Software updating and BellSouth

[eyescene]

I was wanting to update my downloaded *freeware* software (zone alarm, ad aware, etc) cause I'm going to be reformatting my system in a few days after I get files backed up....if nothing comes up....ya know kids are out of school and I so hate to be interrupted when doing all this...anyways I see that Zone Alarm and Ad-aware are now in the 20 to 30ish megabytes, geesh thats not much for folks with faster internet but certainly will slow me down for a day.

Damn it BellSouth I not only want but I need faster internet to keep my system updated.

The BellSouth man that came by my house said BellSouth was suppose to have already updated us to DSL like 7 years ago...b/c the government required them too. But they didn't so they sold out to AT&T.

Anyone not got DSL or a faster internet besides me.

[eyescene]

oh and he did say it is coming...when I don't know...but it is coming!

[Goobersmooch]

it was supposed to have been by the end of the year...at least that was the deal att struck with the gov to buy bellsouth

but that was obviously a pipe dream

at least they have a goal to get ti to everyone that can get a phone line not just get it to dense population centers

[Fish-Bait]

They have it out in Piave ms.....If they have it in Piave then by George they ought to have it in Higgins and Melba!!!

[eyescene]

I know it sucks big big time...he did say they were going to put DSL in a box on HWY 44 which is connected to me...yeaaaaa! but when? I just hope I'm not too old to enjoy it by then!

[bpitt]

I don't have it on my road out here in Dixie. Oh, it's at the end of the road, each way, but because of some geographic phenomena, I can't get it. I was told 9 months ago that I'd have it in 3 months. I guess they meant 3 months times eternity. Fortunately, my employer has granted me a Sprint Mobile Broadband card, which does work out here, if I sit in my office by the window. Oh, and I have a few 'access' points scattered around Hattiesburg as well as the rest of the state where I can get on a true broadband connection. But I can't wait till they get it on my road.

[Guru]

Eyescene I don't want to further infuriate you but I got some recent news.

First, the first and up until a month ago news:
I have several relatives and friends that work for the phone company and most of them have been with BellSouth for anywhere from 20-35 years. All of them told me starting last year and during this year until about a month ago that the plan that BellSouth had was to get everyone on DSL by the end of 2007. I also talked to a couple of phone voices while discussing phone business during the year that affirmed this information and told me that was what they were still being told, company meetings, grapevine, etc.

The starting about a month ago news:
While discussing phone business again with a company rep I asked "What about the DSL?" and the woman told me in what I gather was the whole truth as she knew it that she had heard the same thing but was not seeing it. I asked have you heard anything even going in that direction and she said not lately and that people all over had heard the same thing that I mentioned but so far it wasn't happening.

The fact: There is a guy, a supervisor, that works for the phone company that has to get his service from town and through my boxes to get his phone service. HE HAS DSL. Jumped right over me.
I talked to a couple of guys that I see out here performing maintenance all the time and they told me that all the equipment had been installed and all that had to be done was "turn the boxes" on. This meant installing a quick addition that "lit up" the boxes for DSL so to speak.
Another guy that was visiting from the other side of Laurel and Hattiesburg gave me a different story, he told me he didn't think the boxes were so equipped yet from what he knew or had seen in his brief visit but didn't want to give me bad information just in his brief work here.

Bottom line: We are not getting it before the first of the year.
The last phone woman told me in all truthfullness that she could not see us getting it anytime real soon unless something changed.

At this point I don't know what the truth is.

I just got off my Mother's computer doing a simple program resubscription and upgrade and it took me forever and I do mean hours. One thing I can say about that is the program gave a false-positive in that it showed loading correctly and I figure I lost over an hour on that because I came back home to do something since it showed about an hour to download. When I got back and found the snafu I spent another couple of hours or more restarting and loading and updating and restarting and checking, etc.
With DSL this would have all been over in less than an hour tops.

The last phone company representative I talked to asked if I wanted to put my name in the hat for DSL and I told them no, that I had worn out 5 computers and sacrificed 40 acres of trees between me and some relatives out here requesting it and didn't figure anyone within the phone company read the requests because we were no closer to getting it than we were in 1998.
I finally asked a simple question. I asked that they only tell me if they thought it would be anytime in 2008 because if it wasn't I was going to quit worrying about, go ahead and install the satellite hook-up which I have seen but not been impressed with and at that point I would have made a large monetary committment and would not be needing AT&T for land lines, cell phones or anything else afterwards.
The poor but very honest woman just said "I have not heard that it will be done anytime soon."

[carsalesguy]

you may want to see if you can get an ISDN line ran to your house-

my buddy told me that in some places you may not be able to get dsl but could maybe get an ISDN line=

[eyescene]

I so agree Guru....that is my plan exactly too...to let them keep whatever they got I don't need their few drops in my bucket anymore...I too am thinking satellite!

[eyescene]

you may want to see if you can get an ISDN line ran to your house-

my buddy told me that in some places you may not be able to get dsl but could maybe get an ISDN line=

I called about that and Nope BS said we don't got that either. :mad:

[carsalesguy]

you also may want to check with your cellular providers about data cards and plans-

i know alltel sells now a PCI card or a PCMCIA card (laptop) for the PC to work off their network wirelessly without a hotspot- i would imagine that would be faster than dialup

[Guru]

How good will that work in a house in a cow pasture?

[carsalesguy]

i imagine that would depend on what type of signal you get on your cell phone now-

i know they do make some cell antenna boosters that you can mount outside too-0

[Guru]

CSG we gotta talk about this more in detail.
I know they used to make them for automobiles and I had heard you might get them at home but the cell outfits give you that "cow looking at a new gate" look when you ask them about it.
If y'all call me on my cell at home I run to the front of the house, grab the cell quick and stand in front of the kitchen window, stand out on the back porch or hustle to the middle of my front yard and stand on one foot while closing my right eye.

[bpitt]

I talked with my uncle today who does dsl work out in the field for AT&T/Bellsouth. He said they were on a plan to get everyone on it. But, in some places, they were running out of capacity for everyone that wanted to get it, such as where Fishbait used to live. So, they stopped putting in the new equipment for new areas until they upgraded existing capacity at existing service areas. He said as of last week, they were about through with that. So now, they should go back to adding new service areas. Just some info.