Man, I wish I could afford DSL and all that other stuff, but right now, I'm going with a good old 56k. Problem is, there's so much noise on the line, it only dials up at a meek 26.6. Pretty dumb huh? I really hate it because it takes forever to load up survey pages and crap like that. Oh well, wait till I get to college with all their hookups. Yeh!!!

I am the only T3 and up. I have a fiber optic cable connection getting 1500 kbps. At my work they have a satellite link up that gets at least 1 gig per second. the connection divides down to 150 stations and each get around 10mbps at full capacity. Very nice.

I use AOL for e-mail and AT&T @home for web surfing BTW

Why not just ditch AOL, get Hotmail or something, and save $143/month?

Why not just ditch AOL, get Hotmail or something, and save $143/year?

Patients is a virtue - especially when you piece of junk, that you jokingly call a computer, can't do better than 26.4kbps, half of which is taken up by NetZero's banner ads (but you really can't complain when it is free).

All I hear today is how sweet everyone's cable modem is and I WANT ONE. I have been trying to get one for about 2 years now. All I hear from my cable service (which ever one that may be) is that it will be available by the end of 1999. You'd think they would at least update the lie? I live near O'hare Airport in Leyden Township and the whole MediaOne now being AT&T Cable service is confusing cause I haev no clue whom to go to for the cable internet service. I want a cable modem badly.
Also I plan to buy a 1 GHz AMD computer. Does the GeForce GTS 2 card really help at all with any 3D stuff? I hear that it doesnt help and is not worth it. I use a 56K modem, but can only connect at 28K due to bad phonelines :(

I just noticed that I hear a lot things, don't I?

PureHylian

Whoever told you that about the GeForce doesn't know what he is talking about. The Geforce was by far the sweetest upgrade i have ever seen. Just make sure you have enough ram on your computer.

-Corey

definately.... but the Athlong 1ghz chips aren't very compatible with the GeForce 2's until mid summer when new mother boards come out. Also, a GeForce will need a voodoo 3 to run through in order to do stuff like OpenGL, Glide, 3dfx, and Direct3d until games support the GeForce 2. If you are going to buy a gaming system then look at makers like Alienware. They make dedicated game machines and actually know what they are making. They know the querks of motherboards and compatibility issues. Check PCGamer Hard stuff for news on hardware and the best systems and system makers out there

What are you talking about? The GeForce (2 GTS) is only slightly incompatible with the AMD-750 chipset. It runs at 1X AGP instead of 2X AGP. It supposedly doesn't make a very big difference. It runs perfectly at 4X AGP on the VIA KX133 and KM133 chipsets.

You also have absolutely no need to get a Voodoo3 (or 4 or 5). The GeForce (2 GTS) can easily do OpenGL and Direct3D. There is no such thing as 3DFX (they make videocards, it's not a graphics API). There is also no need to have Glide support, because the few games that still use Glide work better under OpenGL and Direct3D anyways.

"until games support the GeForce 2?"

Games have absolutely no need to "support" the GeForce 2. If they run under Direct3D or OpenGL, then they will work under the GeForce 2. Games that only support Glide can be run (albeit rather slowly and buggily) using a glide wrapper.

The only thing that is actually TRUE in that post is that Alienware makes good computers. I haven't seen PC Gamer Hard Stuff, so I can't comment on it. But if it is where you got your knowledge with which you made the above post, it can't be very good.

Actually, I remember reading about the GeForce 2 not working as well as it should on current Athlon motherboards... I thought it was in the PCGamer Hardstuff... but I can't find it there... and that was the only part of his post that was {I thought... I am still not sure} from PCGamer...

I checked the latest issue of PC Gamer and it says that they tested the GeForce with some new KX133 motherboards and the compatibility problems disappeared. They suggested caution, but also said that everything seemed to work. So I was right.

You kidding me? You live by O'Hare?

I live on the other side of the airport, about a mile north of Maine South.

--BlueCalx

Yeah, but you people have no excuse for bad phone lines(damn easterners). I do. I live in new Mexico. I have idiots that live around me. I have a phone company that installed phone lines that work under 56K stress but refufes to activate them because they want to decrease prices of the long distace toll fees and the government refuses. I hate US WEST.

To me, YOU are an easterner, although the explitive isn't added, I live in Utah too west to be east and too east to be west, also known as: PODUNKville USA, Hickville, and others. Where I live US WEST doesn't have 28.8 phone lines! Thinking about DSL or Cable? NO WAY! I have to drive two hours on the highway to get to a store that knows what they are. Let alone that they offer it. Oh well, at least where I live we have SEWER. Try living in Utah and you'll see what I mean.

Hey,
I live in Utah and get 38K-44Kbs and other peaple I know get almost 56K <:-)

Hey, I don't live THAT far from you either. I live next county over, in DuPage, in Wheaton.

Bob Maresh

I *used* to live by O'Hare, but we moved because of the noise... (hey, at least the gas is better up here in Lake County :-)

har! got most of you beat. 133 pentium, 1.2 gigs hd, POS 28.8 modem that connects at 24000 through phone lines. not lookin like im gonna get anything any better until i buy my own pc when i head off to college in a year.

well I got ya tied until the connection part i have a 33.6 that can only connect at 12.0 so it doesnt get used much.. I much prefer the cable modem downstairs but in too lazy to run a wire to my room.. I don't know how much windows slows it down but its still sweet... does windows slow it down??? this is the first i've heard of it...

Steve

Gee, that looks kinda like the setup I have on my second computer, which shares a 56k with 3 other computers in the house... Visit the URL, it's a sweet setup.

Pharcyder, I have got you beat!
I have a 350 Mhz AMD K6-2, 128 Mb SDRAM @ 100 Mhz (System Bus speed as well), 8.2 Gig HD, 36x CD, and a Rockwell HCF 56.6K Modem. And I connect at 48.8 everytime with just a plain dial-up. Mainly becuase the phonelines out here are the new high grade lines, which is cool. But I would still like to have DSL or RoadRunner (Cable).

Kaizer_911

Is everyone spoiled but me???? It's a lot cheaper if you build your own computer :) I bult a AMD K6-2 450 MHz computer with 64 MB RAM @ 100 MHz (cost me 26 bucks!), 56K modem, 24x cdrom, 100 MHz bus, 4.3 GIG HD, and a video card with 16 Megs RAM running 233MHz. And I bet mine cost half of most everybody elses... About $350 for the whole thing, all brand new :) Can anyone beat that???

If you want a kind of a grab bag of computer parts, most school districts have a quiet sale of "old" computer parts. They are mainly held at the end of the year. My friend and his dad got a truck load of old computers for like 200 bucks, a few had come from teachers and had DSL modems in them! They also sell stuff like monitors, old calculators, surplus manuals and texts from a variety of classes. The really neat things are on auction, like a studio quality spotlight that went for $300. Ask around and you'll see a ton of stuff there that you thought were lost with the dinosaurs, not that newer stuff isn't but they once had 300 Apple ]['s with an assortment of games.

Yup got that I connect using RoadRunner its great, very fast and worth the price especially with a decient computer I have a AMD K6-2 500 64Mbytes ram (of course now this is obsolete) and its excellent for gaming and stuff

I have you beat on the connection part... I have a POS 56k modem (which is in my Parent's computer and I connect to through the home network) which connects at 21600...