Re: ping Jake, Roger, and anyone else using Teranews -- or anyone contemplating getting WildBlue
- From: emilyd@xxxxxxx
- Date: 21 May 2007 06:35:21 -0700
On May 21, 2:54 am, El Castor <No_...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 21 May 2007 00:43:49 -0400, emi...@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Sun, 20 May 2007 19:44:47 -0700, El Castor <No_...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
You get what you pay for. Giganews is not free, but they currently
have over 300,000 soc.retirement posts on their servers.
Oh, how I wish that were always true! Let me tell you the sad tale of
one time when it definitely wasn't.
I had been using a dial-up service for about a year and a half and was
so tired of not being able to download books from the binary groups or
watch streaming video or any of the other things that are practically
impossible with dial-up. So, when the guy who installed Starband for
me years ago, and is also the DishNetwork installer (as well as
selling Amway and preaching somewhere) told me that Dish was now also
selling WildBlue, I decided to go for it, but only after checking
their web site and making sure that among the list of offered features
were news groups. Specifically it said "new groups -- included". I
don't know how anyone else would interpret that, but to me it meant
they were included, part of the package.
So, the day WildBlue was installed, and we had to speak to a tech on
the phone to get finalized or whatever they call it, I asked for the
name of their news group server. She starts telling me how to go to
Google and search for the names of free news servers. I went
ballistic but by then it was installed and I was screwed. $70/month
I'm paying for this piece of crap and they tell me to find a free news
server. I gnash my teeth for a couple of days and then decide you
only go around once and I really, really want to be able to download
books again, so I decide to go with Giganews again as I had once when
Starband's news groups got so bad that nothing was ever complete. But
first I do a little more checking and find out that not only does
WildBlue not really have news groups, but the sons of bitches limit me
to 1 freakin' gig/month no matter what news server I sign up with
since it all goes down their little bitty pipeline.
Teranews has been working fairly well until the last few days but in
order to download the messages I'd posted and the responses to my
original in this thread, I had to go through the dial-up connection
which we still have because we haven't yet gotten my husband's
computer connected to WildBlue. I suppose if we ever get that
accomplished and drop the dial-up connection, I will have to go with
Giganews at $7.95/month if I want reliable service.
Please have a little sympathy -- I am paying for it but I'm not
getting it.
Comcast includes 2 free Giganews gigs a month with their basic
subscription fee. We may have had this conversation before, but if you
can get DSL where you live, maybe that would be a lot cheaper way to
go. In less than three months AT&T will be offering U-verse locally. A
la carte TV, DSL, VOIP, cell and phone for considerably less than
Comcast charges. I intend to seriously look into switching. And, you
may not (probably not) qualify, but it looks like AT&T is offering one
year of Dish Network free (you have to buy an additional 6 months), if
U-verse is scheduled for your area in the future.
I think we have had this conversation before, and I'm still in the
damned boondocks where DSL is just something to dream about -- and get
mad about when Verizon includes a "sign up for DSL" page with the
phone bill. Their idea of a cruelty joke, I suppose.
Since we recently upgraded our DishNetwork to HD, we're stuck with
them for about another seventeen months. Oh, and by the way, that
"get HD for $20/month" is another joke. There's also a $6/month
"rental fee" for the HD receiver, a $5.98/month "service charge", and
if you don't keep the damned thing connected to your phone line
constantly and without a minute's interruptions, there's another $5/
month charge. Plus tax.
Here's a better deal than Giganews. The people behind the Agent
newsreader software will give you three months of their news server
for free if you buy Agent 4.2 -- or you can just buy 7 gigs a month
for $2.95.
Thanks for the suggestion. I suppose that's the best I'm going to be
able to do. It will pain me not to be able to use 6 gigs of it,
though.
.
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