A new reality on our economy

[Danielle La Belle]

Hi Girls:

Well perhaps I am about to blunder into familiar territory. I still use a dial-up connection because I am cheap! And it has served me well for what I do on my internet connection over a stand-alone telephone line. Taking into account the cost of the 2nd line and the ISP cost, I am about to change over to Brighthouse's cable broadband system I think. They just brought the cable out on my road last year. Just call me "hill girl" in Florida. Oh yes, girls, we do have hills, predominantly over on the West Coast of Florida on I-75 as you travel from Tallahassee to Tampa there are a couple good hills, ha ha LOL. Weeee......

Okay. So while still on dial-up, my connection has declined from a solid 50k connection to a 24k connection because of the "rats nest" of AT&T/BellSouth wiring at the pole for which they will not fix. They tell me that they will only guarantee a baud rate of 1900 or 2k. The last lineman to work on the pole two weeks ago did something that has hampered my second lines ability to pass good data at a faster speed than 24k, so my modem steps down to the speed that the line will accept.

Yikes! Has God gone on vacation! My point: like pot holes that we cannot afford to repair correctly, the telecomm industy, has been hacking and patching our National System, the currently best in the world. How long we will be able to say that without good follow through maintenance is anyone's guess.

I spent more time on this than the Holy Grail girlfriends. In hopes of correcting the problem digitally, I opted at first to pay for a new phone number in the PBX, thinking that it might be a system problem. $30.00 down the drain. No fix. After I tested the line at the entry point to the home eliminating the house system and wiring, I found out the problem is on only one of the two lines and in the connection box some 25 feet up on the pole.

Thinking of getting a hard hat and a phone sticker, my extension ladder and take a can on contact cleaning spray, (high tech stuff), and clean out that box for moisture and dirt. Hmmm... most likely my neighbors, about 4, will notice the curious looking woman in the hot looking dress and pumps on the ladder with the hard hat...ha ha LOL. I can hear the sirens now! "Yes officer, I see her now from my window, she has what looks like to be an automatic gun, we are being invaded by terrorists in party dresses!!!!!!!!!"

God! I am just as funny as Jeannie, perhaps more so!!!! I must stop drinking after taking my "medication!!!!"

If I can persuade Jeannie to visit me in Florida, she and I could do a number on that "rats nest" of wiring. It has been that way ever since the hurricanes, 3 to be exact that gave us such a smack a while back. They fixed the connections but left things dangling and will not fix it up right until someone has a "voice" problem, not data transfer rate trbl.

Arrg! Matey I see pirates up ahead! Telecomm pirates! They want to charge me to check the line etc in the flesh. Arrggg! Time to upgrade to broadband cable. No girls, DSL is not available as I am outside the 3 cable mile limit. Yes there is a distance limit that DSL willl work. Betcha didn't know that! Betcha don't give a .....blank either...



Come on girls, show some support and empathy!!! Come right over here and give this girl a big hug!

Hugs

Danielle Marie

[Jeannie]

Hi Danielle
Number one. The vast majority of people have no idea what they're doing. It's amazing to me that this country runs at all.
Number two and most importantly. Never and I mean never drink before taking medication. I always drink afterwards. It gives it that little kick. Gotta run and take my Lipitor and Paxil and break out the Jack Daniels. Marley says Hi Hon. He's on Ritilin and Lithium. He has issues unlike Moi! Hugs. You're a sweetheart Danielle. Hugs


Love
Jeannie

PS If you want me to help you with computers and electronic problems Danielle you're making a big mistake. My VCR from twenty years ago is still flashing 12:00 and I can't figure out how to change it and it's driving me sane! I don't want to go there!

[SilverLady(SO)]

Hi, Danielle -

When I was living in Zephyrhills with my now-ex-h, we too had the crappy dial-up ISP, and we were lucky if we got 24K connect speeds. We could not get the Verizon DSL - too far away from their station, and they had no plans to upgrade the phone lines to fiber optic in the foreseeable future. If we chose to go the Brighthouse Cable ISP route, the ex-h balked at paying ~$40/month for internet because we didn't already have cable tv (and he didn't want cable tv, either). So, he still has dial-up service, even though he's almost always on the internet; he prefers to spend only $9/month for internet service and complain about the slow connections and lousy spam filters from the ISP (yes, he's also a cheap petard).

Virginia and I have Cox Cable, bundled with tv, phone and internet service, and have not had any problems. I do so enjoy the faster connection with cable, and as far as the forum goes, I'm now able to get into the chat room, look at the photo gallery (much easier, that is), and I'm also able to see all the animation in the Emoticons - something that just was not possible on dial-up.

Make the jump to Brighthouse Cable for your ISP - - you'll be glad you did!!



- SL

[Virginia]

Well, I might also point out that we do not have Cox Comm's fastest computer program either.
As to what Jeannie eluded to - I hate to sound like a Democrat, but this country is too far gone, in my opinion. I would venture to say that it will not be a recognizable entity in 10 - 15 years! The most recent example is the six "gentlemen of the muslim persuasion" who were removed from an airliner because they made the other passengers nervous, by their actions, praying, switching seats, asking for the seat belt extensions, etc.
According to the news, they held a news conference almost immediately after being ejected (no way that wasn't pre-planned!) and now they are suing, not only the airline, but BUT individual passengers. Those of you who take public transportation - think about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are sitting in your expensive airline seat and some muslim is acting "strange" and you and the other passengers, not wishing to be flown into a building, complain, the person is removed. Retains an attorney (Muslim of course) and obtains, by court order, a list of all the passengers and their related data, home address, SSN, phone number, etc and you receive a notice in the mail that you are being sued for anti-defamation or religious intolerance, or bigotry or whatever!!!! We have border guards that we pay to do a job and in doing it shoot a three time illegal alien/drug dealer and the border guards go to jail?????
Yeah, we are pretty much done for!
Just this girl's opinion!
Virginia

[Ronnie M]

2nd try-------
1st time I was kicked out of this page and sent back to the forum,..

I hate that. get it all typed up and lose it all.......GRRRRRRRRRRR

long/short of it.
I have DSL here. but I am at the end of the feedline,..outside city limits..in the county...
I do not have the maximum I should have...but what can you do? if the feedline is too far away,...you are out of luck.
I am sorry about your situation La Belle.

ronnie

[Danielle La Belle]

Hi Ronnie:

Type up your input in "note pad" (programs/accessories) which comes with all versions of Windows, (presuming you do not have a MAC), then copy and paste to the forum window when ready. You will not lose your work that way. If you have a copy of "WORD" it is a better choice with spell checker provided.

I am going to go Brighthouse Cable in the near future and drop my Direct TV Satelite. Brighthouse in Florida also has telephone service over cable for voice and fax. Everyone is trying to offer full service utilities. AT&T/Bellsouth is offering cable styled programming in select cities to start. We currently use them for local and long distance in a package deal with all ammenities (call wait, call ID, call fwd, call trace) for 2 phone lines under $60.00. LD is $0.05 cents per minute nation wide calling with no minimum.

Hugs

Danielle Marie

[Anita]

Hi Danielle--
That post does have that Seinfeld touch there, D. Sorry that I can't help with the serious side of it. My dial-up is a solid 52k, but it's still limiting. Videos go by in freeze-frame mode the first time through.

It is very frustrating when you're not being heard by the companies that you depend on for vital services. Is there any other neighbor that's being squeezed in the same way? Perhaps you can find one or two kindred dial-up users.

[Kerri]

Hi,

In the fifties and sixties we grew up thinking that Uncle Sam led the world with everything that mattered. Better cars, better homes, better standard of living, and better internet.

So what has happened in the interval? Your describing stone age internet technology here girls. And all the time I have suffered from average connection speeds of 8.8 Mbs, I have dreamt that one day the UK will catch up with you.

Mayhap you should invite us to another tea party in Boston.
just joking
Kerri

[Danielle La Belle]

Hi Kerri:

They tell me that 90% of Seoul South Korea is ultra-wideband. They get to play all the latest games on-line with that much bandwidth. We are slowly catching up girlfriend. Here in the USA, Government is not permitted to entangle itself in commercial matters. No competing with industry with tax dollars. The only exception is our Postal Service as it has been around for 100+ years before commercial entry into the delievery market.

Even now, our Postal service has suffered setbacks and the Government is saying we cannot invest to make you more compettitive with commercial business. On the other political hand, they get hand outs to improve internal operations etc.

We have a "do or die" attitude in this Country. But, we still provide for those that cannot, we just do not do as good a job of it as in the past. "Do as we say, not as we do." For the most part, we would just as well stay at home and mind our own stores but, it seems that others in the global community expect us to partipate in world matters.

Damed if we do, damed if we don't.

Hugs

Danielle Marie
(52k again after the line was fixed yesterday after all of my complaining.)..Better than nothing! I can have 8-10Mps but I am too cheap to pay the cable company $79.00/month for the highest broadband speed service!

[Kerri]

Hi Danielle,

$79 per month for broadband is way too expensive.
We pay between $9 to $50 per month depending on the amount of
bolt-ons you want. I wanted no frills, no home page and no drop outs, so I pay $30. The plus side is that it is on the same line as the phone by use of filters.

Our national telecom system is currently being upgraded, so very soon we expect to have all our TV sent via broadband. France apparently already have it.

The downside of this speed is lack of bandwidth which at certain times can slow everything to snails pace.

ttfn
Kerri

[Danielle La Belle]

Hi Kerri:

We have the cable TV companies supplying this service and then the telephone company supplies a service called DSL (digital subscriber line). They also provide a dial-up service over the same voice line in the home.

There are 3 levels of speed with each provided. You get what you pay for. $30.00/mo gets a speed of around 2mps. $40.00/mo you get up to 5mps and $79.00/mo you get the entire shabang... up to 10mps.

It is like digital cameras these days. People only see the MP number, 5, 6, 7, etc., and do not look into the really most important parts of the system, accompanying electronics, lens, menus etc. I take a total system approach from being an electronics engineer for over 30 years.

The same applies to the telephone and cable business which are for-profit comercial business in the USA. No Government intervention is permitted as that would be crossing the line with tax dollars. Do or die. The American way. Not always the best approach on a National level, but, well, that is the current fundamental strategy that our democracy takes.

We are always barking about 200 years so far and look at what we have accomplished from a wilderness. On the other hand, many toes have been stepped on to get there, both locally and globally. Rome was not built in a day, there was some blood letting and inconvience to say the least.

America plods along with their homeless and helpless, but we plod along. Not everyone is going to get a fair shake. On the other hand, they do get a shake. Someone recently wrote that completing a higher education does not mean that they will be successsful in a financial or meaningful way. It just reduces the bumps in the road a bit making way for opportunties.

Hugs

Danielle Marie

[Ronnie M]

Damed if we do, damed if we don't.

Hugs

Danielle Marie
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hang in there........keep your chin up. don't let em get ya down.