Why there's no news these days

[Doom9]

While I can post just fine during the day, I'm having a major problem at home with my Internet connectivity. My ISP - crappiest provider ever with customer support unworthy of the word support - managed to forget that if the DSL bandwidth is increased, they should add more bandwidth to their backbone.. so now effectively during the evening hours everything comes to a complete stop.. webpages take minutes to load, you can forget about FTP altogether (and that's what I use to upload news) and downloads (new software to be put on my site). As I can't very well just update my site when I'm supposed to be working and I'm not about to shell out the money for dialup when it's my ISP that should cover that bill (but obviously won't) consider myself offline when I leave the office, and unfortunately that also means no news :(

[Cheesus]

That's a crying shame.
Reminds me of a service I had about five years ago. I thought all that nonsense had been consigned to history books. Hope you're not contracted in for the next two years.

[theReal]

a friend of mine just updated to DSL2+ 16Mbit - what the ISP forgot to tell him was that he will be totally cut off from the web for over 4 weeks. They also started selling the 16Mbit/s lines before their hardware was ready...

[Doom9]

Well, the provider is aware that some customers are having this problem but is not putting it up on their trouble list and they have no deadline for a solution. The only thing they offered is a termination of the contract by the end of the month without having to pay any penalty so that's what I did now. I already subscribed with another ISP, so it's just a waiting game.. I hope the new ISP gets things right and just sends me the login data (the DSL line is provided by the same company in both cases) so all I have to do is change login and password in the router and I won't have any interruption of service (well.. if you can call what I have right now service)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hi Doom9,

How many different broadband connection types are available to you?

In my local area of the UK, I have a choice of broadband via a two-wire copper "phone" line (at up-to 8Mbps), a coaxial "cable" connection (at up-to 10Mbps) and a "micro-wave" link (dunno the speed).


Cheers

[Doom9]

well.. we don't have TV cable yet so I'm limited to DSL. But cable should come this month so then finally I have a real choice (the company that owns the DSL line screwed up during the upgrade as well so I got stuck at a lower profile than I should have given what I pay.. and they have no interest of correcting that error anytime soon).

[SeeMoreDigital]

I tried ADSL some years ago with BT (British Telecom) but was very unhappy with the connection speeds fluctuations during the day. The final straw came when more and more of my neighbours signed up to the service reducing my connection speed to a crawl.

By contrast, the cable service I'm now hooked up-to has been very reliable indeed, the speed is good at 2Mbps/256Kbps, it's un-metered and they offer 55MB of very fast web-space.

Lets hope you have more luck this time ;)

[Shinigami-Sama]

and up here in the land of the north, land of snow, igloos and beer, Canada, I've had nothing but troubles with cable and no troubles with DSL, and theres only 2 providers so be glad you atleast have a choice Xd

[sysKin]

Note to self: stop complaining about Australia's ISPs. At least they really give me what they promise.

[shevegen]

I am fine with my ISP but what really sucks is the lack of choice, and the lack of QUALITY competition.

Its basically a monopoly, and I wonder why something like this can exist in the EU by screwing customers ( did i mention our prices are way higher than Germany for example?
EU guys like to talk and self-praise but achieve very little in reality. Its like a TV show of self-praising.).

But anyway! Time passes by fast :)

[Latexxx]

Ain't it so in Germany that you have to order your adsl line from Deutsche Telekom no matter if it is your local telephone company or not. And then you need to buy the internet connection from some other company. That is pretty lame.

At least here in Finland you have the option to buy your adsl line from any operator and your local telephone company has to lease them your phone line and some rack space at telephone exchange. That is pretty effective to keep customer satisfaction high.

[dragongodz]

Note to self: stop complaining about Australia's ISPs. At least they really give me what they promise.
haha well most anyway, there are a few iffy ones aswell. and dont get me started on all the pushing of VOIP deals where you only get half the download limit before shaped and pay more unless you get VOIP through them aswell. that really pisses me off and is happening with a lot of the larger isp's.

[Latexxx]

haha well most anyway, there are a few iffy ones aswell. and dont get me started on all the pushing of VOIP deals where you only get half the download limit before shaped and pay more unless you get VOIP through them aswell. that really pisses me off and is happening with a lot of the larger isp's.
Things like download limit really amaze me. It really isn't such a big deal for an isp to offer connections without transfer limits because most of their lines are sitting empty anyway. So move somewhere where you can get a decent connection without dowload limit. ;)

€25 a month for 1 mbit / 512 kbps adsl line without download limits is on the verge of being reasonable :)

[siddharthagandhi]

in my area there are great prices with NO download limits....

3 mbps/768 kbps for 25 bucks a month

768 kbps/128 kbps for 14 bucks a month

[SeeMoreDigital]

Do you guys get any free web-space at those prices?

[dragongodz]

So move somewhere where you can get a decent connection without dowload limit.
considering i am talking about Australia wide isp's where do you suggest i move to ? another country ? not going to happen. :)

a small example of what some isp's are doing here. my old isp was bought by another. a few months ago they changed all their plans and mine changed from $30 at 256k a month to $40 a month at 512k with 300mb download before shaped unless i got VOIP. then i would have got 600mb for $30 at 512k. and boy didnt they try and push the speed increase as something wonderful and bugger the fact that with such a small download limit it wouldnt last long.

so i changed isp to one where i pay $40 a month at 256k but get 10gb before shaped. yes this is a lower end plan but i really have no need for umlimited or higher speed. this is perfectly fine for me to download the occasional linux distro or live cd/dvd and things like sdk updates etc. point is while i was searching for an isp to change to you would not believe the amount of isp's that are doing the "get VOIP with us and get more download limit and cheaper plan" deals, and it wasnt limited to lower end plans but all the way to the expensive an/or unlimited plans aswell.

in contrast a freind of mine does have unlimited and pays $100 a month at 1500k. the isp has free games servers etc which my freind uses so he is happy with that. however it would be too expensive for me and uneeded. another freind changed his to 1500k unlimited, different isp than the first, and because he got VOIP he only pays $80 a month.

we can thank telstra, our biggest telco, largely for this mess however. they were caught propping up their profits with their reserve cash. so now everybody knows they are not as profitable as they said they have bumped up prices of bandwidth/line rentals to other isp's etc. so they have flowed the price increases to us.

Do you guys get any free web-space at those prices?
the majority of isp's here offer webspace as part of their plans even on lower end ones. for example i think i have either 5mb or 10mb webspace if i wanted to use it.

[buzzqw]

i must admit that here in italy there are several national isp and the price is near to low thanks to competition

from 15 euros for a 640kb donw /256kb up (with 100 mb web space, and 1gb mail)
to (my isp, the national telecom) 36 euro for 4mb down (500KB download truly , FAST ping, 100mb web space and 3gb mail-with antispam and antiviruses) /512kb up

in this range the choice are many and more

even 20 euro for 4mb but with several problems (lag/slowdown/no line/traffic shaping (aka less connection) on p2p)

the big advantage is that ALL mayor isp do not put a quote of download (well i think that tiscali is putting a 150GB month)

All price are for month

BHH

[Latexxx]

Do you guys get any free web-space at those prices?
50 mb web space and if I remember correctly 5 50 mb mailboxes and some irrelevant services like online dictionary.

[smok3]

here is like single cable guy for an area, and you can pick several isp providers for it or adsl, adsl will work better, but it is monopolistic, so i picked cable.

[Zarxrax]

Oh, so thats the reason for no news, I thought maybe it was just a slow month :p

On a seperate note, Doom9, do you think it would be possible to add an RSS feed for the news?

[Mug Funky]

@ dragongodz:

and Hunt Coward wants to sell off the rest of it... what do they expect to get for it considering telstra II shares have not actually gone up since they were floated. it's a disgrace, especially considering a company such as telstra if it were run properly should be making far more than it is, and without screwing it's customers so hard. i mean come on - Tasmania isn't exactly a remote area (mainland jokes aside ;)). there's no excuse for the service to be that poor.

i know so many people that've given up on landlines completely and switched to mobiles because it actually works out cheaper, considering not having a mobile isn't the best of ideas. as for internet, there's always unsecured wireless... and that way the ARIA go after someone else (just kidding... that'd be quite a horrible thing to do).

[neo squidward]

€25 a month for 1 mbit / 512 kbps adsl line without download limits is on the verge of being reasonable

You think that's bad? I get 768/256 for $50. It is either this provider or dial up here.

[Shinigami-Sama]

Oh, so thats the reason for no news, I thought maybe it was just a slow month :p

On a seperate note, Doom9, do you think it would be possible to add an RSS feed for the news?
I think he said a couple times 2 of the servers dont support dynamic content, so that kinda rules out RRS

[foxyshadis]

Doesn't matter, you can replicate a static rss page just as easily as the main site news page. Obviously the rss will be delayed on those servers by the same amount as the rest of the news content.

[Axed]

the majority of isp's here offer webspace as part of their plans even on lower end ones. for example i think i have either 5mb or 10mb webspace if i wanted to use it.

Not if your with Telstra/BigPond. They only give you free webspace if your a cable internet subscriber. Also, they have a data transfer limit of 300 meg i believe with a 0.19 cent per meg cost each extra megabyte incurred.

[Doom9]

there is an unofficial rss.. just look in the suggestion forum.

I get 3500/300 for $50 via DSL (depending on the provider.. there can be a few bucks difference), or 7000/300 for the same amount via cable. There's one higher bandwidth and a lower bandwidth offer for $38 and $77. Price wise, all providers pretty much stick together with some changes if you take VoIP as well, bandwidth wise, different cable providers have different offerings - generally more than you get via ADSL.

It seems to work halfway normal over the week-end so I can gather around some news for tonight.

[tomos]

never used cable (even tho i work for a cable company), i've only used adsl. must have a good lines since i've always had good speeds. have an 8 meg line at the mo and hopefully a 24 meg line by the end of april

dont know about other countries but in the UK now it's less a case of us being behind as far as speeds go, and more a case of 'let's give them faster speeds but cap their butts!'

thankfully i am on an LLU'd provider who hasnt said a word in over a year about my downloading (which is a change considering i was kicked off 1 ISP for 'excess' and put on what was knows as the 'bad boys pipe' before my service was up.

would have loved to see their faces if they had seen my download logs over the last year :)

[sillKotscha]

I get 3500/300 for $50 via DSL (depending on the provider.. there can be a few bucks difference)

on tuesday I get [up to] 16000 Kbit/s downstream/ 800 Kbit/s upstream via ADSL2+ (including phone flatrate, 10 MB 2nd-level-Domain, 5 E-Mail-Accounts and PingExpress (Fastpath))

all for 49,90 €/month

best of all: contract duration = 0 month :D

[siddharthagandhi]

to seemoredigital:

yes you get free webspace 10 mb but why would you need that there are plenty of free file hosts and web hosts out there

[dragongodz]

i mean come on - Tasmania isn't exactly a remote area (mainland jokes aside ). there's no excuse for the service to be that poor.
as i said, i am talking national isp so its not a state issue. infact here is my old isp, have a look at their changed plans now since iinet bought them.
http://www.ozemail.com.au/products/broadband/

Not if your with Telstra/BigPond. They only give you free webspace if your a cable internet subscriber.
which is why i used the word "majority". if you look at the ozeamil plans above they have dropped free webspace for the lowest plan now but all others you do get it.

Also, they have a data transfer limit of 300 meg i believe with a 0.19 cent per meg cost each extra megabyte incurred.
yes there are a few other isp's i know that have started doing that for their cheapest plan where they didnt before. again i thank testras price increases to isps for that.

about cable, rollout has been very slow here in Aus. most major cities have it but if you live a bit outside or in a smaller city then its not an option.

a good resource for people in Aus looking at getting adsl or changing isp etc is this site
http://www.whirlpool.net.au/
it has news on things happening in the industrty and a forum where you can read about other peoples problems with different isp's etc. one of the best things however is the "broadband choice" link. with that you can do a plan search(saying what limits such as cost etc) or see what isp's are in your state etc etc etc. highly reccomended.
do other countries have anything similar to whirlpool ?

[foxyshadis]

The US and canada has www.dslreports.com, which is very similar in that it has lots of tools to find isps, post service reviews, and forums. Often isp tech and customer support people are assigned to the reviews and forum sections, or surf it on off time. Earthlink "sponsors" them, you can tell, but it doesn't seem to affect their objectivity.

[sillKotscha]

to seemoredigital:

yes you get free webspace 10 mb but why would you need that there are plenty of free file hosts and web hosts out there

because of ad free webspace and because of the fact that I pay for it even if I wouldn't use it - don't look a gift horse in the mouth. ;)

if you are from germany and live in one of the major cities like Berlin, Hamburg, FfM and so forth, maybe you should think about switching to "Alice (http://www.alice-dsl.de/opencms/export/de/alice_res/alice_deluxe/produktdetails/)"

[BlackSun]

Reunion Island: 128/64 for 40 euros
France: 24000/768 for 29.99 euros :D
I'm glad to be in france :sly:

[BigDid]

Reunion Island: 128/64 for 40 euros
France: 24000/768 for 29.99 euros :D
I'm glad to be in france :sly:
Hi,

There is even more expensive: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=720977#post720977 but we have the sun :)
This is why I will try to produce 15 to 30% of my electricity needs with solar panels. If/when this project is really done, I will try to launch a virtual party here on Doom9 unless I got hammered (=striked) :scared:

Did

[Latexxx]

Reunion Island: 128/64 for 40 euros
France: 24000/768 for 29.99 euros :D
I'm glad to be in france :sly:
Do you have transfer limits?

[siddharthagandhi]

there is plenty of ad free webspace out there as well

google pages for instance...plenty more with more features

and also, US has the worst speeds, the max u can get by paying mad money like 60 dollars a month cheapest is only 30 mpbs....whereas in places like Britain, France, Japan, and elsewhere you can get like 50 mbps for mad cheap

[chongy5]

Did I just read that you can get FIFTY mbps download speed for CHEAP? Please rephrase/edit the post, because it doesn't make sense. We're lucky to have 8mbps!

Edit: Oh my bad, your talking about webspace - still, don't use mbps when your talking about mbs!

[foxyshadis]

No, ADSL2+ is really just that fast, but usually only in major metro areas in Europe and Asia. (50 is an exaggeration, the spec only allows for 25, but maybe providers boost that.) ADSL2 is pretty widely rolled out though, compared to the US where it only exists in a couple markets. Cable is the only high-bandwidth available in the US. (I wish I lived in a city with 20M/2M ;_; )

I live freaking 4.5 kilometers from the CO, so I'm lucky to get 1.5/384. Reading about england's and sweden's speeds makes me sick. ;p

[Inventive Software]

I got serious issues with my internet connection at home. It keeps freezing out the computer. The numlock and caps lock keys still blink when you push them, but everything else just doesn't work. Even the (usually reliable) Ctrl+Alt+Delete fails to perform it's duty. This only happens when my modem (Speedtouch 330) is connected! I've done some research, and found that apparently I'm not alone in having problems. It seems it's on a blacklist of s***e hardware, and there ain't nothing I can do about it for the moment, because Wanadoo can't figure it out yet.

IT'S THE MODEM YOU SILLY ****S!!!!

Sorry, rant over. Must get serious.

@Doom9: Have you got in touch with your ISP and said you'll move to somebody else who doesn't have the problem? That'll usually get some response surely...

[siddharthagandhi]

I'm not talking about webspace. I'm talking about internet.

Edit: Oh my bad, your talking about webspace - still, don't use mbps when your talking about mbs!

[Swede]

I just can't keep quiet anymore, I have to gloat. My unlimited, 100/10 Mbit cable is just lovely and at ~€30 a month it's a bargain.

[niknik]

I just can't keep quiet anymore, I have to gloat. My unlimited, 100/10 Mbit cable is just lovely and at ~€30 a month it's a bargain.

Ok, that does it. I'm moving to Sweden!;)

In here, I have cable 8Mb/384Kb, for 45 Eur.
Till last month, we had "4Gb" international traffic limit (and happy hours from 1h-7h). That was good for me, as the only "TV" I watch these days are series I get from the net, and I could get them during the happy hours.
But now they ended it, and gave "just" 30gb per month... pfff... stupid limits.

Waiting for a ADSL line to my new place. 40 Eur, 16Mb/400Kb. But it will take a couple of months still...

[SeeMoreDigital]

Well that really is just showing off :D

[siddharthagandhi]

I just can't keep quiet anymore, I have to gloat. My unlimited, 100/10 Mbit cable is just lovely and at ~€30 a month it's a bargain.


OHHH BOY you better watch out i'm gonna hunt you down








:P (for the mods im JP dont strike me or anything)

[Doom9]

actually.. it's not cable.. it's ethernet to the home. It can hardly get any better.
By the way.. mailed in the form Sunday, and the account was switched to the new ISP noon today. Took me half an hour on the phone with their 24h support (the last ISP only had 8-17 support) but I'm online again now. I didn't quite get 3500/300 but less down and more up but I'm going to leave it at that for the moment and enjoy online radio without interruption. The only drawback: now I have no excuse not to worry about the news anymore.. can't say I didn't enjoy not having any obligations when getting home from work.
But when it comes to trading 100kbit upload for 4 mbit download (also known as they make the cable connection to our house) I'm going to crack.

[Shinigami-Sama]

I just can't keep quiet anymore, I have to gloat. My unlimited, 100/10 Mbit cable is just lovely and at ~€30 a month it's a bargain.
-makes a sign-
"Will fix servers for that connection"



ahh such ends your almost easter break?

[fisix]

good news that news is potentially back.. hip hip...

[Wolfman]

How about 2mb BB for nothing? sounds like the most reasonable price.. trafiic appears to be shaped but I can get 40/50k on Bittorrent

[BlindWanderer]

I have a love hate relationship with my ISP (ok, i'm lieing, it's all hate). I have cable, and as time went on my connection got more wonky, would get connection drops whenever i uploaded. Last month i broke down and purchased a new one. NOt had any problems since, cept when the cable went out. Though sometimes its slower then the old one...

I was really worried about the news, glad to see you weren't halled off in the middle of the night by the RIAA & MPAA, flown overseas to some torture facility where your forced to watch poorly encoded Friends episodes and listen to scracteched Hanson CDs.

A number of blogging packages support making RSS feeds along side HTML. RSS is just XML and XML supports XLS; you could build an XLS template to build the front page. Course XLS is beyond me, each time I take a pass at it I run away screaming.

[Doobie]

News you've missed because of the lack of news updates

The Supreme Court of the Asian Union has legalized non-commercial P2P, saying that the right to privacy, free speech, and freedom of association trumps the interests of big business to choke the public domain. The Asian Entertainment companies responded by promising to make available all of their content, with advertisement support. An industry spokesman, Wong Tang, was asked if he is worried about people skipping commercials, and Mr. Tang responded that people have been doing that for years with VCRs yet we still have a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry.

Blu-ray protection has been defeated, even before the first commercial players were available. A hacker, known as Blu-ray Jak, discovered that using a black marker to blot out the Encode Flag bit on the disks will result in players putting out unencrypted digital video. Blu-ray Jak warns the procedure will fail if any adjacent bits are covered. In other Blu-ray news, Philips Electronics has announced eight-layer Blu-ray disks with a capacity of over 200GB.

Not directly related to consumer technology, three weeks ago a huge meteor struck the North American continent, wiping out the nation of Canada. The meteor strike was discovered yesterday when researchers were attempting to find the origin of a dust cloud that was drifting south, trapping heat and causing unseasonably warm temperatures in the United States.