Upgrading to cable from dial-up, and have a question

[Conall]

I now very seriously doubt I'd be able to get cable.
I read a post on another forum by someone who is in a similar situation as I, being that he lives on a large property away from people.
He wanted to get cable also, and it'd have cost him $5,600.. I don't have that kind of money.
I looked around and amazingly I actually managed to find a DSL provider in my state (Georgia), called Abraxis.

So, a few more questions.
Does anyone here have any experience with Abraxis? Positive, negative?
To anyone who has DSL, what modem and router (Or modem/router combo) would be best?

 

[YinYang.ERROR]

Abraxis sounds local... But I'm not 100% sure on that.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I now very seriously doubt I'd be able to get cable.
I read a post on another forum by someone who is in a similar situation as I, being that he lives on a large property away from people.
He wanted to get cable also, and it'd have cost him $5,600.. I don't have that kind of money.
I looked around and amazingly I actually managed to find a DSL provider in my state (Georgia), called Abraxis.

So, a few more questions.
Does anyone here have any experience with Abraxis? Positive, negative?
To anyone who has DSL, what modem and router (Or modem/router combo) would be best?

Dude have comcast come out if they quoted you $150 for installation that's all they can charge, DSL is mostly for people who live within a city, you can pick up a simple router for less than $20 all you have to do is run the cat5 wire from the cable modem(that comcast will provide for about $3 a month) to your router than run a cat5 from the router to each of the pc's after they leave it's that simple, at most when windows detects you plugged in a lan connection you may need to click "automatically aquire network settings from isp" here is a link to a router and cat5 wire
http://3btech.net/smcbafopo10b.html $18
http://3btech.net/tenfo3carjet.html $6 those prices include shipping

 

[sneekypeet]

just to add to the previous comment. Im pretty sure Comcast knows where they can and can not provide service. I'd let the tech come out and try to hook it up. I he says you are screwed, go with that and send him packing. Then opt for the local service if you HAVE to.

 

[Conall]

I was planning on going with Abraxis, but at the very end I was informed that it was NOT actually available at my address...
I've checked every other DSL provider I can find, and they all say the same damned thing.
So I have no choice but to see if I can get Comcast to install cable without having to pay $5,000.
And if it turns out I would have to pay that much, I'm stuck with dial-up or satellite..
Jesus Christ, this is ridiculous. I hate this damn place.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I was planning on going with Abraxis, but at the very end I was informed that it was NOT actually available at my address...
I've checked every other DSL provider I can find, and they all say the same damned thing.
So I have no choice but to see if I can get Comcast to install cable without having to pay $5,000.
And if it turns out I would have to pay that much, I'm stuck with dial-up or satellite..
Jesus Christ, this is ridiculous. I hate this damn place.

i DON'T THINK COMCAST WOULD HAVE QUOTED YOU $150 IF THEY WERE NOT SURE THATS ALL IT WOULD COST, IT DOES NOT COST ANYTHING TO HAVE THEM COME OUT AND CONFIRM THE COST OF INSTALLATION THOUGH SO I WOULD STILL GIVE THEM A CALL

 

[erocker]

Lol, $5000 bucks. Every cable company has an online site to check price and availability. Here it is for Comcast. http://www.buycomcast.com/?cpao=300&cpag=15500&kbid=15500

 

[Conall]

The $150 i mentioned earlier was shown on their website and was for installation of a modem and router.
I also know that cable is available here, that is not what I'm worried about..
I'm going to have them come out and let me know one way or the other soon.

In the meantime, I'd like to know more about a possible alternative I found, EVDO USB modems. (This one in particular, as it's available at my local store: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11997394 )
Does anyone have any experience with those? Could I use one of them for high speed internet on my desktop?

 

[erocker]

The USB wireless adapters I've used haven't been that good. You're much better off getting a PCI adapter.

 

[Conall]

Could you recommend one?
A Google search shows they use PCI-E slots..
My motherboard is a GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L, and has one PCI-E x16 and three PCI-E x1 slots.
I have absolutely no idea what the difference between the two are.. Which slot would these modems use?

 

[Athlon2K15]

you do realize with that you will sign a contract with verizon for 2 years...and pray to god you have a good service area with a good tower that broadcast EVDo Rev A DATA to get anything worth what a DSL/Cable connection will give you?

 

[Deleted member 67555]

If you get cable you get Internet.....Ask about free installation......They do that a lot
Having a ds3l you have pci slots and pci-e x1 and 1x16 pci-e pci
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156054
with that you will also need something like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166028 or this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156242
That's if you, from cable modem to wireless router to main pc then use the wireless card in your second rig

 

[Conall]

you do realize with that you will sign a contract with verizon for 2 years...and pray to god you have a good service area with a good tower that broadcast EVDo Rev A DATA to get anything worth what a DSL/Cable connection will give you?

I was hoping there would be some way to test if it'd actually be a good connection first..
..There isn't, is there?

Edit: Doesn't matter anymore.
I apparently am in a good service area with rev a, but despite this, I don't think I want to bother with it.
I did some thinking, and 5GB a month bandwidth limit just isn't enough.
I wanted broadband for downloading multiple large files and online gaming, so I'd exceed 5GB pretty quickly.

I really, really don't like what I've been reading about satellite, either.
Looks like I'll be well and truly screwed if I can't get cable.
Pray for me, will you?

 

[osirus99]

I'm not sure I understand.
I've checked Newegg for routers, and the requirements for those I looked at include a cable modem.

Let me clarify some things.
I'm looking into getting Comcasts cable service, and if I went with a router it'd cost much more than if I bought two cable modems.
So I ask again, can I just buy two cable modems for my computers, or do I NEED a router in order to have both of them using cable?

Also, Comcast has the option of buying wireless cards from them, saying "Select this option if you have chosen to lease a G class router."
I'm assuming I don't need one of those if I don't buy a router?

Do not buy two cable modems and have them activated. You have to pay for each activated modem seperately so in a sense you would be paying twice for the same service..bad idea. Just go out and get yourself a cheap router (nothing from D-Link) and connect the one router to the cablemodem and then computers to the router...end of problem

 

[Deleted member 74752]

Here is what I have used for years on Comcast and they work just fine.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/375031/Linksys-BEFSR41-EtherFast-Cable-DSL-Router/

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/246532/Linksys-BEFCM100-Cable-Modem-With-USB/

The router allows you to add three more pc's or devices via ethernet cable. The install is almost plug and play.

 

[hat]

Yeah they were totally bullshitting you. Routers are among the easiest things to install. Most joe 6pack level routers have 5 RJ45 (ethernet) ports: one port is a WAN port, which you would link to your modem. The other 4 ports are like expansion ports... instead of only having one place to plug your computers into the internet, you now have 4... all you need to do is run some CAT5 wire from the router to your computer. You can either buy cat5 wire or make it yourself. In order to make it yourself you need the wire itself, the connectors (I would reccomend EZ-rj45), and a crimping tool. You also need to know what order the wires go in... it goes white orange, orange, white green, blue, white blue, green, white brown, brown.

Cable isn't expensive. I don't know how someone managed to pay $5.6K, they must have been paying for like a T3 line... my cable is about $40 a month and I get 5mbit down/500kbit up (translates into ~600KB/s down, 60KB/s up).

 

[Conall]

Cable isn't expensive. I don't know how someone managed to pay $5.6K, they must have been paying for like a T3 line... my cable is about $40 a month and I get 5mbit down/500kbit up (translates into ~600KB/s down, 60KB/s up).

No, the poor guy really was going to have to pay that much if he wanted cable.
And sadly that's all I have to say at the moment, as Comcast has yet to send anyone to survey since I called last week.

 

[Deleted member 74752]

Think this is what they were talking about. You can find what is available online.

http://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Learn/HighSpeedInternet/highspeedinternet.html