Finally, true broadband is mine!

[Mosca]

Man, it's been tough. Wayyy back, in 2000, there was no broadband available in Mountain Top. No cable internet, no DSL, no nothing. I was using shotgunned modems; remember shotgunned modems? That was TWO phone lines to the house, tied together; I got 112kbps. The cost was, well, two ISP accounts and 2 phone lines.

Then, in 2002, sDSL became available, through ONE provider; Choice One Communications. I had to sign a 5 year contract.... at $89/mo... for 128/128kbps! The reason for the 5 year contract was that they came to the house and strung a new line directly to the switching station (I'm lucky to be about 700 yards from the switching station). About 2 years ago I called them up and renegotiated; I got it up to 256/256kbps for $65/mo.

Really, for most of the last 5 years, that speed has been acceptable. But over the last year, the number of animated ads, the amount of news only available as video, the music, the flash games, everything made web surfing as much of a chore as it was 10 years ago.

Finally, my 5 year contract ended... and today my Verizon aDSL kit arrived! $27.99/mo gets me 3Mbps/768kbps, a free modem/wireless router, and a price that is guaranteed for life!

A speed test gives me an average of 2839 down/696 up, with the fastest being NYC (2929/739) and the slowest being LA (2717/611). Latency to NYC is 35ms, to LA is 146ms. I downloaded an album from Rhapsody in 3 minutes; it used to take 45 minutes to an hour!

AlI can say is, finally! At least until FiOS becomes available....

[PisnNapalm]

Congrats! I remember when I first went from 28.8 to a 1.5 Mb DSl line. It was like night and day.

Now though... I run a 15 Mb/ 1.5Mb cable connection for $40. :) My online gaming has never been smoother.

Still though.... Mountain Top.... Is it where I'm thinking it is?? Out on Route 30, where they had that ship built on the mountain and you could see 3 states from up there?

I think I would trade my connection for those beautiful woods. I miss trees.

[Mosca]

Originally Posted by PisnNapalm

Congrats! I remember when I first went from 28.8 to a 1.5 Mb DSl line. It was like night and day.

Now though... I run a 15 Mb/ 1.5Mb cable connection for $40. :) My online gaming has never been smoother.

Still though.... Mountain Top.... Is it where I'm thinking it is?? Out on Route 30, where they had that ship built on the mountain and you could see 3 states from up there?

I think I would trade my connection for those beautiful woods. I miss trees.

No, Mountain Top isn't where you think, but it is just as nice. I'm up in the Poconos. Enter "Mountain Top, PA" into Google images, and you can see what it's like. great hiking, hunting, and fishing, and you can start by walking out the back of your yard. I can drive 2 miles and walk one mile through the woods to one of the primo certified native brook trout streams in the USA, the Nescopeck Creek. Or Cap'n Clint has some nice pictures at his site. I've fished Nuangola Lake, Lilly Lake, the Nescopeck & the Big & Little Waps, Blytheburn Lake, and dozens of what we call "Hog Ponds", even though a Pennsylvania Hog goes about 2 lbs and we rarely catch one that big. I don't hunt, but lots of my buddies do. At my old house, the neighbors would walk out the back door and through the field, then about another half mile to their stands.

The greatest part about the hiking is coming across old forgotten homesteads. Back in the '30s they were going to flood the valley that the Nescopeck ran through and turn it into a lake, so everyone moved out. They didn't complete the project (they built the Francis E Walter Dam instead), but all the residents moved out. You can walk through the woods and come across stone fences and foundations, rusted pumps, apple orchards in the middle of scrub oak stands, buggy paths, all kinds of cool stuff.

I love living up here, but I miss Pittsburgh anyhow.


I did the shotgunning and the initial broadband purchase for gaming, but I don't game much anymore. We don't have cable, we use DirectTV, and the 1 second lag at the D/A interface is truly death to a gamer. I think that 3Mbps is plenty fast for gaming, and I downloaded an entire album in 3 minutes, so I think this is freakin' fantastic!

[X-Terminator]

Congratulations, Mosca! There are still plenty of places around where you cannot get broadband of any kind, hard as that is to believe.

I just gave up my cable modem, where I was getting 11MB/1.5MB because Comca$t was just killing me every month with the charges. I switched to a company that offers DSL and phone service for $39.99, which sounds like a great deal...until I got my first bill and saw all of the taxes and fees the phone company charges you. So when I thought I'd be saving a good bit of money by dumping the cable modem, in reality I won't be saving that much at all when I compare it to what I was paying. And to make matters worse, Comca$t now has an offer where I could have had internet, phone and digital classic cable for $99 or the same package with digital premier cable for $129 guaranteed for 2 years. Needless to say, I'm pissed! Too late to switch back now...

[GBMelBlount]

Originally Posted by X-Terminator

Congratulations, Mosca! There are still plenty of places around where you cannot get broadband of any kind, hard as that is to believe.

I just gave up my cable modem, where I was getting 11MB/1.5MB because Comca$t was just killing me every month with the charges. I switched to a company that offers DSL and phone service for $39.99, which sounds like a great deal...until I got my first bill and saw all of the taxes and fees the phone company charges you. So when I thought I'd be saving a good bit of money by dumping the cable modem, in reality I won't be saving that much at all when I compare it to what I was paying. And to make matters worse, Comca$t now has an offer where I could have had internet, phone and digital classic cable for $99 or the same package with digital premier cable for $129 guaranteed for 2 years. Needless to say, I'm pissed! Too late to switch back now...

I thought you said you were thinking about Verizon/Fios, etc.? I'm still w/ comcast & am waiting for Verizon Fios to come through. It supposed to be here in the next few months.

[revefsreleets]

Cool.

After 10 years, I made the switch from TWC Roadrunner to AT&T DSL. It's faster and cheaper.

[Preacher]

LOL...

I can understand the frustration.

I am sitting here with 6 Meg... for free! My wife works from home, so her comp. pays for it all!