New contract for ISP

[GomiGirl]

Got a second apartment just up the road from my primary residence and need internet, wifi and maybe cable TV.

Looking around at different packages and wondering if a bundle with say JCom is a good idea.

For my own home we have NTT Bflets which us pretty crappy so might change contracts altogether here too as Hikari TV just ain't what it used to be channel wise and the Flets seems slow.

Anybody changed their provider lately and got any good tips

[yanpa]

A second apartment?

On B-Flets at the moment and no complaints whatsoever, though the interwebs tube comes straight through the wall (well, the bit where the A/C exhaust goes) directly from the above-street wiring, no communal VDSL involved, dunno if that makes a difference. I considered J-Com but that's cable, not optic fibre, and didn't seem optimal for my needs (which at the time involved a home office pushing a lot of legitimate data back and forth). I did have a Hikari TV option for a very short while before cancelling it (introductory offer thing), but so far I am happy with Mr. Peer's Torrent of Bits.

I also have good experience with AsahiNet (their English support is pretty good too).

[Coligny]

I also have good experience with AsahiNet (their English support is pretty good too).

Aside from their "we can reset your stalled connexion because you are not named directly on the contract and waarrrrglaaaarblll privacyyyyy derpity derpa" they are not too bad. As long as you are the only one on fiber optic in the street... then it gets slower...

[wagyl]

Yes there was a similar discussion about this when the new chez Yanpa was facing the same issue. I was on cable in Tokyo and on cable here too, principally for the reason that I have an uncanny knack of finding places to live which are in terrestrial broadcast shadows and I need cable anyway so bundling the internet with the cable works out best for me. However, upload speeds from cable are always throttled compared to download speeds, so if uploading is a priority for your needs then that is something you have to consider. Otherwise, I had no issues with JCom back in the day. (I seem to recall Yampa was concerned about deep packet inspection, quite possibly between himself and Mr Peer. Without saying that I have any idea what he is talking about.... I never experienced any problems, and have never heard of any either.)

[GomiGirl]

A second apartment?

My parents and husbands parents visit a couple of times a year for 2-3 weeks at a time. With our little guy in his own room now and my parents not loving long term futon sleeping, hotels and weekly mansions were used. But long term they are expensive so we started using Airbnb and then I thought why not do it ourselves. Here is our listing.

Had it going six weeks and only had 5 empty days.

But it really does need internet with WiFi as portable WiFi only does half the job. The building is only 7 apartments so not sure if how much it would get throttled if they all share the connection. I notice our flets gets dog slow around 11pm - peak internet useage time. We are in a big building with lots of rooms.

[wagyl]

SPAM account!!!! LOL

[GomiGirl]

I guess I just want to know if there are any good deals out there. Speed not really a factor as I don't live there. But I want to have the most cost effective package with or without cable TV.

Anyone done a recent comparison?

I pay about ¥7K a month for BFlets + Hikari TV at my place now. But I have been underwhelmed by the internet speeds and also Hikari TV has lost many of our fave channels - CNN, Discovery etc. There is only so much Law and Order that I can stomach these days so been watching Hulu on the Apple TV or accessing Hubbilious' 8TB RAID full of Mr Peer's finest movies and TV shows.

[Samurai_Jerk]

SPAM account!!!! LOL

Seriously. I read the first paragraph and was wondering what the heck it had to do with ISPs.

[yanpa]

Yeah, for a moment I thought GG's account had been hacked.

[yanpa]

But anyway, I'd imagine Jcom would be a good deal if speed is not quite so critical. Dunno about the TV part though, I seem to remember the range of options that would be interesting to work out quite expensive).

[yanpa]

Yes there was a similar discussion about this when the new chez Yanpa was facing the same issue.

I think that was over on the Hammer Cafe.

(I seem to recall Yampa was concerned about deep packet inspection, quite possibly between himself and Mr Peer. Without saying that I have any idea what he is talking about.... I never experienced any problems, and have never heard of any either.)

Nope, I was concerned about upstream speeds, because the previous job involved a lot of outgoing and legitimate transfers of large image files (think .psd) and slow uploads would have crippled me.

[Coligny]

Back in my days, cable slower upload speed was not throttled but only the result of an assymetrical technology. Like sattellite internet, downlink via the satellite but uplink via rtc modem...

[wagyl]

Anyone done a recent comparison?

On the very unlikely off-chance that you are not aware of kakaku.com...
Full of enticing prices linked with contracts for a term.

[GomiGirl]

Anyone done a recent comparison?

On the very unlikely off-chance that you are not aware of kakaku.com...
Full of enticing prices linked with contracts for a term.

I thought Kakaku was just for hardware and consumer products. Didn't realise it covered services too. Thanks for the link.

[Midwinter]

Going back about 6 months we signed up for Jcom's 160mbs cable package and the best it could must was 5mbs. Also found out they throttle uploads which was not something I was interested in. Your performance may vary as we live in an older mansion style building, but I wouldn't personally recommend them.

[yanpa]

Back in my days, cable slower upload speed was not throttled but only the result of an assymetrical technology. Like sattellite internet, downlink via the satellite but uplink via rtc modem...

Cable is still a pretty asymmetrical beast. At least I have yet to see a cable-based internet service that even tries to promise anything close to upload symmetry.

[Russell]

Airbnb gets Cabinet OK as Japan sets rules on home-sharing businesses

Airbnb Inc. is finally getting the green light to do business in Japan after years of operating in gray areas of the law.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet approved rules on Friday limiting home-sharing by private citizens to 180 days a year, according to the final draft of the legislation. The bill, which also leaves room for local authorities to impose their own restrictions, is now submitted for deliberation and approval by the Diet.

Airbnb, which just closed a $1 billion funding round that valued the company at $31 billion, has found a more receptive audience in Japan, compared with the clashes it had with municipal governments in New York, Barcelona and its hometown of San Francisco. A tourism boom has cut into the supply of available hotel rooms and helped make the nation Airbnb’s fastest-growing market. Overseas visitors will probably continue to set records as Japan prepares to host the World Rugby Cup in 2019 and the Olympic Games the following year.

“What’s important is that there will now be clear rules governing home-sharing,” said Mika Yamamoto, public policy manager for Airbnb in Japan. “The impact on people will vary depending on their position.”

The new legislation, which still needs to pass the Diet, distinguishes between those who share their own dwellings and absentee landlords, anticipating that the latter are more likely to be the source of friction in neighborhoods. While Airbnb doesn’t break down its 48,000 listings in Japan by type, a search on its site shows hundreds of houses available for rent, as opposed to rooms in occupied homes.

About 90 percent of hosts that aren’t present on the premises said the 180-day restriction would make their businesses unfeasible, according to a survey by the Japan Association of New Economy last year.

Airbnb, like its ride-sharing counterpart Uber Technologies Inc., has faced resistance from local authorities. Still, Japan’s home-sharing limits are relatively lenient, compared with 90 days in London and 60 days in Amsterdam.

Still, for some hosts in Tokyo, the new rules may force them to choose between giving up a second source of income and committing to becoming a full-time rental property operator. Until now, high occupancy rates in popular neighborhoods such as Shibuya and Asakusa made it possible to make a profit on rented apartments, prompting people to take a second or third lease. The legislation would require a landlord’s permission and an operating license.

The regulations are already giving pause to Mark Chao, who rents out seven listings in Tokyo and Kyoto via Airbnb. The 39-year-old entrepreneur with a full-time job in IT owns about 40 percent of his properties and leases the rest. Chao said he is putting on hold plans to buy a resort property in Hokkaido, to see how the rules play out.

“It really depends on how strictly they intend to enforce it, because I can think of several ways around the restrictions,” Chao said. “But if you follow the rules, the rental model is basically dead.”

More

I wonder how GG is going to cope with these new rules.

[matsuki]

4-2894 tanaka drive unit 12 becomes

4-2894 tanaka drive unit 12a

4-2894 tanaka drive unit 12b