Frankie and Slim

Frankie and Slim
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Sunday, September 16, 2012

FAIR MY A&#!!!

You've heard this before so you can skip this rant.

They call it the F.A.P. (Fair Access Policy) and I have mentioned it before.  It is applied to our use of DISH Satellite which is the only internet available to us.  We live four miles outside of town and no other internet providers will service us except for dial up services or other satellite services that also employ these same restrictions.

It is Sunday and I enjoy watching a video of our church service from the previous week.  I cannot do that today because I have used too much of my internet bandwidth.

I subscribe to unlimited Netflix movies online and to HBOGO.  While the services are "unlimited" my interne keeps me from enjoying hardly any movies before I receive a warning that I am about to exceed my allowed broadband usage.

Word with Friends and Scrabble games were great fun until I realized multi-player games were causing me to use too much bandwidth.  I had to give them up. Thankfully Judy (kenju)  introduced me to a couple of other word games that didn't consume too much usage.

Because I could not watch movies or play word games, I returned to my art projects on the Julia Kay Portrait Party.  My new camera takes great shots that make a much better appearance on the website when posted but guess what....they use too much of my upload and download allowed usage.  The same goes for pictures that I post on my blog.

The grandchildren visit and bring all their electronic gadgets and can't use them because I can't spare the broadband.  Yes there are better things for them to be doing here, but it's just the principle of the thing.

Yet I can leave home and get unlimited internet access outside our post office. In restaurants, at the library, in the hospital or medical offices, motels, etc.  You can't leave home "without it" because you never had "it" to begin with.

Once we ever get an alternative to this satellite service there will be a mass exodus.

15 comments:

  1. My sister in northern Florida has the same issue - she lives seven miles from town. I'll send her little films to watch and she sighs and says she'll have to wait and watch it at work.

    I'm so hooked on Words with Friends, it would be hard to stop. Definitely feeling your pain.

    Good that you are doing artwork again though. Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

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  2. Lynn -- My sister sighs a lot also. She sees a great movie and calls me all excited and says "Watch it right now!" and I have to tell her I can't because I'm about to exceed my usage. Here follows a string of curse words not appropriate for Sunday.

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  3. And oh yes Lynn,we are enjoying our weekend with my son here. He always brings lots of laughter plus he works like a dog to help get things caught up around here:)

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  4. What a frustrating situation. I hope something will change soon that will improve your access.

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  5. That's terrible! It would make me nuts too.

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  6. thats frustrating...which part of the world are you from?

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  7. gosh.. I dont have muchpatience anyway and that would frazzle me beyond my point of tolerance.
    you could ask them for a booster.. that improves the connection for those away from the power tower.

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  8. I hate to tell you, but fap is slang for ... a rather rude verb ;)

    Seriously, this sucks. Hope it improves!

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  9. Jeanie -- We have been hoping that or so long. We keep hearing rumors of a solution but nothing happens.

    Marla and Steve -- I am so envious of all my friends and family who have unlimited access. It does make me nuts.

    ashok -- We live in Oklahoma in the heartland of the USA. Because we live in a rural area more than three miles from a small town, this is the only service available to us.

    Sonny -- Is there such a thing as a booster or are you just guessing? I have never ask them for one but if it is real I will do that. We pay for their highest usage program but it still is not enough to do much.

    Riot Kitty -- Oops, I didn't know that. Yikes! I looked it up. Why do you know that?

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  10. I've been thru this several times only with Wild Blue.They wouldn't warn you, just slow you down to slower than dial up until your usage average dropped in line. (It usually took about two months.) We couldn't even use Carbonite because that used up all of our bandwidth just uploading a copy of about half of our computer. I blew a gasket several times and then a broadband company put a wireless on the city water tower (9 miles away but line of sight) and now we have really fast, unlimited access for $35 per month. I will help you, lets watch a Christian bashing video and riot in downtown Tulsa. We'll tip over baby carriages and stuff and maybe burn something. (maybe a prime rib)

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  11. Would it be better if you used your Netflix account by U.S.Mail?

    I receive a film on Monday ,maybe watch it by Wednesday ,return it Thursday and get my new film on Saturday or at least Monday. And, all I have had to do was walk out to my front yard mailbox to both return and receive my films.

    So instead of using up your bandwidth watching films on your computer or Tv, why not try saving your computer space and watching films via DVD on your TV?

    I'm no expert at this stuff so if I have it all wrong, I'm sorry.

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  12. What a shame you have such internet inconvenience!
    Limited allotments would drive me nuts! I pay for a local dial-up modem number- $15 per month. The connection is slow, but minutes n megs are unlimited. I can't be on the house phone at the same time, but there's always the cell if needed.
    I don't watch long shows on it tho- too much for the hard-drive memory.

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  13. Cliff -- Yes our Dish internet provider is also Wild Blue. I remember that you had this too but did not know you had finally gotten better servce. Guess there is hope for us. Please, no rioting but thanks for the offer.

    Nancy -- I used to have Netflix by mail but it seemed the price changes were not equitable from the previous fees. I might consider going back to that but the cost is more than double what the unlimited online costs.

    Snaggle Tooth -- I knew you were working with limited hard drive on your computer but did not know you were also still on dial up. Makes me feel bad for complaining especially when you aren't.

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  14. Iam totally surprised...rural India has better net connection options

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  15. I'm so sorry. That does sound very frustrating.

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