back to Dialup

[rrcrain]

I am moved and after an extensive search of every ISP in the area,I have two, well three choices.

1. No internet connection (ain't gonna happen)
2. Satellite (WAY to expensive)
3. Dialup

Unfortunately, dialup is the only cost effective option available to us at this time and the connect rate with a borrowed modem is not good. I just ordered a USR V.Everything modem and if it can't get a good connection, nothing will.

[shnal]

I wonder if onspeed might help at all?

http://www.onspeed.com

It's supposed to make dialup less painful and is cost effective.

[rrcrain]

yes and no. All of the services that claim to speed up dial-up connections are no more than a proxy service that precompresses the data stream before it hits the phone line. This works fine for text, but things like Jpeg images are already compressed. All of the local dialup ISPs here offer a similar service, the trick being to pick one that has a local access number...no small feat. We live maybe 12 miles from our old house, nearly everyone is now a long distance call and we have a choice of ONE local phone company that is grossly over priced and has a history of poor customer service.

[shnal]

Sounds like not such a good place to live if you like the net lol! Just kidding.

Nevermind,

I thought the US had great DSL services. Here in the UK I have a 2Mbit connection with 4Mbit and 8Mbit hopefully arriving this year (British Telecom dependant, so I won't hold my breath).

When I had dialup it would auto disconnect every 2 hours so I used to leave outlook express open, with the settings changed so it would automatically check for messages every 3 minutes, if the connection had dropped then it would redial for me! I was kicked off BT anytime after about a year for doing this! They told me that it was "BT Anytime" and not "BT All the time".

The purpose was to allow Ubero to run without interuption. I also had a second phone line installed to achieve this, since I would otherwise get slated by my parents when the phone was permanently engaged.

Is there no sign of DSL becoming available to you in the near future?

alistair

[moving fusion]

Have a look at Demon they used to do dial up which didn't disconnect for about £12, I used it with BT Any Time so the calls were free and I got 5Kb download speed…

They did support compression which you could change within your account.

http://www.demon.net/demon/products/internetaccess/

Long time ago tho

[Nflight]

Two more options would be to try to contact the Telephone provider inthe area and ask about an ISDN connection. You can multilpy the signals upto a T-1 speed ( of course most people don't know this, unless you have worked in the field)

Second would be to look at your power company, yes the utility company that provides Electricity to your new place. They may be providing something called "Broad Band over Power Lines". With this connection your speed is limited only by your pocketbook!

If your still frustrated by this situation, MOVE closer to the city!
Just my opinion

[BlackAdder]

Any cable tv there??? I live out in the sticks in Virginia and if I didn't have cable I would still have to use dial up.

[rrcrain]

The local power company doesn't offer internet access nor have they made any noises about offering it here. Our local power company was bought out by a large congomerate (Ameran) a few years ago and since then, quality of service and power has slowly deterioriated to the level one would expect from a large faceless corporation.

ISDN, DSL and ADSL are all hopeless wishes for some time to come as well. Heck, a cell phone barely works.

We can sorta see a neighbors house thru the trees a half mile away, but come spring, they will vanish from view.

For those members living outside of the United States, we still have huge areas of the country that are incredibly rural, wells are required as are septic systems. Storms can leave us without power or phone service for a a day to more than a week and if it snows hard, we had better have food in the house to last for a couple of days at the very least.

And I live 15 miles outside of a major city in the midwest.

[Nflight]

There is one more way I just remembered that may help you with acquiring access faster then dialup. This type of connection is commonly referred to as "Last Mile" . Using something known as line of sight communications you setup a small box on your roof or on a pole to have clear veiw to a WAP (Wireless Access Point) located upto 18 miles away. Usually the devices are a small white box the size of a lunch box that sends and receives at tremendous speeds, upto OC-3 ( 155mbs) are capable.

Peoria IL ,I will have to look but your basically a flat terrain out there so with a tall enough tower you should be able to see line of sight to just about anywhere with in reason.

Local ISP's would know of your questions being asked about Last Mile, they may or may not offer such a service, sometimes out of state companies offer this and the only way to findout would be to ask several small Computer Shops if they know of this!

This shop is near where I live about 10 miles and they are in just about all the East Coast. http://www.stingcomm.com/ I have friends that work there, and I keep telling them to update there web site more often.

To explain what Wireless this is, is to look at the distance between your operation and the DSL or Cable you use for access. In DSL and Cable you have multiple hops across switches and routers until your signal for request of info is heard by the place you clicked on with you mouse button. With this kind of WAP you have no hops except the wiring at your house to the box on the roof or tower and then a direct feed to the Box located at the top of the building which is usually connected to another WAP aimed directly to a connection of the big pipe.

If anyone needs more explaination plase feel free to ask, I am willing to explain deeper.

I found a supplier for you, http://www.firstcomm.com/corecomm_faq.asp
They cover Illinois, unsure if they cover Peoria. These people do Broad Band over Power Lines mentioned on that FAQ page!

[rrcrain]

The local radio news station had an article this morning about a small group of investors looking at setting up a city wide WAN. There are a few small towns around Peoria that have a last mile or WAN service available, but Peoria, keeping to its visiously conservative bend, has so far resisted the technology.

Illinois in general and the Peoria area in particular, is very deceptive. At frst glance, the terrain appears to be flat but the reality is thiis area is a major watershed covered with gullies, waterways and creeks of various sizes and personalities. I now live on a road named H$$ Hollow and for good reason. The dollar signs are to prevent internet search engines from learning my address the easy way. I'm not quite down to the level of the river basin, but I'm lower than the prairie in general. Its bad enough that a 100 Ft TV antenna doesn't really help much.

[Nflight]

I know you have turned down the thought of ISDN, but I would look into it as this may be your shining armour! It should be available from anywhere in the US. Unless your further then 20 miles or 100,000 feet from the Central Office. Which I doubt is possible anymore! This would best be looked at from a small ISP or Telephone company as they would have the capability to hook you up and get you running.

[rrcrain]

Not a single ISP provider in my area lists ISDN as an option for my area and I've searched via internet and phonebook. Worse, only 3 ISPs have a local number for dialup.

Central Illinois turns to open corn and bean fields immediately on te edge of the city. 5 minutes out and your in real farm country.

[Kooonsty]

I know all too well the landscape of central illinois.

I'm currently attending u of i now.

[rrcrain]

Which campus? My nephew is at Carbondale and my stepson is at the other one near St. louis.

[Kooonsty]

I'm at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Right in the middle of farm land.

[rrcrain]

My new modem should arrive today and with any luck, I'll have the phone jack behind the computer wired in by this weekend (its there but dead). BOINC projects should be good since they don't require a lot of band width.

One of my many home improvement projects is to rewire all of the phone jacks in the house. There is approx 100 feet of surplus cable dangling or coiled up in the basement and only God knows what sort of electrical connections exist at the moment. Who knows, I might even get a 33.6 connect by the time I'm done :)