Broadband................................FINALLY

[Omega]

Well, it's finally, actually, truly, really happening. I'm getting cable installed tomorrow between 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM CST. I decided to get Earthlink Cable (not DSL, which sucks a lot through Earthlink, at least according to dslreports), which runs through TWC (Time Warner Cable). It costs less than RoadRunner, plus it includes free, unlimited dial-up, among other things. I took the day off of work so I could be home with my new cable, hehe.

I'm wondering if I'll actually be able to convince the guy that I don't have a NIC (in order to get the free one) with a Netgear RT314, a Nexland WaveBase, and Compex DSR2216 (16-port rack-mountable switch) sitting on my desk and network cables running to everything but my main computer (in which I'll claim I need a NIC...I'll disable my integrated NIC in BIOS, and password protect it, claiming I had someone else set up the computer, and they password protected it). I could hide all my networking gear, but that seems like way too much work for a free NIC. The way I look at it, is they budget it so that I get a free NIC, and it's no loss to the guy who installs it if I get a free NIC, so why the hell do they even care? I suppose I could also just turn off my network devices (and disable my integrated NIC), and then claim everything got fried in the recent storms...

Any ideas what gives me the best chance of getting the free NIC with the least hassle?

Also, I'll post back in here about how it's going once it's installed.

[wizbones]

It all depends on the installer. If he/she is a cool geek like us, just ask for it. Should be no problem.

If they're just a frootloop pounding the pavement and don't know what they're doing, you might as well forget it.  

[Omega]

w00t! I got it. The guy didn't come until 3:00 PM CST (so there were two hours of suspense), but then I just asked him for a NIC even before he looked at my computer, and he was cool with it. It's up and running now.

Speedtest.com reported it as 3 Mbit downstream and 384 kbit upstream (I'm supposed to have up to 2 down and 384 up).

[wizbones]

Right on - Congrats ! Throwing a little party for you over here   - You're having a great time BTW  ;D

WTF do you pay for it. in austria all what ya get for about 50 to 80 euro is shitty dsl 512/64 limited to 4 gig transfer or cable 640/128 limited to 8 gig. i want some good upload connection for hosting a little game server and it would at least cost me 500euro per month or more, bullshit >

[Omega]

I pay $41.95 USD per month for it, with first month free. Broadband in the US is extremely cheap compared with that in other countries, for the most part. The U.S. seems to be pretty much the only place that doesn't limit usage on most things too (phone landlines, broadband, etc.). Unfortunately there are rumors going around that TWC (Time Warner Cable, the local provider) is going to start setting a bandwidth limit, which would majorly suck, considering that in the past ~24 hours I've used up about 1.5 GB of my downstream traffic, and about 1 GB of my upstream.

Dsl for about the same price as cable ($45 range I believe), can get you 768/256 ADSL with unlimited bandwidth.

My work has a T1, wich is 1.54 megabit up/down, but that's getting more expensive, because it's theoretically not shared bandwidth. I'm not sure on the price, but I'll ask if I remember.

[vee_ess]

T1 is a good line, but I'd be happy with anything broadband considering it'd be an improvement on 56k. But I don't care...I know someone who woulda dropped in a T1, but didn't cuz it was too far from the server to route. He owns a few sets of T1 servers, one, btw, dedicated to the nine (as of 2000) T1 connections to his house. But then again, he drives a Porsche Carrera Turbo.