Best Austin ISP & Rabbit Ears!

[Salamok]

Okay, time to cut expenses.  I applied for the digital TV converter box (8 year old TV) coupon and am planning on cancelling cable once i'm all set up.

Step 1 -  Rabbit Ears, I'm thinking since it is digital there will be no half assed snowy reception (I'll either have crystal clear reception or no reception at all), that said anyone have suggestions on the best antenna for this (roof mount is okay as long as it be cheap)?

Step 2 - Netflix + ROKU has anyone tried this box out and is it any good?  What do you think the minimum internet speed/service (see next step) would be needed for smooth operation?

Step 3 - ISP - I still need teh internets!  I hate all these fuckers so I want to pay them the minimum possible amount of my money for just enough speed to make me (and the ROKU) happy!  I'll need to go either Time Warner Cable or SBC/ATT DSL (No FIOS available), here is what I have been able to find (stand alone pricing):

• cable 15+mbps $59/month
• cable 7mbps $45/month
• DSL 6mbs $45/month
• DSL 3mbs $40/month

Currently getting about 1.5mbps on my cable (rated at 7mbps) I'm told this will be vastly improved If I get off my ass and restart the cable modem.  In the past I seem to recall hearing that DSL had consistent higher bandwidth allocation than cable not sure if this is still true since cable seems to have rapidly outpaced DSL on peak bandwidth.  The turbo cable is a bit high for me at $60/month and I hate these bastards too much to shell out that kind of change.

I have 40mbps internet at work and to tell the truth for most of the browsing I do I can't tell much difference between it and the 2mbps my ailing connection at home gets (main difference is updating websites via ftp/large file transfer).  So it comes down to what I will need to keep the netflix streaming media box happy. 

I also suppose an extra $5 a month to my sworn enemy is justifiable if my speed is being doubled so it really comes down to 6mbps DSL vs 7mbps Cable.

[Lantyssa]

Do you want/have a landline?  It's doubtful you can get DSL without having one, which adds a good chunk even if you get the bare minimum.

[Salamok]

Do you want/have a landline?  It's doubtful you can get DSL without having one, which adds a good chunk even if you get the bare minimum.

haven't had a land line for 7 years, prices I quoted on DSL take into consideration no land line.

[bhodi]

I think a lot of places offer "naked" DSL now. It's not like the old days.

[Salamok]

I wonder if there is a hack for that ROKU box that will let me stream non-netflix downloaded content to it.

[Trippy]

Okay, time to cut expenses.  I applied for the digital TV converter box (8 year old TV) coupon and am planning on cancelling cable once i'm all set up.

Step 1 -  Rabbit Ears, I'm thinking since it is digital there will be no half assed snowy reception (I'll either have crystal clear reception or no reception at all)

Nope, it's actually "tri-state". If the signal strength is too weak you will get nothing on that channel. If the signal strength is strong you can still get "noise" (digital signal breakup usually manifesting itself as large macroblocks in assorted strange colors) depending on the any number of factors including the weather. If the signal strength is slightly above the minimal the tuner needs to lock onto the signal you may end up with a picture with lots of digital noise and channel dropouts (i.e. it'll tune for a while, with lots of noise, and then it'll blackout).

that said anyone have suggestions on the best antenna for this (roof mount is okay as long as it be cheap)?

Depending on how far away you are from the broadcast towers an old school roof antenna may work fine. If you want something a little more "high tech" you can get something like this (Winegard is a well respected antenna maker):

http://www.dennysantennaservice.com/1073325.html

Rabbit ears, even amplified ones, will almost certain *not* work unless you happen to live very close to a tower.

Step 3 - ISP - I still need teh internets!  I hate all these fuckers so I want to pay them the minimum possible amount of my money for just enough speed to make me (and the ROKU) happy!  I'll need to go either Time Warner Cable or SBC/ATT DSL (No FIOS available), here is what I have been able to find (stand alone pricing):

• cable 15+mbps $59/month
• cable 7mbps $45/month
• DSL 6mbs $45/month
• DSL 3mbs $40/month

Currently getting about 1.5mbps on my cable (rated at 7mbps) I'm told this will be vastly improved If I get off my ass and restart the cable modem.  In the past I seem to recall hearing that DSL had consistent higher bandwidth allocation than cable not sure if this is still true since cable seems to have rapidly outpaced DSL on peak bandwidth.  The turbo cable is a bit high for me at $60/month and I hate these bastards too much to shell out that kind of change.

I have 40mbps internet at work and to tell the truth for most of the browsing I do I can't tell much difference between it and the 2mbps my ailing connection at home gets (main difference is updating websites via ftp/large file transfer).  So it comes down to what I will need to keep the netflix streaming media box happy. 

I also suppose an extra $5 a month to my sworn enemy is justifiable if my speed is being doubled so it really comes down to 6mbps DSL vs 7mbps Cable.

Cable typically has a much higher max bandwidth than regular DSL (i.e. ADSL or ADSL2). VDSL which is available in some areas (AT&T U-Verse is VDSL) is closer to cable in terms of max bandwidth but cable can still be higher. Cable, however, has an additional spot for bandwidth bottlenecking (your neighborhood) which DSL doesn't have which means a DSL line may give you more consistent bandwidth than cable (this isn't counting all the throttling shenanigans cable companies have in place these days).

I think a lot of places offer "naked" DSL now. It's not like the old days.

You still pay extra for that though.

[Salamok]

Cable typically has a much higher max bandwidth than regular DSL (i.e. ADSL or ADSL2). VDSL which is available in some areas (AT&T U-Verse is VDSL) is closer to cable in terms of max bandwidth but cable can still be higher. Cable, however, has an additional spot for bandwidth bottlenecking (your neighborhood) which DSL doesn't have which means a DSL line may give you more consistent bandwidth than cable (this isn't counting all the throttling shenanigans cable companies have in place these days).

We know the advertised (and presumable throttled down to) bandwidths 6mbps DSL and 7mbps Cable, which do you think will more consistently deliver speeds closest to their max?  Sounds like you are saying unrestrained cable blows DSL away but if you are throttled then DSL will probably be consistently better...

edit: thx for the antenna link, I think i'll pick up some ears at radiocrap when I buy my converter box then if I need to i'll get the external you linked and return the ears.  Austin has more towers in more places than any city I have ever lived in so who knows what kind of reception I will get (they can't ALL be for talking to the aliens).

[Trippy]

It also depends on how pr0n and other junk is being downloaded via cable in your neighborhood. That's the additional point of congestion that DSL doesn't have. And there's no way to know how bad that might be until you try it yourself or find somebody in your neighborhood that will let you take bandwidth measurements on their line at periodic intervals.

[Salamok]

It also depends on how pr0n and other junk is being downloaded via cable in your neighborhood. That's the additional point of congestion that DSL doesn't have. And there's no way to know how bad that might be until you try it yourself or find somebody in your neighborhood that will let you take bandwidth measurements on their line at periodic intervals.

I currently have the exact same cable internet access that I was proposing.  I think my speeds suck (need to dig the modem out from behind the TV cabinet and restart it though), is there some other method than just using speedtest.net to guage how much of my neighborhood cable is being gobbled by the pr0n?

[Nebu]

Don't rabbit ears stop working in February?

Just a thought.

[Trippy]

It also depends on how pr0n and other junk is being downloaded via cable in your neighborhood. That's the additional point of congestion that DSL doesn't have. And there's no way to know how bad that might be until you try it yourself or find somebody in your neighborhood that will let you take bandwidth measurements on their line at periodic intervals.

I currently have the exact same cable internet access that I was proposing.  I think my speeds suck (need to dig the modem out from behind the TV cabinet and restart it though), is there some other method than just using speedtest.net to guage how much of my neighborhood cable is being gobbled by the pr0n?

Not that I'm aware of but I haven't had Cable Internet for very long myself.

Don't rabbit ears stop working in February?

They will still work. An antenna doesn't know whether or not the signal it's picking up is analog or digital. Or more precisely it's all analog to the antenna and it's the receiver that knows whether or not it's supposed to be analog or digital.

[Salamok]

Don't rabbit ears stop working in February?

They will still work. An antenna doesn't know whether or not the signal it's picking up is analog or digital. Or more precisely it's all analog to the antenna and it's the receiver that knows whether or not it's supposed to be analog or digital.

what trippy said AND they show em in the gov't diagram for how digital tv works!

[Nebu]

I'm going to bet that they paid some marketing department $200 million for that diagram. 

[Salamok]

well it is pretty awesome, I think schild should shrink it down and make it a smiley!