Re: {OT} Comcast Sucks. Comcast REALLY sucks! Comcast REALLY REALLY SUCKS!!! Did I mention COMCAST SUCKS?!?!

We've had Dish Network here for years. We never looked back.

If cable (as the provider), there's usually only one cable co. per area.

Cathy

The less females that watch 'we' network the better. So, no loss there... They actually have a program on one of those man hating channels called 'snapped'. It chronicles women who killed their significant other and got away with it..Can you say 'training video'...?

Satellite TV is bad for your health. It's like one long cell phone call being aimed at your house. If you don't believe me tell the guy to put the dish as close to the headboard of your bead as possible, preferebly right outside your bedroom window. See how you sleep after that..

Cable keeps going up and has no fear of satellite because a lot of people know satelite's dirty little secret. It's BAD for you...! Cable is not worried about satellite at all. And you'd wonder with all the great deals that satellite offers and the way most cable companies are doing the same thing you describe, why isn't cable kissin' more ass...instead of less....

citation for these statements? We've had DirecTv for at least five years, and our hair and teeth haven't fallen out yet, etc. so I would like to know how you are so certain that it's harmful to health.

LOL, ya right, the RF that hits that dish is in the microvolt range or less. The dish antenna has perhaps 15 to 20 db gain, the LNA has another 15 db which boosts the signal enough for the rx to give a 100 percent watchable signal. The RF that hits you or me is no stronger than the radiation from the Sun, if that.

The waves hitting the dish are there whether you're receiving them or not.. I was going to post this months ago, but never got around to it: Back when I was delivering newspapers, there was one place on my route where high-voltage lines went over the road. When it would rain, and then stop, this one section of the road was dry. If it snowed and then stopped, this one section of the road was dry...If it was snowing when I got there, this one section of the road was wet... When I did have satellite 9 years ago, when it would snow, the boom holding the receiver (LNC???) was square, and after an hour or two I would have to go out and clear the boom in order to watch TV. I think if the original statement were true, it would have melted the snow before it had a chance to accumulate... [This posting contains Japanese text that can't be displayed on your WebTV Internet Terminal

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Why did you get rid of the old dish?

And I think you should have them install it as I mentioned ....ya know...as an experiment and to prove me wrong...? I have a feeling you'll be asking them to move it as far away from the home as possible JIK....?

Or as the U. Of Pittsburg recomends...Don't wait for a difinative study ..limit your use NOW...!

When I did have satellite 9 years ago, when it would snow, the boom holding the receiver (LNC???) was square, and after an hour or two I would have to go out and clear the boom in order to watch TV. I think if the original statement were true, it would have melted the snow before it had a chance to accumulate... [This posting contains Japanese text that can't be displayed on your WebTV Internet Terminal

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You're comparing HTPL's that carry an entire community's power to the dish on your roof that carrys one house's tv signal...? Whew...back atcha..

I could car less what you get ...as they say on SNL...REALLY...

"Cathy F." ...

But cable isn't the only high-speed internet. DSL can be actually *faster* than cable in some areas.

It's moot, though, since he's getting Dish.

Natalie

The signals (RF energy) hitting the TV dish is very small. You never have to be concerned about it, as opposed to standing in front of a search radar on the nose of an aircraft, or a large radar dish on say a Navy ship, or even worse, a DEW line radar, that would not be good for your health, it might turn you into a democrat. :)

You have to be within a mile or two of a switching thingy to get the standard speed DSL, even then, DSL is not as fast as cable, except DSL will be the same speed going up as going down. At least that's the way it was presented to me.

Not quite. DSL is not shared, like cable. The more people that log onto a calbe connection in your area, the more the bandwidth has to be shared, and your connection slows.

DSL is a direct connection to the switch; there is no sharing of bandwidth. 1000 people can log on and bandwidth will still be the same. Therefore, there isn't any 'throttling' with DSL, either.

The drawback is, the upload speed is about 1/4 of the DL speed, so if you upload a lot you're going to take a hit.

Interesting. My newsreader was set to Japanese, but it was supposed to have been set for Unicode...

This is true. Here's my current cable performance, I just ran a test.

Upload is alway slower on cable but still faster than DSL.

Those numbers are about as slow as it gets. True they vary from second to second, but still way faster than DSL even when under heavy load. The bandwidth on cable is so much larger than on copper. Maybe with fiber it will go up.

I just checked it again, few minutes later than first

A few years ago I checked on DSL service and they said I was too far away from the switch, but that they could still provide DSL at a reduced speed using some sort of relay thingy. The speeds were considerably slower than regular DSL but higher than dial-up.

It depends on the package you go with on DSL. You can still get a faster d/l speed vs. upload. Depends if you get asymmetrical or symmetrical. ADSL vs. DSL.

True but I thought DSL can still bottleneck, just at a different part of the network. Not as common. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Not that I'm aware of.

The caveat with DSL is you have to be within so many feet of the switch, something like a quarter mile (?). After that bandwidth starts to fall off. When I first started with DSL I was only hitting 868K.

Interesting. My newsreader was set to Japanese, but it was supposed to have been set for Unicode...

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Speaking of unicode...Did you see the episode where Doug and Arthur are ribbing spence about living with mom and finally he snaps and says...'WE SLEEP IN SEPERATE BEDS!!'

DSL is a private connection from your house to the CO equipment, from there you get combined - but it stays private and separate. But with Cable Internet it's a shared connection from the word "Go" - and a hacker with a sniffer can see every bit of traffic going past in both directions if it is not encrypted.

DSL can bottleneck if they put too many customers on the DS3 'backhaul' data line from the DSLAM Shelf at the CO to the Internet at large. Or if they router they used is brain dead. Have had both.

With DSL it's easy to split people to a new DSLAM shelf at the CO or to put in a bigger backhaul line. But if the Cable Company wants to split the system to reduce the Internet loads on a segment of cable trucks have to roll to make multiple physical changes.

The limit without repeaters or other special treatment is ~12,000 feet from the CO (on 24 GA cable) for maximum speeds.

And the limit is ~18,000 feet (3 miles and change) to get something that works at all - which is where I'm at. Until AT&T gets their "U-Verse" Remote DSLAM's all turned up, I jog instead of fly.

With heavier 22 GA or 19 GA cable you can go a bit farther - but they stopped installing that a long time ago except where they /really/ have to - they have to install inductive loading coils on those 40,000 foot runs to keep the audio decent, and loaded cable will not work for DSL.

Or 18,000 feet to a Remote Line Concentrator cabinet or Remote Switching Unit where the DSL Access Module lives, and then they backhaul the Internet traffic from there on a larger common 'pipe'.

Just tell Gomer not to get drunk and run over that big green cabinet on the main road coming home at Closing Time. Because he'll kill everyone's phones and DSL for several days, and to show your "gratitude" the neighbors will all get together and eviscerate him with a spoon after the Cops let him out of the Drunk Tank.

Why a spoon? Because it's dull you twit, it'll hurt more. ;-)

Then he'll get the repair bill from the Phone Company and find out what /real/ pain is - that gear is Not Cheap.

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Interesting. ATT this summer installed fiber optic cable a block away. Does that mean the DSL speeds up and will it become available at full speed for me? Do they partner with say QWEST which is my phone provider?

Don't know, you'll have to ask both of them - And you might not get an answer till they are ready to announce it.

Deregulation has made some very strange bedfellows in the market. Where AT&T doesn't have a local Cable TV Franchise they can offer 'On Demand' video over the fiber, but for regular TV they put up a Dish TV satellite dish.

If they offer you a 'Fiber to the Curb' or 'Fiber to the Home' connection you have to insist that the main phone line stays on the old copper lines. Because the phone over fiber depends on remote power feeding from your house to operate, and usually at least one repeater point along the way, and has only minimal battery backup, it is not 99.999%+ reliable for emergencies.

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