Communications monopolies slowing down Internet

[KoolKat]

Still in the Dark Ages here in the Great White North when it comes to affordable, "high speed" Internet access. "Throttling", "shaping" - words that really mean deceiving consumers into thinking they are paying for reliable, high speed Internet, but in reality are getting a far inferior product that rarely, if ever, consistently delivers the bit rate ISPs promise:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080325.wgtinternet26/BNStory/Technology

[Pagan Wizard]

Here is a way for you to test your actual internet speeds. This is free and safe.

http://speedtest.net/

http://www.speedtest.net/result/252394062.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

These are my speeds with DSL Pro.

[SirJoey]

You wanna talk about "dark ages"? I'm still on dial-up here in the boonies, & it's mind-numbingly slow, even by dial-up standards! Typical connection speed for me is 26.4 kbps! I can't even watch any of the u-tube vids or anything like that, cuz it usually takes at least a half hour to DL a 3 minute vid!

Uploading photos to my website is another painful experience. It's practically an exercise in futility.

This thing is almost useless & the only option is the super expensive hughes net satellite. "Only" 60 bux a month, if I buy 600 bux worth of equipment!

God has blessed me with 3 acres in the country, I'm surrounded by woods, my nearest neighbor is a half mile away, & I love where I live, but this is just one of the down sides to living in a beautiful, peaceful, rural setting like this. You can't have it all... :(

[TheKid]

I like that test. I've been using it for a while. It's a lot rasier than my old method, which was to go to the intel site and use their speed test.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/252511086.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[Pagan Wizard]

You wanna talk about "dark ages"? I'm still on dial-up here in the boonies, & it's mind-numbingly slow, even by dial-up standards! Typical connection speed for me is 26.4 kbps! I can't even watch any of the u-tube vids or anything like that, cuz it usually takes at least a half hour to DL a 3 minute vid!

Uploading photos to my website is another painful experience. It's practically an exercise in futility.

This thing is almost useless & the only option is the super expensive hughes net satellite. "Only" 60 bux a month, if I buy 600 bux worth of equipment!

God has blessed me with 3 acres in the country, I'm surrounded by woods, my nearest neighbor is a half mile away, & I love where I live, but this is just one of the down sides to living in a beautiful, peaceful, rural setting like this. You can't have it all... :(

Joey, if you have cable TV, your cable provider might offer cable internet. That would be a much less expensive alternative option than satellite internet. Another alternate route would be to ask your land line phone company if they offer DSL in your area......although with you living in a rural area, the chances of that are probably pretty slim. BTW, with satellite internet, your DL speeds would be blistering fast, but your upload speeds would be comparable to what you currently have with your dial up connection.

[SirJoey]

Thanx Wiz, but I've already explored all possible options, believe me. Cable isn't even available here, so satellite is the only option for TV, as well.

I continue to check on the availability of DSL from time to time, hoping it will eventually be available here, but with the homes spaced an average of a half mile apart, it doesn't look good.

I could live with slow upload speeds, but when I'm downloading stuff & only averaging about 8mb an hour :eek:, it's quite frustrating, to put it mildly!