Thanks. I think I started using Mixpod when it was called something else, forget what. Used it to post the little flash music players as comments in an old MySpace game. Game doesn't exist now. If you do a free Mixpod membership you can search for and create a playlist more to your taste. I actually hosted those songs on a freebie Fileden account, only because I needed wanted 320KB/s. The URL posted above is modified to play in a full browser window but the format of the URL is easy to change to play your own playlist... player color etc. I don't really download anymore either, mostly content to listen to what I already have, and rarely at that. If I'm driving, I've gotta have music, around the house, no, I'm too... distracted... or whatever. :)

chisue, 5 kattywhompers up and 50 whojoclumpets down is a very fast connection. To put it in context, it takes 5-6 whojoclummpets down for a best-quality Netflix stream, so 50 would support 8 or more (but not wirelessly, limited by most home routers to 12-15 in total). If you could share the connection, what you have would support email reading by dozens and dozens of people at the same time. zep, internet speeds are in megabits per second, not megabytes per second. The difference is small m vs large M, and 8 bits to the byte. 8 megabits is one megabyte.

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.

Coming back to update this thread. I did check with a couple neighbors and found that others were having problems as well. I called CenturyLink back a few times to keep them alert and bring techs out for potential diagnosis, repair AND to keep them driving 20-40 miles and their time=money so that centurylink would feel obliged to do something. The first tech out agreed with me that the system was over loaded but had the good news that a supervisor was going to be moving to a home just down the street and would likely see the problem for himself. Unfortunately for centurylink, they have some auto software that emails me to let me know that my problem has been fixed (since the tech has been here) rather than saying something reasonable like 'we are working on it'. That ticked me off so I called for more repair. The next tech agreed that there was a problem and upgraded the 'repair ticket' to a higher up department (who actually called me saying they were working on it and would get back to me; but they didn't). Last week (following me calling again after another 'all OK' when not OK, the pair of techs said there were 12 complaint calls and that they had found that the local distribution box had old 'slow cards' that they were now replacing. They said 6 lines per card, and I knew the system had approx. 270 homes so that's a lot of newer cards. I'll bet centurylink knew about it all the time but were waiting until enough folks whined about it. With card replacement, the speeds are almost always above 9mbits/sec even under evening load. Guess you were right Steve.