Hey everybody it's applecrisp

[Rancid-Milk-Man]

I'm having a bad few days. The memory in my computer has craped out and AT&T has decided to mess up my Internet when we cancelled our phone line. I thought I'd drop by and let everyone know what was up.

Hopefully I'll see everybody in a few days

[Fursphere]

AT&T has decided to mess up my Internet when we cancelled our phone line

Deja Vu? I did this same thing not too long ago, and it was a two week nitemare getting it straightened out. Ended up having to take a day off work to get an AT&T tech out to my house to fix the "box to my house" wiring to make the "dry loop" work correctly.

Good luck!

[Drommon]

So let me get this straight... we can cancel the phone line and still have AT&T dsl?

[Fursphere]

Yes, its called a "dry loop". It may or may not be cheaper than what you currently have.

I *never* used my home phone, so I canceled it to get rid of all the associated phone taxes.

[Rancid-Milk-Man]

So let me get this straight... we can cancel the phone line and still have AT&T dsl?

From what the rep was saying is that it wouldn't be a problem, but In the back of my head I knew it couldn't be right. We wanted to cancel our phone because they were charging us so much. So we did that and they said our Internet should be fine...

[Rancid-Milk-Man]

Yes, its called a "dry loop". It may or may not be cheaper than what you currently have.

I *never* used my home phone, so I canceled it to get rid of all the associated phone taxes.

We never use our phone either, but AT&T found a way to charge us like 25 dollars a months for the phone alone. When my friend only pays around 7 dollars for his line and he's with AT&T.

[Fursphere]

I think I was paying almost $15 in taxes alone.

[Drommon]

Yeah I have cellphone, landline, satellite and dsl all through AT&T. My bill from them is like $200+ a month. It just grinds my gears everytime I see the bill. I don't watch TV (wife does), don't use the land line and rarely use my cell.

The only thing I need is dsl :)

So getting rid of something will go a ways to saving some money. You get seperate tax on each those items as well. My wife is already looking into the dry loop thing. We have been wanting to dump that line ever since we moved here.

Thanks for the tip... Now I can justify getting internet service on the iphone :)

[Rancid-Milk-Man]

Yeah I have cellphone, landline, satellite and dsl all through AT&T. My bill from them is like $200+ a month. It just grinds my gears everytime I see the bill. I don't watch TV (wife does), don't use the land line and rarely use my cell.

The only thing I need is dsl :)

So getting rid of something will go a ways to saving some money. You get seperate tax on each those items as well. My wife is already looking into the dry loop thing. We have been wanting to dump that line ever since we moved here.

Thanks for the tip... Now I can justify getting internet service on the iphone :)

Yeah no problem it would save you a bunch of money and I have an iPhone. It's been good to me. I've used it to creat this thread and post lol. <3 iPhone

[Souca]

I've been doing the "dry loop" thing with various providers for years. While it seems cheaper, it isn't always. Be sure to check what they charge for various packages as I've noticed some companies like to advertise internet for $29.99, but only when you get their $50 phone service as well. On top of the pricing fun, they have also charged additional for the privilege of not having a phone on the phone line. I had to get a $12.99 phone line with no extras at one apartment to avoid a "phoneless charge" of $20 per month. Phone companies just don't get that for most intents and purposes the phone is dead. Instead of spending money upgrading their lines to provide better data services that customers want, they hold on to the monopoly mindset and try to shove their entitlement down peoples throats.

- Souca -

[Svpernova09]

Not sure about dry loop, but I've been getting dry humped by providers for years, nothing new >.<

[Drommon]

So these are my options ->

The first is a Dry Loop will be $35 flat fee per month. 24 hour+ down time no dsl. a tech comes out and does the conversion. after the box turns red light for 24 hours then back to green light you have to call the people to re register the internet service with a fictiocious number.

The 2nd, is called Measured Service. $7.28 for the line and a 10x12 promo for internet which is 15$ for the first year and $25 thereafter plus taxes it will be about 31.28 a month. evrything is stripped off the line except local calls. Also every year before the promo expires, you can call back and ask for another promo deal.

For option 2 the tax is listed and there is a hassle every year to call them to reset the promo. But you still get local calls.

Can anyone provides thought/experience on this?

Thank you!

[Rancid-Milk-Man]

Update: AT&T was being difficult so we decided to shop around for dry loop Internet and came to comcast. Comcast is having a deal on 15Mbps cable Internet for only 29.95 for the first year and 49.95 after that. That's double the speed I had with AT&T abd only for a bit more. So if anybody is looking for Internet I'd suggest going with comcast. They're not going to be out until Sunday so in the mean time I'm going to try and fix my computer.

[daviddoran]

I switched from DSL to cable years ago and havent looked back. Not having to deal with "dry loops" made life much simpler.

[Drommon]

Well I live in a rural agricultural town that both pg&e and at&t have a monopoly over. I opted for the dry loop. At the end of the current billing cycle a tech will come out and change the line over. I will be saving $35 a month doing this. I would love to get comcast but it isn't availbale here and even if it was, I am stuck on a contract with at&t for satellite.

[Rancid-Milk-Man]

I switched from DSL to cable years ago and havent looked back. Not having to deal with "dry loops" made life much simpler.

This would be the first time having cable. I'm kind of nervous. I don't know if bandwidth would be a problem for my tv or what. Also for iPhone users. I've learned yesterday AT&T wants to cap the "unlimited" data plan for iPhone users because they can't keep up with the demand. I'm really pissed about this. Anyone deciding to get the iPhone my advice would be to wait until it goes to verizon next year.

Link: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/12/iphone-caps/

[Svpernova09]

This would be the first time having cable. I'm kind of nervous. I don't know if bandwidth would be a problem for my tv or what. Also for iPhone users. I've learned yesterday AT&T wants to cap the "unlimited" data plan for iPhone users because they can't keep up with the demand. I'm really pissed about this. Anyone deciding to get the iPhone my advice would be to wait until it goes to verizon next year.

Link: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/12/iphone-caps/


Verizon is also capping their "unlimited" plans and making it a lot more expensive:

http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/11/09/068255

AT&T and Verizon are both toying with the idea of metered pricing >.<

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/09/30/0131236
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/09/12/09/2028245/ATampT-Moves-Closer-To-Usage-Based-Fees-For-Data

[Drommon]

I got my dry loop installed with no hiccups. Internet was down for only 1 hour. Now I am going to save $35 a month. I went through the house and threw away all those damn hardline crap phones I had all these years. So far I have not had any problems with service (knock on wood).

[Rancid-Milk-Man]

Update: Internet is installed. Downloading at 1Mb/s. Hard Drive arrived last night so I'll probably be installing today. Oh and on a side note... I WON A 55' TV FROM FRIGGIN VIZIO!!!

[Fursphere]

ZOMG GRATZ!
(ss or it didn't happen! lol)

[daviddoran]

can i have your old tv?

[Rancid-Milk-Man]

ZOMG GRATZ!
(ss or it didn't happen! lol)

When I get it you shall see a picture!

and daviddoran you may have my old crappy TV lol