Internet Speed And Your Service Provider

We may think we have problems with our internet connection but find a computer problem instead. But I want to talk about internet problems and discuss some personal experiences.

I live in a rural area and I was forced to live with dial-up way too long. So I was not as hard to please as some ISP's customers I'm sure. After the DSL was available (cable is still not available here) I signed up with a slow speed compared to most DSL services. This was due to the distance (so I was told) from my home to the closest service outlet. I assumed that this was like a transformer for electricity where the power is boosted. (no I'm not a tech!)

I was promised a DSL speed equivalent to 1.5 mb/s and was about half of the normal "in the city" speed of 3.0. But it was OK with this since I was charged a little less and it was about 5 to 7 times faster than my dial-up. I really can't imagine now having to live with the speed of dial-up, can you? Anyway in a couple of years my DSL provider was able to offer me the 3.0 mb/s service and that was great and is where I am now. Although my office has close to 5.0 and some friends with cable are easily at 7.0 MB/sec (they say).

My real internet connection problems at my home, they can be traced to two things.

My dog: The Internet will not work very fast if your dog has chewed on the wires. In my case it would have been better if the wires are completely broken because then we could have found the problem much faster.

Too much water: It seemed for a long time the Internet service was very slow after a big rain. Apparently there was water getting into the ISP's controls somewhere and causing this. It took a while but this was finally repaired also.

I'm thinking about going completely wireless at home with my cell phone provider. I am supposed to get as fast of service with it as with my DSL now. And this will eliminate the need for the ground phone line. Yes we are fast doing away with the old ground phones. This is the day of everyone with individual communication... soon gone is the "household" phone.