I need to upgrade from dial-up to cable or broadband....

[BrendaBrick]

Hi,

I need to be able to watch videos and also would like to get Skype to converse with out of town family members.

I currently have dial-up via Earthlink. Land line is AT&T. TV cable is Comcast/Xfinity.

It seems the more I try to find out about all the different plans/option/fine-print involved in each of these....the more confused I get!

No cell phone - though, I might have to get one of those too!

My finace just purchased a laptop @ Best Buy for $350.00 including Windows. He suggested I get one of those and then purchase some kind of wireless card for $30.00 a month.

Any help/advise would be greatly appreciated!!!!!! Many thanks ~

[struggle4progress]

1. See if a DSL service is available to you

The cell-phone based plan I once had was a ripoff

[BlueJazz]

2. If it were me, I'd go with cable 'cause generally speaking, it's faster than DSL.

(DSL is using your phone line)
Also, I'm not familiar with comcast rules and such since all my customers deal with either Verizon or Brighthouse.
Others on this forum can advise you on that.

2. ALL new laptops come with built-in Wireless so no "Wireless card" is needed.
Desktops..Yes

3. A Wireless laptop or Desktop connects to your setup at home. (or your neighbors if possible)...it's illegal to do that though. :(

[elias49]

7. I switched from cable to DSL last fall

(actually my WIFE did, behind my back. For cost reasons) and I was PO'd at first.
I was getting - on a good day and at certain TIMES of the day - up to 20MB/sec d/l rates with cable, but sometimes it slowed to a (relative) crawl because of traffic in the neighborhood.
DSL currently gives me only 3MB/sec but it's ALWAYS the same. Because it's 'dedicated'. For another $10/month I could get a reliable 10MB/sec but haven't been willing to cough up the extra dollars just yet.
I download A LOT and 3 seems acceptable.

[canetoad]

3. When your friend said 'Wireless card for $30 month.....'

I think they meant a USB broadband device. As Jazz says, all laptops these days have an inbuilt wireless card for connecting to your home modem/router. You still need to find a provider and set up your equipment for your home network be it wired or wireless. As I'm not in the USA it's pointless to talk about the pros and cons of the internet providers.

This page is an overview of USB broadband. http://www.broadbandexpert.com.au/mobile-broadband/usb-broadband/
Instead of setting up a wired connection to your house with a modem/router that then sends the signal to your laptop via its wireless card, you plug in one of these USB devices.

The advantages are; mobility - you can take your laptop anywhere (wireless coverage permitting) and ease of setting up. Disadvantage is cost. Once again, the examples on this page are Australian, you would need to check our your own companies but you can see that 1 to 1.5gig a month costs $15. That's not very much at all in terms of a month's data transfer, 1 feature movie plus a few emails!

[darkstar3]

4. Videos and Skype are realtime streaming communications

Due to packet loss and retransmissions, as well as other latency issues, cellular or "air card" networks are always going to offer subpar performance, ranging from "meh" to "holy fuck would you just GO!!!!" On top of that latency, there's the issue of price. I don't know any "air card" provider that offers a plan for $30/month. The very lowest I've seen is $40/month, and the average is usually higher.

Cable will usually offer you the best bang for your buck in your own home, but Comcast has developed a rather nasty reputation for screwing their customers. Then again AT&T is instituting new bandwidth caps on their DSLs which might make keeping your bills under control difficult...

Let me offer an analogy.

On the road across the North American continent, your 3 choices presented here are as follows.
Cellular/"air card" - Your own car. You'll get there, you'll be mostly free to do as you will, but you won't get there quickly.
AT&T - Chartered twin-engine prop aircraft. Much faster, but they'll charge you for anything you want to take with you.
Comcast - Big jet, quick flight, but complete with TSA screenings and random restrictions just to fuck with you.

It's not a perfect analogy, but it will do.

[hobbit709]

5. I'd ask around to see what people have and any problems.

A friend has comcast because that is the only broadband available where he lives. If he's lucky he can connect at 200kbps even though they promised higher speeds-it's that "up to" in the small print.

Other friends have problems with DSL even though mine works great.

I know a couple of people that use Clear and are happy with it but it's not available everywhere.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. I've had pretty good luck with Comcast cable, even though they're a sucky company in general

and require me to take a basic cable package in order to get a lower price than Internet alone.

I not only do the usual web surfing and e-mail but also stream a lot of movies from Netflix, and I've had, I think, one instance in which the movie stalled.

Clear SOUNDS like a good deal, but go to their website and read their complaints. They actually used Sprint's network, and once when I was thinking of dumping Comcast on general principles, I went into a Sprint store and asked about their Internet service. The Sprint store employee told me that their service was not adequate for a moderate to heavy user.

I wouldn't get a USB plug-in unless I were one of those high-powered "road warriors" who has to fly all over the country.

[hobbit709]

10. If you live in an area where your options are dialup or satellite.

Clear is a viable option. In a place where you have decent cable or DSL it may not be.

It all depends on where you live. Like I said some people have no problem with Comcast where they are, in other areas Comcast is a major PITA.
My DSL used to fluctuate wildly along with my phone until I made a major squawk to ATT. I knew what the problem was and they did too-they just didn't want to admit it. About 5 years earlier somebody digging a trench cut their trunk cable about a mile from my house and cut off service to about 10,000 people. They did a hurry-up job of splicing and didn't properly seal it so moisture could get in and cause corrosion. So my service went wonky about every 5 months or so-sometimes my phone didn't work but the DSL did, sometimes the other way around.
Then of course every time I called I got what I call Standard Answer 35B. After about the 6th time I called in and filed a trouble report, they finally sent a tech out to my house to check my house wiring-which is where they tried to tell me the problem was. He said there wasn't anything wrong with my house wiring-it was perfect.
I knew that, I had rewired my house with Cat5 cable some years previous.
He went on up the line and sure enough, the problem was at the splice. he came back about an hor later and said I shouldn't have any more problems. He switched me to a good pair of wires that he tested ot first. Turns out that he and I had a mutual friend. Since then the signal/noise ration has improved by about 20 db on the phone and my DSL speed has increased about 15% and haven't had a problem since.

[BrendaBrick]

6. Thank you everyone.

All of your suggestions are helpful giving me a bit of direction here. Much appreciated!

[demosincebirth]

8. DSL is cheaper than cable and very suitable for me. Its fast enough for me. Its

a big change from dial-up.

[Why Syzygy]

11. Just my opinion ..

I like DSL better than cable. I've had ATT DSL and Time Warner cable. I NEVER had a disconnect problem or need to call support with DSL.
Time Warner support has to be called frequently. They've had a tech out twice in the past two years. Maybe phone lines are more reliable.
And as someone wrote above, you're not sharing the juice with someone else when you're on DSL.

Coming from dialup, you will be THRILLED with whichever option you choose.