Yesterday, on the way home, I saw a local Internet provider camped out on the corner near where we live. I stopped to see what was going on, and the guy came over and said, “Let me guess, you're looking for Internet?” I told him not yet, my two year contract expires in a couple of months. He asked me who my provider was, and what tier I was on. He claims my Internet connection will be 5 times faster.

I told him I'd have to do a little research before making a commitment, he told me they were only offering this special until the end of the month. I said, “You're kidding. Sunday? And you guys are just now out here today?”

I don't like when people try to push me into doing something. But the offer does sound as if it will be fiscally prudent.

My current download speed is “up to 1Mbps” for Tier II service, for which I'm paying $69.95/month. Key words being “up to”.

You can test your Internet upload and download speeds at Toast.net. I just uploaded a 2300KB picture at 224kbps. My download speed was 473Mbps. I am fuzzy on this, but maybe someone more techie than me can confirm — I think my download speed is less than half what they estimate I could achieve.

With the new company, level 1 service says, “Internet speeds up to 2Mbps.” However, they don't distinguish whether that is upload or download speeds. Typically the upload speed is slower on any Internet connection.

Here's the other part of the deal… digital phone service comes with the package on the new provider.

Over the course of one year, we spend $839 for satellite Internet and $660 for our landline phone service. Combined, that's $1499 per year.

This new company claims they can give us Internet faster than our current provider, and digital phone service for $59.95/month or $719/year. Plus the first 30 days are free, so $659 for the first year.

That's a savings of $780/year!!

On the financial side of things, it sounds wonderful and I should sign up today.

Here are some perks of the new company:

Digital Phone:

• We get to keep our current phone number
• Unlimited long distance within the U.S.
• Voice Mail (which can be sent via email)
• Caller ID
• Call Waiting
• Three-Way Calling
• Call Hold

Internet:

• No Contract (this is a biggie!)
• 90 money back guarantee
• $50 installation costs (normally $100)
• 30 days free

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go with the new company, but here is the biggest issue of all.

I can't believe I've allowed myself to become dependent on my ISP email address again. I know better than this!! Not to mention Mr. A's business cards use his email address at our current ISP. It will cost me at least $20 to replace Mr. A's business cards if we let go of our ISP.

A moderate guess on how many places send me email, for which the address should be changed would be at least 100, if not 300. That is a time consuming task, to change email addresses. And I don't have a lot of free time.

My two year contract with my current ISP ends mid-September. If I go with the new company now, and they hook me up by next Friday, and I cancel my service with my current ISP at the end of September, that leaves me about three weeks to change all my email addresses.

There used to be a way to keep your email address even after changing your ISP. The article I've linked to is nearly five years old though, and these services he mentions don't seem to exist any longer.

Bummer.

Here's the other thing that's happening to me related to the Internet. I have an old personal website that is hosted on one of the free sites that first cropped up on the ‘net. For years and years you could upload by FTP, but then they took that feature away and you had to upload using their tools, one file at a time. They also put a stipulation on the free sites that you had to update at least once a month, or risk losing the site altogether. For $4.95/month, you could have the FTP feature, and they wouldn't get rid of your site. So I signed up for that, just so I wouldn't have to worry about it.

But I just received an email today that starting next month, they are going to start charging me $6.95. I was already unhappy paying $60/year for hosting, and now that's going to jump up to $84/year.

I go back and forth in my thought process: “It's only five dollars a month.” “It's $60/year!”

So I will be making changes to that website quickly as well. I will put up a front page that says the site is being moved to a new host, and I'll stop making the payment on that.

So back to the email issue… what I am going to do right away is set up a new gmail account and begin changing the important email addresses, because the savings of $780/year is too good to pass up. I think. I am still going to call them and see how the phone service actually works.

On a completely different note, our hens have begun laying in earnest. It is such a good feeling to know our eggs are provided by hens that actually have a real life, where they get to eat bugs and take dirt baths, unlike battery hens. We got 16 eggs yesterday. This is fantastic! For a few weeks during the summer we were getting from zero to four eggs daily. It's now time to begin using eggs in more meals. Here is one I found today that I think I'll try for dinner tonight: Baked Spinach with Eggs. It is also almost time for my cool season garden to go in and I need to work on getting my garden ready to plant! I haven't had a garden in for two years and I am desperate for some fresh picked Swiss Chard!

Yours Truly,