THSCC Forums

I'm looking at flyers from RR and Earthlink. Both are offered by Time Warner. Earthlink appears to be $5 cheaper per month, but what other things should I consider? Here's what I've thought of:

1) I'll have to get cable run to the room upstairs where the computers live.

2) I want to be able to have at least two computers online simultaneously, though only one would need access to my personal email.

3) Which provider's email is easier to access when on the road?

Art

Art,

I have Earthlink dial up and have had no problems accessing my email from another computer. Just go to Earthlink.net and click on the web mail button, enter you email addy and password and read away.

_________________
Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

Art,

We have Earthlink cable (through Time Warner). Earthlink has lots of dialup numbers for when you travel but go to their web site to make sure your likely destinations are covered. It used to be that dialup was unlimited but I think they just imposed a 15 Hr per month max with charges after that. Fortunately this wasn't in place when I had a job out of town last year! I don't know if Time Warner has easy dialup for travel. If you get Earthlink Cable the charges will actually be added to your Time Warner Cable bill. As far as mail on the road you can either use the Earthlink web mail Todd mentioned or you can download to your normal e-mail program if you have "your laptop" with you. If you view mail via web mail it can stay there for when you download normally after you "get home". As far as networking at home, no problem from Earthlink or TWC's perspective assuming a router. Kelly and I are both online right now. Let one of the real geeks give you hints on routers . . . including wireless routers. You MAY be able to have the router "downstairs" and simply have a wireless connection "upstairs". My wireless isn't that good but others may be. Note that Earthlink also offers DSL (i.e. regular phone lines work) so if DSL is available to your house and you already have phone lines to the appropriate room it may be a better choice.

Edit: I just checked the website. 20 Hrs dialup per month included with Earthlink Cable.

_________________
Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

Art,
I did a little quick checking on RR. In the past you could not get dial up service away from home. Now it appears you can do dial up. However it appears that the availability is somewhat more limited than with earthlink.

_________________
George Bright Member # 141
One of the youngest of the old farts.
Yes I voted against you joining the club.

Joan and I share a DSL connection (since I work for Verizon and they pay for it ...) via a WiFi router. Easy to set up, cheap to buy. A combo Wireless Access Point/ Router/Firewall is leas than $50. Client Ethernet, USB, PCI, PCMCIA interfaces available for say $25, maybe less.

As a matter of fact, you might want to buy a 802.11b card for your PC *before* you order anything else. You might have a neighbor with a wireless connection you can borrow ... Just kidding .....

Frank

I'd say go with Earthlink. Their tech support answers the phone fairly quickly. Earthlink has a great system in place for dealing with spam and viruses. I don't even use their "total access" software, I just use a regular browser and everything works fine.

If you want to get a cable modem connection in this area, you have to deal with Time Warner to some degree. Earthlink runs on the Time Warner network, so if you have a problem with the physical cable, or the cable modem, or the equipment box at the street, Earthlink will tell you to call Time Warner.

I get the impression that TW must have a lot of problems (relatively speaking) with their equipment at the street level. I see trucks there frequently, and most of my problems have been related to that. Although after one series of nightmares, the cable guy diagnosed the problem as the physical cable that runs under the house and they wanted to run another one- simply because they had tried every other option. Well, they did, and it solved the problem.

I have had mixed results with TW. Sometimes they answer the phone in less than 5 minutes. Sometimes after 45 minutes, I have given up. I have had some reliability problems related to equipment problems at the street, but once you get through to them, they respond fairly quickly. Sometimes it's the same day, but usually within 24 hrs. In the meantime, you have a dialup acct you can use as a backup.

There are times when performance seems to be very slow though, and I wonder if it is just because everybody else in the neighborhood is on at the same time. With a cable modem, everybody in your neighborhood shares bandwidth on that link.

Overall, I'm satisfied with this arrangement. While not perfect, it is probably the best I can do for now.

Miles

I agree with Miles. (I usually do )
I've been with Earthlink since day one. recently went to the Time-Warner deal.

Occasionally slow, but I'm in a neighborhood with mostly bluehairs, so I'm not sure where the overload comes from. Surely not my neighborhood in Fuquay! Hell, I think we're the only house with a computer. Seems like every once in a while the transitions from one website to another are at 28.8 dial-up speeds, but overall, they do a pretty good job. Earthlink support is very good. Their on-line "chat" troubleshooting is extremely good.

After the initial $29.95 intro period, the cost is $41.95/mo. One bitch I have is the 20-hour dial-up ration. Not all hotels have HS or wireless, so I usually go "over" the limit and pay $1.00/hr. Original deal was unlimited dialup. This is a fairly recent change.

If you go with TW, be SURE to have them install a NEW cable modem. They tried to stick me with a used unit. It was screwed up from the first day. The cable guy came back and replaced it with a new Motorola unit.
I went with the D-Link el-cheapo 11b wireless set-up. It works fine up to about 100 ft, but is spotty after that.

_________________
Brad

My TW cable connection has been rock solid, I had 2 days when I was down, they brought me a new cable modem and no problmes since, mt TW experince in Cary has always been very good, and they have really changed my mind about time warner, they used to be awefull but in the last 2 years they have gotten much better imho. Since I have TW Cable I only pay 35.95 a month for a cable modem, and as mention above after 6 monts of 29.99 it goes to 41.99. Also I have my Phone through a company call Vonage, it is an internet phone and I definaltly need a solid intertnet connection so I have home phone server and TW gets a double Thumbs up from me.

_________________
David Teague
2015 Lexus IS 250c
1994 Honda Del Sol HS 39
2009 Dodge Journey R/T
http://teaguefamily.us