What's The Best ISP?

[krazyaboutkatz]

Hi everyone. I'd like to know what you think is the best internet service provider. I currently only have dial up through netzero. Although I have the highspeed version, it's still quite slow at times and I've been having a lot of problems with it lately. I'd like to possibly change my ISP but I don't want one that may cause me a lot of problems. I've heard that some people have a lot of problems with DSL but I haven't heard much about comcast. Also is comcast really a lot faster than DSL? Thanks for reading and replying to this thread.

[Tonya]

Comcast. And this is coming from an SBC employee who installs DSL for a living. I get an employee discount and I'm considering getting cable anyways. DSL is fast enough for my needs, but I think the price is unreasonable for the quality. The customer service is horrible.

[NoahsMommy]

We have DSL through Verizon and its always been pretty good. Its always fast, which is good.

David has a wireless aircard for his laptop through his work cell phone (Sprint) and it works pretty well. The signal strength fluxuates, but its still faster than dial up. I've been really impressed with it.

[Paul]

   In our city Comcast delivers 3 megabits per second. Our other local cable company delivers up to 9 megabits per second. I have read about Verizon delivering 15 Mbps via fiber in Texas for what we pay for 3 Mbps. DSL is usually offered in a variety of speeds. You should compare your Comcast speed to the DSL connection. The larger number is always better.

   Comcast is often cheaper, faster, and more reliable. However, no matter who you go with it still depends on location.
A friend of ours a mile away started having enormous trouble with their connection which Comcast did not resolve for a very long time. They were going to switch to DSL. It's best to ask your neighbors about their service.

      Paul

[CathyBogart]

Whatever you do, stay FAR away from SBC. I'm having so many issues right now, and their customer service people seem pretty clueless. -_- Not as bad as the people at Dell, but up there....

[catfancier]

Matt works for an ISP - Actrix. Of course they're excellent, but don't expect to be able to sign up with them - they're NZ based, and although you can use them through AT&T, it will cost $NZ6.75/hr on top of their monthly charges !

[cubby31682]

I had cable internet for 3 years or so. Our signal was very weak. When ever the snow started melting here we lost our connection. I had the cable companies number memorized. At one point I even programmed it into my phone.

Now that we just moved, we went with dsl. So far I love, it's fast, never loses connection. Yes the customer service isn't that great. There will always be something you don't like with every company.

DSL, also is saving me $30 a month. And right now I can use that money for other things I want.

[GraciesMommy]

Time Warner Roadrunner here and love it

[BitsyNaceyDog]

I have road runner too, it's way better than my sisters Sprint DSL.

[moosmom]

I've been through quite a few ISP's in my days. When I first got my computer, 9 years ago, I signed up with aol. That was when they were pretty new. They were great. Since then, anytime you need technical help, you're calling somewhere in East Sasquatch who doesn't speak very good English. And they're expensive compared to some of the other ISP's out there. While I was trying to find another ISP to go with recently, I used AOL on a trial basis. They SAY credit card not necessary. BULL!!! They took out $28.90 outta my account without my authorization BEFORE my trial period was up. I went straight to the bank, filled out some paperwork and and got the money back. They are rip offs.

Then I tried Yahoo. Again, great for a while but then I kept getting all these "Undeliverable" emails. Got tired of that and moved on.

Went to Juno. So far so good. Then I started having trouble accessing PT (BIG mistake!!! ) I needed technical support. Juno CHARGES you $3.00/month for it!!!!

So now I'm with highstream. THEY have live technical support 24/7. Anytime I have a problem, I call them. Very polite AND they speak perfect English. When my computer started slowing up, they gave me a couple of free spyware downloads. These people are great! And, they're only $9.95/month.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Here at work I have DSL through SBC and have no problems with it.....now that everything is configured and set up correctly. I had a problem at first that whenever it rained my service was intermitent. They said it was "internal" I said how can it be internal when it only happens when it rains? It turned out to be both internal and external and now that we have it figured out everything works fine.

I have Comcast at home and love it! It is definitely faster than the DSL I have at work - so much so that I can notice the difference here on PT. I'm not thrilled with Comcast as a company. They bought out AT & T who I thought was one of the most arrogant companies around, and since Comcast inherited the workers, they inherited the arrogance. For the most part, the guys who come out to do the work are very friendly and knowledgeable - it's the phone customer service that you have to have patience with. However, all that said, it's been about two years that we've had the cable service and I only had a problem once. We don't have cable TV, only cable internet so there is a filter they put in the "box" that makes sure we don't get the TV service. Evidently that thing geeked out and was also blocking our internet service, so they came out and replaced it. I took 4 days for them to come out which was a ridiculously long time, and they don't provide any dial-up numbers for access if the cable is out (they say they're working on that).

So, other than that one minor problem I am extremely happy with the cable internet service and would recommend it to anyone. Oh, and I'm not happy with the price - $57.99/month - either, but whaddya gonna do?

Oh, and one last thing. We got Comcast at home because we can't get DSL there. If we were able to get DSL we would probably have that because in my experience SBC is so much easier to deal with than Comcast (it's the arrogance thing).

[Tonya]

Originally posted by Tubby & Peanut's Mom
Here at work I have DSL through SBC and have no problems with it.....now that everything is configured and set up correctly. I had a problem at first that whenever it rained my service was intermitent. They said it was "internal" I said how can it be internal when it only happens when it rains? It turned out to be both internal and external and now that we have it figured out everything works fine.

I have Comcast at home and love it! It is definitely faster than the DSL I have at work - so much so that I can notice the difference here on PT. I'm not thrilled with Comcast as a company. They bought out AT & T who I thought was one of the most arrogant companies around, and since Comcast inherited the workers, they inherited the arrogance. For the most part, the guys who come out to do the work are very friendly and knowledgeable - it's the phone customer service that you have to have patience with. However, all that said, it's been about two years that we've had the cable service and I only had a problem once. We don't have cable TV, only cable internet so there is a filter they put in the "box" that makes sure we don't get the TV service. Evidently that thing geeked out and was also blocking our internet service, so they came out and replaced it. I took 4 days for them to come out which was a ridiculously long time, and they don't provide any dial-up numbers for access if the cable is out (they say they're working on that).

So, other than that one minor problem I am extremely happy with the cable internet service and would recommend it to anyone. Oh, and I'm not happy with the price - $57.99/month - either, but whaddya gonna do?

Oh, and one last thing. We got Comcast at home because we can't get DSL there. If we were able to get DSL we would probably have that because in my experience SBC is so much easier to deal with than Comcast (it's the arrogance thing).

Your work DSL is different then residential DSL. They're put on priority lines and monitored. We (SBC) use much better equipment for the business lines. The work I do to set up a residential DSL line vs a business DSL line is night and day.

With res. DSL, I test the lines to make sure the standards are decent. The lines can have moderate shorts, grounds, and even cross talk (where someone else's line bleeds on to yours) and still meet res. DSL standards. I put a card at the central office and an installer or customer installs a card at the premise in the computer. The customer gets a few filters for their jacks.

With bus. DSL, I test the lines to make sure the standards are excellent. I put a higher powered better quality card at the central office and personally install it at the premise. Depending on how far you are from the central office, I place several repeaters on the cable (approx every 1.5 miles). The repeaters have high powered cards in them that boost the signal back up.

I also have to go through all the records and remove all the "bridgetap". Bridgetap is basically extra wire. Think of your phone line as a street. Your signal is better if it goes down just one street straight to your house. If there are a bunch of dead end roads off of that street, the signal weekends because it's bleeding off to all those side streets. In business DSL, the standards are no bridgetap. In residential DSL, you just can't have bridgetap within the last few hundred feet of the premise.

Hope I made a little sense. hehe.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Thanks for all of your replies. Now I guess I need to do some more researching on my own.
Another interesting thing that my Dad has found out is that the internet speed in Southern CA is much faster than here in Northern CA. He only has dial up and it's twice as fast in Southern CA. He thinks it's because they have newer more modern equipment. This is terrible since I live in the area known as "Silicon Valley".

[Tina]

We have DSL through Verizon and love it! It has worked just fine for us.

[smokey the elder]

I have Optimum Online, since 2003. It screams!