Warlady's Getting High Speed Internet!!!!!!!!!!!

[Warlady]

Check it out (http://www.unitewireless.com/)

I chose the gaming package plus I'm buying the equipment up front and I got the 2 year service plan whatever that is.

[tacitus]

Looks like a great plan and a great price. Comcast is ripping me off by charging me $ 65.00 a month for broadband access. I'll be switching to qwest DSL and save about $25.00 while retaining a fast connection. We have a company that provides wireless access here in Parker, but they want about $55 for the service.

[Warlady]

Do you ever have interruptions in service?

[nosferatuscoffin]

It looks like a good deal. The only that concerns me is that you mentioned you got the 2-year service plan. Did you sign a contract for 2 years worth of service as well? I am very wary of companies that force customers to sign contracts, as if the service is poor, you are stuck.

[tacitus]

[ QUOTE ]
Warlady said:
Do you ever have interruptions in service?

[/ QUOTE ]

I have never had any service issues with Comcast. Occasionally I'll have to reset the modem when I can't get on line, but that's the only service issue. It primarily a cost issue with Comcast. They charge too much for the service.

I'm not too sure that Qwest's service will match that of Comcast, we shall see.

[Rink]

I think with most year and two year contracts you Can get out but I think you have to pay half of what you owe left on your contract to end it.

Thats the way mine was.

[Jeffrho]

[ QUOTE ]
tacitus said:
Looks like a great plan and a great price. Comcast is ripping me off by charging me $ 65.00 a month for broadband access. I'll be switching to qwest DSL and save about $25.00 while retaining a fast connection. We have a company that provides wireless access here in Parker, but they want about $55 for the service.

[/ QUOTE ]$65?? Does that include a jar of vaseline? I have Comcast high-speed here in KC and it's only $40.

[Suzie]

Are you going to keep bring your own access AOL? I did when we got charter but I wanted to keep the parental control features for my daughter. AOL completely disables Explorer and she has to have every page she loads approved before she can see it. That was worth it to me.

[Warlady]

Suz, I don't think I want to keep AOL. I don't have any kids.

Nos, I haven't signed anything yet. I don't have to buy the service warranty. I had a choice of one year or two year and I think that's if something goes wrong with the equipment I am buying they'll fix it. They haven't gotten back to me yet. I filled out the form online. They'll probably call me Tuesday.

[nosferatuscoffin]

Roger Wilco. I would just hate to see you get roped into a long-term contract, especially if the service turns out to sub-par.

The Clark Howard coming out in me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif

[tacitus]

Nope no vasaline, no reach around and no kiss on the neck.

I don't have Comcast cable so that adds $10.00 to the bill and I have a network add another $5.00. The rest is taxes.

[Warlady]

tac why don't you go with the local wireless for $55?

[tacitus]

I don't have much faith in wireless.

[DoctorDoom]

My view of wireless it that when a computer is feeding a transmitter, it's open season for anyone who can receive it.

I occasionally monitor the old 27-MHz wireless phone frequencies (they are still fairly common), and it's amazing how clueless the users are about the fact that they're holding a broadcast transmitter in their hand. One conversation between a couple of teens was nothing less than phone sex. And a person ordered an item over the phone, including a credit card number, an expiration date, and the security code on the back. Can you say "inviting disaster", boys and girls?

Unless it's 24/7 encryption, it's identity theft time. Be very careful what goes out, gentle lady.

[Warlady]

Doc you need to read the website regarding security.

[Rink]

Warlady ANY wireless network is ripe for the plucking.

There was a warning issued not that long ago about wireless home networking i.e. using wireless networking for more than one computer, that hackers can gain access to your network via the wireless routers.

Anything that isnt on a hard line is prone to that, and I must concur with Doc over that, any ISP will hail their expert security on their networks but nobody is perfectly secure.

[Jeffrho]

If you use WEP encryption and MAC address filters you should be safe when using your wireless access point.

[Warlady]

Thanks Jeff. Everything I've read seems to say that wireless is about as secure as any other. Especially with firewalls etc. Cable internet isn't secure either.

[nosferatuscoffin]

Nothing is totally secure, wired or wireless.

The key is to use encrytped MAC addresses, a good router with a built-in firewall (I recommend the Netgear brand) and a good software firewall such as ZoneAlarm. Also, keeping all machines on the network patched and up to date as well as using a non Internet Explorer browser is crucial.

[Warlady]

What's the best browser?

[nosferatuscoffin]

I use Mozilla Firefox. You can download it here (http://www.mozilla.org/). It is faster, more secure, has better bookmark and other management features then IE. Also, importing your IE bookmarks is a breeze.

[DoctorDoom]

Also consider Opera. I use it 99.99% of the time, with IE only for the garbage-code sites.

[RayChuang]

I use Mozilla Firefox. You can download it here (http://www.mozilla.org/). It is faster, more secure, has better bookmark and other management features then IE. Also, importing your IE bookmarks is a breeze. Actually, I prefer Mozilla 1.7.3 over FireFox, given that there are things in FireFox that look a bit non-standard. Mozilla 1.7.3 I know will work with most web pages correctly. :thumb:

[nosferatuscoffin]

Firefox is completely W3C compliant. Acutally, all of the Mozilla browsers and Opera are. The main problem you run into nowadays is that most sites are stil lwritten to be IE-compliant, which leads to non-standard coding and lot of headaches and rules-bending as IE is far from being compliant with anything.

I use CSS for the most part when putting sites together nowadays as that is the best way to code a site that will be cross-browser compliant. However, IE is not 100% compliant with that either.

However, any one of the Mozilla browsers are fine.

[DoctorDoom]

The main problem you run into nowadays is that most sites are stil lwritten to be IE-compliant, which leads to non-standard coding...That's the major issue out there. IE's bloatware is far more tolerant of bad code than the smaller, less forgiving browsers, and that leads to lazy, incautious composing.

It's a pleasure to surf in W3C-compliant sites.

BTW, I note that FC's software is not displaying perfectly on the "advanced" and "edit" pages at 100% screen size in Opera. The right side is truncated. It's a non-problem, but it does demonstrate the point.

[Warlady]

Okay I downloaded FireFox. Why is the top of my homepage showing at the top of the board? It was like that using IE also. It looks like shit. I didn't have that with AOL. Anyway bad news regarding my wireless. Their antenna doesn't reach this far. The good news is they are renting one close to me but it's going to be 2 months before I can get it. I signed up with a local ISP today and I'm still having problems staying connected to the internet. I'm beginning to think I need to try a different brand modem. I'm going to Walmart now to buy a Supra or some other brand besides this one. I've never heard of it before. It's called Agere Systems PCI Soft modem internal version. Boy these browsers are slow as mud compared to AOL. Also, I notice that all the graphics aren't working. I'm getting lines through the title under my name in the left hand column. red x's in boxes. I don't think FireFox likes the board.

[nosferatuscoffin]

Aside from the lines that show through the user's title on the board, everything looks fine on the board using Firefox on this end. That is caused by some code that is most likely not W3C compliant. That is the tradeoff you get when trying to code a site that works properly in IE and other browsers, such as Opera or Firefox. I am in the middle of doing just that for a new client and it can be a pain in the butt sometimes.

You mentioned "Why is the top of my homepage showing at the top of the board?". I am not sure what you mean by that. Do you mean that part of your Warlady home page is showing up on FC? Also, you are mentioning red X's.. Do you mean they are showing up where images should be. Or are you referring to the ones that are next to the words "Close current tag" and "Close all tags" when you are in the post editor?

I would recommend that you clean out our IE/AOL cache as well. There is no reason for Firefox to be running slower than AOL. To do clean it out, go to Control Panel/Internet Options/General tab. Click the Delete Files button and check Delete all offline content. See if that does not speed things up.

Also, do you have a spyware removal tool such as Spy Sweeper and are you keeping your anti-virus updated and are you scanning the hard regurarly?

[Warlady]

It was red x's where graphics should have been but they're gone now. I just installed a US Robotics external modem instead of that soft shit and I will let you know if it fixed my connectivity problem. I'll clean out my old files. I don't know what kind of spyware software I have installed on this new one. I have Ad-aware on the old one. Now to find that disk lol

If I can stay connected without getting kicked off every few minutes I think this browser will work fine. Right now I'm on the internet on both computers. I'm going to download AIM on this one now. I'm working towards getting away from AOL. Or at least not it being my primary ISP.

The stuff at the top of the page is from FC's homepage. The logo, Gone's memorial link etc. It shouldn't be there.

[DoctorDoom]

I get that as well before I log in. Afterward it goes normal. I thought it was for the visitors to give them links to certain things such as board rules.

[Warlady]

I sent a captured pic to Suzie. I hope she will upload it here to show what I'm seeing in both FireFox and IE. I would do it myself but I don't have ftp software set up on this new computer yet. Boy that Robotics external modem sure fixed my connectivity problems. One headache out of the way.

[DoctorDoom]

Built-in modems are usually el cheapo "WinModem" variants. I use a Zoom external modem plugged into the otherwise useless serial port. If nothing else, it has pretty lights. :D

[Warlady]

I like this Robotics external modem. So far so good. It has USB connection to the computer. Everything seems faster since I took out the old internal modem and added this one.

[nosferatuscoffin]

Zooms are good little modems. I was never a big fan US Robotics internal ones as their drivers were a little flaky. However, their USB ones I am not really familiar with, so I cannot say much about them. Glad it is working for youm Brenda! :)

I used to use Supras in the old days, 14.4 and 33.6 and they always worked flawlessly.

[Warlady]

Well, this is the first time since I got the new computer that I've been online without being disconnected every few minutes. I've been online for hours now without interruption. I would say it's fixed. We finally moved the new computer from the dining room table to my computer spot. It's now hooked up to my 21" monitor. Nice. This is one fast machine and one fast modem. It's the fastest connection I've ever had up here too. If you have connection problems and you have one of those PCI soft modems I would suggest you get one with hardware. The difference is astounding.