Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with broadband and internet

I'd like to buy 6 months of unlimited Internet in England.

iamkimiam — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 10:25:57 -0800

I'm moving house next weekend and new place does not have WiFi. It's a six month lease and I'll probably be moving out of the country after that. I use a lot of internet (streaming music, downloading podcasts, films, sending large files, using cloud services, etc.) and so I need something unlimited or pretty near it. Everything I'm seeing online so far is either too much £ for too little internet (£20 for 2GB per month, seriously??) or too much commitment (12-18 month contracts for phone, broadband and TV). I only need internet. What are my options, if any? Thanks!

Short-term Internet service in London

Kronios — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 04:58:48 -0800

I am studying abroad for the semester in London. My flat mates and I are looking for an Internet solution that doesn't require a contract. We picked up a 3G hotspot from Three but it isn't very fast. Is it possible to get actual broadband service without a 12- or 18-month contract?

Please help me understand cable internet technology.

mullacc — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:48:53 -0800

Please help me understand cable technology. Why is it that my cable company can deliver hundreds of high quality TV channels but not an internet service that seems just as fast? I can't get my head around the following observations:

1) Cable TV delivers hundreds of channels, including dozens in HD, with almost no hiccups. I even get live video broadcasts in very good quality. And while things have been getting better over time, it seems like cable has been "streaming" video to me for decades.

2) The same cable also provides my internet access. Only in the last couple years have websites like Netflix and Hulu been able to deliver something that can sorta compete with the video I get through cable TV. And live broadcasts via the internet are pathetic compared to what I can get on my TV.

Please help me understand what is going on here. I'm not sure exactly how to phrase my question, so I'll just throw out a few...

How is the capacity of the cable infrastructure divided between television and internet services?

Is there something fundamentally different about the data coming to me via the TV service versus the internet service?

If a cable company were to eliminate its TV offering, could it offer me dramatically faster internet service using the existing equipment/infrastructure?

Handy und Internet

Yiggs — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 20:45:15 -0800

Moving to Berlin from San Francisco in October, and I'd like some advice for finding both a cell phone plan and a broadband service for my apartment. I've been able to find pieces of valuable information in previous posts, but nothing exactly answered my questions.

1. Handy: I'd like a plan that is fairly inexpensive for local calls and texting. The data plan is not too important, as I will mostly be using it for calls/texts, and for international calls I will use Skype on my computer. I'm currently considering blau.de (recommended by naturalog here), but am open to other suggestions. What would be a reliable, relatively cheap phone (perhaps €100-200?) that would work best with a plan like blau.de? Would it be cheaper to buy a phone here in the US, or wait until I am in Germany?

2. Internet: What is the best service for wireless broadband access in an apartment? Again, I'd prefer it be relatively inexpensive. It doesn't have to be extremely fast (streaming video is probably the most bandwidth-intense activity), but I'd pay extra to avoid a bandwidth cap (if those are common.) From what I've read this somewhat depends on the apartment building itself (which I'm still in the process of nailing down), but I would appreciate any general advice/recommendations.

In search of broadband

digdan — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:33:12 -0800

I have recently moved to Culver City (Southern California) and I need the best broadband available. Fast, at least 1mbps, No capping, No iffy uptime. Just solid and reliable down/up speeds. I don't care if its wireless, wired, copper, cable, tin-cans-and-string. I will be using VOIP, ROKU, and heaving uploads/downloads (work related). I do not wish to spend over $100/month

My new zip is 90232

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Cheapest, fastest internet in the emerald city?

The Winsome Parker Lewis — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:39:30 -0800

What are my options for broadband residential internet in Seattle? We're moving from out of state at the end of June. We don't have an exact address nailed down yet but we're looking at large apartment complexes in Queen Anne and West Seattle. I assume this rules out anything like satellite or WiMax that requires hardware installation on the exterior of the building.

Is fiber to the home available anywhere in the city? I'm looking for a fairly high amount of bandwidth (I'll be working virtually and need it for remote desktop connections). How's the cable and DSL out there? I'm really burned out on the big ISPs like Comcast and CenturyLink, so info about alternatives is welcome. Cost is also a factor. My wife and I have mobile data plans with Verizon, so we'd be interested in any package deals we could take advantage of to keep expenses low (yes, I realize they are also a "big ISP" and we'd get away from them if we could keep our iPhones!).

Why is my broadband acting weirdly?

xchmp — Thu, 17 May 2012 07:47:41 -0800

Why does my wireless router stop some devices from accessing the web every now and then. So we have O2 home broadband with a wireless router (this one, I think). We connect to the internet through this with a number of devices - a laptop, a desktop (both running Windows 7), and two android phones (my Galaxy Nexus and my girlfriend's HTC something, probably Desire S).

All these devices can successfully connect to the internet. Every now and then the HTC and the desktop lose the ability to reach websites. The desktop provided some weird results. It was still connected to the internet and I could ping servers. Trying to access a webpage would result in firefox waiting for a reply forever. The laptop and my phone continued to have normal connectivity while this was going on.

This has never happened with the laptop or my phone.

The easiest way to fix this issue appears to be to go into the router's configuration settings and delete the connected device. It then works again immediately. I've noticed the last couple of times that the device is showing as being connected (or at least its IP was granted) just under 24 hours ago. This doesn't happen every day though so maybe it's not relevant.

I've tried setting the router to use the same IP address forever for the phone and that didn't work. So I'm pretty confused at this point!

Any ideas?

Mobile broadband in Australia, but cheap

dg — Thu, 03 May 2012 22:24:43 -0800

Seeking mobile broadband on the cheap in SE Queensland, Australia. Asking for a friend who wants to set up Internet access as cheaply as possible, but she doesn't have access to a landline. She simply wants to connect an iPad (WiFi only) to the Internet. Service must be pre-paid.

Obviously, ADSL is out and a USB dongle or similar is out. As far as I can tell, the only solution is one of the variously-described 3G modems that allow a connection via SIM card and then devices can connect to the modem via WiFi. She does not have a smart phone that can be tethered nor the capacity to get one.

It seems that Vodaphone have the cheapest deal available for prepaid. This modem, plus pre-paid data recharges.

Does anyone have any experience with this device/similar devices or suggestions for alternatives that are as cheap or cheaper? The same device is available for much less via a month-to-month plan, but she is adamant about pre-paid.

What's the cheapest, easiest way to offer monthly wireless broadband for a granny with a laptop?

waxpancake — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:33:09 -0800

My grandma lives in Las Vegas and got her hands on a MacBook Pro, but doesn't have a cell phone, digital cable, or any kind of Internet access. She lives on a very small Social Security payment, but wants to access the web to see her grandkids. What's the most affordable, simplest option currently available for cheap wireless broadband in Vegas (Zip code 89121) with a USB modem? Clear is too much for her ($35/month for unlimited bandwidth), and NetZero might be the best option (free for 300MB/month, $20 for 1GB/month) but charges an upfront fee for the hardware and doesn't offer the ability to downgrade once you switch to any higher paid plan.

Also, to complicate things, I live in another state and can't be there to configure it for her. So it either needs to be plug-and-play, or include on-site installation.

Do any of you people have experience with DEAD SIMPLE, standalone, single-device wireless broadband for my awesome 80-year-old grandma? Any caveats I should be aware of?

Can I rent bandwidth for a day?

MrBobaFett — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:53:21 -0800

Where can I rent bandwidth for a few hours? The design department here needs to do a big web presentation. They are using WebEx and when they did their dry run today they found the whole thing is lagging really bad. This seems to be due to our T1 that is our shared phone and internet. We need to upgrade that I know. That's the plan, but they need to give this presentation Monday.

Is there some place in the Chicago area where we can rent 3 desks with high speed internet access and a phone? OpenDesks looks like a possibility, but I don't see anywhere on the site where they say if the offices have internet and how much bandwidth they offer.

Basically we need a cyber cafe for business. Reliable fast broadband and phone for 3-4 hours. Is this a pipe dream?

When something seems too good to be true...

chmmr — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:43:10 -0800

I am looking into an "unlimited" ADSL2 broadband service, offered by TPG in Australia. It seems like an unusually good deal - enough to make me suspicious that there's some kind of hidden catch. I was hoping someone would be able to confirm/refute my doubts. Personally, I pay $60/month for 150Gb/month from Internode. I've been perfectly happy with their service.

TPG's offer (detailed here) is for unlimited, uncapped, unthrottled bandwidth, plus landline phone service, for the same price.

Reviews of TPG in general, and this plan in particular, that I've come across on various forums seem to be mixed. What I'm asking is: can I take this offer at face value? Are TPG-using MeFites happy with their service? My instincts are all saying something's not quite right here.

Best prepaid mobile broadband in the U.S.

Kadin2048 — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:31:27 -0800

What's the best prepaid mobile broadband service for use in the U.S.? I've found myself doing a lot of traveling within the U.S. and constantly get stuck in areas without Internet access. We're not talking about the boonies, so there's great cellular coverage, just no wired or wireless Internet.

I have a smartphone and the ability to tether it for data, but it doesn't seem entirely stable and loves to revert back to EDGE at random, inconvenient times.

What I'd really like is the sort of prepaid mobile broadband that's seemingly common all over the rest of the world. I'd like to buy a USB aircard thing, put a prepaid SIM in it, and then pay per-megabyte for usage without a monthly fee, recharging it when I hit $0 balance. That way if I go a month or two without needing it, I don't get slammed for something I'm not using. I'd rather pay more for data than be on any sort of regularly-billed plan.

Does anything like this exist in the U.S.? I've looked a bit at Virgin Mobile and Cricket, but their "prepaid" services seem more like "contract-less" services. Which is nice, but I don't want to be on a monthly plan at all.

Any ideas?

Republic of Fatpipe

teg4rvn — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:12:42 -0800

What are the best nations for broadband both in terms of speed and price, and why? The US, I'm sure is not super-high on the list, likely because of it's massive geography, but I'm sure there are other infrastructure hurdles.
What nations do a great job (or what companies in certain nations do a great job) in providing cheap, wicked-fast internet?

What can a library do with 1 Gigabyte broadband?

indiebass — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:03:17 -0800

So, practically speaking, what would 1 gigabit broadband internet get for a place? I'm trying to figure out what a facility could do (think school, library, etc.) with a 1 gigabyte internet connection. I know that these places generally don't have the bandwidth they need, so I'm trying to make a practical argument for bringing a 1 gig connection in.

More specifically, I'm looking for the kind of information, like, if a library has X workstations and they're all doing Y they would need Z total Mbps bandwidth. Or, to turn it around, with 1 Gigabyte broadband you could have 100 workstations all on youtube or 50 doing two-way video chat (ie: Skype) or something like that (note: those numbers are just made up)

I've been trying to google this 8,000,000 ways today and I can't seem to find what I need. I did come across this random site and he seems to think that "1.2 Mbps of available bandwidth for every 40 workstations that connect simultaneously to web-delivery platforms. Most internet require an average connection of 40 Kbps per workstation; Normal internet client requires 128 Kbps per workstation. " That seems awfully low, or at least outdated. If he's spot on, by all means please let me know.

Thanks in advance, hive. I can address any follow up questions as they come up; I never know if I'm being clear in what I'm asking.

Help me find a suitable UK broadband provider.

Kirn — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:51:04 -0800

I'm looking for a broadband provider for the UK who'll give me a contract of 6 months or less, don't require a phone line (not essential but preferred), and provide a speed/download limit suitable for a house of 4 typical 20-something Internet users. I can't find one. Help me?

Broadband Card downloading

sandyp — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:50:31 -0800

I have a laptop with a Verizon Broadband Card with a 5G plan allowance a month. I have no idea how far this will go, for example if I download a 2 hour movie off Netflix how much of my 5G would it use? Does it download the movie and then quit using the 5G while I am watching the movie?

Broadband shmroadband -- how do I track how slow my laptop runs?

zooropa — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:43:16 -0800

How do I track how slow my laptop really is going? Hi folks,

At work, I am using a Sprint Novatel Wireless Ovation U727 to connect wirelessly with my laptop when I'm working remotely. To say the response speed has been dismal would be an understatement. No matter where I'm connecting -- the office, home, an auxiliary office, the airport, etc. -- the throughput just feels poky. It's not an exaggeration to say that it feels like dial-up instead of "mobile broadband."

Here's my question: how do I prove it?

I'd like to take this issue to IT, but I don't want to be perceived as another one of the "It's too slow!" whiners. I'd like to take real numbers and data to support my claims. How do I do that? Is there an app or utility that will track and keep a record of bandwidth speeds? I know that speed can be based on any number of random variables, so that's why I'd like to track this at different places and times. The more automated and easier the process, the better.

FWIW, the OS on my laptop is XP Professional SP3.

Thanks in advance.

Open my eyes to proper broadband

kid A — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 05:44:22 -0800

After years of broadband with low download caps (currently 14gb/month), I finally will have 120gb/month from next month. How to take advantage of this new freedom? I'm computer-savvy and know my online stuff, but I've always gone the conservative route when it comes to online download limits. A year ago my limit was 6gb/month. Now it's 14gb. From next month I will have 120gigs (50 peak / 70 offpeak), at decent speeds (20mbps).

Apart from obvious things like online gaming, video calls, streaming media, downloading, and so on (all of which I do to some extent already), can you suggest internet applications, sites, software, downloads or functions that would previously have been impractical but now are within my reach? I'm wondering if there are any novel online things that I might not have realised because of my light usage history.

Thanks in advance!

Best broadband in Chicago?

Mid — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:40:10 -0800

What's the best broadband solution in Chicago? I have a DSL line through SBC and it is painfully slow. I am getting 1.22mbs download speeds with a non-wireless set up. SBC seems to offer some kind of upgraded DSL, but that is not available in my neighborhood, according to their website.

What should I switch to? I don't have cable, fwiw. North side of the city. I've been looking at Sprint/4G, but I see a lot of bad reviews.

Thanks.

Where is the line?

finite — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:08:43 -0800

What legal barriers prevent ISPs from violating their users' privacy? I was recently surprised to learn that companies like Hitwise and Compete are buying "clickstream" data from ISPs.
Assuming that their privacy policies don't, what legally prevents ISPs from selling other information about my internet use (IM logs, email headers, contents, etc) to 3rd parties?

Mobile broadband recommendations?

kprincehouse — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:07:25 -0800

Mobile broadband recommendations? My mom is ready to dump the dialup and move into the information age. She's asked me for help choosing a mobile broadband provider, but I'm not familiar with the technologies. She has a newer Lenovo laptop; USB or ExpressCard would work. She has an iPhone (AT&T) with good 3G coverage at home (tethering it seems too risky, as I don't want to install questionable firmware that bricks her phone down the road). She is a light internet user and lives in rural-ish Washington State.

I've read up some and it seems like there are a number of solutions that would work, but I can't tell what is best. Is HSPDA important? Is ExpressCard better somehow than USB? Would you recommend I get one with a port for an external antenna? I'm grateful for any advice you may have on ISPs or the specific mobile broadband units they offer.

Thanks!

Moving to Oakland: who's the best internet service provider?

Susan PG — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:53:52 -0800

I currently live in San Francisco where I use WebPass, which I adore. It's by far the best ISP I've ever had: cheap, lightning-fast, and impeccable customer service. Now I am moving to the East Bay, and I need a new provider. I'm a really heavy internet user, so this is an important decision for me –--- please help me make a good one. Some parameters:

* I use the internet for normal, basic stuff like reading, transactions and watching video. The single most important thing to me is speed. Second most important is reliability.

* I just want to go online. I don't want a “package” with bundled stuff like landline phone services, TV, “security features,” e-mail addresses, and so on.

* If the service is reliable, I won't ever need customer service. If I do need it, though, I'd prefer if it were more human rather than corporate – e.g., no call trees, no help scripts, and no need to repeat my account number a million times.

* Cheap is good, but simple is even better. I don't want to have to scrutinize and validate my bills every month: I want a flat, stable, predictable price.

* I would prefer a non-evil provider: so, one that has a decent privacy policy, doesn't do traffic management/shaping, doesn't have caps and isn't likely to add them, etc.

Generally, I am pretty sure I'd prefer a smaller, smarter ISP to for example ComCast or ATT. (Like I said, WebPass is perfect for me.) But I don't know who those providers are in Oakland. If you do know, please help!

Experience with Sprint / Nextel MiFi?

bamassippi — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:04:59 -0800

Experience with Sprint / Nextel MiFi? Moving into an area of Seattle with a cable/Internet provider with a poor reputation and performance. My wife and I are considering the MiFi 2200. We both work from home and I wanted to ask the MeFi-ers first to see if anyone has had any experience with this device/service.

We need something that can handle everything from running reports through VPNs, to watching videos, to downloading large files. What should we need to know (or be concerned) about? How does it compare to a top-of-the-line high-speed broadband service?

Montreal move in two weeks and so disconnected

nosila — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:42:54 -0800

I'm moving to Montreal (!) from the U.S. and need help with the tech-side of my move. Specifically, I'm seeking internet/cell phone provider recommendations. I'm having a hard time choosing an internet and a cell provider in Montreal. Can anyone with experience recommend either or both? I'll be there for at least three years and am willing to sign a contract for cell/internet if the terms are good. I would like to spend no more than about $75/month for either one, and cheaper is, of course, always better.

Internet: I do a lot of uploading/downloading because I collaborate with people on audio projects via the internet, so I use sort of a lot of bandwidth. I'd say 50 GB/month is the minimum. For the same reason, I require a pretty fast connection to maintain my sanity. I don't plan on having a land line, so cable is probably my best option, though I'm open to others.

Right now I'm thinking either Skynet, which looks pretty great, or Vidéotron, whose website is currently down for maintenance. (This does not bode well for them.)

Cell service: Is anyone in Quebec happy with theirs? I will probably be using Skype to call the U.S. and make calls at home, but I definitely need a cell plan as well. I don't need tons of minutes; 250-500 or so should suffice. I'm thinking of getting a Blackberry or, more likely, an iPhone, so info on good data plans would be nice also.

So far, Fido looks like the best option for me. Does anyone have experience with them? Other recommendations? I've read forum threads, etc., but I trust you guys the most.

Any other helpful info on moving to Montreal, logistical or otherwise, would be a lovely bonus. Thanks so much!

BT Broadband Hell

nam3d — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:54:05 -0800

I'm currently with BT "Total" Broadband, who are by far the shitest ISP in Britian. We currently pay £24.46 their option 3 "unlimited" package. And it's crap, please help me pick an alternative ISP. While we do get "ulimited*" bandwidth they cap the speed so much that whilst trying to watch a 5 minute YouTube clip (not even in "HD") it stopped and started over ten times.

So what options do I have? Which ISP has the same sort of plan (between 25-50GB p/m) but doesn't make you pull your hair out because it's so bloody slow.

I would class my self as "moderate to heavy" internet user.

Any suggestions as to which alternative ISP I should use would be great.

Thanks,

William

---
For anyone interested here's what BT are currently giving me:

Down: 0.93Mb/s
Upload: 0.37Mb/s
Ping: 66ms