options other than Cox

[Klaudia]

rbe2008: Good question! I'm curious also.

The only reason I keep the cox phone service is because I need it for my fax line.
Is there a way to use the cell phone to send/receive faxes?

I like Cox's internet. Qwest always had me sign a contract, which I never liked. Maybe not anymore? It's been years since I've dealt with them. At the time Cox was cheaper also.

[KarmaPhx]

I use efax if I need to fax anything.

[LocoAZnative]

Originally Posted by rbe2008

I'd like to know how you "borrow" a neighbor's wi-fi? My anti-virus program will pop up and show me who's on by IP address and I see someone is on mine but it is password protected. When I've stayed with friends my laptop picks up wi-fi networks in the area but I never can get on since they all seem to require a password. Just curious:-)

I have scanned my neighorhood and not everyone is smart enought to password protet their wifi. I have tried to leech off them but the speeds are to low. So I just use my wireless router to hook everything up.

[Klaudia]

Originally Posted by KarmaPhx

I use efax if I need to fax anything.

Much better service than my regular fax line, but right now we need to save money wherever we can.
Very tempting though.

[Billy Hoes]

Originally Posted by KarmaPhx

We can't get qwest at our apartments, and I hate Cox, so we went with DirectTV and we just "borrow" our neighbors WiFi.

Cheap-buttocks'd leeches who "borrow" other people's wifi as their sole means connecting should be purged. Almost as much as dumb-buttocks'd people who set up wifi for themselves and don't bother to become informed enough to set it up properly.

If you're reading this and I'm stepping on your toes - No offense. =)

The ONLY exception would be some smart-buttocks'd person who actually "hacked" someone elses wifi. If they can get past a non-broadcasting SSID, encryption, mac filtering, and/or any other "discouragements" - they've EARNED the right to "borrow."

At least, that's my opinion.

[KarmaPhx]

Originally Posted by Billy Hoes

Cheap-buttocks'd leeches who "borrow" other people's wifi as their sole means connecting should be purged. Almost as much as dumb-buttocks'd people who set up wifi for themselves and don't bother to become informed enough to set it up properly.

If you're reading this and I'm stepping on your toes - No offense. =)

The ONLY exception would be some smart-buttocks'd person who actually "hacked" someone elses wifi. If they can get past a non-broadcasting SSID, encryption, mac filtering, and/or any other "discouragements" - they've EARNED the right to "borrow."

At least, that's my opinion.

If someone doesn't have the common sense to secure their network, then why not take advantage of it?

I don't need internet for anything, it's not like I am using up all his bandwidth by downloading large files or anything, I get on and check my email every now and then.

[Jamieazexpat]

We use Qwest for our internet, which isnt bad once you get it, but as a couple of other people have said trying to get any sense out of their customer service people is like pulling teeth. Similarly, with Direct TV, we had our order totally messed up (we wanted HD/DVR, not one HD box and one DVR box) and they were more than happy to cancel our order rather than make it up to us. My wife sat on the phone with them for about two hours getting passed from pillar to post to actually cancel the order, until the sixth or seventh person we spoke to actually had a brain and offered to give us what we originally asked for without any question...he was almost apologetic for the other people we'd had the misfortune of speaking to. He even threw in a couple of freebies for us and from then on we only dealt directly with him and we were so happy with it.

So in short, and i've heard this from others since, if you can navigate the planks on customer service and get to speak to someone who knows how to do their job, then it's a great service....you just need patience!

[blisterpeanuts]

Originally Posted by KarmaPhx

If someone doesn't have the common sense to secure their network, then why not take advantage of it?

You can usually get away with it, but if someone has some snooping software installed, they can actually see what you're sending and receiving and potentially they can hack your email, bank accounts, and whatever other online accounts you access.

It's safer not to access personal information via an unknown or unsecured wifi hotspot. You have to trust that the public hotspots you use are secure and no one is snooping, but even then it's a leap of faith. Basically, you're not really secure anywhere on the Internet, but you are still safest behind your own firewalled router with security turned on.

[blisterpeanuts]

Originally Posted by Klaudia

The only reason I keep the cox phone service is because I need it for my fax line.

faxzero.com lets you send faxes for free. I just use my scanner or send them as Word docs.

efax lets you receive faxes for free.

It's convenient to have a real fax machine attached to a phone line, but you can get away without one these days unless you really depend on tons of faxing for your business or whatever.

Email is so much better. Whenever someone asks me to fax them something, I offer to scan it and send it as an email attachment, and they always say, oh that's much better.

[ChristineF]

Originally Posted by blisterpeanuts

isn't Qwest even worse? Their customer service people always seem like dimwits when I call them.

My experience with Qwest: Got phone service with them when I moved to Phoenix last year. The previous owners of the number obviously never paid a single bill in their lives, as the collection calls were constant. Now I can deal with that since they'll eventually go away.

But.....

One of the collection calls was from Qwest itself, calling looking for the former owner of the number. I asked them to look up the name and service address for the number and asked why they were still calling it.

Then I asked to disconnect my service. Cell phones only works just fine......