Cerothen

So I just took a look because I paid 19cad for the remove ads option which was distinct from "sync ultra".

I think part of what's confusing is there was never previously a sync ultra lifetime price it was always just monthly or yearly. And sync pro was the lifetime price which was also out before ultra was a thing.

If you open the menu, above sync ultra is there a "remove ads" button with a more reasonable (lifetime/onetime) price?

The one time pay to remove ads was released on the recent beta

Take about 10% off there squirrelly Oka

I don't know how slow the old one was, but if I send myself an SMS using the bridge it completes a round trip to the Telco and back in about 1 second

Have you tried the new SMS bridge that relies on gmessages?

https://github.com/mautrix/gmessages

If you have an Android phone you can use the Google SMS app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging

Then you pair the app and bridge. It's been pretty reliable since I started using this bridge, especially when compared to the previous bridge options.

Is there a reason you couldn't use either use a self hosted or the public hosted copy of element or an Android/iOS app and connect it directly to the beeper synapse/dendrite server?

Their clients are just closed forks of element anyways.

To be fair, the client they provide to make bridging more accessible is proprietary, however you can fire up a fresh copy of element and connect it if you want and just use the text interface.

The clients are closed so that they have something to sell and profit. Not everyone can afford to give their time away for free.

I have my own matrix server that I primarily use like beeper and bridge all my chats together. Even using some of their bridges, it's been pretty reliable for years.

I know that a few people are hating on the closed source client, but that feels unfair to me. They provide lots of open code in the form of bridges which is really the meat of the offering. Their client just makes using the bridges easier for the lay person. The bridges are super easy to use without it, invite the bridge bot to a chat room, type login and do what it says, then type login-matrix and your pretty much done.

The I suspect that the same people who are displeased about the closed client also like using tailscale which is generally pretty popular but has closed source clients on Windows and Mac as well as the server (though all support the open source headscale server)

I also put in a 2tb ssd and have zero complaints, I clonezillad the OEM drive and it worked instantly. Got it from AliExpress for 175cad and delivery was a week

I have a FreePBX virtual machine hosted at home. I use VoIP.ms which covers most North American numbers and many numbers abroad. I use it to provide phone service to my parents house and cottage and my house and cottage. I put in about $40 a year to cover all these places with their own DID number.

Vianet - a provider out of Sudbury

Lakeland networks - a provider out of Bracebridge.

Ontario has a pretty aggressive fiber/broadband roll out right now. https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontario-connects-making-high-speed-internet-accessible-in-every-community

My family cottage is getting Bell fiber this summer too.

Ontario, Canada $82 after taxes for 400/200 A second fiber provider is coming to my street (doing locates now) and they are $82 after tax for 1000/1000.

Edit: 82 cad is 62 usd