# Not Having the Internet



## Corvis (Jul 9, 2005)

Here is a great dilemma that I have had to face all my life. I have never had the internet on my home computer, and it’s just horrible. Whenever I have to use the internet I have to either go to a friend/relative’s house or a library to use it. For either school, work, or other purposes it’s very difficult for me to use the internet in what is becoming a world based entirely on the internet. Does anyone else not have the internet on their home computer? Does anyone have sympathy for us non-internet havers. And one thing which really gets me upset is being part of the Tolkien Forum, which I love, and not being able to get on it much. I’ve been apart of the Forum for almost a year now and I only have a little over a hundred posts because I can never get a chance to get on here. And there’s people who have been on the forum for about a month and already have twice the many posts as I do. Is anyone else having this problem?


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## Thorondor_ (Jul 9, 2005)

Before I got Internet on my home PC, I was in the same situation. I had to run in the lunch breaks to the interent cafe to write replies (those were the days - I still do today, but only for the Project Evil). Or I would stay late in the evening at I-cafes


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## Corvis (Jul 9, 2005)

Thanks for replying Thorondor. What you did at I-cafes is what I do at libraries, it's very difficult and annoying. I 'm dying for the day when I get the internet on my home computer.


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## e.Blackstar (Jul 9, 2005)

Poor Corvis. Good luck with getting the 'net soon!


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## Wraithguard (Jul 9, 2005)

Don't feel bad dude, there are much worse things than not having the internet. Such as my OWN PERSONAL COMPUTER GETTING A VIRUS AND AM FORCED TO USE THIS PIECE OF KRAP! That is a bad thing. If you cannot get your hands on a DSL, Cable, or Broadband connection I recommend Net Zero's new 3G. It is cheap and efficient. Or if all else fails there is Bellsouth's crappy dial-up which I used to have.


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## ingolmo (Jul 22, 2005)

Now I understand what you mean, Corvis. For about a month, we're not going to have internet, and I don't know how I'll survive. Probably by going to a cyber-cafe a couple of times a week.


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## Hammersmith (Jul 22, 2005)

I feel sorry for people with dialup connections. Your situation's just plain nasty.


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## e.Blackstar (Aug 18, 2005)

Mmm. I have dial-up.  So slow...it's horrible.

But worse, when our internet goes down, the closest net cafe is way downtown, not close to me at all! Same with the library...alas.


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## Daranavo (Aug 18, 2005)

Fear the dial-up my friends. Last time I checked, I had 4.5m download and 420k upload on cable. Its another bill I could live without but I don't watch much TV at all and so I have only limited basic cable for TV. (mainly for Discovery, Weather and news channels) So I call it even. I buy, rent or go see movies. My new laptop has a powerful wireless so I can go anywhere on the ground floor with it and still stay connected. Its just so darn heavy, it really needs a table top.


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## Corvis (Nov 21, 2005)

Victory! Hurray!  I finally have gotten the internet on my home computer! I just got it about a day ago! The days at the library are over! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!    My time and the number of posts on this forum are going to increase a lot.


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## e.Blackstar (Nov 21, 2005)

*applauds*


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## Ingwë (Nov 26, 2005)

> Does anyone else not have the internet on their home computer?


Well, I have internet at home but I also have limit. I didn't have in the summer but now I don't have enogh time to use it and I don't need unlimited internet. 
We have problem with the server in my school and I cannot use the net. The director of the school is trying to do something but there is no result...


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## Ermundo (Dec 25, 2006)

People have become so dependent on communicating from different parts of the world, that without the internet (this includes E-mail, IM, and the whole shebang), the modern lifestyle would be practically impossible. Think about how much time people spend behind the monitors daily, surfing the web, IMing, doing job-related tasks, and such. Conclusion; a life without internet is not a life at all, not in these modern times.


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## Eledhwen (Dec 26, 2006)

I bought a nice new family computer, lots of RAM and broadband, and I CAN NEVER GET ON THE @*!%!! THING! My kids use the ironclad excuse that they need it to do their homework, then when I look over their shoulders to check (a condition under which I let them use it at all), I see MSN messages spewed across the screen. Homework M.A.!

I am seriously considering taking myself up to the local public library, which has free internet access on a bank of six or eight computers (yes, in little Wootton Bassett), but there I meet the same problem with everyone else's kids.

Anywhere I can plug this laptop in?

Merry Christmas!


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## Alcuin (Dec 26, 2006)

Eledhwen, buy yourself a Christmas present: a wireless router and a wireless laptop card. Run the broadband through the router and then to your kids’ computer, and piggyback your laptop through the wireless card. (Be _sure_ to set your security, or everyone else in the neighborhood will be piggybacking through your wireless router, too, and some of them might try rifling through your files and e-mail – or worse, your bank account.) Then you will be able to wander all over your house with your laptop, or sit in your garden and read TTF.

Merry Christmas!


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## Barliman Butterbur (Dec 27, 2006)

Corvis said:


> Victory! Hurray!  I finally have gotten the internet on my home computer! I just got it about a day ago! The days at the library are over! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!    My time and the number of posts on this forum are going to increase a lot.



Congratulations indeed!!!! What changed the situation?

(I FINALLY switched [after sixteen years] from dialup to DSL a few days ago. It's not instantaneous like cable, but it's a lot better than it was! What took me an hour to download now takes only about 10 minutes, and I can finally watch YouTube and listen to internet radio without constant rebuffering! And I can upload and process images to websites in a reasonable time. Websites have gotten so complex over the years that dialup simply finally became inadequate.)

Barley


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## Eledhwen (Jan 2, 2007)

Rats! I wish I had read Alcuin's post while my computer whiz son was home for Christmas! While he was here he gave me 18Gb of web space to play with on his server so I don't have to use freewebs. It would have been a doddle for him to set up routers. 

May I offer my congratulations to you Corvis. Don't take it for granted, though! We were visiting internet-free relatives in London for New Year, and my husband couldn't update his fantasy football team between matches unless we found an internet cafe. I fleetingly thought that we would be able to find one through Google, but then realised that if we could do that, we wouldn't need to be looking for an internet cafe in the first place.  

Has anyone tried those free on-street internet screens? I had twenty minutes to wait for a bus, so had a go on one. It took me the whole twenty minutes to accurately type a search engine query, as hitting the right key on the keyboard took about 6 to ten goes per key through the shatterproof glass. Yeesh!


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## Alcuin (Jan 2, 2007)

Eledhwen, when next you consider how to Google up the local internet café, just remember three words: _Personal Digital Assistant_. If you want your beloved checking his fantasy football team (now is that English football, as in Manchester United; or American football, as in Dallas Cowboys?) while visiting your internet-free kinsfolk in The City, give him a PDA for Valentine’s Day; and if you _don’t_ want your beloved checking his fantasy football team while visiting your internet-free kinsfolk in The City, surreptitiously dunk his PDA in the loo while he isn’t looking.


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## Eledhwen (Jan 7, 2007)

Hee Hee! The sort of sabotage you can't get away with on a laptop! Thanks Alcuin. The fact is, I bought my husband a pda some time back. I'll encourage him to take it with us next time. How could I possibly deny him his fantasy football team adjustments? He's one of those people who finds the study and application of statistics fascinating.

My husband is a dedicated Manchester United supporter (you have to be dedicated to support ManU if you went to school in North London). Neither of us have the faintest idea about American football. Do they have a fantasy league too? I know they have odd shaped balls.


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## Alcuin (Jan 8, 2007)

Eledhwen said:


> He's one of those people who finds the study and application of statistics fascinating.


Hey! What’s wrong with statistics? It _is_ neat stuff! _Hrmph!_



Eledhwen said:


> Neither of us have the faintest idea about American football. Do they have a fantasy league too?


Yes, I am afraid they do. I know one of the pioneers of fantasy football in the United States. No, I have never played myself.



Eledhwen said:


> I know they have odd shaped balls.


Watch it! This is supposed to be kids-friendly site!


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## Eledhwen (Jan 9, 2007)

I really don't know what you mean!  

We have Rugby football here too. Same shape ball as American football (more or less). It looks at first glance a similar game, but no distance lines on the pitch and a lot freeer game style (and no padding, though one or two do wear a sweatband). The two strands are Rugby League and Rugby Union. I think it's the latter that has the neckbreaking scrums; but it's Rugby League that has the fantasy football!

Talking of connections; can anyone recommend a really good bluetooth dongle? Mine's rubbish. It needs a data push from the remote device before it even spots it's there.


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## Mike (Jan 9, 2007)

I just went three weeks without internet.

It was very refreshing, is all I can say, and as I did not miss it, I guess I'm not quite addicted to this internet-thingy quite yet.

(I only got it at home last winter, Corvis, so I can sympathisize...though I had drafting classes to use this forum with. iving without it showed me how I could gather information without it. I still don't use the internet for research in university, and it helps, because in History classes you aren't allowed to use most internet sources anyway.)


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## Eledhwen (Jan 10, 2007)

*My Sister just sent me this....*

This is from an email currently doing the rounds, which I received today....

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on. 

At one computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If General Motors had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive – but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because almost none of the controls would operate the same way as in the old car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.


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