Comments | arethinn: omg. I am so up-to-here with this.

arethinn

omg. I am so up-to-here with this.

Feb 27, 2008 12:05

Cute. MetroFi has apparently decided that to connect you now must download and install an "MSN SideGuide", which from the tiny pictures I assume is where they want to place the ads (and take up sizable screen real-estate to do it, I might add; it seems bigger than the banner across the top was). I guess they got wise that people were blocking their ( Read more... )

rant, grr, headdesk, wtf

Comments 6

heartssdesire February 27 2008, 20:24:40 UTC

Heh. I sympathize. Out here there is only one broadband option, a guy who put up a wireless tower on somebody's property on the next ridge. Otherwise it's dial-up or satellite. The wireless guy is notoriously hard to get ahold of, and it costs several hundred to install the receiver thingy we have to have to get the signal, but we are finally going to get it because we cannot stand dial-up any more. On rural phone lines, it is just getting intolerable. Lots of stuff just fails to load at all.

How come you have to get satellite TV in order to get satellite internet? There are providers who just do internet. Is it just that the family doesn't think it's worth the money on its own? It does seem kind of spendy, which is why we hadn't gone that way ourselves. My dad uses satellite for internet on his RV, but then on an RV it's pretty much the only option, so maybe he just bit the bullet.

arethinn February 27 2008, 20:54:52 UTC

How come you have to get satellite TV in order to get satellite internet?

Cost-prohibitive. They're always packaged together. To go with a different provider for each is silly. Mind that my parents are living off Social Security and pathetic interest income at this point.

shalora February 27 2008, 20:49:01 UTC

Maybe switch ISPs? I run PeoplePC, which gives me access to 56K for 11 bucks a month... even doubled, that's just over half of what you're anticipating paying.

arethinn February 27 2008, 20:53:54 UTC

1. Laziness. Reeeallly don't want to go through the researching of a whole new ISP. Better the devil we know.

2. We could get the second one from them, but can't completely switch. My mother is way too invested in her current email address (she's had it for something like 7 years).

helen99 February 27 2008, 20:56:24 UTC

Effective Feb. 27, 2008, MetroFi is removing the ad banner that sponsors free broadband Internet service in Sunnyvale, and officially joining MetroFi-Free with MSN SideGuide.

Way to ruin a good service - join forces with MSN. MetroFi should be beaten senseless with a pot noodle.

arethinn February 27 2008, 20:59:37 UTC

Yeah, thanks, I noticed it when I tried to connect this morning and got served a different page than last night at 2 AM. :P

I like pot noodles. (Actually, I've never had a real British one. Maybe I wouldn't.)