FARK.com: (7119616) Hundreds of thousands of Canadians still using dial-up. I wish there was something funny I could say about this but I'm one of them and I pray for death every day

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		Hundreds of thousands of Canadians still using dial-up. I wish there was something funny I could say about this but I'm one of them and I pray for death every day (cbc.ca)		129
		More: Sad, Canadians, information superhighway, dial-up Internet, web developers

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BillCo		2012-05-22 08:36:10 AM

What's a "dial up"?

gopher321		2012-05-22 08:43:27 AM

What's a 'Canadian'?

NeedlesslyCanadian		2012-05-22 08:58:23 AM

What the hell? Who even offers dial-up anymore?

Doc Daneeka		2012-05-22 09:59:47 AM

NeedlesslyCanadian: What the hell? Who even offers dial-up anymore?

Lots of people in remote and rural areas don't have access to broadband.

BronyMedic		2012-05-22 10:00:06 AM

My God. Those poor people.

Could you imagine downloading porn at 56K speeds? You'd be finished before you got ten seconds downloaded.

Why Would I Read the Article		2012-05-22 10:00:33 AM

Haha, it's funny because Canadians are backwards people. In America you guys are known as Amish.

Still, can't hate Canada, though. The women in Montreal and Toronto are worth the price of admission alone. Just beautiful.

cleveoh		2012-05-22 10:00:43 AM

EEEEEEEE-OOOOOO-EEEEEE-GHGHGHGHGHGHHGHGHGH, eh?

SweetSilverBlues		2012-05-22 10:01:11 AM

Oh dear, subby! That headline is one of the most depressing things I have ever read on Fark.

I will pray that FSM will take pity on you.

Ra-men.

TheOther		2012-05-22 10:01:13 AM

56K...that's, what, about 43k in real bandwidth?

dywed88		2012-05-22 10:01:16 AM

I hear ya Subby. Only 3 years since I suffered through that shiat, maybe 100 yards from the broadband cutoff.

dywed88		2012-05-22 10:02:52 AM

TheOther: 56K...that's, what, about 43k in real bandwidth?

56k? Try the 28k that I had in 2008. Fark was one of the best sites on the internet, most content for the loading times.

Generation_D		2012-05-22 10:03:03 AM

so, no canadian national broadband then I take it.

Bhruic		2012-05-22 10:03:55 AM

Yup, my family's cottage has no highspeed access, and the dialup over the phone lines is pretty poor. And people wonder why stuff like always-on DRM is annoying.

Songblade		2012-05-22 10:04:31 AM

I bet the providers are still charging more than $30 for it too

Sitting_Duk		2012-05-22 10:04:43 AM

Wow... Subby. Well, anyway here's a link to a slide show of some amazing high res photos I found over at the Sierra Club. i hope you like them. Link

my_cats_breath_smells_like_cat_food		2012-05-22 10:05:16 AM

Hey Canada, why don't you just socialize your internet like you did with medicine since that worked out so splendidly for you.

Shakespeare's Monkey		2012-05-22 10:05:28 AM

Yeah well Canada has socialized medicine, so get off my lawn.

_{NO CARRIER}

dittybopper		2012-05-22 10:05:34 AM

dywed88: TheOther: 56K...that's, what, about 43k in real bandwidth?

56k? Try the 28k that I had in 2008. Fark was one of the best sites on the internet, most content for the loading times.

Pfft. I was signing on to bulletin boards using a 300 baud modem back in the 1980s. We would have given our collective left testicles for even a 9600 baud modem back then, when 1200 baud meant you dropped some heavy cash on a new modem.

rudemix		2012-05-22 10:07:00 AM

I think people in Ottawa have access to higher speeds. If 6,500 dont want to pay for it that's on them.

FTA:For some Canadians in rural communities, dial-up is the only way they can get online

Meaning, if you want to live in Elk-Pelvis, Yukon then dial up will be your friend forever.

texdent		2012-05-22 10:07:46 AM

I hope they have more than one phone line.

LarryDan43		2012-05-22 10:07:53 AM

I sort of miss dial up on a 1200 baud modem hooked up to my C-128.

Perducci		2012-05-22 10:07:55 AM

If it's because you live in the middle of nowhere: suck it up. You've chosen to live somewhere relatively remote and as part of that decision have chosen to do without some of the privileges of a more central or convenient location.

If it's because you're poor: maybe you should be using your time for better things than surfing the Web. One shift at McDonalds will pay for basic high speed service for the month.

dywed88		2012-05-22 10:08:12 AM

rudemix: Meaning, if you want to live in Elk-Pelvis, Yukon then dial up will be your friend forever.

Because Southern Ontario is the bloody Yukon.

Albino Squid		2012-05-22 10:09:18 AM

My parents, in rural Nova Scotia (though we're talking "ten minutes from town and five to the highway" rural, not the great beyond), were on dial-up until about eighteen months ago...the cabling was installed two roads down for years previous, but the dominant telecom in the area decided that it wasn't worth stringing an extra 3 kms of cable up, and they sure as hell weren't about to allow anyone else to do it, either. Took the government plowing money into building a network of transmission towers for them to get broadband...insofar as service that maxes at around 1.5-2mbps counts.

ModernLuddite		2012-05-22 10:09:53 AM

If you leave the city in Canada, it immediately becomes The Road Warrior.

STAY IN REGINA, STAY SAFE.

Baron Harkonnen		2012-05-22 10:10:47 AM

Dial-up? I guess that's all fine and dandy, if you want to be one of those smarty-pants wise-guys using computers and CD-ROMS on the Facebook website chatroom. Just don't come crying to me when you use up all of the inner-tents.

Nana's Vibrator		2012-05-22 10:11:06 AM

Just wait until Comcast gets up there and tells you about their "discount" for phone, cable, and internet service. Only $760 per month!*

* with an incorrect invoice and new hidden charges every month and being sent a modem you don't need and they charge you for it until YOU drop it off and then the subsequent customer service phone calls and being put on a transfer merry-go-round until you just wish every last employee at Comcast was dead.

I'll take the 56K dial up over Comcast, although I'm currently on DirecTV and a DSL line that does just fine for my simple phone and websurfing methods and is a fraction of the cost and frustration.
/the Comcast lady I dropped the unwanted modem off to had a black eye already. There's a joke in there somewhere

GooberMcFly		2012-05-22 10:11:30 AM

Yeah? My internet used to be me dialling long distance into my ISP and yelling "ONE ZERO ONE ZERO ZERO ZERO ONE ONE ZERO ZERO ZERO ONE ONE ONE ONE..."

Drove my wife nuts.

some_beer_drinker		2012-05-22 10:12:56 AM

well, don't live in the farking boonies, morans.

s1ugg0		2012-05-22 10:13:30 AM

/"Everything is amazing and no one is happy"

Fabric_Man		2012-05-22 10:13:40 AM

ModernLuddite: If you leave the city in Canada, it immediately becomes The Road Warrior.

STAY IN REGINA, STAY SAFE.

images.wikia.com

JUST WALK AWAY FROM THE T3 CONNECTION!

daggar		2012-05-22 10:15:24 AM

NeedlesslyCanadian: What the hell? Who even offers dial-up anymore?

There is still 2 isp's in Calgary that I know offer dial up still. One is Telus and the other is Nucleus. I think most rural people use Telus though for the free LD charges to connect.

theurge14		2012-05-22 10:18:20 AM

Good lord Canadians, if you want to be our neighbors then get your shiat together.

Zeddediah		2012-05-22 10:18:43 AM

Until the government allows real competition in the 3g market, why have grandma switch? She only uses email related to the seniors club anyway. She doesn't need to be paying what amounts to one of the highest rates in the world.
Same for DSL or cable.

Primus		2012-05-22 10:20:23 AM

Manitoba's phone company is finally scrapping their copper lines and switching to fiber province-wide, so soon even Cletus will be downloading porn at least 100mbits. Dunno what's going on elsewhere.

Roy_G_Biv		2012-05-22 10:20:29 AM

So Tim Horton's doesn't have free wifi?

/Trying to remember if I ever leeched off them with my Android phone, which doesn't have data roaming in Canada.

mjg		2012-05-22 10:21:20 AM

Interesting. Some extended family and friends of mine in Saskatchewan (yup) just this week had their internet/cable/phone upgraded to 200Mbps, set to go to 1GBps. Not too shabby.

Bhruic		2012-05-22 10:21:35 AM

theurge14: Good lord Canadians, if you want to be our neighbors then get your shiat together.

Uh, you think there aren't an equally large number of Americans who only have dialup? Rural America is better covered, but it's still not completely covered. Of course, we have a larger land area with 1/10th the population, so that's no surprise.

Harry Freakstorm		2012-05-22 10:22:06 AM

Complaining now? Just wait until they computers.

Nana's Vibrator		2012-05-22 10:22:43 AM

theurge14: Good lord Canadians, if you want to be our neighbors then get your shiat together.

If this is what Canadians have, what, dare I ask, is going on in Mexico?

theurge14		2012-05-22 10:23:41 AM

Bhruic: theurge14: Good lord Canadians, if you want to be our neighbors then get your shiat together.

Uh, you think there aren't an equally large number of Americans who only have dialup? Rural America is better covered, but it's still not completely covered. Of course, we have a larger land area with 1/10th the population, so that's no surprise.

Have you seen America? We're like Coruscant. We haven't had dialup since Samuel Morse died.

theurge14		2012-05-22 10:24:33 AM

Nana's Vibrator: theurge14: Good lord Canadians, if you want to be our neighbors then get your shiat together.

If this is what Canadians have, what, dare I ask, is going on in Mexico?

They share broadband down there. Like 20 people per computer.

dittybopper		2012-05-22 10:24:51 AM

natazha		2012-05-22 10:24:54 AM

Bhruic: theurge14: Good lord Canadians, if you want to be our neighbors then get your shiat together.

Uh, you think there aren't an equally large number of Americans who only have dialup? Rural America is better covered, but it's still not completely covered. Of course, we have a larger land area with 1/10th the population, so that's no surprise.

15% of Americans don't have anything better than dial-up. And lousy connections at that.

eatsnackysmores		2012-05-22 10:25:45 AM

Before dumping on us poor Canucks, remember that there are plenty of American dial-up users:

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/plenty-of-internet- u sers-cling-to-slow-dial-up-connections-85360/

SweetSilverBlues		2012-05-22 10:26:24 AM

Resolute		2012-05-22 10:27:27 AM

Who the hell still uses the term "information superhighway" anymore... aside from someone still on dial-up?

And another way to sum up that article is "number of troglodytes still using dial-up has decreased by over 75% between 2007 and 2011".

bborchar		2012-05-22 10:29:08 AM

My parents had dial-up until a couple of years ago...but 56k would have been wonderful compared to the ACTUAL bandwidth they got (usually less than 10k)...the internet would literally time out just trying to log in to their email. When we visited, I either had to hope the neighbor's wireless was on or go without internet. They finally relented and got cable when we had our second child and we showed them skype (we live over 500 miles away). I feel for those still having to deal with that crap.

dittybopper		2012-05-22 10:34:45 AM

SweetSilverBlues: dittybopper: dywed88: TheOther: 56K...that's, what, about 43k in real bandwidth?

56k? Try the 28k that I had in 2008. Fark was one of the best sites on the internet, most content for the loading times.

Pfft. I was signing on to bulletin boards using a 300 baud modem back in the 1980s. We would have given our collective left testicles for even a 9600 baud modem back then, when 1200 baud meant you dropped some heavy cash on a new modem.

We ate dirt, and we were grateful for it!

Alternately, dad would slash us in two with breadknife.

Take your pick. ;)

Back then, you actually had to know modem commands to get it to do anything.

ATDT

MilesTeg		2012-05-22 10:34:49 AM

Back in the day we played Ultima Online and got our porn using a 28.8 dial up and WE LIKED IT

Kids these days...

/Great Lakes

miss diminutive		2012-05-22 10:35:37 AM

Small wonder.

PYROY		2012-05-22 10:37:28 AM

I sort of feel the same way subby, only I wish death on the entire Canadian continent.

Harry Freakstorm		2012-05-22 10:39:03 AM

I got to update the lios on my chainsaw, eh? So I goes to the hardware store 'n I say "Mitch, this curflunker needs its Lio updated, eh. And Mitch says "Don't call me 'Mitch'. My name's Frank, eh. So I says "Frank, this here chainsaw needs the lios updated. Can I use yer phone line?" Mitch, er Frank says "Make it snappy, eh. I'm expecting a call from the Health Exchange. Dey says I might get on the list to get on the list to get a new kidney list." I says "Dat's great news. So you won't be packing dat dialysis machine around no more, eh?" "Nope," says Frank. "As soon, as I get that new kidney and push a few LaBlatties through it, I'll have to ship ol' Lady Dialysis to a guy in Wiskashontamarko, Saskatchewan."

So I removes the Lio cap and I says "Frank, you got an adapter, eh? The phone line don' connect noplace under this cap." Frank says "Why do you think you gotta update the Lios on this chainsaw anyhow?" I tells him it stopped working an' when that happened to the Macky-tosh, the guy from der city come up and he updated the Bios, eh? I got to looky on the chainsaw after it stopped and I found the LIO port. I figured it need updatin', eh?

Franky looks at the chainsaw and says, "You Looney but not money Looney, dat's not a computer Lio port, eh. That's the oil cap and you're looking at it up and side downy. You jus run yer chainsaw out of oil. Add some oil to it and hope it runs or yer gonna be cold this winter, eh."

So I bought a few quarts for the chain saw. Oiled her up and she's a cutting fine. I added a quart to the macky-tosh but she aint a-doin' so well. She must have been a 30 weight system.

Mr_Ectomy		2012-05-22 10:39:08 AM

So, it's 366,000 people, about 6%. Mmmm, I wonder how many Americans still use dial up?

3.5 Million? 6% you say?

Get your head out of your asses.

MythDragon		2012-05-22 10:40:40 AM

What, is DSL a basic human right now?

Farking Candians, why can't they just g
***carrier lost***

silverjets		2012-05-22 10:40:44 AM

Hundreds of thousands. Big deal. Wasn't there some survey from a couple of years ago showing that something like 100 million users in the US are still on dial up?

SweetSilverBlues		2012-05-22 10:41:47 AM

MythDragon		2012-05-22 10:42:52 AM

Also,

VenomousDuck		2012-05-22 10:42:59 AM

I want to point and laugh but I work in tech support for a company who offers dial-up, so I feel your pain every day.

What's that? No dial tone? Are you sure the phone line is plugged in?

Mr_Ectomy		2012-05-22 10:43:49 AM

Mr_Ectomy: 3.5 Million? 6% you say?

Oh, wait, that's just AOL. I don't have the full total.

Linux_Yes		2012-05-22 10:47:24 AM

millions of Americans still using dial-up.

and?

YouPeopleAreCrazy		2012-05-22 10:47:44 AM

eatsnackysmores: Before dumping on us poor Canucks, remember that there are plenty of American dial-up users:

That article talks about people staying on dial-up on purpose. No need, costs, etc. Not that they can't get it. Although there are quite a few of those.

Und Becks		2012-05-22 10:49:02 AM

Can't they still get satellite Internet access? I've never really looked into it myself (cable -> fios ftw), but I imagine it's better then dial-up if that's all you've got. At least for downloads, unless you get uploads over sat now.

LordOfThePings		2012-05-22 10:49:11 AM

Thanks, Obamanet!

Spongebob Plaid Pants		2012-05-22 10:49:30 AM

They could always get a Verizon MiFi wireless. I have two, and during the 40% of the time that they work, they can sometimes even work FASTER than dial-up! (But not often)

The Irresponsible Captain		2012-05-22 10:50:54 AM

Move to a first-world country like South Korea or Romania and out of the backwaters of the internet we have in North America.

//The internet sucks down here too.

YouPeopleAreCrazy		2012-05-22 10:51:00 AM

silverjets: Hundreds of thousands. Big deal. Wasn't there some survey from a couple of years ago showing that something like 100 million users in the US are still on dial up?

1/3 of the country? No. And if we take your statement literally - 100 million users - that wuold probably be 1/2, because not everyone is a user.

Of course, if you have some actual numbers...

Woot_Gawd		2012-05-22 10:51:01 AM

Hundreds of thousands?...Does Canada even have that many people?

/American
//Lives in Hamilton
///This thread was over in 5

Farkbert		2012-05-22 10:51:53 AM

Shakespeare's Monkey: [forum.ih8mud.com image 565x437]

Yeah well Canada has socialized medicine, so get off my lawn.

NO CARRIER

I think I have that exact same modem at home. 300baud. It worked last I checked when I used it to decode the last track of Peace and Love, Inc..

jaybeezey		2012-05-22 11:02:48 AM

I'm sure it's the same here in the states. Though i doubt that the cousin farking inbreds in the Appalachians even notice.

SweetHomeNowhere		2012-05-22 11:04:22 AM

The Irresponsible Captain: Move to a first-world country like South Korea or Romania and out of the backwaters of the internet we have in North America.

Except that South Korea has a very strong internet censorship and has a much higher chance of getting some kind of internet frauds than in North America. There's a price of getting a fast internet in South Korea according to my Korean in-laws.

farkturf		2012-05-22 11:05:23 AM

What, they don't have Hughes Net satellite internet in Canada where it only costs $300 per month to get DSL speeds?

dywed88		2012-05-22 11:07:22 AM

Und Becks: Can't they still get satellite Internet access? I've never really looked into it myself (cable -> fios ftw), but I imagine it's better then dial-up if that's all you've got. At least for downloads, unless you get uploads over sat now.

When my mother looked into it (around 2006) it cost a fortune (like 4 times dial-up or 3 times cable/dsl), had shiatty speeds and horrifying (by Canadian standards) bandwidth limits that you would be throttled down to dial-up speed upon reaching. Some areas had it via radio that was somewhere between the two in terms of cost and quality.

YouPeopleAreCrazy: That article talks about people staying on dial-up on purpose. No need, costs, etc. Not that they can't get it. Although there are quite a few of those.
I suggest you read more than the first couple paragraphs:
"According to the FCC report, 21 percent of dial-up users said broadband services weren't available in their area"
And it also discusses cost issues.
The CBC article doesn't provide numbers, but does say that some people choose dial-up because of their usage but it is getting harder to use because many sites simply won't function on 56k modems (if you are lucky enough to get a connection speed near that).
Really, the situations are essentially the same.

natazha		2012-05-22 11:07:36 AM

Mobile sites are great if you are stuck on a bad dial-up. Unfortunately, they are starting to get clogged with ads as well.

entropic_existence		2012-05-22 11:07:49 AM

Und Becks: Can't they still get satellite Internet access? I've never really looked into it myself (cable -> fios ftw), but I imagine it's better then dial-up if that's all you've got. At least for downloads, unless you get uploads over sat now.

They can, it is what my parent's have (all that is available). If the phone company upgraded the connection that sits a few hundred metres from my Parent's house they could have proper broadband but the company won't do it. Some of the people in the area even offered to pay for the upgrade out of pocket and still no go. The satellite is better than dial-up, but not by much.

Mr.Tangent		2012-05-22 11:07:55 AM

It's the only thing that works with our bionic beavers.

papazit		2012-05-22 11:14:38 AM

Two words for anyone who's still dialup-bound:
Opera Turbo

Server-side compression takes some of the pain out of slow links.

mekkab		2012-05-22 11:22:17 AM

This is HEADLINE OF THE YEAR material, Subby. You've managed to go from being humorous to evoking pathos, and even in some cases ennui. It's beautiful.

/and terrifying

Doink_Boink		2012-05-22 11:32:28 AM

I have relatives who quit the internet when their provider stopped offering dial up. This was a few years ago. They asked me to come and "fix" their situation. They couldn't just tell me over the phone, they needed me to some to their house and sit down at their table while they discussed the issue. Once there I notice their phone was a 60s relic and on the base was written: "BELL SYSTEM property." It was a rotary phone, mustard yellow. I told them they should get a better phone and they told me not if the phone company tries to charge them for tone dialing. I asked them what their phone bill is like, thinking it was cheap and a few bucks wouldn't be a big deal. Well, it would be cheap if they weren't still renting the same damn phone from 1960 at $16/month! We went with netzero, now they can go slow and steady into their Fox News sites. I bought them a $50 cordless phone that they now hate and blame me for the tone dialing fee, no mention of the $16 I'm saving them every month.

mohron		2012-05-22 11:35:58 AM

I also heard that they are afraid of the dark.

Link

Flint Ironstag		2012-05-22 11:42:26 AM

So thankful that the UK, by accident or design, got it right. Years ago BT, "The Phone Company" in the UK, was ordered to split. The network side had to allow any ISP access at the same price and conditions and be able to everyone in the country. I could start an ISP in my basement tomorrow and be able to compete with the big boys and cover the whole country.
Result is I have about fifty ISP to choose from, real competition, with choice on speeds, limits, throttling policy etc. And the network is being upgraded with more and more of the country on fibre. There are still a few odd areas stuck on dial up but they are rare.

Mr_Ectomy		2012-05-22 11:49:49 AM

Flint Ironstag: So thankful that the UK, by accident or design, got it right. Years ago BT, "The Phone Company" in the UK, was ordered to split. The network side had to allow any ISP access at the same price and conditions and be able to everyone in the country.

Nanny state gets it right?

/sorry, channeling the Americans

XMark		2012-05-22 11:50:18 AM

The worst part is, those of us Canadians with broadband internet still get geographically walled off from all the good video content online. Can we just join the US already? I wanna watch some Hulu.

broken jebus		2012-05-22 11:52:01 AM

I'd trade my super-fast internet connection for some of their kind bud.

mekkab		2012-05-22 12:01:18 PM

broken jebus: I'd trade my super-fast internet connection for some of their kind bud.

... THAT'S why they don't need fast internet!

/solved.

Hacker_X		2012-05-22 12:17:13 PM

Farkbert: Shakespeare's Monkey: [forum.ih8mud.com image 565x437]

Yeah well Canada has socialized medicine, so get off my lawn.

NO CARRIER

I think I have that exact same modem at home. 300baud. It worked last I checked when I used it to decode the last track of Peace and Love, Inc..

The commie 64 modem I had had a physical switch for selecting the baud rate, none of that fancy autonegotiation.

TheOther		2012-05-22 12:19:44 PM

GooberMcFly: Yeah? My internet used to be me dialling long distance into my ISP and yelling "ONE ZERO ONE ZERO ZERO ZERO ONE ONE ZERO ZERO ZERO ONE ONE ONE ONE..."

Drove my wife nuts.

That's the high life, frontrunner! We weren't allowed to use fancy words like 'One' and 'Zero'. We had to vocalize the tones!

Sounded like a wookie havin' an orgasm.

Wade_Wilson		2012-05-22 12:43:49 PM

They're just waiting for the US to get nation wide wifi, and hoping we forget to password protect it.

Gough		2012-05-22 12:49:14 PM

Bhruic: Yup, my family's cottage has no highspeed access, and the dialup over the phone lines is pretty poor. And people wonder why stuff like always-on DRM is annoying.

We're in the same boat: 15 km from town and 2 km of private road= a long chunk of worn out copper wire. The vox quality is awful, you can only imagine how often the internet connection gets dropped. We're thrilled when we get 14 kBPS. It often takes about 5 minutes to download Environment Canada's weather radar animation...if you can stay online that long.

/OTOH, we're 30 meters from a 100 square km lake...the largest lake on the largest freshwater island in the world, so I'm usually OK with the internet service.

mekkab		2012-05-22 01:11:36 PM

Gough: /OTOH, we're 30 meters from a 100 square km lake...the largest lake on the largest freshwater island in the world, so I'm usually OK with the internet service.

Honesty? You're losing out on the deal. Think of all the cat videos you're missing. Think of all the Kim Kardashian news flashes you're losing out on. And those witty memes from the brain trust of 4chan.

_{/got room on the island?}

Electrify		2012-05-22 01:32:44 PM

In rural communities, why not use mobile internet? Even slow data is better than a 56k dial up. In an urban area if you cannot afford it, Wind and Mobilicity offer unlimited wireless data for a low rate. Not to mention wifi hotspots or discount broadband providers (ex: Tech Savvy).

SultanofSchwing		2012-05-22 01:36:13 PM

dywed88		2012-05-22 01:38:25 PM

You are assuming that these areas that don't have Cable and DSL infrastructure have consistent 3G connections?
Not to mention that they are more expensive and generally have pretty low data allowances, and you definitely can't get providers such as Wind Mobile.

dywed88		2012-05-22 01:40:01 PM

Mobile internet will probably be what finally provides good internet to those ares at a reasonable cost, but it isn't there yet (in terms of infrastructure or cost).

Toy_Cop		2012-05-22 01:58:45 PM

What do you expect when 2-3 companies hold a monopoly for cell service, internet and cable tv? They are all actually working together now and offer pretty much the same plans. So no matter where you go you get a giant dildo shoved up your ass.

RckStr66		2012-05-22 02:18:11 PM

We live in a rural area and switched to a satelite connection thru Telus. It works quite well. I was surprised

Bathia_Mapes		2012-05-22 02:25:23 PM

NeedlesslyCanadian: What the hell? Who even offers dial-up anymore?

In the U.S. AOL. In my area, at least one company.

There are a lot of people in rural areas in both the U.S. & Canada that don't have access to broadband, either though a cable company or satellite dish. Dial-up is their only option if they want to get online.

russlar		2012-05-22 02:52:46 PM

so you guys use EhOL?

Marine1		2012-05-22 02:54:03 PM

miss diminutive: [www.statcan.gc.ca image 640x387]

Small wonder.

Farking this. Not just for Canada, but for the US as well.

You mean that a small country like The Netherlands with the population density of New Jersey is completely covered in broadband and Canada/the US (choose either one, depending which country you want to feel guilty about), which has huge gaps between moderately-sized towns, doesn't? It's obviously an indicator of how much more advanced Europeans are than us rednecks in the Western Hemisphere.

TreeHugger		2012-05-22 03:04:28 PM

Harry Freakstorm: Just wait until they computers.

I think they already computers, so I heard anyway.

/ATDT

meanmutton		2012-05-22 03:11:33 PM

links136		2012-05-22 03:24:35 PM

Perducci: If it's because you live in the middle of nowhere: suck it up. You've chosen to live somewhere relatively remote and as part of that decision have chosen to do without some of the privileges of a more central or convenient location.

If it's because you're poor: maybe you should be using your time for better things than surfing the Web. One shift at McDonalds will pay for basic high speed service for the month.

if it were really that easy, do you think anyone would be poor?

Sylvia_Bandersnatch		2012-05-22 03:41:48 PM

"I SAID: R11+1[5R1TU015 010...."

HellRaisingHoosier		2012-05-22 03:42:18 PM

I would probably stop using the Internet.

I get irate when my download speed drops below 2.0 Mbps

dywed88		2012-05-22 03:46:09 PM

Marine1: miss diminutive: [www.statcan.gc.ca image 640x387]

Small wonder.

Farking this. Not just for Canada, but for the US as well.

You mean that a small country like The Netherlands with the population density of New Jersey is completely covered in broadband and Canada/the US (choose either one, depending which country you want to feel guilty about), which has huge gaps between moderately-sized towns, doesn't? It's obviously an indicator of how much more advanced Europeans are than us rednecks in the Western Hemisphere.

I prefer to put it this way.

dywed88		2012-05-22 03:47:29 PM

HellRaisingHoosier: I would probably stop using the Internet.

I get irate when my download speed drops below 2.0 Mbps

lol, download. You don't download, you just view pages and hope there are no pictures or videos. If you need to download something you go into town and buy a coffee at a place that has wifi, and the connection might be usable.

Sylvia_Bandersnatch		2012-05-22 03:53:14 PM

dywed88: I hear ya Subby. Only 3 years since I suffered through that shiat, maybe ~~100 yards~~ 91.44 metres from the broadband cutoff.

FTFC

Sylvia_Bandersnatch		2012-05-22 03:57:54 PM

dittybopper: dywed88: TheOther: 56K...that's, what, about 43k in real bandwidth?

56k? Try the 28k that I had in 2008. Fark was one of the best sites on the internet, most content for the loading times.

Pfft. I was signing on to bulletin boards using a 300 baud modem back in the 1980s. We would have given our collective left testicles for even a 9600 baud modem back then, when 1200 baud meant you dropped some heavy cash on a new modem.

I had a 110/300 acoustic coupler, and a 300/1200 inline. If the noise was bad (POTS - twisted pairs), you had to to kick down to 110 until it abated. 1200 didn't work until they upgraded our lines.

When I first heard about 2400, I had a Bill Gates moment that was later embarrassing, but I laugh about it now: "Who needs that? Very few people can read faster than 1200 baud."

meanmutton		2012-05-22 03:58:08 PM

Sylvia_Bandersnatch: dywed88: I hear ya Subby. Only 3 years since I suffered through that shiat, maybe 100 yards 91.44 metres from the broadband cutoff.

FTFC

I used to work with an older Canadian gent. He was still, even after all these years, irate and slightly confused with the switch-over to the metric system.

Sylvia_Bandersnatch		2012-05-22 04:09:06 PM

dittybopper: SweetSilverBlues: dittybopper: dywed88: TheOther: 56K...that's, what, about 43k in real bandwidth?

56k? Try the 28k that I had in 2008. Fark was one of the best sites on the internet, most content for the loading times.

Pfft. I was signing on to bulletin boards using a 300 baud modem back in the 1980s. We would have given our collective left testicles for even a 9600 baud modem back then, when 1200 baud meant you dropped some heavy cash on a new modem.

We ate dirt, and we were grateful for it!

Alternately, dad would slash us in two with breadknife.

Take your pick. ;)

Back then, you actually had to know modem commands to get it to do anything.

ATDT

Oh man, I remember having to learn AT to get online. Of course, at the time, 'get online' didn't mean Internet, since that didn't quite exist yet (at least not for most of us). But bulletin boards were a riot. I miss 'em sometimes. FidoNet, too. And I was able to lurk on CS for a really long time because their free one-hour invite didn't track below the top menu level -- as long as you didn't pop your head up, you could stay there indefinitely. I spent several days in a row in the SIGs until I accidentally popped up and got cut off. Never got another invite for some reason.

I had to do AT again some years later when I first moved to Rhode Island. I was poor and had to configure a cast-off modem. For dial-up, yeah. NetZero, if I recall. Go ahead and laugh. I do.

Sylvia_Bandersnatch		2012-05-22 04:11:26 PM

PYROY: I sort of feel the same way subby, only I wish death on the entire Canadian continent.

Canada is not a continent. We're on the same continent.

/There's a reason we laugh at Alabama.

DownDaRiver		2012-05-22 04:33:41 PM

Doc Daneeka: NeedlesslyCanadian: What the hell? Who even offers dial-up anymore?

Lots of people in remote and rural areas don't have access to broadband.

True. In an area not far from where I live businesses and residential that don't have cable must use dial-up.
The local provider will only offer a package deal that includes broadband. Without the whole package you have to use dial-up.

Sylvia_Bandersnatch		2012-05-22 04:36:31 PM

XMark: The worst part is, those of us Canadians with broadband internet still get geographically walled off from all the good video content online. Can we just join the US already? I wanna watch some Hulu.

Surely there's proxy service available?

Sylvia_Bandersnatch		2012-05-22 04:41:37 PM

Hacker_X: Farkbert: Shakespeare's Monkey: [forum.ih8mud.com image 565x437]

Yeah well Canada has socialized medicine, so get off my lawn.

NO CARRIER

I think I have that exact same modem at home. 300baud. It worked last I checked when I used it to decode the last track of Peace and Love, Inc..

The commie 64 modem I had had a physical switch for selecting the baud rate, none of that fancy autonegotiation.

You had a switch?! Hah, weren't YOU fancy! Mine had a little man inside I had to negotiate with. Sometimes he didn't want to. It was awkward.

Sylvia_Bandersnatch		2012-05-22 04:43:01 PM

TheOther: Sounded like a wookie havin' an orgasm.

How would you know that?

No wait, NO--

Sylvia_Bandersnatch		2012-05-22 04:49:06 PM

Mole Man		2012-05-22 06:06:09 PM

BronyMedic: My God. Those poor people.

Could you imagine downloading porn at 56K speeds? You'd be finished before you got ten seconds downloaded.

imgs.xkcd.com

No one thought of this?

/hot link oh ya baby hot link.

geezergeek		2012-05-22 06:41:52 PM

Xplornet is using a new bird that just went up in the last year, speeds and prices for satellite are not bad.

Avaiable ANYWHERE in Canada that you can see the Clark Belt (pretty well any where south of the Arctic Circle, unless you are in a cave)...

Link

IMHO if they don't have high speed, they choose not too or can't afford it.

silverjets		2012-05-22 07:33:31 PM

YouPeopleAreCrazy: silverjets: Hundreds of thousands. Big deal. Wasn't there some survey from a couple of years ago showing that something like 100 million users in the US are still on dial up?

1/3 of the country? No. And if we take your statement literally - 100 million users - that wuold probably be 1/2, because not everyone is a user.

Of course, if you have some actual numbers...

http://broadband.nebraska.gov/national-news/-/asset_publisher/Hg6C/co n tent/broadband-adoption-and-use-in-america-fcc-omnibus-broadband-initi ative?redirect=%2Fnational-news

From a survey conducted in Oct-Nov 2009. 6% of Americans used dial-up. So, around 18.5 million users at the time.

22% of adult Americans did not use the internet; about 67.5 million non-users which is probably what I was remembering.

From the article they estimate 366,000 Canadians in 2010 were using dialup. Which represents about 1% of the population at that time.

bedspread		2012-05-22 07:37:32 PM

downloading artwork

Gough		2012-05-22 08:01:15 PM

Gough		2012-05-22 08:11:29 PM

Jument		2012-05-22 08:37:10 PM

silverjets: Hundreds of thousands. Big deal. Wasn't there some survey from a couple of years ago showing that something like 100 million users in the US are still on dial up?

This. America is quite ass-backward compared to many first world nations (but perhaps not Canada, I dunno).

I get 13/2 broadband in my small American town and I'm thankful to get it. OTOH I seriously would not ever move into a home where I knew I'd be on dial-up. It would be a non-starter.

veryequiped		2012-05-22 08:37:28 PM

You use what?

Good news! They have this new thing now, it's called 'civilization', you should totally move there

GlamrLama		2012-05-22 09:15:15 PM

It takes up to 5 days to download a 700 mb movie over dialup at 31k. Ask me how I know. I live in a dead zone

Nick Nostril		2012-05-22 09:23:00 PM

You poor, polite bastards.

washu		2012-05-22 11:39:50 PM

Electrify: In rural communities, why not use mobile internet? Even slow data is better than a 56k dial up. In an urban area if you cannot afford it, Wind and Mobilicity offer unlimited wireless data for a low rate. Not to mention wifi hotspots or discount broadband providers (ex: Tech Savvy).

Despite what the big 3 claim there are lots of dead areas where cell coverage is minimal to non-existent. For example, Rogers claims coverage at my cottage but there is nothing unless I use a massive external antenna. Telus/Bell (same network anywhere rural) are a bit more honest saying our coverage is right on the edge of their service area. Service works, but only if the antenna is mounted on a high mast. See in rural areas we have these things called trees, which if there are enough of them block cell signals rather effectively.

Also, Wind and Mobilicity are a terrible option for rural internet. They only have great rates in major cites. Anywhere rural and you are roaming and will get screwed because of out of network charges.

Arthurgoboom		2012-05-23 12:36:57 AM

Nana's Vibrator: Just wait until Comcast gets up there and tells you about their "discount" for phone, cable, and internet service. Only $760 per month!*

* with an incorrect invoice and new hidden charges every month and being sent a modem you don't need and they charge you for it until YOU drop it off and then the subsequent customer service phone calls and being put on a transfer merry-go-round until you just wish every last employee at Comcast was dead.

I'll take the 56K dial up over Comcast, although I'm currently on DirecTV and a DSL line that does just fine for my simple phone and websurfing methods and is a fraction of the cost and frustration.
/the Comcast lady I dropped the unwanted modem off to had a black eye already. There's a joke in there somewhere

Exactly my choice. Comcast or dial up.

/Netzero customer
//don't hate
///plenty of self-hate already

Gough		2012-05-23 10:48:40 AM

washu: Electrify: In rural communities, why not use mobile internet? Even slow data is better than a 56k dial up. In an urban area if you cannot afford it, Wind and Mobilicity offer unlimited wireless data for a low rate. Not to mention wifi hotspots or discount broadband providers (ex: Tech Savvy).

Despite what the big 3 claim there are lots of dead areas where cell coverage is minimal to non-existent. For example, Rogers claims coverage at my cottage but there is nothing unless I use a massive external antenna. Telus/Bell (same network anywhere rural) are a bit more honest saying our coverage is right on the edge of their service area. Service works, but only if the antenna is mounted on a high mast. See in rural areas we have these things called trees, which if there are enough of them block cell signals rather effectively.

Also, Wind and Mobilicity are a terrible option for rural internet. They only have great rates in major cites. Anywhere rural and you are roaming and will get screwed because of out of network charges.

Thanks for the dose of reality. I had about 3-4 hours where I thought I'd actually found a solution ....

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