Pegasus3d.com

[Madan]

Disillusionment ensues.

My sister loves it. My folks, which come in to use it every now and again, aren't exatly sold on the idea.

My sis uses the IM a LOT, to keep in touch with her friends(since her cellular phone costs $$) in the city. She also uses the email, the calendar/date systems, the proprietary WB sites and such...

Me? I'm EXTREMELY frustrated.

They told me that the IP would be static. That I would be able to host my own web site.

I can't. It isn't.

The app. indicates that the IP can nutate or stay static but the truth is that the IP is nutating...period.

So I can't host a site and they lied.



They told me that the TOP speed is 1.5mbps but I keep getting between 500kbps and 950kbps, or 725kbps average, which is HALF the top speed they promised.

That, in itself wouldn't be bad had they promised me:



...Great performance on games. Unfortunately, the performance is TERRIBLE on UT, Arena, CS because my pings aren't that great and my latency is TERRIBLE. After reading through reams of web text about ping/latency and the like, I've come to the conclusion that AOL or XP are to blame(probably a little of both).

The ad "smoke dial up users" is just plain propaganda. That's illegal.



So let's recap.

General speed and downloading is good.
Features and available media are good.


Ping/latency are bad. Games mostly unplayable.
Top speed isn't close to 1.5mbps.
No web site hosting. They lied.



My folks are telling me "I told you so!". My sis is enchanted. I don't want to give up my fast access, since I'll probably lose it for good(no other decent carriers down here..same problems) but, by the same token, I'm paying 55 bucks a month for a 700kbps, non-game playable, non-website hostable ISP.

That's just a TOTAL rip off.

I've called them twice but now I'm TRULY, proFOUNDly pissed off.

I'm calling AOL tonite to get that resolved and they are NOT going to jerk me around anymore.


They're going to tell me how to play the games online, like their ads promised. They're going to tell me how to host my own site, like they promised over the phone. They're going to tell me how I'm supposed to justify such a monthly bill for such a dearth of service...

They're going to tell me because I'm tired of the bullshit.

[OscarWilde]

whoa! before you go and complain, give some of us a chance to explain why you've not been ripped of (well for most of it) before you go yelling at AOL.

I'm really tierd right now and want to rest for a bit, but i'll get back in an hour or two, or tomorrow morning (its 10pm here).
_________________
'An urban myth. Like the dyslexic devil worshipper who sold his soul to Santa.' - Robert Rankin (Raiders of the Lost Car Park)

'Hate traps us by binding us too tightly to our adversary.' - Milan Kundera (Immortality)

[Madan]

So you don't think I'm getting ripped? Could you explain? Maybe you're understanding something better than I am...



J.

[Jeremy Reimer]

I'm sorry to hear your first broadband experience was not a happy one, Madan. At least you didn't have people phoning you up at home accusing you of doing 40 gig upload and download in a single month and threatening to cut off your access! (Damn Shaw people, you can burn in hell... )

Are there really no other options for bband in your area?
_________________
"Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries."
-- Carl Sagan

"Its not a rule. Its just something I noticed. Several of us have more than one sig." - Mord

"No, you are a troll, and I should have never let you back to Ars in after the first 16,000 bannings." - Caesar, to He Who Shall Not Be Named

[Madan]

No, there really aren't.

MSN won't service my area.
Bellsouth has the same problems as AOL.

Earthlink has iffy reputation and is almost seventy a month with static IP.

There are two or three smaller ones but they're not much better in terms of service...

I guess da Poopy is right. I should:

A. Stop bitching about my site and just use my ColdFusion server to develop f a site hosted on a free CF host...

B. Stop bitching about Arena and start learning how to play with 350 ping.
Be thankful that I can play NWN reasonably well and Starcraft ok...


C. Be thankful that I have broadband at all.


Nhf. Who knows, maybe iD can help with a response soon.

J

[Jeremy Reimer]

D. Play me at Starcraft. It's okay, I totally suck. I like playing Zerg and Protoss.
_________________
"Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries."
-- Carl Sagan

"Its not a rule. Its just something I noticed. Several of us have more than one sig." - Mord

"No, you are a troll, and I should have never let you back to Ars in after the first 16,000 bannings." - Caesar, to He Who Shall Not Be Named

[Madan]

Soon. I just need some time to set everything up.

Let's schedule a match. I need to plan my usage in advance so as to schedule the time.
_________________
Lovin' Mely.

[Socrates]

Apparently the speed of your connection is a function of proximity to the central station in your area.

People around here, on the fringes are lucky to get 300k.

Some of us, near the new hub, get T1 speeds, 1.2 mb/sec.

Luck of the draw.

Fixed IP is a big deal.

Good luck on that one.

s

[AlphaMeridian]

Hmm. Perhaps if my boxen does not crasheth (like it used to) I may get on on the starcraft goodness (i'm assuming this means Brood War)

-Alpha
_________________
"They told me, ‘You’re a pirate!’ I said, ‘C’mon, guys, pirates are all at sea. I just work in a parking lot.’ "

So Lonestar, now you see why evil will always triumph because good is dumb!

[Madan]

AM, I would definitely like for you to play too.

The more the merrier.

Keep Reimer from killing me quickly.


_________________
Lovin' Mely.

[Socrates]

Does a router work with a non-static IP?

Can't remember...

s

[AlphaMeridian]

[Magus]

Madan: My IP is dynamic (per se, since my router is connected to the cable modem, it nevers releases the IP ) and I use DynDNS for dynamic DNS. I'm hosting off a machine not a foot away from me.

Sorry about all the trouble.
_________________
<Paolo|Work> anything that has to do with Java is by definition stupid

1 The Network is my domain, I shall not want; 2 though it makes me wait upon collision, it leads me to the Internet; 3 it restores my connection. It leads me in paths of hypertext transfer for google's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of power failures, I fear no data corruption; for backups art with me; thy UPS and thy status light, they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a firewall before me in the presence of my enemies; thou anointest my CD-R with BurnProof, my buffer never underflows. 6 Surely good deals and pr0n shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Datacenter for ever.
-HitScan

Wilde is a 4' chinese man in a bright pink tutu, lime green pimp hat with peacock feathers, and a purple feather boa, wearing tissue stuffed snakeskin combat boots, holding a gun bigger than he is, smoking a cigarette in the parking garage, trying to look menacing while pouting and head banging to Godsmack I stand alone

[Madan]

I popped 128mb of RAM in the machine. PNY RAM. PC 133.

It helps a BIT, on the performance but my pings still dangle around 350. Way too high for any game.

I find that I do well in games against 3-4 ppl, where I can leverage sneakiness to compensate for my .... slowness.

But in small games 1vs1, I get owned. I can't move.
_________________
Lovin' Mely.

[DrPizza]

[Madan]

[PaoloM]

[Madan]

You heard me.

A. They promised me a static IP.

B. My ping is lower on bband than snailband(on some occasions).

I know it shouldn't be...but it is.
_________________
Lovin' Mely.

[PaoloM]

[arhra]

i'll second what everyone else has said: Dynamic DNS is your friend. i use dyndns.org and directupdate, which is a client that runs as a service. does the job perfectly (although i havent' really had to worry about it... i've had the same dhcp-assigned IP address for over a year now... still, typing arhra.ath.cx is a lot easier than trying to remember my ip). for a small one-off fee, you can even get them to do dynamic dns for a domain name you've registered.
_________________
Linux is like wiping your ass with sandpaper, it may work, but it's painful and leaves scars.
- Quality

[OscarWilde]

Sorry, i didn't mean you had no reason to bitch, i meant that for some of the things you mentioned, its a bit of misunderstanding going around.

First of, static IP. What PaoloM is saying, and what i was wondering last night, was, its one thing to be told you can get static IP, which AOL can provide, and another when you sign a contract that doesn't give you static IP. Did you sign the right contract/deal? If you have, and it does say under no BS lawer language, you are to have static IP, i would take it up with AOL immediately.

Again, as Peter said, www.dyndns.org, should really be enough to do what you want. Static IP's tend to come at a cost, and something I don't think warrants it unless you're running a public website, be it business or something like arstechnica. Its really easy to setup and better yet is that you can have a lot of names attached to your website (not sure what the policy is for static ip addresses and domain name, but i do believe there is a limit).

As for broadband speeds, what Peter said. That is your max speed and something you can get depending on the server you are accessing (i.e. downloading a file) and how many servers in between. Try the Apple website or Microsoft website for downloads. I always get close to max downloads from them, because they tend to have servers all over the nation to take care of user loads (Apple uses Akamai). Anyway, you can't really bitch at them about the not always getting 1.5Mbps because its more to do with the nature of the internet then anything else. More importantly, you are using AOL, and no its not because AOL sucks, its because AOL is one of the largest internet providers in America. That means you have a lot more users logged in at a given time taking up the bandwidth pipe they have and server resources. Its also what i was elluding to when I was talking about Quake 3 and pings.

I can tell you that its not Windows XP and Win2k that is limiting you. Both have really good TCP/IP stacks. AOL however, back in the old days, installed its own TCP/IP stack iirc, and that can be a problem depending on how AOL configures its client to server traffic. This is all a guess on my part, but it makes sense in a way.

More importantly, since you are using a very popular ISP, you have to understand that there are more users online that take a chunk out of what AOL can give at a time. Bandwidth is not infinite, nor are server resources. So even if you use AOL during non peak hours, you're still fighting against the rest of the world that is connected to the internet. I know, because when i check american websites during the day (US time zones), webpages take for ever to download, versus when i check US websites during the times when most americans are asleep, i can access websites with no hitch.

goto, www.tucows.com , its a download site but allows you to choose the server mirrors according to you preferences. In HK, i choose the my ISP mirrors, which means i get (sorta) direct connection to the files and download at max speeds.

Basically the point is, its not that easy saying you should get max speeds when so many factors are involved.

As for static IP, i would first check the deal you signed, and if you are supposed to have Static IP then bitch to them.

Oh, and because your friend a few miles away has better performance doesn't mean you necessarily get better download performance either. The closer your house is to a broadband switch, the better your performance is. I have read that if you're within a mile from an ISP broadband switch, the better your broadband performance is.

Lots of factors involved. HK is a tiny island, and my local ISP routers and switches are literally a 15 minute walk away from where I live. I know, i've been there and seen them.

edit: uh, i edited my post and it didn't get edited. Odd.
Anyway, i wanted to say that Paolo and Arhra posted while i was typing my post and they said what i wrote, bet they did it better and with a lot fewer words.
_________________
'An urban myth. Like the dyslexic devil worshipper who sold his soul to Santa.' - Robert Rankin (Raiders of the Lost Car Park)

'Hate traps us by binding us too tightly to our adversary.' - Milan Kundera (Immortality)

[Madan]

[arhra]

[arhra]

btw, there's a big huge list of providers, along with a semi-technical overview of how it all works, here
_________________
Linux is like wiping your ass with sandpaper, it may work, but it's painful and leaves scars.
- Quality

[Madan]

Cool! Thanks!