the pathetic state of broadband

[Josh]

well so much for it being 2002. this is what my connectivity is like from eight to midnight every night for only forty five dollars a month. if you live in champaign il and someone offers you free at&t @home do the smart thing and pay for dialup.

[MrOOBiLL]

More like 'the pathetic state of AT&T'. Im very happy with my broadband (cable), few slowdowns and disconnects, and often hit 400KB/s downloading. :) Its Shaw@Home

[!-=sky=-!]

well i used to use shaw@home too when i lived in toronto canada

it was ok but sometimes they go down for maintenance and it takes them like 3 hours and it's usually at times during the night when i need to use it so that was horrible

my internet also got cut off a few days ago and i went without internet for 3 days...i was stuck using teh school's so called slowas* boardband that was even slower then a 56k connection(i tested with dslreports) to browse the forums and check email

[nihili]

I do live in Champaign IL, and I do use AT&T cable for my ISP. While there are more outages than I care for, most of the time it works pretty well, certainly better than dialup. I do keep a copy of netzero around so that I can connect if the cable dies. But I'm online every day during the times you listed with very few problems.

I don't have any idea why we would be having such different experiences. Have you complained and asked them to check the setup going into your abode?

nihili

[Josh]

Originally posted by !-=sky=-!
well i used to use shaw@home too when i lived in toronto canada

it was ok but sometimes they go down for maintenance and it takes them like 3 hours and it's usually at times during the night when i need to use it so that was horrible

my internet also got cut off a few days ago and i went without internet for 3 days...i was stuck using teh school's so called slowas* boardband that was even slower then a 56k connection(i tested with dslreports) to browse the forums and check email

could i ask what subnet your on nihil? i was on the 65.6.41.XXX network then they moved me to the 24.17.1.XXX network. I know the 65 series has like 120 ppl and the 24 series has around 140. my service is pretty much guaranteed to go down around 7 to midnight every day.

when i built this comp i foolishly decided against buying a modem for backup. i figured the kinks would of been worked out of broadband by now.

[nihili]

I'm on 24.183.29.

I didn't put a modem in my box either. And of course since I responded the broadband has gone out on me a couple times in the evening. Last night it was out for a couple hours. I have no idea how many people are on this subnet, I've been on it for about a year now.

I've got an old ISA modem, but no way to put it in this box. Luckily my laptop has a modem. :)

nihili

[Oni]

I'm on Cogeco@Home right now. I love it. I had some problems at first when I first got it; the connection would die suddenly and stay down for a few minutes, but it usually came back on promptly. It hasn't been down for a few weeks now.

[jbell]

Guys cable is just as bad as DSL - if you want to pay about the same, get more *reilable* speed and constant connection -- see if wireless broadband is available - my neighbor has @home and we compared speeds a few times and I smoke his connection everytime!

sprintPCS wireless with Earthlink support == heaven!

[nihili]

Originally posted by jbell
Guys cable is just as bad as DSL - if you want to pay about the same, get more *reilable* speed and constant connection -- see if wireless broadband is available - my neighbor has @home and we compared speeds a few times and I smoke his connection everytime!

sprintPCS wireless with Earthlink support == heaven!

You got a URL for checking?

nihili

[jbell]

Originally posted by nihili


You got a URL for checking?

nihili

sprintbroadband.com i believe to be the site... there are also several companies who offer wireless service and work much like directTV or DISH networks.. little more money but awesome bandwidth and wider service area

[jbell]

I pulled my files - yes it is

www.sprintbroadband.com
or
1-888-996-0001

[nihili]

It says they're not taking new customers anymore.

nihili

[jbell]

WOW ok sorry guys they were fairly new.... I jumped on early ...


MSN and AOL both offer Wireless... I would see what they have in wireless I also know of a few other companies who have been harrassing my boss at work to use their wireless I will get that info for you on Monday - PM me if you are interested so I don't forget and I can keep track of who to talk to easier.

Joe

[jbell]

I did a quick search on ''wireless broadband''

check it out...

http://search.msn.com/results.asp?FORM=AA&CP=1252&q=wireless+broadband


Joe

[lennytiger]

You guys are lucky here in south africa the net is terrible the best we get is ISDN 128k and we pay thru our teeth to get it I wish someone would get us going on broardband!

[Josh]

the sad thing is cable and dsl shouldn't be bad at all. the last 100 feet of cable (the most expensive) has already been paid many times over. with cable you have the company cramming as many ppl as possible on a 11Mbps collision domain and DSL is all about how many people you can put on a T1.

i won't even talk about the lack of a quality of service being used to queue certain traffic. example being from seven to eleven give all outgoing port 80 web requests 90% of allocated bandwidth and do not allow any outside connections.

i wonder what the price of dry pairs will run one in champaign? if you get the price to be around 10 dollars a month and handle the costs of a router and switch you could get forty of your friends and share a T1. the main problem is the cost of all those dsl modems and i doubt the phone co would even sell you dry pairs since you would be competing with them.

[nihili]

Well after my initial post saying my service was ok, I've had four straight days of multi-hour interuption of service. Today was the fourth one. After my service had been out an hour and a half, I called AT&T up to see what they had to say.

The CC rep was very courteous and friendly. I told her my service had been down for several hours at a time for each of the last 4 days. She said she'd see what she could find out. I heard keyboard noises for a bit and then she happily proclaimed:

"Oh, I see what the problem is. You can't get on the internet because theyre having intermittent outages in your area."

Somehow she seemed to think she was giving me information....

nihili
(who plans to use this example in his lecture about explanations on Monday)

[jbell]

Originally posted by nihili
Well after my initial post saying my service was ok, I've had four straight days of multi-hour interuption of service. Today was the fourth one. After my service had been out an hour and a half, I called AT&T up to see what they had to say.

The CC rep was very courteous and friendly. I told her my service had been down for several hours at a time for each of the last 4 days. She said she'd see what she could find out. I heard keyboard noises for a bit and then she happily proclaimed:

"Oh, I see what the problem is. You can't get on the internet because theyre having intermittent outages in your area."

Somehow she seemed to think she was giving me information....

nihili
(who plans to use this example in his lecture about explanations on Monday)

Did you check out that link into wireless? - I have been on braodband since 9/10/01 - and have had ZERO downtime and I bike around my neighborhood and counted at least 20+ different houses with the same service and countless more throughout the valley.... their is no *real* limit to how many people can use wireless.

[!-=sky=-!]

Originally posted by nihili
Well after my initial post saying my service was ok, I've had four straight days of multi-hour interuption of service. Today was the fourth one. After my service had been out an hour and a half, I called AT&T up to see what they had to say.

The CC rep was very courteous and friendly. I told her my service had been down for several hours at a time for each of the last 4 days. She said she'd see what she could find out. I heard keyboard noises for a bit and then she happily proclaimed:

"Oh, I see what the problem is. You can't get on the internet because theyre having intermittent outages in your area."

Somehow she seemed to think she was giving me information....

nihili
(who plans to use this example in his lecture about explanations on Monday)

during my period of internet outage, 4 days...

i called the boardband company so many times
and it's like impossible to get into the tech support
so i gave up and called customer service to see what they can do
they just told me to leave my phone # and said tehy will call me back in a hour, so i waited but they didnt call utnil the next day

and when they guy calls he just gave me a bunch of commands to check my ip but the commands wont even work in win2k(winipcfg)...so i just told him there is nothing and they send someone up to my house after 2 days...

horrible tech support from the company and i just dont like it

[rugby]

It's pathetic that I live in a pretty large Chicago suburb (Glendale Heights) and have cable to the north of me and dsl to the south of me and can get NOTHING at my townhouse. I can literally drive 5 minutes in ANY direction and get broadband and cannot get anything more than 128K dsl which I'm not paying 50 bucks a month for.

[Legionnaire]

IYHO, which is more worth the case, DSL or Road Runner?

[Josh]

just called Insight (384-2530) and complained about the poor service and the outage that they had tonight. they gave me a month free, which brings my total of free months to two. call and complain and maybe you'll score a free month too. i don't know whether to be happy about a month free of a service that is worse than dialup 50% of the time.

[Josh]

Originally posted by Legionnaire
IYHO, which is more worth the case, DSL or Road Runner?

i take it Road Runner is cable broadband? it is hard to say which is better, it all depends upon the company. any poorly ran company can easily screw up dsl or cable. i would try and find people who use DSL and Road Runner and ask them their opinion of speed, uptime, and especially performance during heavy usage.

[Legionnaire]

I get alot of crappy DL's but I think thats the server, Im DLing Opera web browser from NORWAY right now with... 256 kbbs. Nice.

I guess I'll keep my cable, till can get some friends to hel pay fer a T1 :D