Our sys admin _IS_ hiking in Brazil for the last week, and the next two. But before he took off, he made sure to brief a group of us on the machines he takes care of, what they do, who can be contact for support on each machine in case it goes down, and how to get admin access on each machine if we really needed to.

If Lance Davis has a history of going off-list for extended periods, this is probably just an extreme case of that. If not - then something is seriously up ...

If you're in an area served by Time Warner, give them a call, and ask about _ALL_ their plans. I was in the same boat you were - I was paying about $65 on my Time Warner bill (antenna service [$13] + 5 mbps broadband internet [$50]) and I wanted to get that total under $50 total. I called customer service and was told about a 768 kbps down / 128 kbps up service that cost just $25/month. I sit on 100 base-T at work, so for home, I thought that was more than adequate. So I signed up for it, and have been happy ever since. I purchase the occasional song from iTunes or Amazon, so this speed is more than adequate for my needs. If I ever have to get a CD or DVD iso, I just let it run overnight.

I realized just recently, I was upgraded to 2 mb down / 384 up connection with no change in price. I don't know if you have Time Warner or not, or who your provider is. But make it sound like you're a looking for a reason to stay with them, etc ...