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The Internet The Almighty Buck

Always-On Internet For Cheapskates? 465

Posted by timothy from the get-to-know-your-neighbors dept.
chuck writes "I like my broadband Internet access because of its always-on nature, but my usage doesn't really justify paying $40-$50 each month for hundreds of kb/s when all I really do is read and write email sporadically, light web browsing and IM. Are there any options for cheapskates like me to pay less for lower bandwidth (modem speeds would be fine) but still have an always-on connection for cheaper than cable or DSL? I have a $5/mo ISP that I use when I'm out and about, and my 2.5G wireless phone can give me internet access on a shoestring (with free evenings and weekends) but neither of those has that always-on quality. Any ideas?"
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Always-On Internet For Cheapskates? More

Always-On Internet For Cheapskates?

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  • The cheapest solution... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rick Zeman ( 15628 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @05:56PM (#11730611)
    Piggyback on your neighbor's unsecured WAP. :-)

    • Re:The cheapest solution... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by TrippTDF ( 513419 ) <{moc.liamg} {ta} {dnalih}> on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:02PM (#11730656)
      Hey, not such a bad idea. Here in New York I've set up Wi-Fi enabled laptops for friends and just had them piggy back on an open network... Just about anywhere you go in New York you can pick up at least a couple open networks (I once saw 20 at once). A friend of mine actually put a Wi-Fi card in his desktop and canceled his cable modem, and now he just piggy-backs off someone in his building.

      Better yet, move to someplace like Philly that is going to have free Wi-FI city wide soon.

    • Re:The cheapest solution... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by zarozarozaro ( 756135 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:09PM (#11730705)
      Or better yet, work out something where you split the cost/month, and piggyback with some security.

      • Re:The cheapest solution... (Score:5, Informative)

        by jc42 ( 318812 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:41PM (#11730909) Homepage Journal
        See if speakeasy has service in your area. They encourage sharing of connections, especially with wifi. They will help you set up line sharing with neighbors (or tell you if you have a neighbor that's already doing this). They'll help you set it up and take care of the billing for you. Depending on the actual speed you need, you could share one DSL line among N people, and each would pay 1/N of the monthly bill. It would all be open and legal.

        They also don't block any ports, so you could run an email server on your own machine if you like. For that matter, you could run your own web server, making it easy to share your pictures with friends. I've done a lot of this, just sending a URL so they can browse the thumbnails and download any pics they like.

        Are there other ISPs that encourage this? You'd think they all would, if they were actually interested in giving good service to their customers.

      • Mod parent up, this is the first smart answer I've heard.

        People really shouldn't be jumping on open AP's just because they're open and you're broke. There are several reasons why that's not a good idea.

    • Re:The cheapest solution... (Score:5, Funny)

      by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:09PM (#11730711) Homepage Journal
      That answers the requirement for low cost and instant-on. But not the requirement for low speed...
    • I strung a cable between my house and my neighbors house. He paid half of the bill. If you do that with one or two neighbors, its not really that unethical (all though it is illegal), but I don't see the huge problem with sharing it with one or two people. Most people don't need all the bandwidth they get with cable so distributing makes sense. If you want to be legal, purchase the Pro package from the cable company, then you can share it with as many people as your want...

      • Re:The cheapest solution... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ScrewMaster ( 602015 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:21PM (#11730795)
        I dunno if it's illegal exactly ... ISPs aren't part of law enforcement (yet.) But I'm sure it's against the TOS of most providers.

        • Re:The cheapest solution... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Grax ( 529699 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:46PM (#11730940) Homepage
          (IANAL)
          I would presume it is prosecutable under the same laws they would use against cable signal theft.

          Under those laws they only need to show that you are wired up in such a way to enable "signal theft" and then it is up to you to prove that you were not "stealing" their signal.

        • I dunno if it's illegal exactly ... ISPs aren't part of law enforcement (yet.) But I'm sure it's against the TOS of most providers.

          That is a good question whether it would fall in the same catagory as theft of service. If we're talking cableTV, and you run a cable from your house to another it would be considered theft of service.

          Key difference with WiFi is you are not actually running a physical wire, and WiFi is often offered directly from the ISP. Having one in it self isn't illegal like running a

          • That is a good question whether it would fall in the same catagory as theft of service.

            Not in Texas. Or, to be more accurate, after reviewing the law on theft of service, it is very unlikely that it could be classified as that.

            From the Texas Penal Code:

            31.04. THEFT OF SERVICE.

            (a) A person commits theft of service if, with intent to avoid payment for service that he knows is provided only for compensation:

            (1) he intentionally or knowingly secures performance of the service by deception, threat, or

      • I assume you mean the cable between your homes when you say "illegal"... not the connection sharing... right ?

        Hmm, I'm from Romania... people here use this kind of solution not now-and-then, but usually. I doubt more than one half of the people that have internet access at home (but I'd bet less than one tenth of the people that know any differences between IRC and mIRC) have it "only for themselves".

        In my particular case, I have a cable modem hooked up to a Fedora Core 2 mini-server for our 4-computer-ho

        • Re:The cheapest solution... (Score:4, Informative)

          by YrWrstNtmr ( 564987 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @07:11PM (#11731095)
          If I can legally do that in my own home (and I guess it would be pretty weird if I couldn't), what's stopping me from sharing the same line with one or two neighbours if I would be living alone (instead of with others) ?

          In the US, residential service is supposed to be for one residence. A lot of people do it (I did the same 25 years ago with cable TV, and am about to do it with my current connection), but that doesn't mean the provider has to like it or authorize it. Who does the neighbor call for a service issue? You, or the cable company?

          From the TimeWarner RoadRunner service Acceptable Use Policy: [rr.com]
          "...the RoadRunner service is provided to you for personal, non-commercial use only."

          From the TimeWarner RoadRunner Cable Modem Service Subscription Agreement [rr.com]
          "5. Subscriber Conduct.(d)
          Subscriber will not resell the Road Runner Service, or any portion thereof, or otherwise charge others to use the Road Runner Service, or any portion thereof. Further, Subscriber will not redistribute the Road Runner Service, or any portion thereof, whether or not Subscriber receives compensation for such redistribution. The Road Runner Service as offered under this Agreement is a residential service offered for personal, non-commercial use only."

          Each house/apt/condo is supposed to pay for their own connection.

          • That's why you purchase a business grade account that does not have the AUP restricitons of the residential account. If necessary, form a corporation (takes two people, $50, and a trip to City Hall) and have your neighbors become members of your corp. You're no longer sharing internet access with a third party because you're all in the same corporation, thus, no AUP violation.

            This is assuming you purchase the internet account in the name of the corp, not your own name, of course.
      • ". . . its (sic) not really that unethical (although it is illegal) . . ."

        Yes, it is quite illegal. Most states call it the "Theft of Cable" act, or more recently, "Theft of Information Services." In my state, it's a felony that can get you up to five years on the first offense.

        But, more importantly, you are saying that theft is "not that unethical." Or, to put it another way, "theft is ethical." Okay, so when somebody steals your car you won't press charges because it's ethical?

        What's that? Not the same

    • Re:The cheapest solution... (Score:5, Funny)

      by temojen ( 678985 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:52PM (#11730977) Journal
      I believe the name for this service is "IP freely"

    • Legal Analysis (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ari_j ( 90255 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @08:48PM (#11731599)

      DISCLAIMER: First off, know that I am not a lawyer, nor have I ever played one on or off of TV. This comment is not legal advice or legal analysis, despite any evidence to the contrary, and any reliance you take on it is evidence of your own stupidity, and you assume the risk inherent in so doing.

      But something I've heard about from law school professors (don't ask what I was doing in a law school classroom, I'm not a lawyer, remember?) is that we have a doctrine of adverse possession and its related cousin, prescriptive easement. Adverse possession lets you take ownership of land if you've been trespassing on it for 20 years if you have used it as if you were the legitimate owner for all that time. Prescriptive easements don't require exclusivity or possession - you just have to use property for a long time and then you get to keep using it in the same way forever. Also, the statutory period is often lower for prescriptive easements, like 5 or 10 years.

      Enter the digital age. If you use your neighbor's wireless for 5 years straight, you could convince a (very gullible) court to grant you an easement that ensures your neighbor never gets rid of his wireless connection or tries to lock you out of it. And that burden would probably run with his apartment or home, so no future tenant or owner could lock you out of his wireless or cancel his Internet connection.

      Yes, the non-lawyer in me definitely thinks this is a good idea.

  • Stealing WIFI maybe? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Or atleast co-oping with some neighbors to save money.

  • motionsensor + autoconnect (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lord Bitman ( 95493 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @05:57PM (#11730616)
    feel like you're always on by having your computer connect as you enter the room ;)

  • Not many options (Score:3, Insightful)

    by yotto ( 590067 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @05:58PM (#11730624) Homepage
    Make sure everybody calls your cell and use your land line for internet. I did that for about two years before DSL was available in my area.
    • Better yet, you can set forward-on-busy to your cell phone.

    • Make sure everybody calls your cell and use your land line for internet.

      Alternatively, many phone companies will let you automatically forward your calls to another number if your phone is busy or you don't pick up. This would work well for a landline when you are dialed in because your calls will be forwarded to your cell phone right away. It's also nice when you're away from home because if you don't pick up after a few rings the call will be transferred. This service is generally around $2 or $3 p

  • No.

    There are a few companies that offer DSL/cablemodem service for $25/month or so, but not many. And there aren't ANY that do it for less than that. There's just no money in it. Hell, there's not that much money in DSL/cablemodem service even at $45/month.

  • A practical solution (Score:5, Funny)

    by Faust7 ( 314817 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:00PM (#11730638) Homepage
    my usage doesn't really justify paying $40-$50 each month for hundreds of kb/s

    Cancel your cable TV subscription and get BitTorrent. Your broadband cost will suddenly be justified.
  • I've never had my DSL/Cable connection go out on . . .

  • Check with your cable/DSL company (Score:5, Informative)

    by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:02PM (#11730662) Homepage Journal
    some of them have slower connections that you can get for less money(though they don't like to advertise them). For example, the cable at home I can get for $25, or you can get a faster connection for about $40, of course YMMV
  • Many ISPs here in Canada (Montreal) have "lite" tiers of DSL/Cable that are about $19.99 per month Canadian. That'd be about $16 per month US.

  • DSL Lite (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Talisman ( 39902 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:04PM (#11730671) Homepage
    BellSouth offers DSL Lite; a 256/128 dsl circuit for $24.95 per month. Perhaps your local DSL provider offers something similar.

    Or, download NetStumbler and sniff out an open WAP in your neighborhood and leech bandwidth. There are about 5 I can reach from my house.

  • Piggybacking works, and it isn't always stealing (Score:4, Interesting)

    by matyas47 ( 811167 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:04PM (#11730673)
    Find a neighbor who's got wireless and offer to pay half the cost. My landlord got wireless a few months ago. I was still on dialup at home at the time, but I had wireless in my laptop for hitting the hotspots. He told me to go ahead and use his connection, since he's paying for it anyway. (I did offer to cover half of the cost, but he simply repeated that he's paying for it anyway, so he didn't care.)

  • ISDN? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Bri3D ( 584578 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:05PM (#11730681) Journal
    You could try a single ISDN(56k), though it might be more expensive than broadband anyway.

    • Re:ISDN? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by tverbeek ( 457094 )
      Assuming you can find an ISP who'll charge you what ISDN is really worth these days (rather than pricing data access over a single 64k channel as if it were "broadband"), it's not a bad option. As I recall from the days when I was running my web server over an ISDN line, the line itself isn't horribly more expensive than POTS. Even if you don't get "always on" service from your ISP, it's darn close to "instant on" (at least compared to V.whatever handshaking over POTS). Plus you get a second phone line o

  • Dial-Up/Linux (Score:3, Informative)

    by Zebra_X ( 13249 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:07PM (#11730691)
    Your only other option is a dial up connection. If you want it to be dedicated however, you'll need a dedicated phone line. That will run ~ $16 - $25 Dollars US add in $5 mo. for your dial-up provider. Worst case you are at $30 best case $21.

    The trick is to use a dial on demand linux box. You can have a script that will automatically dial into your provider. When you get kicked, it calls back. Couple this with an ethernet card and you'll have a gateway, and even a hardware firewall to protect you from all the evils that would have their way with your box. You can also use this machine for common services such as a caching DNS server which will speed up page load times over dial-up and as a mail gateway which also speed up perceived mail send times.

  • DSL? (Score:2)

    by Patik ( 584959 )
    Around here, the cable ISP is $45 or so but we also have Verizon DSL which is considerably slower and only $30/month (assuming you have a landline already). What's your per month price limit, anyway?
  • I'm not sure what selection you have with ISP's, but where I'm from, Ottawa Canada, all the Broadband ISPs offer capped connections that are about 5-10x faster than dial-up, for about $20-$25 a month. So, you get cable or dsl, always on, but slowed down, for a reasonable price. This is what I get, as the only reason to need a faster connection is to download movies and stuff. I even download Linux distributions, which are slow, about 6 hours per CD. But it doesn't really matter, as I only download a new

  • ISDN (Score:3, Interesting)

    by strredwolf ( 532 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:13PM (#11730738) Homepage Journal
    Ask ISP's around if they still do ISDN. Granted, it's 128K, but since most everyone's broadband, the price should be cheap now. Plus, you don't need to light both B channels all the time. Keeping the D channel lighted at 9600 bps for small stuff will keep you online all the time anyway for monitoring (like POP or long, slow downloads), and for harder stuff (regular downloads, surfing, etc) you can light the B's up.
  • I would suggest shopping around for cell phone plans. Some appear to offer unlimited data service for a around $15-$20/mo extra. I am not 100% on the details but it is worth a look. Have you looked to see if a open Wifi AP exists around you? PS: How can you be a Slashdot users and only use the Internet a little?

  • Some creativity (Score:3, Funny)

    by Piquan ( 49943 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:17PM (#11730761)

    Okay, let's consider alternatives to always-on.

    Autodial gets you a good portion of the way there. A good autodialer should take only a couple of seconds, in other words, not much longer than you need to focus on the screen anyway.

    A cronjob can fetch your email periodically, so you can glance at your screen and see that you have mail. And you don't care if there's a few seconds delay on your outbound mail; let your MTA deal with that.

    As for webbrowsing... hmmmm, that's a bit tougher.... Okay, here's one. Put in a proxy. If the net connection is up, then it just works transparently. (And by the way, Squid really does seem to speed up my web fetch times, even from the same computer!) If the connection is down, it brings it up, sure, but what to do in the meantime? Well, if you're visiting /., then it says "Nothing to see here, move along". If you're not, then it redirects to the same URL with a typo (so you'll assume you screwed up), and then displays a parking page. Okay, that sounds pretty authentic.

    IM? Piece of cake: grab an IRC server and a bunch of Eliza-bots.

    Okay, you're all set! Always-on experience, on a dialup budget!

  • If your mobile phone is new enough, and your operator supports it, you could use GPRS for surfing/email.
    I'm not sure what the data transfer fees are for GPRS data in usa, but here plain random surfing/email gives me ~$5/month extra in my bill.
    That would be near your budget if the pricing is same. Though I'm guessing you could even get it cheaper there if the operator just supports it.
    • Both T-Mobile and Cingular in the US offer unlimited GPRS access as an addon to your voice plan for $20/month. There are data only plans but they're the same price as cable/DSL would be to begin with.

  • Can anyone speak to using "Amateur Radio" equipment to do this? I think the only ongoing costs would be power -- up-front costs include equipment and licensing, but I think you could get there (modem speed always-on) for under $100 on a budget, and possibly closer to megabit for 1k USD. I also hear that a) you can get into big trouble if your unlicnsed, and b) can lose your license and/or get into bigger trouble if you abuse your licensed privileges. IIRC there are no-code packet license now, which means

  • Be Happy (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bmazloum ( 856559 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:21PM (#11730793) Homepage
    Be happy with what you have. I just moved to Lebanon, waited 6 months for a "high speed" connection. That's 30KB/s downloads and 12KB/s upload for a whopping $120USD/mo. I'd take your connection and prices anyday. Funny thing is, this is $200USD/mo. cheaper than the dialup since you pay/min. here. haha...
  • in the uk, there are ISP's that offer 150kbps always on, unlimited broadband for less than some dial up companies (£14.99 per month, compared to about £15.99 iirc for aol dialup)

    if your in the uk, those companies are tiscali, plusnet and probably cpbb.co.uk

  • It's not just the speed with broadband (Score:5, Insightful)

    by urlgrey ( 798089 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:23PM (#11730808) Homepage
    From having had numerous friends and family members bemoan that "I just don't use the Internet that much!" as justification for not getting DSL/cable, in 100% of the cases, they've all had worlds open up when they saw how painless things became once their access was so dramatically faster. (Waiting several seconds for a single page like Yahoo! to download gets tedious quickly.)

    Their faster access meant more Internet usage (now they're paying bills online, banking, and shopping for instance), which in turn meant they "needed" the higher speed conenction.

    Very quickly, they realize how much more than just faster speed, the faster speed meant.
  • Unless your neighbors have unencrypeted wireless and don't mind (read as "don't notice" ;) your usage then just get dialup and configure it for autodial and turn the modem noise down.

  • "Modem"? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Bnonn ( 553709 )
    "Mo-dem speeds"? Wassat?
  • light DSL is usually maximally 128Kbits down, but it's ( a very gimped, usually for people that barely qualify for ) DSL.

    they usually charge around 15-20ish dollards a month for that kind of DSL access up here in montreal, canada, and it would solve the always-on, cheaper for bling problem you're having.

    As for me, nothing will make me part from my fixed ip 3meg adsl line for 60 canadian a month.

  • Speakeasy (Score:4, Insightful)

    by miyako ( 632510 ) <miyako AT gmail DOT com> on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:30PM (#11730844) Homepage Journal
    Speakeasy.net will allow you to sublet your DSL connection (not sure of any other providers that officially support this). You might look into just making back some of your cost by subleting out connections to a few neighbors over wireless. Offer a wireless connection and maybe a few other services and price according to how many subscribers you have (maybe divide the cost of the connection evenly?)
    I have a friend who does this, and has had some pretty good luck. Biggest thing to watch out for if you do that is to have some sort of document outlining what exactly you offer (especially that you have no uptime garuntee, and what, if any, tech support you offer, and when).

  • GPRS? (Score:2)

    by fm6 ( 162816 )

    ... my 2.5G wireless phone can give me internet access on a shoestring (with free evenings and weekends) but [not] that always-on quality.

    If your network uses GPRS (I'm told most 2.5G networks do), then you have a connectionless network, and in theory an "always on quality" is a basic feature. The reality may be that your provider forces a login procedure on you that prevents that. (Just as DSL providers mostly force their users to establish a PPPoE connection, even though the DSL link itself is always o

  • Here in Vancouver we have Shaw selling Lite [www.shaw.ca] always on cable connections that are "up to 5x faster than dial up" for $25CDN ($20.29 US today) and Telus selling regular DSL [mytelus.com] for $30 CDN ($24.35 US today) if you sign up for a year. Sounds like what you're looking for. Too bad your local companies don't have something like that.

    Hopefully prices will come down for you guys. Prices may come down for us now that Shaw (cable company) is offering digital cable phone [www.shaw.ca] services in cities like Calgary, Alberta to com

  • Maybe I'm missing something, but why not just get a second phone line and leave yourself dialed in to your ISP 24/7? Surely that'll cost you less that $40 per month.

  • How about UUCP? (Score:3, Funny)

    by zoid.com ( 311775 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:37PM (#11730888) Homepage Journal
    This isn't really the solution but it's the on we used 10 years ago to send email. Wow.. Things have really changed in the past 10 years.

  • Try my ISP (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:41PM (#11730912)
    My ISP, "Linksys", is said to have nationwide presence, and best of all, their service is free! They are Wi-Fi only, however; look around, they might be servicing your neighborhood.

    This is not a plug. I'm just a happy consumer, er, I mean, customer ;-)

  • Don't make the tail wag the dog (Score:5, Interesting)

    by EtherMonkey ( 705611 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:56PM (#11731008)

    I think your going about this the wrong way. While you might not NEED the speed of high speed Internet, you admit you want the convenience of always on service.

    I would urge you to look in a different direction. Instead of dropping the HSI, (high speed Internet), I'd drop my analog telephone service and switch to a VoIP provider. Depending on the optional services and amount of long distance, you could save $40 or much more each month by using an unlimited VoIP package from Vonage, VoicePulse, AT&T, etc versus traditional telco rates. Since you also have a cellphone that apparently works at your home, there's really no downside to this scenario.

    If you are dead set about nixing your HSI, your best option is to find an agreeable, nearby neighbor to share their HSI account. But if you do this, definately use wireless -- not copper -- to connect to his/her service. Differences in ground potential between houses can destroy equipment, cause a shock or even be a fire hazard.

    You could use something like a Multitech RouteFinder RF500, or any other router that provides a serial port to use an external modem for ISP dial-up. This would give you an always-on dial-up connection. However, since a bare POTS line for your always-on Internet is around $22/mo, plus a bare-bones, unlimited dial-up ISP is another $10/mo, when you add in taxes and fees, you're maybe going to save $5 - 15 per month: not worth it in my view.

    ISDN, at least in the USA, is probably not an attractive option, since most telco's charge per minute of use per B channel, plus the ISP's usually charge a higher rate for access. Where the telco does offer unlimited data service it's at a considerably higher rate than $50/mo. So you'll pay more for slower speed via ISDN.

    I know several people who have "cut the cord" to the phone company and rely solely on VoIP over the Cable Internet and cellphone for voice calls. They save an average of $30/mo and are quite satisfied with the quality and reliability.
    • Differences in ground potential between houses can destroy equipment, cause a shock or even be a fire hazard.

      And this information might sound alarmist, but there's even more to it -- crossing a legal boundary point (i.e. a mailing address) is against the law. You can be held responsible if you run a wire from one building into another, and that line causes damage. I used to work for a dialup ISP, and we ran some cat5 from one 5 story building to another, underneath the street. We found out what we did

  • DSL Lite... (Score:3, Informative)

    by microTodd ( 240390 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @06:58PM (#11731026) Homepage Journal
    I'm not sure where you live and who your baby bell is but....my DSL ISP, BellSouth, offers what they call DSL Lite, which is always on but has much lower bandwith for less cost, $24.95 a month.

    http://www.bellsouth.com/consumer/inetsrvcs/index. html [bellsouth.com]

  • Move to Canada (Score:3, Informative)

    by ninja_sqrl ( 829421 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @07:01PM (#11731038) Homepage
    If you want cheap broadband, move to Saskatchewan. I get 1.5 Mb up, 300 Kb down ADSL for $25 Canadian/month, and you can get 64 kb download speed package (extra-light) for like $12/month. You just have to deal with the shatty weather.......... Older Price List for Sasktel [usask.ca]

  • zerg (Score:5, Informative)

    by Lord Omlette ( 124579 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @08:15PM (#11731430) Homepage
    I'm surprised no one's linked to Paul Boutin's How To Steal Wi-Fi [msn.com] (and how to keep the neighbors from stealing yours)

  • Use the band width you have (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mysterious_mark ( 577643 ) on Sunday February 20, 2005 @08:15PM (#11731431)
    Why not get VOIP and get rid of your phone instead, you'll save enough money on phone bills to justify the broadband connection. Also host your own site if you have one, seems better to find a good use for the bandwidth you have, rther than to get rid if it altogether. M

  • DSL for $25/month (Score:3, Insightful)

    by aclarke ( 307017 ) <spam@@@clarke...ca> on Monday February 21, 2005 @12:39AM (#11733202) Homepage
    I bought DSL for some friends as a present for a year for $25 per month from Sonic.net [sonic.net]. From what my friends have told me they have been very happy with the service. If you look somewhere like DSLReports.com [dslreports.com] you might find that DSL in your area costs less than you think.

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