OT: Stupid DSL question

" WmB" wrote

Try calling and talking to a human. Verizon DSL was not available at a potential new location for me - according to their site - but in fact was available according to their human.

KL

best to land line them. many reasons an on site can fail, but the yellerphone should get you the dope.

True.... Always talk to sales rep.... If you are looking at the info on the computer, it just might not be updated.

I'm finding that out. Well here's what I've learned from shopping around.

1) For my area, if I stick with DSL - I'm not going to do much better with another service performance wise. Not unless I bump up to 3Mbps, and I can do that with Earthlink. I can shave off about $10 by going with Bellsouth. That's if you believe the price quoted... the one with the asterisk beside it... which points to some fine print that mentions an additional $3 bucks in fees... and that I will be obliged to receive automated phone calls and e-mails from BS. That alone is worth the extra $7 to EL - they've never called me, for anything. 2) 3Mbps isn't going to be a helluva great leap forward.

3) The answer is forget DSL and go with cable. When I get my ducks in a row I'm going to fold my SAT and DSL into a packaged cable service. Unfortunately that's not going to happen any time soon, so I'll be with EL for a while yet. Which isn't all bad - in the 2-3 yrs I've been with them I think service has been down on only 3 occasions (not counting a few for scheduled maintenance).

But that still annoys the hell out of me that Earthlink's own database gave a false return on my phone number and address. If that's a problem on their end they could be losing a chunk of business out there to the disciples of the three click society.

WmB

I'm not to keen on the cable service. We have comcast here and all they do is jack up the rates on cable and take away all the good stations by putting em on high tier. They really pissed me off when they made the Sci-fi channel disappear right when Battlestar G started. Not to mention all the crappy cable signals I'm getting on the lower band stations that looks like someone running a drill or something and I know it ain't me. I've been asking around to people that have Direct TV with tivo and they love it.

Compared to DSL YES IT IS :)

If you don't play online games, than I can see where you wouldn't see much of a difference.

IF........ you play IL 2 or Call Of Duty, or LOMAC, than 3 mbps is an incredible difference compared to DSL This the only reason I went for cable. And now they are up to 4 mbps with no extra charge :)

My flight simulators are that important to me

Allan

run away from satellite internet sevice!!!!!!!!!

But Comcrap has a base charge of $70/month here.....

...ya get what ya pay for.

You did notice the Comcrap instead of Comcast right? In this area their service record sucks.

I hear the same about Mediacom in my market, though their ISP service quality is WAY better than their cable video service, IMO.

I also have a great many friends and acquaintences that have switched (back) to cable modems after a stint with Verizon DSL - including my girlfriend. DSL service quality where I live seems to be highly dependant on where you live in relation to the hub(s)...my neighbor switched from dial up to cable to DSL, and his DSL was comparable to dial-up...so he went back to cable. Verizon's support and features (for setting up and managing e-mail accounts, for example) are crap as well.

As a package, I get both mini basic cable and my HS internet service for about $65/month. I consider that a decent value...seeing as I spend WAY more time on the net over watching TV.

I must be lucky then.

I get a min of 3mbps, and sometimes I get 6mbps Average is 4mbps (what I pay for)

I am happy :)

Allan

You obviously don't live within 1/4 of the edge of their service area then.....we're everybody's bastard stepchildren.........

I live next to Wash DC. (ya know, the most important city on earth ? :)

Allan

So do I but the PG line and thus the end of Comcrap's service is only

1/4 mile away.....I'm in that eastern point of Montg'y county where Comcrap butts against PG's cable system and we're the last link for BG&E's power grid in the area.