Jann- I am a dial up user, and I have all my updates current. Nothing has affected my connection speed. My connection speed is 46.6 - pretty consistant. I occasionally get a really low connection rate. I disconnect and redial and it will pick up a better rate. If you connection speed is much lower than it has been - it may be a problem with your phone line. Have you installed any new jacks or phones in your house? I have had trouble when the phone company worked on the line that I am on. It wasn't even close to my house. I contacted the actaul service person that worked on it (thank goodness for country living - you know everyone!) and he fixed the issue) I have also noticed many sites that used to load good, are really slow now. The have many more graphics and videos. That just kills my chances of getting on that site. Even eBay is a terrible load anymore. You can call the phone company and have them do a "line test" to start with and see if there is any issue there.

Chemocurl, I think you have helped many people not aware of 3-G with your post. Very good info. Grandms, Agree you must be in an area where you can get a good signal.The only way I can find her house is by land marks. So basicially I look for a sign that says lake access. After that, I stop at every mail box until I locate hers lol! You cannot see the houses on this hill (summer or winter) due to all the trees. At Thanksgiving in order to accomidate guests, she had preprinted directions to areas where most cell phones and lap tops will work. She was 'OK' with Bell South DUN, until ATT came along raised her rates and took away her accelerater. Never missed things like Utube since she could not access anyway. She also replaced a working PC with a new model, hoping that would solve her problem (NOT)! When she called ATT to get her new PC connected, she learned they no longer provided the accelerator. Service continued to decline with other DUN providers. Leftwood, Her neighbor tried Verision 3-G. God only knows where he lives. She says he lives further up the mountain to the left. I don't know can't see anything from her house but forest. Anyhow, this guy claimed to get a weak cell phone signal somewhere outside on his property, could have been the roof not sure. He also had to hold the phone in a certain direction. This is almost funny. He then proceded to buy all the antennas and what not that goes with it to boost his signal. Now he is trying to sell this stuff on Craigs list. Maryland, Thanks I will warn her about the downloads tomorrow. Her routine now is to download all night, so she does not tie up the phone during the day. Oh, she does get excellent TV reception with Dish Network, as long as it's a nice day. Think it's the price she pays for living in a beautiful serene part of the county surrounded by nature. Thank you all for trying to help.

it's been atleast 10 yrs we've had cable modem, i could not live w/ anything else lol. 2-3yrs before that we had DSL i'd never even go back to that, i would pay up for satellite which is close to what we pay for cable modem. i'm looking into going to sprint aircard which i've had for work in the past, if we can get it cheaper that brighthouse roadrunner. my DH attends college full time and uses more than 1G a week to view some of his lectures online and we must be on atleast cable modem for that. it has 15 minutes lag time to view, so if you don't have medium grade cable modem (high DSL level) you can not watch the courses and get no credit for it. basically you can not be a college student these days w/o a fast internet connection. my DH has had to take exams online, submit 4G projects, all homework is done online, view classes as well as participate via webcam in courses. our whole lives involve the internet, we bank, manage investments, communicate, do research, alot of our shopping is online etc... we have multiple laptops w/ printers & 2 desktops as servers w/ wireless everything, it's the only way to live ~ liz

jreag: I'd suggest hiring an independent consultant/contractor to diagnose and report all the problems. This is not a solicitation for work, but I've performed this service for clients with extraordinary results. When contractors/fabricators are faced with a list of problems and the comparative industry standards, they (and their lawyers) are left speechless. They usually crumble. One client owed their fabricator 50% or about 8K. Despite my bill of about 10% of that, when they submitted my 3-page report (with pictures) to the fabricator and his lawyer, they were in a much stronger bargaining position and were delighted with the results. Another time, I discovered the fabricator was a member of the Marble Institute of America and documented that his work did not meet their written standards. He was in an untenable position. If he didn't settle, his work would be exposed to the MIA, he would be sanctioned, and since he's the largest local guy, that would be catastrophic. That lady was so delighted to pay my fee after he caved, she tipped me. You aren't powerless here, but you need information. And while I'm sure it's counterintuitive to spend more money to get it, that's just what you need to do.