Endless Paradigm

I'm sick of my ISP and a little sick of ISPs in general

After losing connection about three times in a row while trying to game I became a little annoyed. In my already annoyed state, I came across this article.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/29/your-is...s-go-down/


It basically states that ISPs are way overpriced, and in general they lie about just how much money it costs them to get you your internet so that they can charge you more. An top of these lies they often employ various schemes to control, monitor, and invade the privacy of your internet usage.(http://www.billshrink.com/blog/6276/9-wa...crew-you/)

So in general, Your ISP charges you out the donkey to constantly beleaguer you. This is completely un-acceptable and yet wee continue to throw money at them. And it's not like wee have a choice. What are wee to do? Live without internet? (it's even worse here because I imagine in some places you could change you ISP. I live in the middle of nowhere, where there is seriously only one internet service provider)

This has been going on, and will probably continue to go on, and it genuinely just pisses me off.


With no where else to turn to at the moment I can only think of google and their new internet service plan. If they continue to expand and come to my area I will buy them in a heartbeat. I hope that they take all the customers away from the ISPs who have been mistreating them. And I hope the old ISPs are forced to up their bandwidth and overall quality of service or die. Unless someone else steps in, or can come up with a better idea to get ISPs to give us better service this is probably my only hope.

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So, who is your ISP, How do you feel about their service and/or do you have any ISP related comments?

My ISP is Cox in Phoenix and I've never really had a problem with them. I pirate plenty of stuff and very rarely get notices from them, I consistently get 2Mbps and only pay about $45 a month which I believe is reasonable. Very rarely does it go down and only for a couple of hours if it does.

Mickey Wrote: [ -> ]My ISP is Cox in Phoenix and I've never really had a problem with them. I pirate plenty of stuff and very rarely get notices from them, I consistently get 2Mbps and only pay about $45 a month which I believe is reasonable. Very rarely does it go down and only for a couple of hours if it does.

Would the $45 a month still be reasonable if you knew that it didn't cost them nearly that amount to provide you with service?

is this discussion only for american?

nevermind, I'll post about mine

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smartfren from indonesia (although it only works in Java and Bali i think)
unlimited bandwith, 384 kbps, 90k IDR/month (~10 USD)
it uses CDMA simcard, inserted into EVDO Rev.B modem which actually supports ~10 mbps. but they don't give unlimited bandwith on that speed which sucks,, like 50 USD for 15 GB

generally, while it's in good condition, it's not really stable.
when used in MMORPG, skill usage would be delayed 1/xxx second.
I've tried using another connection, being a priest in an MMO, and the character could heal more HP at a tanker who tanked a boss (damage dealt = damage regenerated).
on the other hand, using smartfren, tanker often met critical condition, or even dead sometimes because gap between heals isn't as fast as it should be.
recently they also limit p2p connection, I usually get 12 KBps DL/4 KBps UL.

on bad condition,, it becomes worse.
sometimes it can't connect to foreign sites,, unless it's close enough (like australia or singapore). it's so annoying when it happens,, i can't open facebook, twitter, yahoo or msn messenger, or even worst i can't open google.com.
sometimes its signal also completely gone...

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there's almost no better choice here.
speedy which is the most popular ISP in this country, owned by government, has 384 kbps connection for 200k IDR
it's said to be more stable. but it blocks any mature content sites. although mature doesn't mean hershey kisses, they'd still block it anyway. (sankaku complex for example)

I don't pay for my internet, and I tunnel all web traffic, so they don't know I pirate, so I'm happy with my ISP! 8D

My ISP apparently has no fucks to give about me pirating stuff. Their customer support is actually based in my town, too.

Slushba132 Wrote: [ -> ]It basically states that ISPs are way overpriced, and in general they lie about just how much money it costs them to get you your internet so that they can charge you more.

And that surprises you?
MANY things are priced way above cost, especially in tech.
An i7 CPU costs about the same as an i5 to produce, yet they charge a fair premium on the former.
An iPhone 4S costs nowhere near the ~$700 price you pay (buying outright, not on some stupid US telco plan), more like $200 to make.  Similar stories for other phones, though the margin is usually a bit lower.

Branded clothing is another example.

And for monopolies, they pretty much always charge above the fair price.
This is just typical business.

I'm not sure about "lies" exactly.

Slushba132 Wrote: [ -> ]An top of these lies they often employ various schemes to control, monitor, and invade the privacy of your internet usage.(http://www.billshrink.com/blog/6276/9-wa...crew-you/)

I looked at that article - most of it isn't that bad as they seem to make it.
Hell, they even suggest ISPs protect users against spyware but not allow them to inspect your connection.  How the hell does that work?

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Anyway, over here, Telstra owns most of the cables.  Fortunately they resell the lines so wee actually have competition in most places.
I pay $80/mo for 30/1Mbps 200GB/mo fibre connection, which actually sometimes exceeds its rated speed (have downloaded at 3.9MB/s for extended periods of time).  It's faster than I need and has way more bandwidth than I use, so I'm quite happy.  A bit expensive, but I'm actually sharing with a housemate, so $40/mo isn't bad.

I haven't had any problems with my ISP except for the data cap which I have actually gone over on separate occasions but they have yet to say anything so I guess they don't care.

I pay about $80/mo for 30-35Mbps DL speed with a 250gb cap.

Although with all these talks about Google Fiber, I am definitely ready to make the switch, gigabit speeds for 15 dollars less and no caps?!

SIGN ME UP

Le Jooms Wrote: [ -> ]My ISP apparently has no fucks to give about me pirating stuff.

in our contry the philippines, it depends on what isp are you now, currently wee only up to 12mbps max speed in internet, 2 of our isp don't have a bandwidth cap unlike the other one lol

anyways my ISP only speed up only in off-peak hours (which is 3am-5am) which is when im sleeping, lol