How you know when you're old.....

HeadRusch

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 8, 2007
Messages
1,779
When Comcast tells you your 2 year old modem is out of date and can't handle the incredibly faster speeds they have (basically) forced upon you, and instead of getting excited to go buy a faster modem for MOAR SPEEDZ you dial up the rep and go "You know what, this is fast enough, give me the slower, cheaper plan".

My 19 year old self dicking around with 10baseT and spending 4 hours trying to get 2 PC's to talk to one another (windows for workgroups sharing) at 2am is *SPITTING* on me right now but, you know, Fuck Him.....sucks that he had to wait 20 minutes for an MP3 to download over dial-up but them ships haz sailed.....

That is all....

Anyone else out there that isn't into (cough) "acquiring software, audio or video from less than reputable sources online" shall we say......find that speeds above 1Gbs are just kinda pointless.......granted we're talking Steam and Xbox updates for me, everythings been streaming fine since the days of 300mbps....
 
I have a 8 year old wifi modem and too lazy to change it. Internet is 1000 up/down cause we have 5 TVs and 5 wireless devices so didn't wanna risk slow downs although 300 would have been just about fine also unless everyone was streaming 4k simultaneously lol
 
I get it totally.

At a certain point you have all the bandwidth you need for your use case. I work for an ISP and the numbers have to keep going up because marketing. After 1Gbs it really does just seem like a pissing contest. In fact I get 500Mbs free as an employee and for just $20/mo can up it to 1 Gbs. You know what? The free bandwidth is plenty for my household with 3 kids and myself who all game and stream and do all the usual things with our internet service. So I won’t even double it for 20 bucks because we wouldn’t notice the difference. Others of course need all they can get so it comes down to what you do with it.
 
I get it totally.

At a certain point you have all the bandwidth you need for your use case. I work for an ISP and the numbers have to keep going up because marketing. After 1Gbs it really does just seem like a pissing contest. In fact I get 500Mbs free as an employee and for just $20/mo can up it to 1 Gbs. You know what? The free bandwidth is plenty for my household with 3 kids and myself who all game and stream and do all the usual things with our internet service. So I won’t even double it for 20 bucks because we wouldn’t notice the difference. Others of course need all they can get so it comes down to what you do with it.
I agree. I pay $70 ATM for gigabit. I was totally happy when I was paying $40 for 200mbs but actually getting 400mbs.
 
I just wish I could have faster uploads. Cox Cable, $112/mo for 1000/35 with no other options right now. There is a fiber company installing fiber but they are working a block away and not sure when they will get to our street.
They offer 1000/1000 for $70/mo
 
I'm somewhat jealous of the prices you guys pay. I downgraded my plan because the value stinks. Was paying $95/mo for 400/15. Found out the "standard" plan was 300/10 so I decided to save $20 a month. When I went from dial-up to cable it was unbelievable at the time (3k down to 200k down).
 
I can get fiber for dirt cheap now, I just wrapped up a commitment with Comcast and my costs (with TV and a landline phone, sorry, old school) shot up $30 bucks...along with internet speeds I can't and don't want to take advantage of, so time for them to cut me a deal or I'm going to explore 500mbit fiber for like $50 a month.
 
I just wish I could have faster uploads. Cox Cable, $112/mo for 1000/35 with no other options right now. There is a fiber company installing fiber but they are working a block away and not sure when they will get to our street.
They offer 1000/1000 for $70/mo

Same here. We're paying I think around $70 for 800/25 through Concast. 25?! I don't do a ton of uploading but when I do, 25 up is just crazy.
 
Speed really doesn't matter unless you are talking about <100mbps. Streaming doesn't take nearly as much bandwidth as most people seem to think it does, and for other downloads, everything will finish downloading eventually... What matters are data caps. What's the point of owning a Lamborghini when you can only drive it 10 miles per month?
 
I moved from 1g symetric fiber to 80m/12m and it's not really that bad. Sure must have updates suck, but it's not that bad. I would certainly get faster if I didn't have to pay obscene fees and tear up my driveway, and I'd probably go ahead and get 10G if the price wasn't terrible, but not because it would be actually useful.
 
When Comcast tells you your 2 year old modem is out of date and can't handle the incredibly faster speeds they have (basically) forced upon you, and instead of getting excited to go buy a faster modem for MOAR SPEEDZ you dial up the rep and go "You know what, this is fast enough, give me the slower, cheaper plan".
Which modem?

Arris S33 and Motorola MB8611 were launched 2 years ago. Both support 1.2Gbps and are supported.
 
When Comcast tells you your 2 year old modem is out of date and can't handle the incredibly faster speeds they have (basically) forced upon you, and instead of getting excited to go buy a faster modem for MOAR SPEEDZ you dial up the rep and go "You know what, this is fast enough, give me the slower, cheaper plan".

My 19 year old self dicking around with 10baseT and spending 4 hours trying to get 2 PC's to talk to one another (windows for workgroups sharing) at 2am is *SPITTING* on me right now but, you know, Fuck Him.....sucks that he had to wait 20 minutes for an MP3 to download over dial-up but them ships haz sailed.....

That is all....

Anyone else out there that isn't into (cough) "acquiring software, audio or video from less than reputable sources online" shall we say......find that speeds above 1Gbs are just kinda pointless.......granted we're talking Steam and Xbox updates for me, everythings been streaming fine since the days of 300mbps....
You know you are old when
  • You still know all the DOS commands
  • You were excited that you could upgrade your CPM system to 64KB of RAM.
  • You had tons of floppy disks for offline storage and you spent beaucoup bucks for a 10MB HDD,
  • You are really old when you remember that your first system used punch card input and had tape drives and 29 MB removable disk packs.
 
Which modem?

Arris S33 and Motorola MB8611 were launched 2 years ago. Both support 1.2Gbps and are supported.
Netgear Nighthawk.....tops out around 950 or so, Comcast is telling me I now get 1gbps...which would really be like 1.1 the way they like to round down around here.......I give zero F's...but I know they offer an 800mbps plan and that will wind up being an actual 850 or 900gbs down so I'm leaving money on the table at this point.

Granted....probably like 10 bucks worth cuz Comcast likes it's price points....but whatever. I'm getting old...that 10 bucks might help me pay for hearing aid batteries from all that Slayer.....<shrug>
 
Netgear Nighthawk.....tops out around 950 or so, Comcast is telling me I now get 1gbps...which would really be like 1.1 the way they like to round down around here.......I give zero F's...but I know they offer an 800mbps plan and that will wind up being an actual 850 or 900gbs down so I'm leaving money on the table at this point.

Granted....probably like 10 bucks worth cuz Comcast likes it's price points....but whatever. I'm getting old...that 10 bucks might help me pay for hearing aid batteries from all that Slayer.....<shrug>
huh, I didnt even realize netgear had a nighthawk modem range. I thought it was just a router range. thanks! I learned something new!
 
My 19 year old self dicking around with 10baseT and spending 4 hours trying to get 2 PC's to talk to one another (windows for workgroups sharing) at 2am is *SPITTING* on me right now but, you know, Fuck Him.....sucks that he had to wait 20 minutes for an MP3 to download over dial-up but them ships haz sailed.....
I just remembered that I started out with "LANtastic" which could network DOS-based PCs. 10Base2 of course.

That 10 Base2 cable is still in the walls of my house. Some day, maybe around 2050 the house will be torn down and the people then will have no idea why anyone actually used cable to connect up PCs, instead of super-quantum subatomic Wi-Fi 28.
 
I feel so blessed that I'm not old. I'm not sure what I'd do without my sharp vision libido and hearing. Listing to audio books all day in a reclining message chair maybe.
 
huh, I didnt even realize netgear had a nighthawk modem range. I thought it was just a router range. thanks! I learned something new!

Me either at the time, had no idea until I had to upgrade from an ancient Surfboard several years ago and this was one of like 2 that Comcast would actually allow you to activate and not give you a hassle every month, they were already pushing leasing their bullshit modem/router combo, whatever the hell they are.......no thanks, hard pass.
 
I've been getting emails from Comcast telling me my modem is too "slow". It tests above the speeds on my plan so it's good enough. Rather than pay Comcast more $, I got Starlink to cover the regular multi-day outages of Comcast.
 
I feel so blessed that I'm not old. I'm not sure what I'd do without my sharp vision libido and hearing. Listing to audio books all day in a reclining message chair maybe.
Not old today, but 10-20, maybe 30 years from now? It always ends the same way, with your vision (and your libido) declining). Then your hearing.
 
I'm sorta in the same boat as you, but I do find 10baseT slow. So much that 10Mb upload is pathetic if you want to stream anything OUT from your home. I had a 200/10 connection for the longest time and the 200Mb is more than adequate, but the 10Mb upload is not. I was about to spring for their higher plan that was 500/20 when all of a sudden----they updated their 200Mb plan to 20Mb upload. So now I have a 200/20 connection. I'm happy with that.

1672776677460.png
 
I think that deep down, if cost were not an issue, we would all want fiber optic native speeds for both upload and download. Moore's Law can help with the technology/speed issues over time but it can't help with ISP greed.
 
Comcast keeps sending me emails telling me my SB8200 modem can't hit my "1.2"gb internet speed.
1672810880159.png

Fuck off comcast. I know how to do WAN aggregation. I'll upgrade when you give me some upload.
 
I am lucky to have access to Fiber with Frontier who bought it From Verizon. I have 500/500 and its more than enough even though they have 1Gbp symmetrical. Even with my plex server I host and share with quite a few ppl, I am a cheap bastard and wont upgrade to more speeds
 
I am lucky to have access to Fiber with Frontier who bought it From Verizon. I have 500/500 and its more than enough even though they have 1Gbp symmetrical. Even with my plex server I host and share with quite a few ppl, I am a cheap bastard and wont upgrade to more speeds
Frontier hosed me. They ran new fiber in every direction of my house except for a 1 mile stretch, and I am right in the middle. I am stuck with Optimum high dollar internet for 1GB service.
 
Its wild that the middle of nowhere can get gigabit no problem but then a lot of the major cities like SFO / NYC are struggling to just get over 500/20.

Have a few friends I work with and they keep complaining that they cant get there files to the office on tight deadlines since Time Warner/Spectrum doesn't offer more than a 500/20 upload on cable.

Wild times
 
Its wild that the middle of nowhere can get gigabit no problem but then a lot of the major cities like SFO / NYC are struggling to just get over 500/20.

Have a few friends I work with and they keep complaining that they cant get there files to the office on tight deadlines since Time Warner/Spectrum doesn't offer more than a 500/20 upload on cable.

Wild times
Maybe it's time to switch away from Time Warner. Are they not putting in new equipment to stay competitive on speeds? Fine for them and more profitable, but you don't have to reward them for that.
 
I was happy getting 400mb for the price of 200mb from FiOS internet for $40. I don't why I upgraded to 1gb for $70.bid I remember in the mid 90s when I got Comcast cable for the first time. I was so blown away from the 1mb service.
 
I went from 25/5 mbps fixed wireless to 500 mbps fiber ethernet less than a year ago. I can spend an embarrassing amount of time looking at traffic graphs giggling to myself. Regularly get 60 MBps downloads via Steam and Epic. I can buy a game, make breakfast, go play the game. It's super badass. A lack of bandwidth was a major factor of my day to day life for 17 years. Having enough is now like a warm blanket.
I actually have a limiter in place throttling it back to about 470 mbps but keeping latency and buffer bloat away. Doing a little QoS to ensure everything is near perfect.
 
I went from 25/5 mbps fixed wireless to 500 mbps fiber ethernet less than a year ago. I can spend an embarrassing amount of time looking at traffic graphs giggling to myself. Regularly get 60 MBps downloads via Steam and Epic. I can buy a game, make breakfast, go play the game. It's super badass. A lack of bandwidth was a major factor of my day to day life for 17 years. Having enough is now like a warm blanket.
I actually have a limiter in place throttling it back to about 470 mbps but keeping latency and buffer bloat away. Doing a little QoS to ensure everything is near perfect.
I can remember getting upset when some BBS boards make 9.6 the minimum modem speed for getting connected.
 
How fast does your connection need to be to make a post here? :-P

I remember the days where I had to stop typing to wait for the characters to show up on the remote system which was using an acoustic coupler and connected at 150 bps.
Or when "solid state" meant not having vacuum tubes!
Plug the iron into the same outlet as the TV and had a nice border around the picture due to the lack of regulation. And people complain about not enough PCI-E lanes and bezels thicker than quarter of an inch! Ouch! ;-)

Dunno how they make money, we have Verizon FiOS been at 1Gbps symmetrical since spring of 2017 and currently pay $69 a month. Got it installed in 2015. Two guys, they drove the truck down our lane with a spool of fiber on the back. From the hand hole on the road to our dmarc is close to 3000 feet. That's the nice thing about fiber.

Prior we had a company called Armstrong and they were pretty bad. First hop ping was 30ms! But it was still better than HughesNet!
 
Dunno how they make money, we have Verizon FiOS been at 1Gbps symmetrical since spring of 2017 and currently pay $69 a month. Got it installed in 2015. Two guys, they drove the truck down our lane with a spool of fiber on the back. From the hand hole on the road to our dmarc is close to 3000 feet. That's the nice thing about fiber.
That is one sweet deal. Too bad where I live, it's only Comcast (ugh!) or AT&T (worse yet). Or some satellite service.

Did those Verizon guys dig a trench for the fiber? And they didn't charge you your first-born child and his first-born child?
 
I don't care at all about bandwidth. I care about stability, latency, and price. Charter forced 200mbps on me, i was fine with 100. I really dont think id want less then 50mbps considering my kids are on youtube and sometimes my wife streams 4k content on netflix
 
That is one sweet deal. Too bad where I live, it's only Comcast (ugh!) or AT&T (worse yet). Or some satellite service.

Did those Verizon guys dig a trench for the fiber? And they didn't charge you your first-born child and his first-born child?
Free installation but they were going to follow poles we have on our land. So I arranged for a contractor to bury polyethylene conduit and left them with a pull cord. It's buried about 30" deep and will probably still be there 200 years from now!

Armstrong enterprise services could serve fiber but the run is really long (because they don't have fiber on the road, just the highway) and said it would be $40-50k. It's all about location of course. If you're close enough to a Comcast fiber hut you can get an enterprise grade fiber connection with 10Gbps ethernet handoff for about $300 per month. Install is pricey though.

We have towers on our property (privately owned) and are in a good location with relatively mediocre cell coverage. The dream would be to give them access to put up a cell tower, get a few thousand bucks a month in return plus a 10Gbps handout with a small block of IPs. :-D

As I get older however I realize that I could do fine with a 5G connection. Sometimes simpler is better. But for you 20 and 30 something spring chickens out there, sure go for it and build you a small server farm!
 
When Comcast tells you your 2 year old modem is out of date and can't handle the incredibly faster speeds they have (basically) forced upon you, and instead of getting excited to go buy a faster modem for MOAR SPEEDZ you dial up the rep and go "You know what, this is fast enough, give me the slower, cheaper plan".
Yep, feeling like I'm about to do that as Comcast told me that if I swap out their provided equipment that has no fee for 2 years for my modem that I lose 'unlimited' and get capped at 1.2TB which I had before on my own modem. But they also told me I'd lose promo pricing. I never asked for 800Mb so they can stick it where the sun doesn't shine since the upload is the same as the next notch below (I think). I also don't like these games. That's why I always ask what the non-promo and auto leech bank account pricing is so I know where I am.

And I love this old man piss and moan thread...get off my lawn!!! :D
 
I just wish I could have faster uploads. Cox Cable, $112/mo for 1000/35 with no other options right now. There is a fiber company installing fiber but they are working a block away and not sure when they will get to our street.
They offer 1000/1000 for $70/mo
If it's upload bandwidth you need, you might be able to get two accounts and two modems that have the same upload, but less download and use a multi-wan router to pipe them into a single usable connection. You won't be able to get 70Mbs upload from a single stream (for example), but you would get 35 each on two streams.

I used to have 3x modems set up like this back in 2004 because I needed more than 768k upload bandwidth. I coupled them with an cisco rv016 router and was hitting 24/2 back when 8M/768k was lightning fast.

But I found out today with Comcast that they can't do more than one modem at one address. So strange this different ISPs--I have 2x modems from Spectrum at one site in another state, lol.
 
Back
Top