GROWMAP.COM » Internet Access http://www.growmap.com MAP Your Path to GROW Your Business Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:37:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 SOPA Blackout Strike Already Started; Why Major Sites and Blogs Went Dark in Support http://www.growmap.com/sopa-blackout/ http://www.growmap.com/sopa-blackout/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:04:47 +0000 growmap http://www.growmap.com/?p=14339

If you haven’t heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) so far, most are bound to have noticed Tuesday, January 18, 2012 when they were unable to get to many of their favorite sites from Wikipedia to Reddit to WordPress to Mozilla to Craigslist.

NEW: Where do members of Congress stand on SOPA
MUST WATCH VIDEOS: CBS C/Net Complicit in Piracy

SOPA LOSING SUPPORT VIDEO

Do not fall for the red herring that these bills – both SOPA (in the House) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) (in the Senate) are ONLY about stopping “renegade pirate sites”. 

ANY site could be taken down!

SOPA Content Blocked Image

MUST READ post: Click Image for MPAA Rant against SOPA Blackout

SOPA and PIPA are NOT only a threat to big sites.
See this MUST WATCH video:

Look at all the videos that have been removed from YouTube because of copyright violations. That could be YOUR blog or any site you visit!

“This bill is about using the government to shut
down the competition from bloggers, podcasters,
Web TV and other independent content creators.”
~ Rick Calvert, BlogWorld Co-Founder ~

SOPA and PIPA would make it simple for YOUR blog or favorite site to be “reported” and taken down or cut off from PayPal and other payment gateways without proof of wrongdoing or any chance to defend your innocence.

Wikipedia SOPA Blackout

Wikipedia SOPA Blackout - What Wikipedia Looks Like Wed Jan 18 12:46 a.m. CST

Did you know that it is ILLEGAL to sing Happy Birthday in a restaurant
unless that restaurant pays royalties to the people who wrote that song?
Or that you could be found guilty and sentenced to up to FIVE YEARS
in prison for posting a video on your site or YouTube or anywhere else
online that contains any part of that song?
And some actually believe you should report others and
PAY UP if you unknowingly sang Happy Birthday to anyone!

GOOGLE SOPA BLACKOUT LOGO:

Google SOPA Logo

Google SOPA Logo

Google is NOT going dark – but they did post a message
“Tell Congress: Please don’t censor the web!”

MEDIA IN DENIAL:

As has been their usual response, major media ignores what they don’t want the public to know about for as long as they can:

“Living in what can only be described as pure denial, the MPAA announced today that the SOPA/PIPA protests “failed to enlist big sites.” Honestly, there’s really not much more to say about that. Google. Wikipedia. Facebook. Amazon. Craigslist. All participating. Let’s just stare in wonder at the MPAA’s hubris and ability to deny reality.” ~ TechDirt ~

HOW TO JOIN SOPA BLACKOUT:

MORE INSANE LAWS

WHAT IS SOPA?

WHAT IS PIPA?

WHAT IS COPPA?

  • Proposed FTC COPPA Changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act includes yet ANOTHER call for a National ID – does NOT protect children but does threaten privacy, free speech and freedom.

EFFECTS of SOPA / PIPA:

]]> http://www.growmap.com/sopa-blackout/feed/ 94 Never EVER Use HughesNet Satellite ISP http://www.growmap.com/hughesnet/ http://www.growmap.com/hughesnet/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:03:54 +0000 growmap http://www.growmap.com/?p=1428

I’ve been meaning to do a post on how important having dependable high-speed Internet access is for bloggers and anyone else who works online. I will eventually do a post on how various types of broadband Internet access compare and which is most suitable. This can’t wait though. Some may have noticed me complaining on Twitter about being unable to work or noted my post frequency has varied greatly lately. The reason is HughesNet is simply horrendous.

After collecting over a dozen case numbers which they never use for anything and escalating my issue to their Executive Customer Care they finally patched me through to Level 3 support again. Level 3 and Customer Care both told me that:

  • We aren’t supposed to EVER open more than one tab at a time
  • They never claimed their service would work for filling out forms on the Internet on sites like Yahoo Local or Google Maps
  • That even if I couldn’t use the Internet there was absolutely nothing wrong – I should just “wait a few hours and try again”

At that point I knew that they were never going to admit what they were probably doing (using the ability to limit bandwidth – they hold  patents on ways to do that – see graph below) and I was never going to have reliable Internet access from them. I hope if you’re reading this you have not signed a contract as there are complaints from people who paid their ridiculous early termination fees and were still being hounded by collectors for HughesNet.

I am moved to post this to hopefully prevent others from going through the pain of being stuck in contracts that are very difficult to break. I am, in fact, still paying more for an unusable HughesNet account than I am now paying for excellent fixed wireless that makes using the Internet a joy again.

In one review of HughesNet on DSL Reports MichaelRS posted this image of his speeds over several days:

HughesNet Speed Graph

HughesNet Speed Graph

Note that the speed switches dramatically between about 1.5 meg and under 33.6 kbps (older dial-up) at regular times each day. This is NOT what you would see if more and more people got active online.

Instead of writing any more about it I’ll just share the latest Tweets from suffering HughesNet users.  My apologies in advance for any bad language. I can’t blame them for being so frustrated. If I weren’t graphics challenged I’d pretty them up, make them uniform in width and edit out the profanity.

Hopefully you’ll forgive me for just getting this done quickly so I can move on to getting caught up from all the work I’ve missed being able to do while trying to actually get HughesNet to fix my connection – or at least admit they were intentionally limiting my access. Any time my service was particularly bad there would be a rash of complaining Tweets. Just do a Twitter search for HughesNet any time to see them.

Note that these Tweets are all from the last few days. There are hundreds more complaining and these ARE representative of the issues involved.   I preserve these here for posterity in hopes someone takes action to force HughesNet to release people who are stuck with long term contracts – contracts that HughesNet has broken because they are NOT providing the service for which they are charging.

Since these are images I provide here the links to reviews of HughesNet service:

Tweets Complaining About HughesNet:

HughesNet Tweets

HughesNet Complaints

HughesNet Scam

HughesNet Ripoff

If you’ve read this far you probably have or are considering HughesNet. I urge you to search diligently for a quality local independent fixed wireless company. They are usually owned by technical types who are not very good at marketing so ask around or try searching these links:

  • WISP Directory - Find a Wireless Internet Service Provider
  • DSLReports – They provide several ways to search for service, great tech support, speed tests, and forums with really sharp broadband knowledgeable techs.

Do be sure to read the reviews and search online for complaints. A wireless company is only as good as their people and the equipment they install. They tend to be either very good or very bad. You can also try searching in Local Search Directories.

If that doesn’t pan out then consider wireless cellular service. Instead of contacting the major phone companies call  3gstore.com. They are widely recommended for their quality tech support and knowledge of current and soon-to-be-announced equipment availability and limitations.

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