We have DSL and I HATE IT! Half the time it isn't working right, takes forever to load, fails to respond, etc etc etc. We have had the AT&T serviceman out here multiple times and when he leaves, it works fine--for a week or so, then it's back to its old tricks and we have to call again. And everytime it storms, it goes out. When our contract is up, we are thinking about getting a Galaxy tablet computer that we can take anywhere, and also acts as a wifi hotspot so you can still get internet on your PC. Both of my brother and sister-in-laws each have one and they love it. We'll get rid of our land line phone and DSL line, we don't really need a land line anyway as we both have cell phones and nobody calls on it anyway except political calls and sales calls. The more I think about it the better I like the idea. PC's are on their way out anyway, before we know it they will be as obsolete as 8-track tape players, lol!

A bit of trivia - traditional landlines, also known as POTS (plain old telephone service), USED TO use exclusively analog technology end to end. Folks who are old enough will remember poor quality long distance phone calls. Since several decades ago, POTS calls have changed, they do most of their traveling though the telco systems over digital links, including the Internet. That's why a cross country call or even an international call can sound like someone next door, the signal doesn't degrade with distance. But the so-called "last mile" of POTS service is analog over copper wire. Digital signals (like DSL) traveling over analog circuits have distance limitations. Those who have cable-supplied phone service or other VOIP have an entire digital path on their end for voice calls. Internet service is digital. When DSL service was first "released", only customers located within 12,000- 15,000 feet (measured by the length of the wire) of a telco office could get it. That's because distance limit of digital signals over copper wire intended for analog phone calls and that the analog to digital conversion equipment was only housed in the central offices. The telcos had large build-out projects to string fiber lines out in hub and spoke configurations (with an office as the hub) to broaden the areas where DSL could be offered. In my area (telco formerly called Pacific Bell), there was a web page that listed their construction schedule and showed the dates for when particular neighborhood work would be done and where the sites were located. I remember when it was started for my area, I went to visit the guys at the local neighborhood drop as they added the needed equipment. PS - satellite internet is for areas where no other internet service is available. Most will not offer service to a customer having an alternative. Satellite service tends to be very limited (only a few GB per month), expensive and has high latency (delays) because of the distance the signal has to travel. TV service of all kinds is distributed by satellite. Whether the ultimate signal a user gets comes from a cable, from the phone company, or the obvious satellite providers, satellite transmission is used. If you pass by a regional office of a cable provider, for instance, you'll usually see large satellite dishes. I don't know all the details.

You didn't bother to say a) how much speed you are paying for and b) whether or not you are actually getting that speed...so the question is impossible to answer. But I'll make a guess and say that your bandwidth is probably not the problem. If you are trying to stream directly from the site...you may have a browser problem. Try a different web browser. Is a separate media player involved in this process? Maybe you need an upgrade or a different one. Any error message? If yes, you should post it. If no, you should say so.

In the last week, my devices have been randomly disconnecting from internet or wifi and today almost all websites have become unavailable. I first noticed that my internet mail (an old pop3 system) was only occasionally loading and mostly messaging that 'couldn't connect to pop3 server'. Tonight, I finally realized that while I could easily use Google to find websites and connect with the specific speedtest site Ookla that always gave me my paid for speed of 10 mbit/sec. I could also work with the New York Times website AND Gardenweb also; that I mostly couldn't connect with most other sites including my DSL provider CenturyLink. I had been trying to make my FireStick work (no success) and I can't even reach Amazon home site. After 3rd call, CenturyLink tells me that THEIR server is overloaded. can anyone tell me how it is possible that I can almost instantly get and use the NY Times and of all things Gardenweb, but can't connect to Amazon or my phone provider sites. Almost any random site doesn't connect but I did get a youtube site about firestick to work fast. Actually the bad sites will eventually connect after perhaps 5 to 10 minutes if I let them run but of course take another 5 min to do the next step and the next I suppose.