AOL Sucks!

[ShawnS]

I am tired of AOL's crap!

Can anyone with high speed internet access tell me who is the best provider in town? Also are there any specific system reequirements in order to run cable or DSL?

[sperry]

Dude! AOL!?! For shame!

I used both SBC for DSL and Charter for Cable (which I have now). If you're doing the digital cable thing, there's usually a pretty decent package deal you can work out... tho Charter digital cable is crap.

Cable and DSL are essentially the same speed. I think the cable's a touch faster but there's always the chance of other people on the network slowing you down. That being said, my cable's never been noticably slow due to local network issues.

For DSL you have to be within a certain line distance of the telco's switching station, but in a place like Reno I don't think anyone's too far away anymore.

All in all, I think cable and DSL are equivalent. Cable's a little easier to install. Go with whichever's got the better deal going.

In either case, you should probably get a WAN router. Linksys makes one that I like. The router will automatically keep everything logged in with the cable or DSL. It will also firewall your computer(s) from the barrage of attacks that you get on a high-speed setup (cable is especially bad, every script-kiddie out there is constantly scanning for open ports). Plus, if you get a WAN router that is also an ethernet switch, you can plug multiple computers in to it to share the internet connection (this includeds XBox and PS2!). This is the Lynksys router I have at home: http://www.linksys.com/Products/prod...id=29&prid=561

[ArthurS]

I have been very happy with charters digital cable. I have gotten three months free with the free install and everything. Just give them a call and they will have a good deal for the setup.

[MikeSTI]

I like cable over dsl only becuase dsl is its own line to the swithing station and if the station has a problem so do you... happened to me several times last time i had it.....btw i have the same Linksys router

[ShawnS]

Thanks Scott for the info. I guess I'll shop around and see who has the best deal really.

Can any old compuer run DSL/Cable? I have an ancient system right now and am a little concerned about my computers ability to compute all the data coming in at high speeds.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by ShawnS

Thanks Scott for the info. I guess I'll shop around and see who has the best deal really.

Can any old compuer run DSL/Cable? I have an ancient system right now and am a little concerned about my computers ability to compute all the data coming in at high speeds.

Pretty much anything faster than a 286 is still capable of being faster than Cable/DSL. If you're going to do the WAN Router setup, you will want an Ethernet Network Interface Card (NIC) for your PC so it can talk to the router. Otherwise you'll prolly end up with a crappy USB NIC or worse yet a USB Cable modem. NIC are like $20 from Circuit City, or $5 if you know where to look online.

Are you coming to the meet tonight? We can talk shop about what you have and what you'll need to get in order to get online w/ Cable or DSL. I'm sure Dean and some of the other guys know what's up too and can help you figure it all out as well.

[tysonK]

UH.

Well when my Charter Cable modem got shut down 6 months ago . I called to have it set up again because I guess they didnt know they had me on the system(in other words I was getting free cable modem for actually 8 months he he ). They said it would be a freakin 6 WEEK wait for the install?!?!, so I told them to suck it and got DSL from SBC, so far no problems.

word to your mother