This is an old thread, but I will just say that over the years I have had several providers and types of internet connections. I started out with a 14.4k modem back in the Windows 3.1 days. I never owned Windows 95, but I got 98 SE on an IBM Aptiva box (unbelievably still have this) that also had a 56K modem. Max connection I ever got was 38k. I though I was hot s4!t. Then when Windows 2000 came out (actually had it as NT5 first) I upgraded to ISDN 128K because that was my only option - I would bet very few people on here had that or ever heard of it except maybe Allan. DSL was available in some areas, but not in my parents neighborhood (and for some damn reason it STILL isn't). Let me tell you.... I had this in Napster's beginning days, and I thought it was great. Soon after, a local company began offering wireless via dish mounted on the roof. While this was fast... if it was windy it would always lose connection. I then graduated to a cable modem, which wad AT&T @Home. Still to this day the fastest friggin connection I've ever had. I don't know where this was available throughout the country - but if you had it, you know EXACTLY what I'm saying. The other added bonus was, they did not filter the cable TV out of the line, so I had free cable. Enter Comcast. I can not stand that company. Never dealt with a more greedy company in my life.
So now I have been a Qwest/Century Link customer for 10 years. I started out with 768k, then 1.5 megabit, and now I have 7 megabit. In 10 years, I've replaced the modem 4 or 5 times, and had one outage caused by a bad wire coming into the house. If you want to get Qwest out in a hurry, tell them you work from home and require an internet connection. They move quick. That all said, my 7 megabit connection is 28 dollars per month. It is plenty of bandwidth for us. It is constantly in use (my wife really does work from home) streaming Netflix or Pandora. I've had 3 devices (Wii, Sony Bluray player, Sony Media Player) streaming at once, and it kept up. I am pleased with it.
Sent from a Commodore 64 using a 300 baud modem