bruceb news

There will come a time when high-speed Internet access will be ubiquitous and the growing pains will seem quaint. It can be hard to remember that while we’re in the middle of these odd times.

- SBC will sell you DSL for $19.95/month. You have to sign up online with a one-year commitment, and you have to use SBC local phone service to get the low price. Last month you also had to take SBC long distance service, but they’ve dropped that requirement – at least for March.

- Sonic will sell you DSL for almost the same price – in general, Sonic passes along SBC prices. If you sign up with Sonic:

• you will get a technically different type of DSL – far less troublesome than SBC’s PPPOE connection
• you will not get SBC’s horrible software taking over your computer and popping up windows and advertisements and inducements to use services you don’t want
• if you need support, you will get native English speakers who actually want to help solve your problems

 

- Comcast is locked in its peculiar battle with the city of Santa Rosa. Here’s the Press Democrat’s coverage of the latest round. It appears Comcast will finally have its Internet service available to Santa Rosa customers by the end of March. Call them if you’ve been in limbo – it sounds like they’re turning on neighborhoods periodically right now.

- Comcast service is more expensive than SBC DSL, but speeds are far higher and Comcast currently has a good reputation nationwide for delivering a dependable connection and good support. In April we are scheduled to get the speed increase being rolled out nationwide by Comcast – 4Mbps downloads, 768k uploads, with download speeds up to 6Mbps for another ten bucks a month.

- Comcast is giving away a $50 mp3 player if you sign up for Internet service in March. Whee.