posted on November 26, 2001 12:44:12 PM new
I currently have EBAY auctions year-round. Every week, we put up at least 50 items (OK, I know most of you put up a lot more but we do what we can....)
We currently use a dial-up Internet service Provider and are seriously considering switching to CABLE. I just got off the phone with the CABLE company and they informed me that there is no alternative dial-up service. This disturbs me because (a) if the CABLE services goes down, I won't be able to get on the internet and conduct busienss and (b) if I go on vacation, I also won't be able to get on the internet and conduct busienss.
Anyone have a solution for this? I've heard of "free" internet dial-up providers. Anyone know anything about them? Anyone have another idea for a solution to this? I want to user the fast speed of cable but do not wish to risk being able to conduct my EBAY auctions!
posted on November 26, 2001 12:49:49 PM new
I totally agree and here is my solution. My entire business is internet so I had to find a solution.
1) I have earthlink dial up as backup. Yes it costs me $20.00 per month, but the security is worth it. There are several others that might be lower, but when I travel earthlink is VERY handy in hotels, etc.
2) I have high speed cable. Yes, it has gone down 4 times in about 3 months, sometimes for 2 days straight. Just make sure you don't use cable as your phone provider.
3) (this is extra) I also got DSL installed on the second line of my home. This makes sure that if cable goes down I still have high speed. Oddly enough, BOTH DSL and Cable have been down once TOGETHER.
All this costs me about $100.00 per month. About $40.00 for cable, $30.00 for DSL, and $20.00 for earthlink.net, plus the basic phone line. It protects me against downtime and that is my biggest concern as I can't be offline even for a single day.
posted on November 26, 2001 01:43:00 PM new
i am on AOL with local phone line and it stinks big time.
dsl is not available for aol users in my area,i heard aol is going after att cable business.
now,when i am on the road,i am able to check my aol emails by just accessing their website and key in my id and password.
i usually find a pc with internet service provider at public library,hotel and coffee shops and so far okay,not great.
the ideal situation for me is to stay with aol and have cable dial up and then if it goes down,i can use my phone line to dial up aol the slow way,it is slow but it is there.
part of the cable fee would be paid for by the second phone line which i do not need once i switch to cable.
i have heard not such great thing about dsl
posted on November 26, 2001 01:52:35 PM new
I had Cable until about a year ago. It almost never went out, but between 6pm and 10pm, it was useless. As more people on your cable line go online, your connection slows. I quit when I reached the point where it would take less time to Dial in to AOL, then use my cable. I changed to DSL. It took them about 6 weeks to get everything in place for me to install the system. It took me 30 minutes to do the entire install myself, and it worked great. I now run nearly as fast as my T1 at work. I don't understand why someone would pay for cable, and DSL at the same time? Oh well, if you can wait for the install, DSL is great.
posted on November 26, 2001 02:19:06 PM new
dejapooh:
It was not a matter of waiting for me. I had read the reviews, the bulletin boards, and opinions in my area. Cable goes out, and I could not afford that. Not only that our cable also provides line 1 of our phone service, and during one of those outages my phone didn't even work. Which meant even earthlink was useless.
So I called the phone company to install a second line and dsl. I also have 8 computers running at once for our business, so I spread the access around.
Also, consider that what I used to pay for DSL alone was $120.00 per month, and NOW I can get all three types of service for less than that.
posted on November 26, 2001 02:57:24 PM new
I decided not to go with cable because our cable is always out. I'd go nuts not being able to get online for hours at a time.
dejapooh, tell me more about DSL, what exactly is it, details on the install, etc.
Sandvet
posted on November 26, 2001 02:57:54 PM new
Same here. I moved recently, and cable is not available here, so I use DSL. I pay $22 a month for Earthlink as a backup in case DSL is down. It may be expensive, but I work on the internet full time, and can not be without access. Earthlink is nice if you travel to, as they have a lot of access numbers.
When I first moved here, I had to wait a month for my DSL to be installed, and that was a VERY long month after having been spoiled with cable modem for 2 years. DSL seems more stable than cable modem to me, but I think I had faster access with cable. Anyway, I won't ever be without 2 ways of getting to the internet.
posted on November 26, 2001 03:05:44 PM new
We have DSL and they also offer 20 hrs of dial up service for free each month incase the DSL line goes down.
If you could get DSL I would check into that and see if they offer any dial up access with the account incase the DSL goes down.
...
"There can't be a crisis today. My schedule is already full"
posted on November 26, 2001 03:45:54 PM new
> If you could get DSL I would check into that and see if they offer any dial up access with the account incase the DSL goes down.
Agreed. I switched over to EarthLink DSL from Pacbell and have been very happy. EarthLink doesn't advertise it much, but you get 384 up along with 1.5Mb down. You thought uploading your auction photos up to your server was okay at 128, try 384!
I get complimentary dial up hours with EarthLink but I rarely use it. After being on DSL for two years, dial up is unbearably slow. I rather organize my work area, pack boxes, or twiddle my thumb before I use dial up. EarthLink technicians are competent and will have your service up quickly if it is within their control.
posted on November 26, 2001 10:46:08 PM new
Ive had cable for over a year and had only a few very minor outages that lasted less than one half hour each time. The cable never slows down at any time of the day and has remained at a very high level from Day One. The cable installer said the cable company constanty monitors usage levels and add new nodes when new users come on. This is all with AT&T@Home cable service. No mechanical problems whatsoever until we got a new computer with Windows ME installed and we had to buy a new network adapter ($50) because the cable company's adapters were 5 years old and uncompatable with Windows ME.
I refuse to use the Micro$soft Outlook email address you get for free and I pay AOL $5/month for my 6 year old AOL address. If you go to AOL.com on the web you can use AOL mail at cable modem speeds. AOL is the pits but their mail is super stable and I started usuing the web on Compu$erve in 1985 and have tried a lot of email services in those 16 years.
There is absolutely no waiting for any photos to come up and huge downloads take only seconds instead of hours. If you use the web a lot it is well worth the $40/$50 per month and your phone line is free to use.
posted on November 26, 2001 11:00:03 PM new
I have DSL (1mb down 800K up ..about that) which runs $160.00 a month (static ips/service/other stuff upped it) ..and also have Sprint broadband (sat dish on the roof) .. If one goes down i always have access to the other .. And sprint broadband i can get about 3-4MB most of the time ... (peak usage is still 1mb+) and at really weird times (2am) i get 6-7MB ... It's only 50.00 amonth ..so if they ever reoffer that service again, i'd suggest it over DSL/at&t cable/etc ... I use Prodigy Internet for dial up...just like earthlink, available a lot of places ... Hope it works out!
posted on November 27, 2001 07:48:08 AM new
DSL is a Data transfer method using existing phone lines. To avoid the data-speak, it is a way of using your existing phone line to bring in high speed internet. What you do is install a small box between the phone jack, and the wire to the phone to Filter out the data, and then they had me install a CD, and then call the Install help line. They then walked me through the rest of the installation. If you know about computers, it is easy, if you don't know about computers, it is only slightly less easy. Anyhow, the end result is that you can run full broadband internet and have a phone conversation on the same wire. Very cool, and very fast. The problem with Cable is that when it first goes into an area, it is great, but service usually decays as more and more people go online with it. This does not happen with DSL.
posted on November 27, 2001 07:57:47 AM new
doyou think this cable problem will go away as they get more $$ as more users sign up??
why is AOL looking into cable??
posted on November 27, 2001 08:28:16 AM new
I've had cable modem through AT&T Broadband for over a year now and have noticed a total of maybe two hours downtime. For me, it's far more reliable than any dial-up was. I believe that the reliability of cable varies depending upon the local area. I'm in metro-Boston area, and know that some of the suburbs further away from the city experience more downtime than I do. If anyone in your neighborhood has cable you might get a better idea from them what you can expect for downtime.
The most cool thing about cable is that you can set up as many computers as you want to share the modem. I actually had fun setting up the network in my house.
posted on November 27, 2001 09:38:57 AM new
I don't know Whiner. All I know is that with Verizon Cable, as more people logged into the system, it went slower and slower until it was worse then any dial up system I've ever used.
posted on November 27, 2001 10:08:40 AM new
I've had RoadRunner Cable for 5 years. I was an original Beta customer, the techs laugh when I give my serial number for my cable modem becuase it is so old.
I have only had one outage in 5 years that lasted more than 1 hour. Speed remains stable.
I think it has a lot to do with the company you're with more than anything else when it comes to speed and reliability.
DSL has very limited availability. You have to be within a certain distance from the phone company's main switching installation for it to be available.
The main thing is that there are competitors to cable in your area. If there is competition, the service provider usually will keep the system upgraded for speed and reliability, as well as controling price.
It serves us all well when a cable customer with bad service can switch to DSL or from DSL to cable.
posted on November 27, 2001 10:30:49 AM new
It sounds logical to say that the more cable users that signed on the slower the service got. But no business could ever hope to survive without adding more equipment and updating the existing equipment. If Verizon was a crappy cable provider then word of mouth would quickly drive them out of business. It's a shame that their crappy service had to taint the reliable providers reputations.
One word on DSL, it is available on a variety of speeds and price structures unlike cable. You get what you pay for on DSL. The lower the price the slower the speed. DSL and cable are like comparing apples and oranges.
posted on November 27, 2001 01:52:17 PM new
I too, have roadrunner, and I wouldn't trade it for anything!!!!!!! I've had it for about 2 years, and we've had 1 major outtage (2-3 days), and got creditted for the time on our bill. We had an issue a while back with spotty outtages (5 minutes at a time) but that too has been resolved. I have a friend who has zoomtown, which is through the phone company, and quite honestly, it is dog slow compared to cable. It is true, that it can get slow during peak times, but that sure beats a busy signal! Plus, my phoneline is available when I work online.
posted on November 28, 2001 03:20:32 PM new
I have had cable service for almost three years now (one of the first users) and have had no trouble. It's remarkably reliable and user friendly considering the newness of the technology. I also travel and maintain a dial up account for my laptop. It's an extra $20/month but an easy writeoff for my business travel expenses. There used to be free isps but I don't know if they still exist. As for your home computer -- you can easily dial up on your normal dial up account if the cable happens to go down. I've never seen it down more than a day at the absolute worst. I hope this helps!
I'm sure many people have had different experiences, but I've had cable in two states and have never seen it go out due to weather.
Peak usage can be a challenge and the hassle level depends very largely on your vendor. Cable works like a big network -- so the more of your neighbors sign up the higher the possibility you will all get online at the same time and slow it for everyone. I experienced that in California for a few months. It was annoying but still significantly faster than a dial up. That cable provider upgraded the equipment to allow more bandwith to my 'area' and the problem was fixed.
I have never used dsl but my mother has it and has had a good experience. She signed up with Direct TV dsl and has enjoyed it despite her complete lack of computer knowledge so it must be user friendly. I would also like to share with anyone reading that the DirectTV sent a tech from Florida to Mississippi to help her when she was having instillation trouble. That's the best customer service I've heard of in ages!
I hope this is useful for you,
Melissa
www.JumpStartSales.com
Bringing Sales to Small Business
posted on November 28, 2001 03:27:32 PM new
We had the same issue. Posting 50-80 items weekly took too long using dial up. After conversation with a number of people and discussion with my son, who is extremely computer literate. I subscribed to Roadrunner. I then also obtained dial up service from NetZero. It was free, but like K-Mart and the other free service offerers, they now charge $8.95 a month but for the fee you can minimize most of the ads and even eliminate some so you're not working on 3/4 of a monitor. I believe DoitPC also has a fairly reasonable program. You might check into these as well as using something like Google.com to run a search on "free internet service providors" and see what comes out of the search. Good luck.
