3 weeks and 3 days, thats how long I have had to, and it was hard.
My server is government sponsored satellite, for areas that are remote or poorly served by land line.
40 klm from one of NSW big tourist areas yet land lines are unable to support more than 28kbs.
Try living without it!
it took ten minutes once the service man came but 24 days! to get him here
Is the government money well spent?
I have concerns in this world we do actualy have more need of our PC than we may want to admit.
No land line connection it would have cost a fortune to go back to dial up, not an option.
4 hours, thats how long it took to down load e mails 2713 of them, 90% spam, another concern for those of us who need our daily net life.
regards all, thanks for the concern and well done to the telephone Detective.

I had my 'puter, an old dinosaur, implode on me last year, it took just over a week to organise the new one. I didn't miss the net, and although it was nice to get back online, I really only use it to fill the odd boring hour or so.
I spent ten years living rurally, raising kids, good for them but lousy internet, dial-up only, often interrupted too, now I'm in the centre of Darwin, so don't often have connection problems, you have my sympathy there!

Welcome back old son we were wondering what had happened. Glad to see you survived your term in digital isolation.
On topic I survived before computers and certainly the internet. To me it's a handy tool but it is a discretionary item. I could survive before and would again.
Time upon a once I earned big $ and had power in the commercial sense. Today I choose not to and I "survive" just fine.
My point is that I've learned that all discretionary item is expendable and usually not worth the sacrifice to get anyway. 'Cept I would miss some posters. :-)

Welcome back, Belly!

Well, I could live without the net. I'm sure I'd get a lot more done in the way of gardening and home maintenance and other tasks which just don't have the same appeal as relaxing in front of the PC! I'd probably return to using the phone and going out more than I do at present.

I would miss the connectedness it gives me to several groups though, OLO being one of them, and also being able to look up things at the drop of a hat and just generally keeping abreast of what's happening in the wider world.

Once retired, I hope to be able to spend more time on the net, some of it in U3A study. I see the net as a great way to keep mentally alert without requiring physical effort, especially for older people. I just hope I can always afford to update the PC as needed and to remain connected at a decent speed. It's not as high on hubby's list of prioritites as it is on mine, so there may be some tough decisions one day when we have to prioritise a limited retirement income!

But I'd be prepared to sacrifice quite a few other things in order to remain online. Yes, it definitely adds to my quality of life.

I also hope my hands hold out. I'm trying to teach myself touch typing, which is interminably boring, but my old two-finger approach has resulted in several trigger fingers on both hands and lead to stiff and painful fingers in general! That probably says a fair bit about the time I spend on this thing!

Welcome back, Belly!

Well, I could live without the net. I'm sure I'd get a lot more done in the way of gardening and home maintenance and other tasks which just don't have the same appeal as relaxing in front of the PC! I'd probably return to using the phone and going out more than I do at present.

I would miss the connectedness it gives me to several groups though, OLO being one of them, and also being able to look up things at the drop of a hat and just generally keeping abreast of what's happening in the wider world.

Once retired, I hope to be able to spend more time on the net, some of it in U3A study. I see it as a great way to keep mentally alert without requiring physical effort, especially for older people. I just hope I can always afford to update the PC as needed and to remain connected at a decent speed. It's not as high on hubby's list of prioritites as it is on mine, so there may be some tough decisions one day when we have to prioritise a limited retirement income!

But I'd be prepared to sacrifice quite a few other things in order to remain online. Yes, it definitely adds to my quality of life.

I also hope my hands hold out. I'm trying to teach myself touch typing, which is interminably boring, but my old two-finger approach has resulted in several trigger fingers on both hands and lead to stiff and painful fingers in general! That probably says a fair bit about the time I spend on this thing!

Sorry about that. It definitely wasn't worth saying twice!

I could blame that little stuff-up on the stiff fingers, but in truth it was more a lack of mental alertness!