Eh? Oh. That time again, eh?
It turns out the bunker is wired for AT&T's "elite" DSL plan. That's supposed to be between 3 and 6 Mbps, which amounts to roughly 375-750 KBs (little "b" means bits, big "B" means bytes).
But since I didn't want to do all kinds of carpentry and stuff when the bunker got wired for DSL, the old desktop connects wirelessly. And I needed a router, because more than one machine was using the connection.
Now, however, I could easily justify removing the router from the mix if I had a way to connect the desktop without it.
And there is now a cable drop in my room (for the satellite) and it wouldn't take much to run some CAT-5e and crimp on some ends. In fact, all it requires is a) the cable, b) the ends, and c) the tool.
That last bit is what's stopping me. I probably don't need more than about 50' of cable to make the run, and the ends are pennies apiece, but the damn crimper--
They're cheaper than they used to be, I'll grant that much.
Well, I don't know what I'm kvetching about. I don't have the money to spend on cable or ends, either, right now, so fuck it all to hell and gone. I'd just like to see if I can get more speed out of the setup without rearranging the entire goddamned house. *sigh*
Ah, who knows--maybe the Ethernet Cable Fairy will come along and grant me a boon. And maybe Santa Claus will bring me a pony, too.
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That does explain a few things, though. For example, it explains why Sailor V was downloading WoW at approximately 2400 baud at his house, but it downloaded fast here. I think my Internet is better than his.
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All of this came up because AT&T sent me a notice that their terms of use were changing. While looking through the e-mail I noticed that there's a data cap, and there were some other things--so I looked around.
The data cap was what I was really worried about. I download a lot of anime--well, it turns out that the lower-tier cap is 150 GB per month (total, both up and down) and there's no way I use 150 GB of bandwidth per month. And being on the plan we're on, I'd wager we have the higher-tier 250 GB/month limit, anyway.
All I know is, they send you e-mails when you pass the cap, and I've never gotten one.
They have a usage tool that lets you monitor your stats, but I didn't access it because I didn't feel like f-ing around with "update your on-line profile!" including a bunch of security bullshit. Maybe later.
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If you've got AT&T you can check your connect speeds by logging onto the modem; the first page tells you your connect speed. (Other modems are probably similar, if not the same.)
It's no secret that the modem's URL is http://192.168.0.1/ as that's pretty much universal for everyone, and if you try to access my modem using that URL, you'll get your own modem instead. (Assuming that you've got DSL. I'm pretty sure cable modems are the same. Point being, you won't access my modem if you use that URL, which is why I feel safe publishing it here.)
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I think this guy's going on the blogroll. No, I'm sure of it. This guy knows radiation and brings common sense to the whole "ONOES ANOTHER CHERNOBYL IN JAPAN!!!!1`" thing.
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In debt to our eyeballs and the economy is choking.
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And after looking over the last week's worth of posts at World's Only Rational Man I've got something that needs its own post. Continued in #2613.