Sigh... 18. Wait till you're in your 40's. Years are like months now Enjoy those "long" years while they last...

I'm not a parent, but my advice as a "grey-hair" is for the OP is to be as respectful as you can when trying to convince your parents of all the GOOD points of a broadband connection (mentioned numerous times already) If any of your relatives (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) happen to have broadband, you might want to ask them to try to convince your parents as well. The "research" angle might be a good one, as well as the "get phone calls while connected to the internet" - that's the one that finally convinced my in-laws to switch.

Good Luck!

I would really recommend getting your own computer. It makes life a lot easier. Thanks to a couple of connections I managed to put together a P3 system for next to nothing (I bought a case and some RAM for it). Very servicable, especially for linux.

Put some security on your system fist then get the techy uncle in