games .

Mark F.

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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
and burped out a movie

[Gurm]

Mark,

Thanks for the affirmation! I was worried that it would work like the satellite and kinda suck. It's good to know it's ok, even though it costs me an extra $13/mo. for the second phone line. Grr...

Well, I ordered it anyway - RCN's package is pretty good. Their digital cable is neat.

*sigh* Well, when we pick out our house it will be in a neighborhood with DSL, that much I guarantee!

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[thecurse]

only thing with 1 way cable modem well not the only thing but make sure you get an external and sharing a 1 way cable modem so your lan can all use it can be a pain. i had a 1 way with medianone for a while. the only network sharing software (non proxy cause proxies are gay) i could to work was nat1000 runnin gon win nt 4. my speeds with the 1 way cable modem was ok, but i ended up dumping it for 256k dsl, and then i dumped the dsl for 2 way cable modem. the cable modem has much faster download speeds for me than the 256 dsl could ever dream of.

[Gurm]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to run NAT. Prolly just the ICS in Win2k for the time being, since all my wife really does online is websurfing and e-mail and napster (NAPSTER... BAAAADDD!)

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[agallag]

Up here in canada we have a company called Look that offers one way microwave internet (1.5Mb/s), but it still uses dial-up for upload. They're trying to get additional RF spectrum so they can provide two way service, but they haven't got it yet. I don't know if there's anything like that in your area, but it's another thing to look for...

--
Andrew