telephone required for dial up internet?

Thread Starter

electronis whiz

Joined Jul 29, 2010
512
i was wondering if a home phone service was needed in order to use a dial up isp. it doesn't seem like it would be required because it just uses there cable from the house to there office.
is this corect?
any sugestions for cheap internet acess. we have satilite internet now and it is way overpriced for the speed and has alot of cut outs. this is aprox $60 per mo. we have no acess to dsl or cable. so dial up, isdn, satilite, possibly a good cel phone seem to be the only choices.
thanks
 

RiJoRI

Joined Aug 15, 2007
536
You will need phone service to carry your signal over the phone company's lines from your house to the Telco's central station, and then to your ISP. Here on Long Island, NY, the monthly Telco service is about $40. Just for having a land line.

Some of the drawbacks to dial-up are: (1) it is S-L-O-W! (56k) You can basically forget sites with a lot of graphics. (2) You are low priority, and WILL get dumped.

If your Telco provides the service, you can get DSL, but that added another fee to the phone bill.

--Rich
 

saturation

Joined Dec 21, 2008
22
Internet access, the remaining technologies are:

POTS: copper wire, the plain old telephone system
Cellular: 3G is the minimum at ~ 1 Mbps
Satellite: you know it ...

POTS was described previously, but if your phone lines were upgraded to fiberoptics, you can achieve 100Mbps and more easily, say via Verizon FiOS.

The most practical alternative is checking if your cellular carrier has 3G or 4G. Most plans are unlimited and they'll give you >= 1MBps at least. Its highly subject to line congestion, but at good times you'll get the best speed. its about as costly as dialup at its best speed, so you're ahead via cell.
 

HarveyH42

Joined Jul 22, 2007
426
I use dial-up, and it does have some limitations, with media-rich websites. Mostly, my internet is text based (forums, news, little shopping), so for $10 a month, it's fine for me.

Our city did install, and gave everyone free WiFi, but it got shut down, when a new mayor took office. Was fun while it lasted, but not enough to make me want to pay for it. I don't play online games, what movies (naughty, or otherwise), or download 'free' music or videos, anything piracy related, so that extra speed is rarely needed. Software upgrades, user manuals are a pain, but I'm not surfing all the time, so just started, and let it go. Sometimes takes a few tries, but usually get it eventually.
 

Adjuster

Joined Dec 26, 2010
2,148
I am a bit surprised to see that this is so much of an issue (in the USA?). Does this reflect the much greater distances and lower average population densities compared to those in Europe, or are other factors at work?
 

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,045
As far as I know, DSL is capable of working over any phone line. They did nothing either in the house or at the street when I got it.
 

Adjuster

Joined Dec 26, 2010
2,148
As far as I know, DSL is capable of working over any phone line. They did nothing either in the house or at the street when I got it.
But "they" will have enabled traffic from the exchange (office) end of the line. If the OP has an old line for which there is no current telephone contract, I'm not sure it will even be powered, let alone hooked up to a working DSL path.
 

saturation

Joined Dec 21, 2008
22
I am a bit surprised to see that this is so much of an issue (in the USA?). Does this reflect the much greater distances and lower average population densities compared to those in Europe, or are other factors at work?
In the US, population density is one factor:

http://www.google.com/publicdata/ex...ion:country:840&pit=1298437200000&hl=en&dl=en

World view of speeds:

http://www.davescomputertips.com/2011/08/the-state-for-broadband-internet-access/

The above blog takes data from :

http://www.oecd.org/document/0,3746,en_2649_201185_46462759_1_1_1_1,00.html


But he took the time to graph out the raw data, so skeptics can trace the source as reference. Enjoy.
 

saturation

Joined Dec 21, 2008
22
If you have free Wifi within line of sight but out of range, you could try making a yagi antenna to improve reception. Given the costs if it doesn't work, you're not out much and it makes a fun and practical project.

We've made prototypes ourselves using tin cans to improve reception in rooms in homes far from the Wifi router, but not to pick up someone elses service.:rolleyes:


http://www.3nw.com/pda/wireless/wi_fi_pringles_can_yagi_antenna.htm
 

HarveyH42

Joined Jul 22, 2007
426
Yeah, I've check... None of my neighbors want to share their WiFi... They're all secure in range of my house. Bummer too, got a little Android tablet about a month ago, but have gotten to use the WiFi. Know a couple of Hotspots, but have gone there yet...
 
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