23 new of 34 responses total.
At the remote (MS Windows) end I'm using whatever the most recent version of RealVNC is (4.something) locally I have vncviewer- 3.3.3.2nb3 from pkgsrc.
You're using Windows? ugh. Poor you. As an aside, how much stability to you sacrifice if you want to run pkgsrc from current?
The site has MS Windows on all of the desktop PCs. I had hoped to have weaned them of that by now, but alas they're in the hole and still digging. Sadly I've not found anyone to take over the software support work there, which would free up time for higher priority work. pkgsrc-current is a "coin toss": if you get lucky, your packages will build and may be less out of date than those from a stable release of pkgsrc.
Provide Net's DSL service is like 30/month with a static IP and they let you do stuff like run your own web server. I would recomend them.
Wow! Those are awesome terms. Most places, last I checked, specifically prohibited any sort of server. Usually helped along by dynamic IPs with leases as short as 8 hours. Bleck! I always did like Provide.Net. I would switch to them in a second, but I don't think they can deliver acceptable DSL performance 10296000 feet from the DSLAM. ;)
Once my contract's up, I'll look at provide.net.
Just an update: Speakeasy has been awesome. I've only once had a connection problem that wasn't my fault, and they were very good about getting it fixed quickly. Even better, they kept me "in the loop" -- you get direct access to the trouble ticket information for your problem, including all the comments by the local loop provider's field techs.
About one year ago I finally gave up on Comcast for
Internet service. There were days when I'd get 50 kbits/sec
downstream, which might be impressive for a dial-up modem
but not for Cable. I switched to AT&T 'U-verse' VDSL, which
seems to work much better where I live.
One disappointment though has been the 'gateway' (modem,
router, switch and wireless access point combined). It cost
$100 and turned out to be bulky, klunky (802.11g @ 2.4 GHz,
100baseTX on the wired ports) and, judging by the scuffed
mouldings, used. Had I not been desperate for working
Internet service I would have sent it back to them. To add
5 GHz WiFi I'll have to plug in a new wireless access point.
It always made me wonder if the modem I took back to their office (Charter) because it didn't work, got a quick wipe down and put back on the shelf for other customers. You just never know what you are going to get sometimes.
I should probably have been more insistent that they replace it. My ADSL modem was a fraction of the size of the VDSL one and would have fit much better on the telephone shelf in the kitchen where the router lives.
That always bugs me when you get used to one device and the new one takes up more space. I have a wifi router like that. You can, in theory lay it down, but it gets too hot that way so I have to stand it up (and right now I have a desk fan blowing on it keeping it nice and cool). I guess it's time to put an A/C unit in this window here. Too many computers and too many switches, routers, modems, etc. generates some heat.
Handy in the winter, I suppose. ;-)
Yeah, no problem with heat in that room in the winter.
If only we could build computers that would cool a room down in the summer! :-)
Wouldn't that be something! Probably cost an arm and a leg, though.
I found it interesting to re-read this item. Comcast stopped working and I didn't want to deal with AT&T's shady cup game so I went with VDSL service from Earthlink. It's $45 for 3M down, 1.5M up and comes in over AT&T copper, through an AT&T modem but I can let Earthlink deal with them if and when that breaks.
Interesting. I thought I was paying more for everything here in Japan, but we pay only about $30 (3200 JPY) per month for a 1 Gbps fiber optic network connection.
Where I live, I doubt that's available at any price.
I'm expecting delivery of Starlink hardware any day now.
Let us know how well it works.
Re. 30: I've been tempted just because the Internet service
here is limited to AT&T even if I buy it through another
company. Starlink isn't ready yet though and I feel as a
former astronomy student I probably shouldn't encourage
them.
resp:32 Heh. Watch the skies!
Starlink works great if you're willing to use that much electricity. My use is offgrid and Starlink uses much more energy than advertised - especially when it is homing and triangulating. In high wind areas, that can be quite frequent. Alas, it was not sustainable on my 8 solar panel with 2 deep cycle marine batteries which also supply a few other digital items like cameras and sensors.
You have several choices: