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Riverside Laker
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Riverside Laker
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PostFri May 15, 2020 6:07 pm 
No, MY internet company is worse that all of youse guys. Frontier is charging us $10/month for a crummy router. A neighbor sold us a better one, so I contacted Frontier to get it back, and take the $10 off every month. They said no, they would not remove the charge, even when I said I'd cancel at end of pay period. I said forget it, but they sent me a box to return their router. I said I wouldn't if I was paying for it. A few months go by and they charged me a big wad for the router. I called and said I am keeping it. That took 45 minutes and two calls. Then I tried again with another person. Then... get this... you are still reading this lame story! Finally they said we would not be charged. Then... Frontier got bought out by Zippiddydoodah or something like that. Gosh. Dang. Gee. Golly. What a bunch of lame-os.

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jinx'sboy
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PostFri May 15, 2020 6:50 pm 
Randito wrote:
Wait, what, you are still paying for a landline?
Yes. Those of us in rural areas lose power, sometimes for many hours, multiple times per year. The batteries that run cell towers run only a few hours - and only some have generators or are solar. In 2014 fires we lost all power across a good portion of Okanogan County for 8 days - some much longer. All the cell sites quit. Internet was off and on, but even when on, if you have no juice, it wasn’t much good. Ditto in 2015, for a few days. Many people keep a landline, just for those situations.

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Chief Joseph
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Chief Joseph
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PostFri May 15, 2020 6:59 pm 
It seems to always be a problem when one company monopolizes a service.

Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
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Randito
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Randito
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PostFri May 15, 2020 10:47 pm 
Chief Joseph wrote:
It seems to always be a problem when one company monopolizes a service.
Where I live in the burbs there are three providers. For a while they were all offering six month introductory pricing discounts, I pinged between providers for few years so I was always on introductory pricing. Eventually I decided the savings weren't worth the hassle. I currently run Comcast at the lowest bandwidth option, which required enduring multiple "upgrade " sales pitches, where they try to convince me I really need symetric gigabit service to my residence. No I'm not going run a server farm in my crawl space. A friend of mine was trying to work remotely from his 2nd home in the Methow, Century Link bandwidth to his place is completely inadequate for pulling down a new copy of a mobile SDK. ( typically 900mb) He would need to get HughesNet or ViaSat to be reasonably productive.

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treeswarper
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PostSat May 16, 2020 6:11 am 
Randito wrote:
Wait, what, you are still paying for a landline? That's is completely unneeded even if you don't have a cellphone.
Cell phones don't work in quite a few areas. It is fun to watch the cell phone dependent go through withdrawel at these locations. Seriously, Centurylink was the only non satellite provider in the East Lewis County area. Their internet service ended a mile from my house.

What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
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neek
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neek
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PostSat May 16, 2020 6:26 am 
Chief Joseph wrote:
It seems to always be a problem when one company monopolizes a service.
CenturyLink = US West (a piece of the old AT&T) + Qwest Verizon = Bell Atlantic (a piece of the old AT&T) + GTE AT&T (current form) = pieces of the old AT&T recombined It's like that scene in Terminator 2 where the dude gets blown up and then all the bits come back together. Luckily I don't have to worry, I have Comcast. (Formerly AT&T Broadband...DOH!)

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IanB
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PostSat May 16, 2020 9:01 am 
Randito wrote:
Wait, what, you are still paying for a landline? That's is completely unneeded even if you don't have a cellphone. All you really need any more is internet service
My point was precisely about internet availability. The place I moved into wasn't connected to cable, so to get started I got DSL from Centurylink - top speed 1.2 Mbps. When I went to switch to Comcast (20 Mbps) they pulled the stunt that left me and my business without a phone for 5 days, and took me over 10 hours (on my neighbor's phone) just to get back to where I started with Centurylink. Really, would you ever give a business a dime after they did that to you?

"Forget gaining a little knowledge about a lot and strive to learn a lot about a little." - Harvey Manning
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Cyclopath
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Cyclopath
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PostSat May 16, 2020 9:46 am 
I use the mobile hotspot feature in my phone. It's good enough to work from home through.

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Anne Elk
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PostSat May 16, 2020 1:30 pm 
Riverside Laker wrote:
Frontier is charging us $10/month for a crummy router.
NEVER rent your ISP-provided router. Buy it at installation. Century Link offers this too, but it's insane to rent a router. That's just another way for them to monetize the unaware. It pays for itself within months.

"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
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Malachai Constant
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PostSat May 16, 2020 2:03 pm 
Most ISPs use combination router/modems i.e. portals. They are generally inferior and harder to setup than separate ones. Costco has good ones for a good price. Sometimes ISPs require you to use their portal initially. It is always a pain to return equipment and make sure you get a receipt or they will try charging the monthly fee.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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Chief Joseph
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PostSat May 16, 2020 2:19 pm 
Malachai Constant wrote:
Most ISPs use combination router/modems i.e. portals. They are generally inferior and harder to setup than separate ones. Costco has good ones for a good price. Sometimes ISPs require you to use their portal initially. It is always a pain to return equipment and make sure you get a receipt or they will try charging the monthly fee.
Hughes said that I have to use their router-modem, not sure if that's correct, since these people lie. It was about 4-500 to purchase and like 20 bucks a month to rent.

Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
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Randito
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PostSat May 16, 2020 2:39 pm 
Anne Elk wrote:
That's just another way for them to monetize the unaware.
Yes and also Comcast uses the rented routers to provide wireless hot spots to other comcast customers. If you've been wondering why there are #vanlife vehicles parked in front of your house with some frequency, now you know why. If an "Xfinity" or "CenturyLink" wifi network is visible when you scan for wifi networks, you know there is a rented router/modem nearby.

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Randito
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PostSat May 16, 2020 2:48 pm 
Chief Joseph wrote:
Hughes said that I have to use their router-modem, not sure if that's correct, since these people lie. It was about 4-500 to purchase and like 20 bucks a month to rent.
If you want to see hard core price gouging, look at Satellite Internet systems for RVs. HughesNet for a "cabin in the woods" has a base price of around $70 /month. Similar speed contracts for RV based systems are $500/mo. RV hardware runs $6000 vs $500 for "cabin in the words" hardware. The RV hardware does automatically point the antenna in the correct direction, but non-idiots can manually do that with just a little practice and the auto pointing satellite hardware for RV "cable tv" service only runs $350. So the $6000 charge isn't really about the cost of the technology.

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Riverside Laker
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Riverside Laker
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PostSat May 16, 2020 7:16 pm 
Anne Elk wrote:
NEVER rent your ISP-provided router. Buy it at installation.
Anyone know where Doc Brown and his DeLorean are? Could use it right now to solve my problems. Maybe just go back to 1950 so I can cut down fir boughs instead of bringing a mattress.

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captain jack
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captain jack
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PostSat May 16, 2020 9:34 pm 
Century Link is only slightly better than old dial up service anyways. If you listen real close you can hear the raspy tones like the fax machine used to make. Might as well use a couple soup cans and a string for your internet provider. Just did a residential upgrade with one of the cities first fiber customers here. 100 up/100 down, 40 bucks a month. Yes, you have to use the supplied Nokia ONT, but you can use the router and wiffy of your choice. Coming to a city near you, soon.

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