My experience getting DSL in San Jose 2009 May

Last Up date: 2010 March 11
Recent changes: Moved description of my DSL experiance here.
Page started: 2006 November 30

I move the following from: MyWeb page description. Because it is less relevant today.

I just got DSL going on 2009 May 28th (3 days ago). I have a problem because I only spend about 5 months a year in San Jose, so I didn't want a year, or longer commitment. I thought having my own DSL modem service would help. I bought a NETGEAR DGND3300 DSL Modem/Router with Wireless-N at Fry's for $149.99 plus Tax. It came with zero documentation, but did have a technical support 800 phone number. Bad, I should have returned it to Fry's.

It turned out having my own modem did not make service providers willing to provide a less expensive month to month service. It did allow me to get features I wanted. Sonic.net is an ISP with service in San Jose who does not require a contract, however they do require access to a credit card to do monthly billing; and you have to call or write them to have the service stopped. Because of impostors they will not accept termination requests via the Internet. Incidentally, their price is $14.95 per month. Another ISP: DSLExtream.com has an introductory rate of $12.95 with a year contract, and $19.95 without the 1 year commitment.

I am very happy with Sonic.net however it took several calls to NETGEAR technical support to get their modem working with Sonic.net's DSL service. The modem has, in addition to meaningful LEDs on the edge, it has a large blue blue push button on the side with 7 annoying randomly flashing LEDs; and none of NETGEAR's technical support people know if the lights mean anything; further they warn me not to push the button! Bottom line: While the NETGEAR modem does work I am not happy with it. I have an ActionTec modem in Quartzsite which I like. Both have build in 4 port router and WiFi

-o- From 2006 November 30 -o-

Early in the spring of 2005, the payment for the domain name: ZYVRA.NET came due while I was in Quartzsite, AZ; unfortunately the notification was sent to my San Jose email address and I did not receive it. Bottom line: I lost the .NET domain, but was able to register: ZYVRA.ORG More details are at: Domain Name problems. HostDime tried to extort $250 plus an exorbitant annual fee to reinstate my ownership of the name before they sold it to some crooks! Maybe they are the crooks?

I hated to have to change Domain Names for several reasons.

  1. I got the .ORG name and web space from a different web host. That means I had to reload the entire web site. While at it I could not resist the temptation to make several changes.
  2. All links to my web pages, started going to the crooks who quickly pick up expired names in hopes there will be a "following" they can force advertizing, and they may even install spy programs onto the computers, of people who may just be clicking on a link to what should be my web pages.
  3. Everybody, including Google, will have invalid links or they have to edit and upload a new version of any pages that have links to my .NET name.
You may have noticed I put dates in: Year, Month, Day order. This is to be consistent with the way we write numbers, keeping that which changes the fastest on the right. In the above I included time to emphasize the consistency of this. Yes, even decimal parts of a second would be further to the right. In computers this also makes sorting on "time" much easier. I would like to get the world to change to this format. Yes, think about abbreviated forms such as: 2005-06-04 12:57:31

E-mail me or Click the phone block to call or get link to my BIO page.

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