ISPs?

I was just wondering. Have all the ISP's gone out of business now that
everyone either pays their phone company for DSL or their cable
company for a cable modem?

On 22 Apr 2011, Davej wrote in
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt:

I was just wondering. Have all the ISP's gone out of business now
that everyone either pays their phone company for DSL or their
cable company for a cable modem?

Cable companies and DSL providers *are* ISPs. So, I don't know what
you're talking about.

Davej wrote:
I was just wondering. Have all the ISP's gone out of business now that
everyone either pays their phone company for DSL or their cable
company for a cable modem?

The 'definition' of an ISP is an internet service provider^1.

My 'internet service provider' is EarthLink. I pay for my cable internet
connectivity on my statement from Time Warner which 'merged' with AOL
long ago.

When that merger took place, it was mandated that the TW/AOL cable
provider offer choices of ISPs, which choices became RoadRunner,
EarthLink, and AOL.

The infrastructure for the cable connectivity is TW/AOL so part of the
'choices' are incestuous, RR vs/and AOL.

If I have 'problems' with my connectivity, I call TW not EL; but if
there were a problem with EL's servers such as mail or their outsourced
news service which is Giganews I would 'contact' (not call) EL or Giga,
depending on the nature of the problem.


^1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interne...er#Access_ISPs
ISPs employ a range of technologies to enable consumers to connect to
their network.

--
Mike Easter

On Apr 22, 3:15*pm, Nil wrote:
On 22 Apr 2011, Davej wrote:

I was just wondering. Have all the ISP's gone out of business now
that everyone either pays their phone company for DSL or their
cable company for a cable modem?

Cable companies and DSL providers *are* ISPs. So, I don't know
what you're talking about.

Well, obviously ten or fifteen years ago there were all these
different independent ISPs and each one had a room loaded with 56k
modems. Did all those ISP companies go out of business?

Davej wrote:
On Apr 22, 3:15 pm, wrote:
On 22 Apr 2011, wrote:

I was just wondering. Have all the ISP's gone out of business now
that everyone either pays their phone company for DSL or their
cable company for a cable modem?

Cable companies and DSL providers *are* ISPs. So, I don't know
what you're talking about.

Well, obviously ten or fifteen years ago there were all these
different independent ISPs and each one had a room loaded with 56k
modems. Did all those ISP companies go out of business?

Just a WAG on my part but yeah, I'd say most those dial-up ISP companies
are gone.

http://www.getisp.info/dial-up.html

http://www.myispfinder.org/

--
JD..

Davej wrote:
I was just wondering. Have all the ISP's gone out of business now that
everyone either pays their phone company for DSL or their cable
company for a cable modem?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dial-up_networking

"A 2008 Pew Internet and American Life Project study states that only
10 percent of American adults still use dial-up Internet access.
Reasons for retaining dial-up access span from lack of infrastructure
to high broadband prices. This has allowed Dial-up providers such as
NetZero to continue spending marketing dollars to obtain customers and
commit to having U.S. based customer support."

I would think the geographic distribution of those 10% isn't uniform,
and more rural users might still be on dialup, through no fault of
their own. Satellite would be available, but with such a small cap and
a premium price, you'd be crazy to use it.

Our local FreeNet still offers dial-up, for around a $35 a year "donation".
If you don't have the money, they have some scheme where you can donate
your time instead.

Paul

On Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:53:11 -0700 (PDT), Davej
wrote:

I was just wondering. Have all the ISP's gone out of business now that
everyone either pays their phone company for DSL or their cable
company for a cable modem?

And that somehow makes them not ISPs?

"Loren Pechtel" wrote:
Davej wrote:

I was just wondering. Have all the ISP's gone out of business now that
everyone either pays their phone company for DSL or their cable
company for a cable modem?

And that somehow makes them not ISPs?

In most cases, the carrier is also the ISP, but not necessarily.
Here in S. Cal, for instance, DSL Extreme is an ISP that is
carried by AT&T, and Earthlink can be carried by AT&T or
by Time Warner cable. The major ISPs that are not carriers
are what remains of all the little ISPs that were bought out in
the last decade. For amusement, try taking a look at the long
list of domains that are still available as email addresses to
Earthlink customers. Those domains used to belong to other
ISPs which Earthlink bought out.

*TimDaniels*

On 4/22/2011 2:54 PM, Davej wrote:
On Apr 22, 3:15 pm, wrote:
On 22 Apr 2011, wrote:

I was just wondering. Have all the ISP's gone out of business now
that everyone either pays their phone company for DSL or their
cable company for a cable modem?

Cable companies and DSL providers *are* ISPs. So, I don't know
what you're talking about.

Well, obviously ten or fifteen years ago there were all these
different independent ISPs and each one had a room loaded with 56k
modems. Did all those ISP companies go out of business?

Nope! There's still a few that use "rent-a-pop" modem pools to allow web
connection from places without broadband, mainly a backup connection.
Many road warriors have accounts with them.

Dialup can get around local backbone/carrier issues when you *have* to
get online.

http://isp1.us/dial-up/ is a good place to start.



--
"**** this is it, all the pieces do fit.
We're like that crazy old man jumping
out of the alleyway with a baseball bat,
saying, "Remember me mother****er?"
Jim “Dandy” Mangrum

On Apr 22, 6:12*pm, Loren Pechtel wrote:
On Fri, 22 Apr 2011, Davej wrote:

I was just wondering. Have all the ISP's gone out of business now that
everyone either pays their phone company for DSL or their cable
company for a cable modem?

And that somehow makes them not ISPs?

Not in the same sense of the word, no. It isn't their primary
business.