# slow....................internet



## perpetual98

You could try to install Firefox as the browser and see if that helps. I moved to a house a couple months back that didn't have high-speed access, and it took me all of 2 days before I went mental dealing with the slow speeds. I ended up buying a cellular card. Now I get pretty darn good speeds and it's only slightly more than my high-speed cable was.


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## RichyL

Yeah going from a 10meg cable service down to a 2.4kb one is quite noticable......by the way could you tell me about this cellular card i have never heard of it.

btw: it wont let me view anywebpages on firefox i am getting this message
The proxy server is refusing connections


Firefox is configured to use a proxy server that is refusing connections.





* Check the proxy settings to make sure that they are correct.
* Contact your network administrator to make sure the proxy server is
working.


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## perpetual98

What kind of computer do you have? The solution I came up with wasn't exactly cheap, but it's nice for me since I can run multiple computers off the cellular card. It's service through Sprint, and the cellular card plugs into a Linksys router and my computers connect wirelessly through that router. I think the service is about $60 per month, which is spendy, but it's worth it in my opinion because I was going mad with dial-up. I got all of my stuff through 3gstore.com Great service from them by the way.

Another solution might be to look for RF in your area. I can't think of the service name off the top of my head. There's an initial outlay of cash for the radio equipment, much like satellite internet.

Not sure why Firefox isn't letting you browse. Perhaps your PC is set to pipe your traffic through IE? How are you connecting via dial-up now?


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## RichyL

Using a service called local net it dials up then i open IE. I went into the advanced settings in firefox and noticed that the proxy setup was set to manual with some numbers put in there. I changed it to automatic and it seemed to be connecting but when i wnet to go to msn.com they kept giving me warnings saying that the information is not encrypted and could easily be viewed by a 3rd party.


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## Guest

A note on Satellite internet....it's junk. I've had several customers who have to hook up to satellite because they have no other high speed connection available. Many of them complain that much of the time their satellite connection is slower than their dial-up was.

Cellular cards are designed to plug into a slot on a laptop and use the same technology as a cell phone to connect to the internet. This makes you completely mobile. You can get internet anywhere your cell will pick up. The problem with this is that such a card usually costs about $150 per month.


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## perpetual98

poppameth said:


> Cellular cards are designed to plug into a slot on a laptop and use the same technology as a cell phone to connect to the internet. This makes you completely mobile. You can get internet anywhere your cell will pick up. The problem with this is that such a card usually costs about $150 per month.


My card through Sprint is $60 per month.

A friend of mine actually has the high-speed EVDO package through his sprint cell phone, and he connects his cell phone to his computer and connects his computer to the internet with the phone acting as a modem. We both play online games and our connections are just fine with cellular.


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## Guest

Must be what is offered in each location. Verizon is offering their cards at $150 a month around here.


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## GoFins

Google Chrome Browser may help a little if your can't get broadband


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## macro01

i try opera browser..it is faster than IE on my computer


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## CodeJock

Just an update on the idea of using cellular solutions in 'remote' or any location where cable/DSL is not an option -- a couple of the companies (Sprint and Verizon spring to mind), now offer a sort of 'local hot spot' device, which would seem to be a cell version of a wireless router.

This could be an attractive solution in households that are "off the grid" for other types of service, and may need to connect more than one computer to the internet.

For what it's worth, I would agree with other posters that satellite would be my 'last ditch' solution. It can be very aggravating, and prone to disconnects in heavy rain or on windy days. Lately, that would cover about 80% of the time here in New England


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## MT Stringer

*Cellular card for laptop*



> Cellular cards are designed to plug into a slot on a laptop and use the same technology as a cell phone to connect to the internet. This makes you completely mobile. You can get internet anywhere your cell will pick up. The problem with this is that such a card usually costs about $150 per month.


I'm located outside of Houston, and my wireless air card from Sprint is $60/month. It's not as fast as cable, but still gets the job done. Reception may vary from place to place. At my sisters house, I don't get much of a signal, but it is OK at my house.

I guess it all depends on the cell towers.
Mike


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## DangerMouse

if it takes that long to open programs, you most likely have virus or spyware or both. go to www.avast.com and get their free antivirus/antispyware and run it. i'm betting you'll find a bunch of crap. check for virus, empty drive of all important stuff, then reformat and reinstall is your best bet though. i have dialup too, so don't feel all alone.... and yes, it sucks. but 26 is lousy hook.
macro01: Opera is by far the best browser out there IMHO. i have many, i use one.

DM


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## ChemE

RichyL said:


> When I am connecting the icon in my system tray says I am connected at 26.4kb/sec. But the speed i'm actually getting to view web pages and downloads is rarely above 2.5 kb/sec.


I believe you are confusing bits and bytes here. I assume you have a 56k modem that is connecting to the internet at 26.4 kbits/sec. The transfer speeds you are seeing are 2.5 kbytes/sec. which is roughly equivalent.

There are a couple of conversion factors you need to consider between the two. First, there are 8 bits in a byte. In modem transfer protocol however, there is also a start bit and a stop bit, therefore one byte of data requires 10 bits to transfer. Second, the kilo terms are slightly different. As in the metric system, kilo when refering to bits is 1000. However, kilo when refering to bytes is 1024. So 1 kilobit is 1000 bits, but 1 kilobyte is 1024 bytes.

The conversion between bits and bytes for a modem is therefore as follows:

26,400 bits/sec divided by 10 bits/byte = 2640 bytes/sec
Then: 2640 bytes/sec divided by 1024 bytes/kilobyte = 2.58 kilobytes/sec ~ 2.5 kB/sec which is what you are seeing as transfer rate

Basically the speeds you are seeing on dialup are accurate. It really comes down to this: dialup sucks.

Satellite is faster but it is not as fast as cable modems and DSL. Also, the satellite signals are very touchy and unlike TV satellite signals the dish has to be perfectly aligned with the satellite to get a good connection which can be a pain.


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## COGarageMan

I've used a Sprint broadband card before and worked great. As someone stated earlier, you might also want to to try Opera or Google Chrome. Those browsers are seriously fast.


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## user1007

I realize this original post goes back in time but I see that people do keep adding to it. I thought I might offer this device into the realm of possibilities. It is a USB wireless data modem that uses the data plan and chip from you phone. Since you can add unlimited data plans to your phone plan for less than a separate data plan will run, it might be worth a try if you don't need your phone and wireless internet connection at the same time? The device appears to be unlocked so you should be able to use it with most carriers?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4636292&CatId=4436

As mentioned in other posts, wireless via cell phone providers is only going to be as good as the reception offered from the nearest tower and the availability of data service in your area. I have been doing work this summer in Western Iowa and it is absolutely worthless and slower than dial-up. Fortunately I have access to DSL when I need it. 

I will also mention that if you are still in a rural area waiting for highspeed service, it does help to rally your neighbors to make calls to providing companies expressing interest (not necessarily committing to service) in RF, DSL, Cable, xG wireless, etc. Drop a note to your elected officials too so we can finally have access to ALL the broadband options available and not just those offered because of large company lobbying efforts and regulation.

Shop beyond the major wireless brands. I just switched to a reseller (they are bringing some fair competition and honesty to it all the way long distance resellers did to the phone industry before) and am now going to get unlimited everything phone service for $50/month and unlimited wireless broadband to go with it for $10/month more. No contract. Freestanding data card service runs about $40/month for unlimited. You can also pick up nice, fully warranted, unlocked phones and data modems for about the same or just a bit more than those offered by carriers. 

Also as mentioned in an earlier post, look into RF and microwave highspeed data if available in your area. Cost of entry for equipment (small receiver needs to get mounted on your house somewhere and runs about $300) is a bit high but service rates are comparable to DSL and Cable. There are no bandwith constraints since there are no wires. The microwave versions use the same technology as TV trucks but on a different frequency.


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## user1007

DangerMouse said:


> if it takes that long to open programs, you most likely have virus or spyware or both. go to www.avast.com and get their free antivirus/antispyware and run it. i'm betting you'll find a bunch of crap. check for virus, empty drive of all important stuff, then reformat and reinstall is your best bet though. i have dialup too, so don't feel all alone.... and yes, it sucks. but 26 is lousy hook.
> macro01: Opera is by far the best browser out there IMHO. i have many, i use one. DM


Dump off all your cookies before you do something so radical as reformatting, especially if your problems seem isolated to your browser use. Spyware and virus software may do this. I use a tiny little freeware program called, Cookienator that seems to work. Use at your own risk as it is an executable file. It requires no install. 

http://www.codefromthe70s.org/cookienator.aspx


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