How do you get rid of a dial up connection?

um… Get cable or DSL. Or go to a local library and do whatever your doing there.

You buy cable or dsl or some kind of broadband service. People are really still using 56k modems?! That’s slower than Australia!

Speak to a provider about getting broadband. If you’re in the UK, I would recommend BT or Virgin Media’s optical cable service.

If you are in an area where you cannot get land based broadband service, you’re in a bad position. There has to be a certain number of people in an area before the phone company will upgrade the service, it costs too much to warrant even a dozen users. It can be a similar experience if you do not currently have cable.

You can use a cellular service if you have good cell phone reception. If your local network is only 2G, the improvement will be minuscule but still faster than dial up. If you have a local 3G service, according to AT&T, you will have a faster connection than they can offer with DSL. (I haven’t actually tried it, but a rep told me to get 3G over DSL.) Consider purchasing a dedicated cellular “modem” from the provider. They are just cell phones that look like a USB dongle, sans screen, keyboard and battery.

You could also go with a Satellite service, like Wild Blue or Hughes Net. I have heard Wild Blue is more reliable. Also the Sat. services have a threshhold on how much bandwidth you can use. For example, on the premium package, Wild Blue has a limit of 17g per month and after that they limit your speed. The 17g threshold is for a 30 day period. Meaning if you download, browse and play away 17 gigs worth of bandwidth in 10 days, you must wait until the 30 day period is over to use the service full speed. After that it resets. Hughes Net has a lower threshold that resets daily I’m told. The downside here is that if you want to download a file that is over the daily limit you’re in trouble, with Wild Blue you could but only once per month.

You could pick either of the 2 methods and use a laptop else where (wifi hotspot in town) to download your larger files.

As far as cost…
Cellular serivce is around $60± monthly with a $150± setup fee.
Satellite service is around $90± monthly (fastest package) with a $150± setup fee.

Sit your dial-up connection down….talk to it and tell it it’s time you start seeing other people. When dial-up asks if you’ve been cheating on it, say “Yes, with cable”.....