How much for internet?

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-09-2005
How much for internet?
6
Sun, 07-10-2005 - 7:01pm
Hi,
I'm hoping you can give me some advice on how much to pay for internet access. We already pay about $50.00 per month for comcast cable for T.V. -- which is the level above the basic (cheapest) service they have. I am also paying for AOL about 23.00 per month for a 56 K modem access. We have land line phone service and my son has added me (another phone and phone number) to his T Mobile account. But I only use that for emergencies or to call him (free T Mobile to T Mobile) or call people after 9:00 pm (free). Otherwise we use up the minutes and going over the cell phone minutes is a disaster.
I just loaded Netscape on the computer ($9.95 per month) but it is SOOOOOOOOOOO slow.
I'd like to cancel AOL, but it is faster than netscape.....
Any ideas on how to consolidate all of this.. What do you do for internet access?
Thanks for the help.
Megan
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2004
Sun, 07-10-2005 - 7:09pm

I have a phone line and I only have it so I can have DSL internet access or in case of emergencies, I have a really inexpensive landline plan since I don't use it for outgoing calls. For phone calls I use my cell phone exclusively. My monthly bills are:

Phone line $15
DSL internet $30
Cell phone $65

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-07-2003
Sun, 07-10-2005 - 10:17pm

I have cable internet : $44.95
Too much for a person on a budget, probably, but I dont have cable TV and I DO have some income from managing websites for people, so I justify it.

I also have a digital home phone, $32.95 -- which is unlimited long distance 24/7 and all the features you could possibly get are included. (since my family and close friends are all long distance..AND...calling any point SOUTH of the town I live in is long distance (and im 4 miles NORTH of Kansas City... i only call south)....its actually the best deal i can get.) This means, however, that I HAVE to keep my cable internet in order to keep my phone.

So that's $78/month.

I DO also have a cell phone, which currently after taxes is about $40 a month...and because I changed plans...im locked into a contract again...I can CHANGE plans, but not carriers..and T-mobile's cheapest plan is $19.99. Which is on the schedule to change to before the next billing cycle, actually. :D (I was paying $60/month for cell phone and had the Cheapest land line...but after taxes that was still $20/month and only could be used for incoming calls.)

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As for your situation...Netscape I would think would have 56K connections available, im surprised that their dialup is noticably slower for you then AOL's dialup. It's always been my experience that AOL is dreadfully slow not matter what.

I would definitely call Comcast and see what their plans are for internet..im sure they have one.

*Well, I just checked, and they do have one, its a broad band..and actually this month they are running a special where its 19.99 a month for 6 months....so, cheaper then AOL and MUCH faster..BUT...after 6 months it would go up..it doesnt say how much...but I would bet you $45-$50 a month, and you'd be locked in for another 6 months. AND spoiled so you'd never want to go back to dialup.*

Also call your phone service to see what they have in terms of dialup or DSL service. Usually companies will offer slight deals if you have all their services (like, I have Time Warner Cable for my internet..if I invested in cable, it would be $5 off my total bill. and if i had my digital phone thru them and cable TV and internet..it would be $10 off the total.) And Sprint and Sprint Yahoo DSL have deals, etc.

Hmm...how is it that Netscape is slower? do you just mean..the actual dialup process is slower...or like, once you're connected it takes longer to pull up pages? When you were dialing into AOL's on the 56K, do you know what your actual connection speeds were? I rarely see an AOL dialup connection getting out of the 30s...and I would think netscape would be there or low 40s easy enough.

Im wondering if its not a matter more of a new security feature Netscape was "thoughtful" enough to install, or something...Hmmm.....

Good luck

~ Teresa

Teresa
http://www.affordingpickles.blogspot.com

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-09-2005
Mon, 07-11-2005 - 1:12am
Hi,
Thanks for your answer. Everything about netscape was a lot slower and frustrating -- just the initial getting on is slow, and then you wait forever for things to load. I called comcast and they do have a $19.95/ month deal for 6 months. They told me they do not have contracts at comcast, but that after the 6 months it would go up to at least $45.95.
Then I called SBC our phone company, which is also having a "deal" for 1 year at $14.95 for DSL -- you have to pay 12.95 for shipping of a modem, and the modem costs $50.00.
This deal is only good to sign up for until July 31st so I guess I'd better decide soon. The SBC deal sounds good because it is actually less than I pay for AOL and they expect the SBC?Yahoo DSL deal to go up to $26.95 after the 12 months. That's only $3.00 more than I pay now for AOL.
I think the SBC?Yahoo deal is the one we'll probably go with.
Thanks again for your info.
Megan
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Mon, 07-11-2005 - 2:08am

I had a land line mainly so that I could run my Internet through it.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2004
Mon, 07-11-2005 - 6:55am
I should have mentioned I don't have cable. I used to have cable tv and a cable modem. The cable tv was $60 and I couldn't afford it. The cable modem was $45 and I still had a landline for emergencies (just feel safer with it than without it) that was bare minimum $15. I could have canceled the landline and kept the cable modem, but with DSL I pay $30 per month and $15 for the landline, so I'm paying $45 either way but at least I get to keep the landline the way I have it now.

Photobucket

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-22-2005
Mon, 07-11-2005 - 8:30am

Just want to say that I was on a dial-up SLOW line forever until about 8 months ago when my workplace start paying for my DSL line at home. (I have to be on-call every so often for 24/7 so they are throwing in the high-speed access so that I can check emails and what not in the middle of the night).

Yes, the slow line is frustrating, but if you are on a budget, you may consider goving up the luxury of cable internet/DSL for a while.