Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with broadband

EarthLink? WTF? OMG!

DecemberBoy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:34:50 -0800

So I recently moved, and as I always do, got an account with Time Warner (who are pretty much the only option in the part of Austin where I live). I noticed that my IP was resolving as either "earthlink.net" or "mindspring.com" when it should be "austin.rr.com", but didn't think much of it. However, today I found a letter in the mail containing "important information about your EarthLink account." Wot's, uh, the deal? I didn't sign a contract with EarthLink and wouldn't, due to their Scientology connections. This is on top of the fact that my down speed is about half what it was not 15 miles from here.

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?

Video Chat requirements

lake59 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:52:15 -0800

Our Organization uses Windows live messenger to connect clients at remote locations (children and their parents who are separated by distance). We chose this program because of it's ease of use/install for the general public. Unfortunately, some of the connections are poor quality; the video cuts out or the voice is garbled or the connection stalls altogether. MS says all that is required is dial up but we always require broadband to connect. i cannot find a comprehensive list of system/bandwidth requirements or troubleshooting tips. Any help in these areas would be excellent! Thank you!

Ups and downs of international broadband card rentals?

middleclasstool — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:35:10 -0800

How good are international broadband rental places like wifirents.com? Friend is going to Mexico to do some missionary work, doesn't have a broadband card for his laptop, and doesn't want to get locked into a contract, as he's planning to switch carriers when his current cell plan runs out and get a new smartphone. Meantime, he'd like to have broadband access while he's out of the country.

I'm trying to find him a decent solution, and unfortunately so far can't find anyone in the US that sells mobile broadband cards with international access on a month to month or pre-paid basis. I found wifirents, which sounds like it could work, but have never heard of it and don't want to accidentally rope this friend into a bunch of hidden charges or dodgy service. He's a minister and doing this out of pocket, so he's very much on a budget here.

Has anyone here had experiences with services like this that they'd recommend, or another solution?

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!

Help me cast off Virgin cable broadband once and for all!

tumples — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:36:20 -0800

Virgin Media cable broadband sucks, what provider can I use after my contract is up? We have been using Virgin's (in)famous 20mb cable broadband since August and are tied into a 12 month contract. The internet is usually fine and when it works, it is very very fast. Unfortunately, Virgin are also prone to periods where the internet is mostly unusable; either it is doesn't work at all or it is just too slow. At the moment I am sat behind a connection with a ping of ~2500-3000ms, where it is usually ~20ms. Tech support doesn't fix the problem more often than not.

At the start of this coming August I will be free from this contract and am on the lookout for an isp that can just provide fast, reliable internet with (very important as living in student houseshare) little to no months caps on usage. We are not connected to a BT line and do not want to pay the ridiculous £140 to connect to them in order to sign up with a new isp.

Is there any company out there that is good for me?

Thanks

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

Seeking broadband + phone + mobile consolidation options (UK).

BrokenEnglish — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:41:05 -0800

I'm spending about UKP65 on phone, cell/mobile phone and broadband Internet each month. How can I consolidate all these options into something cheaper but just as reliable? I'm in the UK and about to move house. My current Internet provider is Zen, who are great but a bit pricey at UKP35 per month. I have a mobile phone which costs UKP14, and about 14 months of the contract still to run on that. I also use BT for voice calls, although I hardly use this and keep wondering if there's a decent broadband-only package I could use. Is it even possible to have broadband without paying the BT tax?

So: I have to keep the mobile for now, need a reliable broadband provider with no frills (preferably generous download limits), and would like an alternative to a BT line. Interested in options and your own experiences rather than links to broadband comparison sites. Thanks!

Business broadband

cowmix — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:56:51 -0800

I need broadband for my business that is slightly better than what you can get from normal DSL. What are my options? My new office is located in Rockville, MD (20852) and we need at least 5 mbit upstream as well as 5mbit down stream. What are the options available now for small businesses and specifically where we are located?

Covad and Verizon have not been very helpful in this quest so far.

What are my options for mobile Internet in Europe?

nitsuj — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 11:27:33 -0800

What are my options for mobile Internet in Europe? I'll be spending roughly three months in Europe very soon, and I'm hoping there's a single solution for mobile Internet that works in several different countries.

Here in the States, I have a Sprint Mobile Broadband card for my Macbook Pro that works pretty much anywhere I can get a cell signal. Is there something similar that will work in Europe?

I'll most likely be in the following countries: Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and a few other (mostly) Western countries in Europe.

Ideally this will give me 3G-like speeds or better in Metro areas, under $100USD per month, and offer unlimited bandwidth with no contract (or one that isn't impossible for visitors to use).

So, is there a single solution for me? Or should I expect to have to find a new device and plan for each country I'm in?

How to get internet service for an office in a location without wired broadband capability?

Outis — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:41:53 -0800

What is the best way to get broadband internet to a warehouse with offices that isn't capable of it via landlines? My dad bought a building for his company to relocate to (in Northern Virginia) and while it's a great building in a great location, internet is difficult to obtain there. Verizon is the phone company and the only form of internet they provide is a T1 line, no DSL or Fios. The T1 line is a fortune (not to mention overkill) and my dad's not looking at spending 4 times more than he is with Cox at his current location. Been speaking with Cox and they want into the new building's area badly, since they'd pull in all of Verizon's T1 customers, but the permits are constantly being upheld since it's an I-5 zoning with dangerous things.

Is it possible/feasible to get a Sprint Broadband card and connect it to an office router for use of 6 computers? The only internet used is e-mail, the Nextel website to send texts out to the technicians, and the GPS website to determine location of vehicles. The office network is self-sufficient so the important stuff is on the server in the building. However, it does back itself up via the internet nightly but that can be done in house.

My dad's desperate to move in the next two weeks. Verizon went back and forth saying they had DSL and didn't and Cox was hoping to but not able to provide at the moment. Frankly, he can't stand Verizon and the run around they give on the phone and they're telling him he has to get a T1 line and it'll be a month before they install it.

Satellite has been brought up, but the guy that deals with his IT isn't a fan of reliability.

Or, does someone have a better suggestion?

Websites for a 78 year old

low_horrible_immoral — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 05:52:15 -0800

Help an old geezer make the most of broadband. My 78-year old dad just got broadband and to celebrate I want to send him a list of interesting websites that he couldn't access on dial-up (especially ones with lots of vids and pics).

His rather eclectic tastes include Marlene Dietrich, card games (patience mostly), Elmore Leonard, Judy Garland, old films (especially musicals and westerns), John Updike, Jean Cocteau, Mary Renault, Doris Day, country and western, Sinatra and Rudyard Kipling.

Can anyone recommend some sites that he might like, covering the subjects above - or any sites for old geezers in general?

WiMax: yea or nay?

cyrusdogstar — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:04:30 -0800

Looking into potentially getting WiMax, specifically from a company called TowerStream, at my place of work. Has anyone here used a commercial WiMax provider (TowerStream or otherwise)? Our primary goal is getting better upstream (we currently have 768Kb); all asymetric solutions cap out around 2Mb, and symmetric solutions are typically very expensive. We can get a WiMax symmetric connection of 8Mb for almost half the $/Mb of an equivalent bonded T1 or partial T3, which is why it's pretty darn appealing.

Trying to find anecdotes and/or potential pitfalls with migrating to WiMax providers, as I don't see any obvious drawbacks just by thinking about it (weather: apparently not a problem; connectivity: multiple potential antennas are available in our area so we get decent redundancy; otherwise comparable to T1/T3 in terms of SLAs, etc).

Need a wireless hotspot in S. philly tomorrow night

stupidsexyFlanders — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:13:49 -0800

For reasons too tedious to get into, I need a quiet place with a broadband wireless connection between the hours of 7-9 p.m. tomorrow night, 12/15, as close to the Spectrum in South Philly as possible. Anybody got any suggestions?

mobile broadband card and AV?

panini — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:58:39 -0800

Do I need to run AV/internet security software with my new mobile broadband card? just bought the AT and T sierra wireless 881 data card. Do folks using these data cards usually run something like mcafee or norton internet security? I was previously using a router with built-in security measure and have very safe surfing habits..

Help me find good broadband in Indiana for my mom.

jim.christian — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:44:33 -0800

I'm in the UK, my mom is in Central Indiana. I would like to recommend her a good broadband package that will let us chat over Skype, etc. So nothing too underpowered. Her phone is currently with AT&T, and she would prefer to keep things as simple and non-expensive as possible, and do it through them as well, if that's a decent course of action to take. So far, I've found their most basic package at $14.99 only offers 768 Kbps downstream, but I'm thinking that if we evolve to the point of video chat I should consider the $25.99 a month package, which offers up to 1.5 Mbps.

Are these prices even fair? Pound for dollar, I get 16Mbps for £15 here, so I'm a little thrown at how little you get for your money.

I want to keep this as un-complicated as possible. An ideal scenario is me setting the whole thing up online, ordering the package, the router arrives and a neighbourhood kid plugs it in to her computer. None of this $200 call-out technician nonsense.

Experiences and recommendations are welcome. Thanks in advance

How much postage on a webpage?

Solomon — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:28:14 -0800

Do you use Post Office broadband as your UK ISP? And if you do, what are they like? I've been reading lots of reviews online, but I can't seem to find out what the surfing experience is like. All of the reviews I've read so far seem to have come from people inexperienced with PC/DSL problems. I can find lots of people slating the customer service helpline, and that side of things, but nobody is talking about the surfing speeds, the ping times, and such. What are they like?

FWIW, I already have broadband (have had for several years), a router, etc. I'm reasonably sure I can deal with most problems like SMTP passwords myself. I hopefully shan't have much need of customer services at all. I just want to know what the day-to-day surfing experience, and the change from one ISP to another, etc, is like.

Peppy Broadband in Paris

swhitt — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:50:50 -0800

My girlfriend and I are moving into an apartment in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. We'd like to be able to stream video and download various things at high speed and we're trying to figure out which service to sign up for. Having a fast connection is only second in importance to reliability. Everyone seems to have Orange ADSL but I've also heard people talk about Numericable. Do any of you have experience with either of these? Are there any other options that you'd recommend?

A lot of these come in packages with TV options. I'm having difficulty figuring out if most of the providers support HD. If I get an Orange ADSL package, will I be getting an HD box? My French isn't so great...

As a side note, we're dying without access to high speed Internet. The quicker they are to install it, the better :) I'd rather not wait another month to have fast internet.

Thanks for your help.

Erratic network behavior

Gyan — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:39:51 -0800

My net connection has dropped like clockwork around midnight over the past few days. What's up? For the past 4 or 5 days, around midnight, give or take 10 minutes, I lose my net connection and don't get it back till morning. It doesn't happen during the day.

At first, I thought it was my router Netgear WGR614 v7 since it has been flaky before. But I bridged my LAN/WAN cables together (my ISP has a switch in the building and I get a CAT-5 direct from there) and the issue persists.

So, I try to ping the gateway but can't, and Wireshark shows other customers trying to get the gateway's MAC via ARP. BTW, I am assigned a static private IP i.e. behind a NAT, due to "scarce IPs".

So, today morning, with my connection on, I note down my gateway's MAC. An hour ago, my connection dropped momentarily. When I checked my gateway MAC, it was different than in the morning. When I flushed ARP and checked again soon after, it was different again and was a 3rd set of numbers, this time I could resolve names but not connect anywhere; this one also happened to be listed twice i.e. for another IP as well. I noted all numbers, and tried each as a static entry. The first one (morning) worked but was erratic (dropouts), the middle one seems to work normally (so far), and the final one doesn't.

What seems to be going on? Local or remote?

My OS is XP SP2. This is in India.

Should I ditch Comcast's Triple Play in Chicago for DSL?

bdk3clash — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:31:07 -0800

Thinking of switching from Comcast cable modem to DSL for broadband--will I notice the difference? I'm in Chicago and currently have the Comcast Triple Play package (cable TV/digital phone/Internet) which ends up costing $123.44 a month. My year of service is almost up and I'm not interested in paying even more than I already am, so I'm considering getting rid of Comcast and switching over to just a broadband provider.

I'd stick with Comcast if they could offer Internet only for $50 a month or so, but that's not an option with them as far as I know, so I'm thinking about switching over to AT&T for DSL service.

I'm a fairly heavy bandwidth consumer--in addition to typical browsing, I download a lot of binaries via Giganews. I usually get speeds of around 1000 k/s.

Other than AT&T, are there any solid options for broadband Internet providers in Chicago? And if I switch to DSL, will I notice the difference when doing regular browsing? Slower binary downloads don't bother me unless it's, like, way slower than what I'm used to.

Thanks.

What antenna should I buy to broadcast a wireless signal?

jammnrose — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:00:52 -0800

I'm looking to broadcast a wireless signal 100-200yds. How many dB/mW does my antenna need to be and what's the optimal frequency? I'm looking to broadcast a wireless (802.11x) signal 100-200yds. How many dB/mW does my antenna need to be and what is the optimal frequency? Where can I buy an antenna to do this? A directional antenna would be best, right?
I did find this site, but I was wondering about a better place to get an antenna...

Thanks in advance.

How to get temporary broadband as a foreigner in Germany?

gmm — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:27:14 -0800

Berlin / Germany internet installation: I might stay a few months in an apartment in Berlin, where there currently is no internet connection installed. What (if any) are my options? I need broadband in my daily work, running to cafes might cut it for a few days but not for longer periods of time. I'm not German, but Norwegian.

Could I as a foreigner order a broadband (or other highspeed) connection, personally, for only a short period of time?

(My broadband experiences from France and Norway is several months from order to a functional installation, and the subscriptions run for 12 months minimum.)

I'm happy to hear any suggestions or experiences, thanks in advance.

Which broadband provider in the UK?

alby — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:30:41 -0800

Does anyone have any particular recommendations/condemnations of UK broadband providers? I use the internet a lot so I'd like to avoid capped packages or those that employ "traffic shaping". I don't watch television or use a landline but I'm happy to consider providers that include these services.

I'd like a decent speed (2Mb min) connection and I'm not fussy about IPv6 support or dynamic vs fixed IPs. I've already got a (wireless) router, but I don't own a modem so a degree of flexibility here would be good. I'm actually moving house, rather than just changing suppliers so LLU costs aren't important.

GlueTube, more like...

so_necessary — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:44:32 -0800

Why have YouTube videos started loading very slowly for me, and how can I fix it? For no apparent reason my computer now downloads YouTube videos very slowly. It used to be the case that they'd load at what I think of as "decent broadband speed" - maybe two or three times faster than the length of the video itself. But they now arrive at a pace which is rather slower-than-play-speed, so I can't even hit play and watch the thing normally, let alone skip ahead.

It's a bit erratic though, sometimes it's only a bit slow, sometimes it is PAINFULLY SO. I don't get any problems streaming video from other sites, even HD stuff.

I'm using Windows XP and Firefox 3, no funky add-ons. Any ideas?

Why can't I open webpages?

k8t — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:49:00 -0800

ADSL working but HTTP not working. I just got an ADSL connection (in Armenia, provider is Beeline, only documentation is here and is in Armenian. 256k though. Woo!)

I can use all sorts of applications pretty well (iTunes downloading podcasts, Flickr uploader, Outlook for mail, gChat, etc.), but I can't do anything HTTP. I open Firefox and can sometimes get a mobile page to load and I can search Google or Yahoo and see the results, but I can't open "normal" webpages at all. I tried IE and Opera but the same problem occurs.

I tried getting into the configuration page for the DSL modem, but doesn't look like it'll work well.

Also, suggesting updating firmware for DSL modem or something isn't possible. I am on really bad dialup otherwise.

Why would this be? (And yes, I've called tech support. They are less than impressive. They only introduced this service this month and aren't exactly supporting it.)

I am running Vista. I have tried to turn off all firewall-related stuff that I can possibly think of.

Any other ideas?