In article <m7nhjuF7t21U4@mid.individual.net>,
rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

On Sat, 03 May 2025 14:46:19 -0400, Bud Frede wrote:

I regard my current ISP as just a pipe. I don't use their mail, DNS,
etc.

Things are not at all competitive in my area, so I overpay for internet
access. Luckily my employer covers the cost of my home internet these
days, so I guess they overpay. :=)

I'm too far from town for regular cable let alone fiber so I use Verizon >wireless but my mail is through my former dialup ISP. They dropped dialup
a long time ago but I could retain the email for a nominal fee.

The nice thing about Verizon is it comes out of the rabbit hole someplace >else, usually Denver so targeted ads including when I'm watching Prime
video are for Denver. The IP has also appeared to be in Salt Lake.

I run a SearxNG instance on a Linode VPS hosted in their Dallas datacenter.
If there's a geographic angle that can be inferred in a search term, the
search providers it's configured to use will do so, so I end up with Google, DuckDuckGo, etc. thinking that I'm somewhere in the Dallas area or in Texas more generally, regardless of where I'm actually located. For instance:

https://searx.alfter.us/search?q=car+wash

The top 10 results include two hits on Yelp for car washes in Richardson, TX (presumably a Dallas suburb, returned by DuckDuckGo) and in Dallas (returned
by Google). If I provide the same search term to DuckDuckGo directly, it returns results for where I am.

I suppose that if I cared enough about it, I'd move SearxNG from the VPS to
my home server, but it doesn't matter for most of the things on which I'd
run a search. If I'm looking for a local business, I'm more likely to use Google Maps.

--
_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?


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* Origin: USS Voyager NCC-74656, Delta Quadrant (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

:
On 3 May 2025 21:54:06 GMT
rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

On Sat, 03 May 2025 14:46:19 -0400, Bud Frede wrote:

I regard my current ISP as just a pipe. I don't use their mail, DNS,
etc.

Things are not at all competitive in my area, so I overpay for internet access. Luckily my employer covers the cost of my home internet these
days, so I guess they overpay. :=)

I'm too far from town for regular cable let alone fiber so I use Verizon wireless but my mail is through my former dialup ISP. They dropped dialup
a long time ago but I could retain the email for a nominal fee.

The nice thing about Verizon is it comes out of the rabbit hole someplace else, usually Denver so targeted ads including when I'm watching Prime
video are for Denver. The IP has also appeared to be in Salt Lake.

I'm just curious; what products do Mormons use more of :-)

--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.1 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: Dis (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

On 03/05/2025 22:54, rbowman wrote:

I'm too far from town for regular cable let alone fiber so I use Verizon wireless but my mail is through my former dialup ISP. They dropped dialup
a long time ago but I could retain the email for a nominal fee.

The nice thing about Verizon is it comes out of the rabbit hole someplace else, usually Denver so targeted ads including when I'm watching Prime
video are for Denver. The IP has also appeared to be in Salt Lake.

I'm in the UK, so too far won't be as far as you - but you might like
this story.

BT ran copper wire out to our village decades ago. I'd guess soon after WW2.

Then ADSL came along, and they put it down the copper. It just about
worked. VDSL didn't make it much better, 2Mb on a good day.

Now we have fibre right to our houses.

The fibre Just Works. No bad days. And it's gone from how fast can I
have to how much do I want to pay!

Andy

--
Do not listen to rumour, but, if you do, do not believe it.
Ghandi.

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.1 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

On 2025-05-14, Vir Campestris <vir.campestris@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 03/05/2025 22:54, rbowman wrote:

I'm too far from town for regular cable let alone fiber so I use Verizon
wireless but my mail is through my former dialup ISP. They dropped dialup
a long time ago but I could retain the email for a nominal fee.

The nice thing about Verizon is it comes out of the rabbit hole someplace
else, usually Denver so targeted ads including when I'm watching Prime
video are for Denver. The IP has also appeared to be in Salt Lake.

I'm in the UK, so too far won't be as far as you - but you might like
this story.

BT ran copper wire out to our village decades ago. I'd guess soon after WW2.

Then ADSL came along, and they put it down the copper. It just about
worked. VDSL didn't make it much better, 2Mb on a good day.

Now we have fibre right to our houses.

The fibre Just Works. No bad days. And it's gone from how fast can I
have to how much do I want to pay!

I suspect that lots of praise should be lavished on your regulatory
agency (OfTel?). Is the actual fiber installation all BT, and is the
final company providing customer provisioning and customer service a competitive overlay?

--
Lars Poulsen in Santa Barbara, CA

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.1 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)