HI all, well I have only had one isp, which is wizard.com and they seem to be doing ok for me. What do they charge, well for unlimited www access and a personal homepage they charge $19.95 per month. For me with a business wep site, they charge me $25.00 160 hours access and $50.00 for page maint. which I do myself. I have looked at some other ips companies but they seem to charge more and they want to design my web pages and their connections don't seem to be as good as what I have. Thanks :}

I use shaw wave through the cable company in Calgary and I love it!, too fast, no phone line tied up and 24-hour connection. I pay $40Canadian a month; it ain't so bad but for those that need it it's worth it, there is no web space for a site but there is for ftp. Also, you are allowed to have up to 5 email accounts, which I guess some people would benefit from. The program I am into is the Home network. We'll be moving to Austin pretty soon, does anyone know whether there is cable internet service through the local cable company?, who is the cable company down there? if the service exists does anyone know what it costs? Thanks and happy surfing! Ito

Welcome Ito, yes, we either have it or we're getting it very soon. Very glad you're joining us.

WOOHOO! san antonio is finally getting CABLE MODEMS! i have already signed up for the beta test. http://www.paragon-sa.com/

Hawaii-on-line is great but has been bought by GST and when they are having difficulties I get dumped into The Well which has been purchased/merged or whatever with the even bigger mindspring conglomeration of which GST is a part. They keep upgrading regularly and they answer questions from their subscribers within 24 hours. Cable ISP is not yet available on this island, but when it is, HOL will be the provider, I am willing to bet on that! http://www.aloha.net

Including tax, I pay $20.78 per month unlimited with all sorts of services available

Mel Riser just split with ddc.net, the Spring's presence provider and Mel's been the big reason we've been with ddc. Mel's doing http://www.autoeloan.com and getting a T-1 at his house. So maybe Mel will become our provider. Not for sure but a possibility being bandied about.

It would be lovely indeed to have access to a T1 line. My son has one at work - but he says it is still as slow (or as fast) downloading as the place you are accessing can feed it to you. If they have slow lines, your T1 line will not help you. I have noticed that when I was upgraded to 56K ability by my ISP.

I've moaned elswhere about the phone charging sytem in the UK. It's definitely prohibiting internet growth here. I am with Cable & Wireless as my ISP. It's free connection, unlimited online time, little content (i.e. no frills) which suits me fine. Connections have at times been slow, but better lately. In a recent computer mag survey they came top in the UK over the last six months. I tried Freeserve as my initial ISP (a year ago) and had all sorts of problems. A new company (to the UK) North Americ n Gateway is currently offering free connection, on-line time, and 24hr free phonecalls. It was in the Times newspaper yesterday. Already British Telecom is giving them problems in registering people. The campaign is mounting here for the govt to do something to free up access to the internet by sorting out the charging system and making BT play the game. BT have the technology but are going to ration ASDN lines and the word is that it's going to be too pricey for ordinary folk like me. Sorry, moan, moan, moan!

I use a ISDN line, and was with Nacamar until lately. I switched to Nikoma - no monthly fee, pay only only the phone fees of DM 0,479 - which is even lower than any city tariff!

I know it is expensive for European and Australian internet users. Alexander, I am happy you have found a better solution than before, but until you all have the same opportunities for unlimited free access, I will not be thrilled. We began that way, but it quickly became unlimited access when the AOL's of the world entered the market

I pay heavy, bthey - it's fast!!!!

that's "but hey" in the middle, BTW.

Why is not the whole world internet enabled at a reasonable flat fee for unlimited use. That seems cruel and unusual to me, and deprives us of your company for longer periods than now available. How fast are you logged in? Right now I am being served on a line supplying 49.333 speed from my ISP but I have had 56K from them. That is the highest available locally (and which our phone company lines can handle.)

I could go for using two ISDN lines simultaneously... at double the rate...

What would that achieve? ....double the rate you pay for the privilege of using the ISDN, or double the rate od speed at which you are served?

ISDN gives you two lines you can use simultaneously at 64 whatevers each (and a bunch of phone numbers...), and with Multilink PPP, you can use both at the same time for downloads, webbing about, etc... at the price of paying for TWO lines! I don't think I want to get hooled on that...

So, to anwer your question - I'd get both!

Sounds ideal! I agree with you. (wondering if that option is available out here in the middle of an ocean...)

I heard ISDN is not as widely spread in the States as it is here...

It's fading out here in Austin with the advent of cable modems and DSL.

I think that is happening here, as well. Most especially as regards the cable modems...

DSL is the next big thing. A lot of home networks will be built around them. Cable modems are pretty hot too, but they're somewhat hard to share on a network.

I have learned the hard way not to share my home computer with anyone living here at present. There is not a firewall of sufficient strength to withstand the curiosity of a bored "other" so networking will not be an issue for me for a while, but I am sure it is for all of your computers in-house, Terry. Do you use separate dedicated lines or is there a master (other than yourself) involved?

I have two houses and isdn lines to both, and we run a common subnet. Most machines are either Win 98, NT or Win 2000.

I gather you are satisfied with the speed and ease of getting online. What wouldbe your dream set-up? (And, no Crays listed for the Living room, please!)

Oh, but that one Cray looks so nicely like a sofa-style seating thingy for hotel lobbies, and the other looked like a small bar... Does that tell about their makers mindset?

...and they come in subtle and classy colors of charcoal and burgundy. Tres chic and a definite trend-setter. I guess, if you can't figure out how to use your bar-styled Cray, you can order up a tall cool one! Enough of those and you won't care whether you get it to work or not!

As they said, design IS everything... And wasn't the bar-type also fitted with some serious cooling device...?

Oh, is that what all of that coiled copper was in the back? I thought it might be a distill-it-yourself deal...perhaps both?! That in one clever machine!

;=}