Who uses 56k (dial-up) still?

[techfreak85]

up until a year and a half ago, dial up was the only option. i live about 150 years from a corner and both DSL and Cable ended there. we tried to get verizon to hook us up and get dsl but they didn't want to hook us up. Comcast did. since then they have expanded their lines past our house.

bout the only thing that i have seen comcast do that is good.

and i still have cable....... and it still is our only option, with Verizon giving up on DSL and all, and there is no way Fios will be here any time soon.

 

[SFStateStudent]

Here's an interesting take on the Comcast Fiber Optics v. Verizon FIOS:

http://leobartnik.net/blog/2007/10/comcast-fiber-optics-vs-verizon-fios.html

I guess anyone since the 1980's can claim to be utilizing fiber optics. Having gone from AT&T DSL to Comcast Cable, I've noticed a significant difference between DSL's 1-3 Mb/s & Cable's 20-30Mb/s...

 

[johnhw]

My friend uses dial-up, I use a 768k/bs connection, not as fast as your 20m/bs connection..

 

[yellow]

Since we moved into our house in 2004, I'm still using dial-up, mainly because I'm not going to get face raped by satellite networking. And there's no other option.

 

[boston04and07]

Fixed that for you.

You really think it's going to be that bad? Well, fios hasn't arrived in my town yet (and probably won't anytime in the next year, according to Verizon). Considering we have 5 computers and 2 iPhones on our 768 Kbps connection pretty much all the time, you can imagine how slow it gets. Plus, since Comcasts 22 Mbps plan costs a few dollars less per month than Verizon's 1.5 Mbps plan, I don't mind taking my chances! In any event, I'm still excited. Maybe, just maybe, my speed will increase to be a bit faster than the average of <100 Kbps my laptop gets now. If that happens, I'll be happy.

 

[Adam0306]

Well guess what. I still have dial-up! YES that's right. The only option for us is either satellite or dial-up since we live in the middle of nowhere.

 

[jav6454]

I had dial-up until 2004.

EDIT: Ah, after a bit of research, we use a line-of-sight wireless provider. Of course we pay for a 768 KB/ connection, yet don't usually exceed 128 KB/s.

You pay for 768Kb/s, that means you get 96 KB/s

Remember kb/s (kilobits/second) =/= kB/s (kiloBytes/second)

 

[belvdr]

You really think it's going to be that bad? Well, fios hasn't arrived in my town yet (and probably won't anytime in the next year, according to Verizon). Considering we have 5 computers and 2 iPhones on our 768 Kbps connection pretty much all the time, you can imagine how slow it gets. Plus, since Comcasts 22 Mbps plan costs a few dollars less per month than Verizon's 1.5 Mbps plan, I don't mind taking my chances! In any event, I'm still excited. Maybe, just maybe, my speed will increase to be a bit faster than the average of <100 Kbps my laptop gets now. If that happens, I'll be happy.

It will most likely fluctuate during different times of the day and on the weekends. When more people are likely to be on, expect a slowdown.

 

[boston04and07]

It will most likely fluctuate during different times of the day and on the weekends. When more people are likely to be on, expect a slowdown.

Well it's been about a month since I upgraded, and I honestly have to say...I've seen a phenomenal difference and I looove it. I can actually watch Hulu now at home, something that was only saved for my college dorms before! I've been uploading large files (~500mb) to my iDisk in less than ten minutes each - that literally used to take days. In comparison to what I had before, it's been just awesome, I can't believe it took me this long to switch!

 

[Gregte]

I can't help but feel sorry for those who laugh at dial-up users as though you think they are stupid for using dial-up, or as you somehow at least think you are superior. Do you laugh at people who have less money than you generally, or people who did not go as deep into debt as you have? Not everybody has a need for being first or biggest or best at all endeavors.

I still use dial-up for much of my browsing as it is just about as fast as my WildBlue satellite for certain types of browsing, and it is more reliable.

Dialup is most always cheaper. Broadband has nothing to offer many who use the internet almost exclusively for intelligent email. Intelligent email is ASCII email as opposed to HTML for those who may have missed out on the early days.

My satellite broadband costs me $82.xx/month. My all2easy.net dialup costs $4.95/month. This includes all tax and fees.

Taking this poll may have been intended as an interesting endeavor but appears more like it was intended to put people down.

Please excuse me now while I go pick up my Armani suits at the cleaners. Gee, hope the kids aren't driving the BMW tonight as I have an important dinner date with a client. Gotta be sure to show him who I really am!

 

[GimmeSlack12]

I can't help but feel sorry for those who laugh at dial-up users as though you think they are stupid for using dial-up, or as you somehow at least think you are superior. Do you laugh at people who have less money than you generally, or people who did not go as deep into debt as you have? Not everybody has a need for being first or biggest or best at all endeavors.

I still use dial-up for much of my browsing as it is just about as fast as my WildBlue satellite for certain types of browsing, and it is more reliable.

Dialup is most always cheaper. Broadband has nothing to offer many who use the internet almost exclusively for intelligent email. Intelligent email is ASCII email as opposed to HTML for those who may have missed out on the early days.

My satellite broadband costs me $82.xx/month. My all2easy.net dialup costs $4.95/month. This includes all tax and fees.

Taking this poll may have been intended as an interesting endeavor but appears more like it was intended to put people down.

Please excuse me now while I go pick up my Armani suits at the cleaners. Gee, hope the kids aren't driving the BMW tonight as I have an important dinner date with a client. Gotta be sure to show him who I really am!

Should I have included a poll option for "Intelligent Email Users Only"? Gimme a break. I'm sure that would have gotten TONS of hits.

My true intentions were to weed out the stubborn 56k users who take everything too seriously and over-generalize about a large number of people (i.e. everyone in this thread).

 

[yellow]

My true intentions were to weed out the stubborn 56k users who take everything too seriously and over-generalize about a large number of people (i.e. everyone in this thread).

That seems a bit harsh.

For some of us it's not related to $ or being stubborn, it's simply a matter of availability. Large swaths of the US are still without broadband and it's not our fault.

 

[glowfly]

oh the good old days, man really brought back memories, the days fo 56K dial up, oh how we used to spend the nights just chatting, or at max check mails!

 

[*LTD*]

Luckily, I've got a 16.4Tbps connection. It goes right to the Internet. There's no ISP. Al Gore and I do lunch every second Sunday of the month.

 

[hulugu]

That seems a bit harsh.

For some of us it's not related to $ or being stubborn, it's simply a matter of availability. Large swaths of the US are still without broadband and it's not our fault.

I think his response was aimed at the poster he quoted rather than 56K users in general.

Of course, if Broadband isn't available, 56K is the only show in town. And, I can understand why some wouldn't want to pay the extra expense since dial-up connections have become very cheap and Broadband connections remain somewhat expensive.

I couldn't operate without at least a 1.5MB connection these days, too much of my life is about connecting out there and I'm not willing to wait for hours while my computer uploads a single file.

 

[Gaelic2]

I'm an old grandpa and have been using high speed DSL for so long, I've forgotten how slow dial up is.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

That seems a bit harsh.

For some of us it's not related to $ or being stubborn, it's simply a matter of availability. Large swaths of the US are still without broadband and it's not our fault.

Yeah, it was a bit tongue in cheek in my response. Really, I'm just being a bit facetious regarding people who distort this threads curiosity and then get offended by their own interpretation. I am not trying to feel superior, I am not trying to make anyone feel bad, I am not trying to say if you don't have broadband you're a caveman.

Two years ago (when I started this thread) I was simply interested in knowing how many people on MacRumors still use 56k as their primary internet connection. Apparently the answer is: 6

 

[alphaod]

I used dial-up a few weeks ago; yes it was slow, but better than no internet at all.

 

[redgaz26]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

I have virgin media broadband with 20 mb. Sometimes I think it's too slow!!!!!

 

[ucfgrad93]

I use DSL.

 

[steve2112]

I supposedly havd 3Mb/s DSL, but thanks to the wonderful people from AT&T, it feels a lot like 56k dialup. I've been getting about 750k down from them. And now the keep sending me junk mail trying to get me to sign up for U-Verse. HA! Let's see...you can't even deliver 3Mb/s service, and now you expect me to believe you can deliver 12Mb/s service?

I've actually been considering going to the dark side (Comcast) over this. I would miss all the nice AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots, though.

 

[*LTD*]

 

[roadbloc]

I still use 56k Dial Up. It's free.