Broadband that's good, fast, and cheap

Computers, gadgets, etc. Music/audio-related discussions should be posted in Audio Technology.
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lukpac
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Broadband that's good, fast, and cheap

Postby lukpac » Thu Jul 29, 2004 12:45 pm

Ok, so I'm asking for the moon. Well, not really. I need/want something that is reasonably fast (both up and down), doesn't block ports, gives you multiple IP addresses, and doesn't break the bank. Static IPs would be nice, but not necessary.

The DSL I have now (via TDS Metrocom) has all of the above except speed (and static IPs). You can subscribe to up to 1 Mbps service, and the upload speeds are NOT capped, but we're about 20k ft from the central office, which means our speeds top out around 400k/150k or so - and that drops if you pick up the phone. There are apparently no plans to upgrade the DSL service in the area.

Cable is pretty worthless. The residential service here is 3 Mbps down, but only 128 kbps or so up. Plus you only get one IP, and many ports are blocked. And even if you were somehow able to get around all that, they really don't like people running servers. There are various packages of "business grade" cable, but I think they start around $80/month, and uploads are still only 128k or so.

So that leaves...a T1 I guess. I haven't seriously looked into those, but I think they start around $400 or $500 a month, which is quite a bit more than I'd like to spend.

Does anyone have any experiences with broadband services other than cable and DSL?

This server is currently on pretty good DSL (somewhere else), but there's a lot of other traffic on the line that has been slowing down the server, so I'd like to move it. My hands are kind of tied, though.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Patrick M
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Postby Patrick M » Thu Jul 29, 2004 6:41 pm

You're not asking for much, huh?

I get 245k up on my cable modem. That's with Adelphia. I've had TW before, too, but I don't remember what their up bandwidth is.

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lukpac
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Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 11:51 pm
Location: Madison, WI
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Postby lukpac » Thu Jul 29, 2004 7:47 pm

My DSL is just about perfect other than the distance factor. I believe the only port they block is 25 (SMTP) outbound, to limit viruses. Doesn't matter for my server, since I just relay all outgoing mail through their server. They've even helped me with problems regarding my server. I believe their quote was something like "no, we don't care if you run a server. I know a lot of people do."
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD