It would be nice if everyone just titled their messages with the number of pics in them.... That would be nice....Cpudan80 :) :+

As I mentioned before I have considered satellite. It is still far too expensive to get a decent speed (maximum 400kbps) and only 1 way satellite is even remotely affordable. That is unless you think $450 per month is cheap (ongoing monthly charge NOT including installation and equipment charges of between $400 and $1000 depending on where you are located). In which case no problem, get 2 way and live happily ever after. Even if you have the money for 1 way, after you read all the conditions of use, download restrictions, hidden fees, an admission by the ISP that you might not even be able to connect to the net sometimes, and the fact that you still tie up your telephone line (or buy a second phone line and pay the extra monthly line rental charge) - it isn't really that attractive.

Gents,I fear that the educated assumptions floating around are somewhat American-centric and off the mark. 1. No, broadband is not available "everywhere". Not even close.2. No, satellite is not available/allowed everywhere ( see apartment or apartment buildings ).3. No, not everyone has room in their budget for broadband. To demand so, for forum purposes, is simply asinine.Without getting too nasty, I will only comment that "all things are never equal", and the community standards should be based on the requirements of those who have slower connections, not the fastest. This would promote inclusiveness, not elitism. :-)Cheers,Roger

I agree with all of that. I can't help feeling, however, that unless Governments or large private enterprise concerns start doing something about making broadband available to everyone who wants it, that the internet is surely heading for a crisis. Even now, the internet is analogous to an autobahn where you have a mix of Ferraris and Porsches doing 300 kmh and Trabants doing 40 kmh. Although a more accurate comparison of relative speeds would be that the Trabants have broken down and are being pushed by their owners at a slow walking pace. Not ideal at all. In Australia's case, I think it will hit the Government too late that it's citizens has been left behind in the Internet revolution. By then the only useful thing that can be done on using dial-up is personal banking and reading bus timetables.It certainly isn't my personal fault, nor the fault of any user on dial-up that cable isn't available to their home, that ADSL is not available to their home, or that they would have to be on the top 1% rich list to erect a satellite on their roof. Nor the millions of people living in apartment blocks who might as well not even bother with the net within a few years. And I think Telstra's line that my particular suburb's telephone technology is "too advanced" for the deployment of ADSL is wearing a little thin on me now.

>>have you ever heard of or considered SatelliteB) connection reliability far from being guranteedMike

" Dial-Up is 10 yrs ago, Broadband is available in many forms, and ARE available pretty much anywhere. Time to move on. "Sorry but that's a pretty ignorant thing to say.I live on the Swedish countryside, and I'm not expecting broadband to be available until maybe in 5 years or so. It just doesn't make sense to put up broadband in a place like this - a small village with 100 people or so, 30km from the nearest city.True, I also got a small room in the city where I go to school, and I've got 2Mb/s internet there. But when I'm at the house on the countryside (which is about 50% of the year), I'm stuck with a crappy dialup connection.That being said, I have nothing against spending a couple of minutes downloading images, if they are worth it. But if you make a thread with lots of images in it, please add a little warning in the topic like "Warning: Big/many images".

I put up with dialup for many years. Since, I've switched to cable. Night and day difference. Point is when I had dialup, I put up with the slow connections and downloads. It was a whole lot better than nothing. I used to go get a cup of java when I wanted to view a large bunch of pics. It was never a big deal. I can't believe anyone would complain about opening a thread with pics in it. The simple solution would be to just hit the back button. That's what I always did.

BearYou should demand that AVSIM provide you with satellite internet. I like your Bear Racing stuff a lot and with a high speed connection you could review many more things. Now go talk to Tom, be firm, and don't take no for an answer.

Reading the posts above about broadband not being available everywhere, I have to say that in the very near future (in the US anyways) broadband will be available to almost any house in the US. It will come in the form of fixed wireless. I live out in the country in Iowa where we have no cable, sewer, city water, or natural gas, but I do have broadband internet service (woohoo! :)). This type of broadband is growing just about as fast as cable or DSL ever did. So far it has been ultra-reliable, and is as fast as any DSL or cable connection. I believe it can also go all the way up to T1 or faster (right now this option is REALLY expensive). Anyways, I know the point is that alot of users still have dial-up and that wont change, but availability will be there soon enough.Craig