SmarchLAN 2010 - March 19-21

[SCETR]

Well I'm willing to pay my fair share!!!

[fittysix]

I'd say go for the Internets for steam purposes, it's a bitch to work with on no-internet situations :/

[ko0kie]

I have no problem paying extra for internet.. especially good internet.

[kirika]

I have no problem paying extra for internet.. especially good internet.

QFT

[ratton]

the internet and steam was made for each other

[Latency]

I'm still with r337. I have a hard time paying $170 for 3 days of net but it's ultimately not up to me, which is totally fine. Go ahead and order it alpha, majority rules.

[r337ard]

When did I say that? I do think there is a better way to deal with Shaw regarding this, or at least they should be better able to deal with this sort of thing given I'm sure we're not the only group who wants it, but I'm not object to paying my share for internet at the lan. There should be an easy way to handle it, like suspending the service in between LANs or something.

Even getting a modem installed on site permanently and paying basic $15/mo service when we're not lanning. Bump it to Extreme or whatever when we are, it doesn't sound like that's a much higher cost.

I'm fairly excited for this LAN now, especially with Bad Company 2 looking like a great game instead of the pile of shit I expected it to be. The big question tho is whether the pirates will be able to play with the real customers, I'm disinterested in buying a game I'll only play at this lan but I would be disappointed to find I can't play it at all.

[ko0kie]

I'm going to talk to my buddy at shaw.. see if he can help with the costs.. Is the line already going to the building?

[AlphaDrake]

There is a line into the building, we've had Shaw there before. (3 or 4 times).

We cannot suspend the service because they do not do that with business accounts (and since it's not a residence, has to be a business account according to them).

I've thought about doing the cheap service and bumping it up for the LANs, but even basic business accounts are like $50/month I think. I could see what the cheapest one is and post the price here.

I talked to OCM (he works for Shaw) and he said he would try to help us out but I don't know if he can help...

[r337ard]

Requiring a business connection is pretty gay, but I can see shaw pulling a shitty move like that. If Telus treats us better, I would vote to go with them instead - you could try talking to someone there and see if there is a contract or something we can work out with them, the other option is to set up the appointment with shaw and if Telus is able to do something for us too phone Shaw back to cancel the install. They'll very likely throw you over to their retention people, who can offer a lot more than the phone drones who normally take calls, they'll likely be more interested in working something out for us that's to our advantage and keeps us with them.

[ratton]

if you are haveing a lan there every 2 months or 3, $50 a mouth = $150. that still cheaper than 170 for 3 days

[AlphaDrake]

Still gotta pay the $100 install fee.

Ill call Shaw and have them book an install time for the LAN date, if we decide not to go with them, then we can cancel it.

[zeroumus]

just pay it, its not that unreasonable a fee to pay considering what we are doing. Your not going to get any provider to put up with that kinda of thing over and over unless you get a pass from public relations. until we actually approach it as such, we aint getting any deals

[touque]

I have a telus home connection at my shop. They really don't care - it's in a commercial area and everything. I just told them I rent it as a personal hobby type place and want a residential line.

[AlphaDrake]

So update:

I booked the Shaw guys to come n the 19th. Its the 15mb down 1mb up connection, which is the fastest they offer for business services.

I told him we planned on keeping the account active this time, and we waived the $100 install fee, so the internet will be $75 for the month. The problem is, we'd have to keep the connection.

The cheapest Shaw business service is $52/month, which I think we can downgrade to, then upgrade when we want to have a LAN. I could try calling Marshall and see if Goldbar wants to eat some of the costs with us... but I doubt it.

He said the connection at Goldbar hasn't been deactivated yet, but they can't leave it active because their audit department goes through periodically and deactivates the unused active connections.