IT BS thread

Sounds like you want to go hard-wired. Any small 5-port Gb Ethernet switch should do, just stick to brands you recognize (Netgear, Cisco/Linksys, D-Link).

Assuming you meant Mb speeds there, LOL. I have an X8 sitting in a box now. It was a beast until we upgraded to Gigabit internet. I could not get it to allow over 300 Mb even on hardwired connections, and I wasn't the only one with the issue. Tried all the factory resets, clean firmware installs, turning off anything that did any "software" packet inspection (QoS, Traffic Metering), validated MTU settings. Their tech team had no answers beyond that, and frankly I think the hardware was just incapable. It pissed me off that I bought the most expensive WiFi router out there (at the time) and it couldn't meet the specs printed on the box, and Netgear was not willing to do anything about it other than say "check these settings." I was looking at the X10, but I just couldn't do it -- I already paid them for something that was supposed to do what I wanted and wouldn't, not sending more money their way. I am using their CM1000 cable modem, which seems to be very solid, but I bought that before these issues. Don't get me wrong, the X8 is an excellent device, strong signal and stable, it just doesn't do what they say it does.

I had weak signal in some parts of the house, so I tried some of the Ubiquiti commercial stuff. Really cool stuff, but it didn't improve signal over the X8 and would have required using multiple access points, fishing cable through walls . . . so I went with a Ubiquiti Amplifi mesh system. It has been totally solid.

 

I r teh with the 1s and the os and the DOS

 

After 5 years of being on the waitlist, Google Fiber finally sent us a letter notifying us that the cable they buried under the street a year ago is finally ready for residential installations.

About damn time.

Daddy needs his gig.

 

...and here I am wishing I could pay less and get 30 or so instead of the 100 I have at home!

I run an entire school district on 500x500 fiber and utilization only averages around 150.

 

Yeah, I need to see if there is some info on our utilization. I honestly think we'd be fine at 100 for most of our usage, and even 30 would probably be fine. But, large downloads do go faster. Most of what is going on is streaming and online gaming. We always have about 25 devices connected, which goes up by 5 when my daughter is home, and more if relatives are visiting. It just makes the natives feel better to have as much speed as they will sell us, lol.

 

How much does it cost to have google fiber? My city has it's own fiber system and they now charge $2,700 to make the connection from the street to the house. (and they wonder why people don't use it) I was the first one on my street to get it and it was free at the time. I will miss it when I move, for many years now I've had massive speed and an ISP with techs who really know their stuff.

 

I think public sector broadband is something that rarely goes well.

I know of a town on the other side of my state where the cable is run by the town. Their internet prices are a little high for the speeds they offer, and they have data caps. Their TV service is very expensive and I heard they're routinely losing channels because they don't have the power to negotiate effectively with the networks.

We're very rural here, and many of the towns are on DSL if they're lucky. Some have gone with building out public networks instead of making deals with cable companies to extend lines into the town and the anticipated pricing they're announcing is obscene (one came out with $75/month for 25 mb, I believe). That's on top of multi-million dollar loans that the towns will be paying on for years.

 

I think it's free. Still haven't been told the details yet because they're still programming for our area.

 

Nothing is free. They will data mine every bit of traffic across those lines

 

My choices are the local fiber, Comcast, or CenturyLink, and the latter two are complete fucktards and I hate them with a passion. (that hatred is fueled by years of having to deal with them as part of my job) My system has no data caps, the "slowest" speed is 250 Mbps up and down, and there are 10 different ISP's to choose from. I haven't dealt with the two private sector providers for home service, but when it comes to commercial buildings ... well, did I say I really, really despise them?

The only place where the local fiber doesn't kick the private providers butt is the installation fee. At $2700 upfront or $30/month payment it seems expensive to most of my non-nerd neighbors. To be honest they are probably right. CenturyLink will give them "up to" 60 Mbps for $45/month vs 250 Mbps for $67 (with the monthly lease option) I don't think most home users could tell the difference. But, given my professional experience with private vs public providers I'd go with the public one 10 times out of 10.

 

So is that a deal with the devil you'd make? My first thought is maybe, and I'd throw my traffic on a VPN and all that google snooping would be for nothing. (I know the VPN provider could snoop, but lately google has been feeling a little too intrusive in my life.)

 

Which is why I’m seriously considering adding a VPN for Internet traffic. Just not wanting to add another subscription service because I’m cheap.

 

For Full Duplex Gig connection ..... hell yeah I would pay the 2700 install price.

 

Probably. Already use Chrome, Android, etc ... Stuff I search for on my desktop shows up in ads on my phone, etc ...

VPN really won't help unless you are also using a browser other than Chrome and in said browser you are using some add on that blocks cross site cookies and other stuff that tracks you across sites.

As an IT professional I have understood for decades that the cost of the Internet and all these "free" sites is your info.

We used to be afraid of the big bad Micro$oft and all they wanted to do was sell us an OS and software. Now the unwashed masses freely give away all their info and adore Google because of all the "free" services.

Personally I think Google is much more scary than Microsoft ever was.

 

Pfft - full gig is so slow. Real men use 10 gig. Damn, I am so going to miss this internet connection when I move. (full disclosure - I don't have a 10 gig connection. But if I wanted one it's $250/month)

^true dat^

I used to rag on Microsoft and Apple for their crappy software/hardware, but now I thank them. Thanks to them I've had a good paying, steady job for a long time. What would happen to me if they ever got their acts together? What has google done for my bottom line?

I've replaced chrome with firefox and google with duckduckgo. I think google is a better search engine than duckduckgo, but since making the change I haven't been getting creepy ads following me around the internet. The trade off is worth it for me.

 

Speaking of internet speeds, i'm stuck at 12 Mbs. They put a new section in my development behind me. They put in fiber to all of those houses. My house is only 5 years old, but i'm stuck at 12 Mbs and it's my only option. The Fiber junction box is 5' (yes 5 feet) behind my current junction box that i'm connected to. Will Century link connect me so i can have 1 Gbs? Fuck no. what a bunch of fucking bastards.

 

Reason ten billion and 1 to despise CenturyLink. When my town wanted to install the fiber, CenturyLink bought many of our state legislator to get a law passed to prevent it. At the time the best the bastards could get to my home was 96 Kbs. (that's not much faster than an old school dialup modem) Through some miracle the project went ahead. And, guess what? Suddenly my area was able to get 1 Mbps service. The fiber started out at 10 Mbps so my attitude was fuck them.

If you want to make CenturyLink's life miserable start complaining to the Public Service commission. With these public monopolies that is the only way for you to get your voice heard. Complaining directly to CenturyLink is like yelling at a pile of shit. It wastes your time and the shit don't care.

 

Make friends with a neighbor thats in line of sight and setup point to point wireless bridge

 

Reason ten billion and two to hate CenturyLink – and you can’t make this stuff up. I just got a call from the construction superintendent at one of our construction sites saying CenturyLink was there for a meeting to move their lines out of the way of the new building. We’ve been asking them for weeks to have this meeting and now they show up, unannounced and no meeting scheduled, expecting us to drop everything to meet them there. So, I called one of my guys to get over there to talk to them. But, no, they can’t wait 20 minutes and leave before anyone can get there.