I have been blessed and cursed with net access in my lifetime. In elementary, and middle school I had beginning access via BBS's, and a line maintained by my school system. In High School it was all BBS and the occasional net access via a "borrowed" U of Mich, or MSU net line. I joined the military and enjoyed no net access in Germany ( 89-91 ) except for BBS and Fidonet. Then Colorado Springs had Dialup in 91/92 but trying to find a decent provider was like trying to not stiffen up during a root canal procedure. Next to Italy where thank god the US Army thought that every terminal server world wide should have the same password, and I ran into a little startup Italian ISP called gpnet.it who did me a price cut for english tech support assists and telling other soldiers of them ( Imagine hundred bucks a month and per minute phone charges for 14.4 ouch!) Then I settled in Cincinnati after facing the farce that is Michnet systems a month. Cincinnati was amazing, I walked into a DSL beta for CincyBell/Zoomtown and had incredible 768 to 976 up to to three times that in downs. Ahhh 6 years of wonderful net access at high speeds and 99.999999% reliability at a price under 50 bucks a month. Now I live in Flint, Michigan again, land of third world power and telecommunications infrastructure. It is and was easier to find a decent land line in the middle east than it is in this area. The local cable firm ( Comcast, who amazingly has the cash to buy Disney) cannot maintain the cable lines in a manner that allows a connection with an uptime even nearing 60%, and their throughput is less than a fifth of what they promise down and as most are aware they cap the upload at less than ISDN speeds for $65 a month. SBC Yahoo offers DSL with an incredibly low capped upload just like Comcast and their lines are also poor due to infrastructure in the area. As their is no reliable high speed for a decent price provider in the area I am constantly researching alternatives, I will be glad to see something that can bypass the rust belt capabilities of the area. Give me 768-976 both ways, and I will give you 50 bucks a month, give me anything better and want more money and I will most likely not choose to go for it, simple fact is that having 4meg download speeds mean nothing when you oversell your outlines, and no website/ftp server/usenet provider allows you to download that fast. The real trick is to use a reliable infrastructure, do not sell "unlimited" unless you mean it, and post all costs upfront. The tech itself is moot, it is all about the SERVICE.