[bd]

Hi all,

Just wanted to tell the good news. I have been bothered, as many are, by having few options for internet access. The best for several years has been in a nearby town that ,although it was a local call, involved a 40% cut in connection speed which made a 56k modem connect at only 26400 under good conditions.

When GTE turned their locations in Iowa to a newly formed Iowa Telecom we heard the news that better things were coming soon.

There was a promise that internet access in all areas served by the company would available. I was told all during 2000 that it was still scheduled to be available that year. Finally ,in late December I saw a phone company car uptown and it drove away before I could ask the driver {who was wearing a suit} about the service.

When I went into the bank later I found that the service was installed too late to be advertised in December of 2000 but an announcement had been left on the counter of the bank. I immediately called and signed up. I was told a packet would be sent in the mail in a week or ten days. This was a day or two before Christmas and I got it a day or two after Christmas,

I tried to install it and connect using the brand new real 56k access promised before the end of the year. After much time and considerable consultation with tech support it was decided to issue a trouble report and have a company service person check it out here in town.

I saw him at the local phone co. switch [since it is only ten feet from my west property line and after some trials and checking, he said that the number had not been activated yet and discovered that it was not even scheduled to be until after the first of the year. He said there was no way for him to change that. He said he would report to the company. I also called the company and the the number did get connected slightly before the first of the new year technically meeting the deadline of providing service in 2000.

When I finally connected and saw the dce speed reported at the connection icon in the systray listed as 53333 I was thrilled. I immediately went to the msn bandwidth speed test page and got throughput line speeds of 30 something to forty something and one at 47K but in twenty some tries I also got as low as eight and ten something and the average figured out to be 17.9.

Needless to say something was not right and I was very disappointed but confident that it could be fixed fairly easily. After the past month and a half of trying many things , some repeatedly, and spending time with tech support and searching for information online and off, no cause was found. At one time I spent about a hundred cell phone minutes in experiments with tech support. My regular phone co long distance carrier billed me for the calls that had been placed to the local access number before it was activated. Even though it was right next door to me. Some as long as 1 hour.

Anyway, yesterday someone asked if my line had been busy for a long time because someone was on the computer. I have a separate line for the computer I use most of the time but I have Internet Answering Machine on another which shares a line with the phone. I wondered why that program had not kicked in when the person called.

So today I just closed the Internet Answering Machine since it appearently wasn't working right.
When I noticed that connections seemed faster. I ran some bandwidth tests and guess what. YESSIR!! Finally, linespeed connection reports of 47K consistently .

I haven't looked into what happened with IAM but it was definitely causing a problem besides not doing what it was supposed to do.
So, my tip after all this is that it should be checked to see if it may be affecting connection speed if you are using it on a system with dialup access.

Bob

[rhettman5]

Congratulations! Those of us with terminal slow connections are glad to hear a success story, they are rare. I am patiently waiting for better phone service, as are all my friends and neighbors, but when you live in a town with a population of 100, they do not seem to care! Anyway, glad to hear you are "up to speed"...Rhett

[bd]

Thanks Rhett ,

And good luck with getting better access there. I guess the tendency is to think that everyone else has things better than you do because you see the latest improvements talked about every where all the time and just assume that you are among the deprived minority .
I just saw a poll on one of the online tech sites the other day and saw that the majority of those polled used dial up access and a very small percentage had some form of faster access.
Also most had less than 300mhz processors and other things that seem almost out of date compared to what is in the tech news these days.

I imagine Washington has changed since I lived there for a while years ago but I liked it then and I imagine the population distribution is still concentrated in same areas and fairly spread out over the rest of the state as it was then.

It is hard to get companies to serve less populated areas until the easy pickings are gone.
Bob

[oscar51]

I have DSL now and the speed is great, but it did not come easily. Part of that struggle was with tech support and is what prompted my New Year's resolutions once posted in General Opinions and Reviews but now, thankfully, removed into oblivion by TechGuy. I am not very proud of it. I am still working on Proverbs 15:1.

[bd]

I think I remember reading that post but my memory doesn't work as well as it used to in recalling details.
I never thought I would have any problems with my mind which I thought would always serve me well.

The length and quality of life are not guaranteed to anyone.I can't complain too much so far, but I am realizing that time
is running out and this life will end before I complete all the things I would like to .

Bob

[skyman]

bd,

I know what you mean. I am 60 years old and am on the computer for 5 to 6 hours a day and i wish I was 13 years old and could be there to see where it will go.

BUT, I am passing on my passion for this to my 11 year old granddaughter who taught me dos on a 286 when she was 7 years old and had all her games and files very neatly set up and told her OLD grandfather how to do it........

We all soar with the eagles.....

skyman

gkbjsb@mindspring.com

[rhettman5]

Not to worry! :-) I am 48 yrs old, got my 1st computer 3 yrs ago, am fasinated by the posibilities, don't have time to worry about whats to come, or what has happened, busy with NOW ! so should you all be. Have been a truck driver for for 27 yrs, whooda thought I'd be a comp freak ! but, here I am, Enjoy it guys, lots a ppl don't have the chance...surf on !...Rhett

[Chris A]

I live less then a hour away from Silicon Valley. But when it comes to any type of hi speed connection you would think I lived in a third world grass shack.

------------------
And you think you have trouble

i am 15 a week 2day (yeah) getting a cd-rw, is there anything I should be looking for?

I have a 56k modem, it was constantly connecting at 31,200bps, but god knows what I did and it is connecting at 45333bps.

Can't wait until we get cable! 18months and counting! I am downloading phatlinux which is a massive 270mb!!! It is gunna take ages!

[bd]

What little I've read about Linux has made me curious but I want to get Windows and general computer knowledge under control before I go there .
Bob

[bd]

What little I've read about Linux has made me curious but I want to get Windows and general computer knowledge under control before I go there .
Bob