International Connectivity

Steve Suppe writes "As an American who is going to be living overseas for a few years (Germany, to be more exact), I'm curious as to what advice/information Slashdot could provide people like me. How much can I expect to pay for dial-up/broadband, and from who? I'd be interested to hear how it differs around the world. Any good reference sites? Thanks!"

Re:Are you welcome there?

[stetsds]

Don't believe everything you read.
(I assume with Americans you mean US-Americans?)

People over here can (and for the most part do) differentiate between the American people and their government.

However, be prepared for a few heated political discussions... :-)

Re:Talk to people that live there

[Anonymous Coward]

No, rather, I'm implying Germany is a big place. It'd be the same as if someone asked "I'm moving to New Mexico, what are my internet options?" It's going to vary a lot from location to location within that area. Some areas will have DSL and Cable, some will have dialup, some will have wireless, etc.

Re:Are you welcome there?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, they don't like having Americans like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, or Ashcroft around. Most other Americans are welcome, even the ones from the US.

Re:Use the web

[THEbwana]

Maybe he doesnt speak German? That was the problem when I moved to Switzerland - I found tons of pages, but it would take me hours to decipher what they meant. I found that the easiest way to get some info was to ask on the LUG groups of zurich, using irc. /m

Re:An American in Germany?

[swordgeek]

Nice reply.

The parent is half right. The apology is funny on its own. The apology as delivered by Rick Mercer is downright hilarious.

Was that really worth calling someone an asswad for?

More general advice

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep your American status as low-key as possible. People will obviously be able to tell that you're from the US or Canada (or at least SOME english speaking country), but people are generally willing to accept you as a good (or bad) person regardless of your home, unless you make comments about how "America is saving the world."

Think this post is stupid? I've seen it happen too often. While wandering through the streets of Paris, I heard an American traveller comment to her husband about how "these people can't even get a Big Mac right!" Other countries have the same problem with their citizens abroad (England is a close second, Germany third in my opinion) but the US has a reputation for it and people will NOT give you a second chance if you make an arrogant comment.

Aside from that, have fun and soak up the culture.

Re:An American in Germany?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuckers like you deserved Hitler and his gas chambers. I feel sorry for the mothers of the many thousands of Americans who died pulling Europe out of the cesspool it made of itself. Twice. Their sacrifice is obviously unappreciated.

The big mistake Americans make is caring whether Europe decends into another dark age or not.

Re:My advice

[THEbwana]

Yeah..well.. I don't know how they measure this, but I must say that I'm slightly puzzled by this list.

I've lived and worked in Sweden and I just cant see how they can reach number 4. Sweden is a socialist hole where you get to keep a miniscule part of your salary after the state has been there to rob you (they call it tax). I would *never* want to live in Sweden again. The same goes for Norway where they seem to love taxes. They have no public debt but still consider it reasonable to end up with less than half of your wage after paying tax (still its not as bad as Sweden). Switzerland should be way higher on the list - I'm currently living in Switzerland and the standard of living, net income, economic freedom, efficiency of public institutions etc. is vastly superiour to that of most countries in the EU.

Most likely, this list is created with an over-emphasis on the benefits of public consumption. It probably does not correct for the inherent inefficiencies of public administration, equating it to consumption within the private sector.

But then again, a lot of these fluffy people working within the UN *adore* big government and the *magic* of public spending..

Re:My advice

[the eric conspiracy]

I've lived and worked in Sweden and I just cant see how they can reach number 4.

The problem with these lists is that "best place to live" is a highly subjective thing, depending greatly on your personal goals and circumstances. If you are a druggy and want to sit around smoking weed all day I'm sure a place where MJ is decriminalized would rate higher. If you want to start a small business, a country favorable to small businesses would be ideal. Etc.

Re:German DSL

[yuri benjamin]

It was a matter of minutes for me to set up T-DSL on a SuSE

I would expect SuSE to have pre-rolled install wizards for every German ISP, being a German distro.

Re:Talk to people that live there

[hhnerkopfabbeisser]

In Germany, there are two kinds of areas where you will have problems to get a dsl-line (cable is not really an option here).

Number one are rural areas.

Number two are "too modern" areas, like freshly build suburbs with fiber, but no copper in the ground. In the 90's, they didn't know DSL only works on copper lines. AFAIK this is not too rare in eastern Germany, where they buried a lot of fiber after the german unification.

Besides that, coverage is pretty good, especially wireless. Cell phones really work here, I mean almost everywhere, and pretty reliably.
Germany just isn't as vast as the US.

Re:Here's an idea, stay off the Internet!

[kevin lyda]

live w/o the net in a new place for several years?

so give up one of the easiest ways to get cheap airfares, learn about holiday destinations, get bus/rail/s-bahn/u-bahn schedules? since this person is planning on returning to the usa, they should give up their online access to their financial info and instead use more expensive and less convenient phone/fax/mail? more importantly they have friends and family back in the usa. they should give up on an inexpensive way to keep in touch with their friends and family? give up email, pictures of newborn relatives, holiday snaps, etc?

get real.

Re:General advice

[gwappo]

This and it's parent is utter-crud. I'm from the Netherlands, have worked in the US, am now working in Italy, and have an apartment in both NL and IT.

There is an anti-Bush sentiment in Europe, but definitely not an anti-American sentiment. Come here as an American, and you'll get more positive attention than you'd care for since much of the American culture has mingled with the European culture and so most Europeans will treat you with the dignity becoming of a fascinating alien species from another planet (the battlestar galactica post comes to mind).

Comment applies to both the Netherlands and Italy, though in the latter the people might have a hard time talking to you since they don't speak English all that well - but this language-barrier should not be mis-taken.

Re:General advice

[stixman]

This is completely untrue. I'm an American living in Germany, and have absolutely no problem telling everyone where I'm from. What's going on is not in away "anti-Americanism" like most think. The Germans learned in WWII not to be for or against any nationality. The sentiment here is against Bush (read: Oil) Politics. At least here people understand that disliking a countries politics isn't the same as hating people in that country. Maybe we Americans can learn something here.

That's plain wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Deutsche Telekom does sell DSL but for only 15 Euro/month. What he is referring to is the additional flat rate sold by T-Online, which is a separate company (but you get your bill through Deutsche Telekom, which is a bad thing, because if there is something wrong, you end up struggeling with two incompentent departments instead of one! I was a T-Online customer, and I know why I am no longer (see my homepage http://www.s2h.cx for the reason (German only)).

There aren't many alternatives to T-DSL (but there are some, see below) but there are many alternatives to T-Online. It pays to look for the best offer, not only money-wise but also in terms of security and hassle.

I myself am using 1&1, who sell a range of T-DSL tariffs: Online time based, volume based and a so called "Fair Flatrate", which means if you stay online less than 100 hours a month, you pay less. (They offer T-DSL based access countrywide.)

In the Bonn/Cologne area there is NetCologne and QSC, both offering phone and internet hookup independently from Deutsche Telekom. Many of my collegues are using Q-DSL from QSC and like it. The main advantages are higher bandwith and a lower ping time (for online gaming), but it is a bit more expensive, if you are not a student.

In other areas of Germany there are also local providers. I don't know much about these.

twm

Re:General advice

[boogy nightmare]

This is the most amazing post that i have ever read on slashdot, being English myself, we sit down and watch the news, frankly amazed and the anti european diatribe, if you visited any one of the countries in the UN you will find its not you but the crazy warmongering manic who has his finger on the buttons of many weapons of mass destruction, bush.

I work sat opposite an American and we talked about this post, even he admits that when the US goes against a country you fail to seperate the countries politics with the individuals themselves. Sure, we all have stereotypical attitudes to countries (usually quite funny) but that is no way the same as hating them.

If i was a moderator today this would be right up there.

Please feel free to flame or troll me off this list as long as this one gets modded up.

Remember, we dont hate you, we laugh at you, as we laugh at everyone......

Akira

Re:connectivity seems good

[LordThundering]

several thinks:
I've the impressdion that the german?european usage of cell phones i much bigger, much mroe dense than in hte USA.
As an example, you don't have to pay for the arriving calls in DE, but certianly in the US.
In germnay, i've the feeling, more ppl care about their cellphones than in the US.. to use a nokia 5110 would be a sign of "uncoolnees" in Germany, while it seems still quite common in the US.

and then, a refernce site.
If you have a bit german knowlegde, all you need is http://heise.de the company behind it is producing the best german thec magazin, CT, and they are really sujcetive. I think they have an english page, but i don;t know how good the site is.

bye
LordThundering