Upgrading from Dial-up to broadband

[eki2468@aol.com]

What is involved in doing this? Can you give me some step-by-steps, and suggestions of products.

[PrntRhd]

Broadband is a loose term for any high speed connection, including Cable either coax or fiber optics, DSL, Satellite, Fixed Wireless, T1,T2,T3 phone lines, ISDN, and so forth.

Availability is always the first thing to investigate. Try starting with a search like here (http://broadband.thelist.com/) for services (in the USA).

Next, determine how many PCs will be connecting to the broadband connection to determine if you want a modem or router.

:D

[eki2468@aol.com]

Only one PC. There are so many providers on the list how do I choose? My family wants to stay on aol and get aol for broadband. How would I go about that?

[PrntRhd]

For DSL, you would check your phone company site to check availabilty. DSL is limited in the distance from Central Office switches, you see.

AOL Broadband has availability searches by phone number and address. You can also get broadband through the phone company/cable company and keep your AOL via Bring Your Own Access plans.

[eki2468@aol.com]

So you're saying I should call the phone company (I have dish not cable) in order to get the broadband modem?

[PrntRhd]

You only would call the phone company if DSL is the choice you wanted to obtain. Try the AOL search first if that is the service desired.
Do you live in a major metropolitan area?

[eki2468@aol.com]

From where would I do the aol search? (link please if possible)

[PrntRhd]

Keyword:
AOL for Broadband

[eki2468@aol.com]

what would I press from then (I feel like such a dunce)

[PrntRhd]

Enter,
Look for availability on the web page

[eki2468@aol.com]

I don't see an availability thing. I feel like I've clicked everything possible.

[PrntRhd]

OOPS, It looks like AOL dropped the bundled service, see this Cnet article (http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-5166107.html)

[PrntRhd]

So we are back to searching for providers. What is your phone company, and are you in a urban or a rural setting?

[eki2468@aol.com]

so what would be my cheapest option now?

[PrntRhd]

Not to the stage of cost, you have to determine availability first.
Please see my post re what phone company and location, need to know to determine where to go from here. No personal info needed.

Does cable come past your location, or is Dish the only TV option?

[eki2468@aol.com]

the first two on the list (that have icons attached to them) are earthlink and speakeasy. Then there are a lot of ones I don't know. Just links and some info

[eki2468@aol.com]

Cable is around. I have qwest. it isn't a big city, but it is a city. So I'd say urban

[PrntRhd]

Go to the Quest website and see if they have DSL available at your location. Search by phone number and address on their site.

[eki2468@aol.com]

it says: "We're sorry, we're unable to check dsl availability at the moment. Our system should be available shortly."

I guess I'm waiting.

[PrntRhd]

It sounds like Quest is having server issues tonight. Did you get to this
page (http://www.qwest.com/dsl/index.html) ?

You can also try the website of your cable company and see if they offer high speed internet through cable in your location.

:)

[eki2468@aol.com]

thanks for your help. I think I'm going to call it a day

[PrntRhd]

ok, post back here when you get information.
:D

[classicsoftware]

If you have can get cable, it will cost more than DSL but it is better and it is faster. If you get DSL or cable, call AOL and tell them you want to cancel., forst they will give you free months to stay and lower your rate to $10.00/month. They catch is if you do use dial-up you have to pay by the minute. You shouldn't need to use dial up, but you should know.

I see no reason to keep AOL unless you don;t mind keeping Time Warner in clover......

Once you decide between cable and DSL, post back with the prices and speed they guarantee or advertise and we can advise if toy need a router, as some DSL modems have built in routers....

[PrntRhd]

Classic,

Heck, I was just glad to see AOL dropped their $54/month bundled program for DSL. If she can get Quest DSL for $26.50/mo vs AOL dialup for $23.95/mo she will see how bad a ripoff AOL can be.

[classicsoftware]

Just get Broadband from someone other than AOL and you can keep AOL via broadband for only $10.00/month. For those like my mother who can't break the AOL habit. It drives me crazyy......

[PrntRhd]

LOL, I still have AOL here, just switching to BYOA plan. The new wife had her own AOL account, so we were paying twice.

I am on SBC static DSL now, cable just installed fiber optics, may switch to that this fall.