Well, I've used a standard 56k modem up til now, but I have the option to go for cable. It's faster, but I've heard people saying that the connection can go bad, and at times won't work for several days at all. Is this true? And is there anything else I should know about it before deciding to get it or not?

Thanks [img]smile.gif[/img]

Don't know about Nederlands, but in sweden it works, almost ;) , prefect..
I've never experienced any trouble with it, and the worst I heard was a guy that was shut out for a week..
Still the benefits are to big to turn down [img]smile.gif[/img]

Let me answer this.As you can see,i'm from Holland too,and i am using a cable modem(chello).It's so much faster than a regular modem,for example,i've downloaded files with more than 200kb/s.You're phoneline is not occupied,no more "inbellen"(sorry,don't know the english word).
About loss of connection,it sometimes happens.Happened to me only once,couldn't use it for about 2 hours.But you've still got your regular modem to use.I'm very satisfied with it [img]smile.gif[/img] ,no high phonebills,you know how much you have to pay at the end of the month.

I can certainly recommend it

Well, im with quicknet(sonera) right now, and although it is expensive(for me its actually cheaper then those nasty telephone bills i used to get) its definatly worth it. Conection loss only happend to me once and (just like campino) it was solved in a few hours.

And one more thing... how much are you guys paying for it? I heard it's about 80 or 90 guilders a month, is that right?

Chello is f99.95 a month,installation is f199.95 (temporary),and you have to pay f100,00 "borg" for the modem.

I'm not in the Netherlands, so I don't know exactly what the service will be like there. However, having just had cable put in here (UK), I'll will warn you that it will ruin your life. You won't do anything else apart from use the internet, because it is so much quicker that 56k, and the novelty doesn't wear off.

On the plus side, there are 4 people in my house on the one connection, and we can happily all use it at the same time (and it is still ridiculously fast), a feat you could never perform on a 56k connection. Also, we can all be downloading at the same time and all get the quoted connection speed (56Kish), which seems very odd.
One thing I've found is that you play games online the pings can be very variable, it never lags, but I get ping times ranging from 30ms to 600ms. As far as I can tell this is the cable providers system, not our home network, or the game server. This is not good for gaming, I've tried to play Counterstrike 0.5 seconds behind the server time - this doesn't work.

Anyway overall I'd say leave the world wide wait and jump on board the world wide whoosh.

Great :D

I'm looking forward to it already, never leaving the net is indeed an interesting prospect ;)

I hope your friends and family share that view with you :D
Just don't forget there is life besides the internet [img]smile.gif[/img]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Campino:
I hope your friends and family share that view with you :D
Just don't forget there is life besides the internet [img]smile.gif[/img] <hr></blockquote>

Blasphemy! Burn the heretic! Stone the blasphemer!

Another Dutchie with Cable here...
Well, though I have cable provided by the University itself (I believe in co-operation with Priority) and only pay DFL 45 a month (and if you're not a student of the University in Eindhoven, this information is pretty useless), I can only tell you that the worst period of the week is the Monday evening for some reason, 9 out of 10 times, my connection will go down for several hours in the afternoon and evening.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Grojlach:
Another Dutchie with Cable here...
Well, though I have cable provided by the University itself (I believe in co-operation with Priority) and only pay DFL 45 a month (and if you're not a student of the University in Eindhoven, this information is pretty useless), I can only tell you that the worst period of the week is the Monday evening for some reason, 9 out of 10 times, my connection will go down for several hours in the afternoon and evening.<hr></blockquote>


I was on a uni network a couple of years ago, and it was incredible. If I picked the right time of day/week you could get around 600k (I had 900 a couple of times), but if I tried using it during a weekday it could go as low as 4 bytes a second. It was a bit annoying at times, but as cost about the 150 guilders, and you got a network card chucked in aswell.

Alex, as long as you're not with Casema, I think you should be fine. My boyfriend's mom had cable through Casema, and it was HELL. They're getting sued all over the place now, I hear. You know what I would do? Try and do a Google search and find some customer comments on the provider in your area (probably the same provider as Dreamer's, right?). They can give you an unbiased opinion and relate their experiences. I hear there are a lot of sites dedicated to that sort of thing. [img]smile.gif[/img]

(I have ADSL through m_xstream, btw. [img]graemlins/showoff.gif[/img] I can recommend it to anybody. The installation is quite expensive, but we got a 150,- discount at Planet.nl. We did the installation ourselves, it was really easy. I share the connection with my boyfriend, which makes it quite cheap per person (50,- per month each))

Just make sure you download ZoneAlarm or get another form of Firewall.
Unless you shutdown your computer you will be connected to the internet all the time. You need a firewall. ZoneAlarm is free and you download it from the internet. I have had very little trouble with it and it is very easy to use and understand.

I use ZoneAlarm as well - it's very good! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Where can you download ZoneAlarm?

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Neb:
Where can you download ZoneAlarm?<hr></blockquote>

Try Here

I'm using it here aswell, and it seems to do the job.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Staralfur:


Try Here<hr></blockquote>

Thanks Staralfur [img]smile.gif[/img]

Pardon my ignorance, but what precisely is a firewall? I've often heard people mention it, but am still not exactly sure what it is.

A firewall is a program that prevents hackers from messing around with your computer.