How do you like your ISP? (sorry, this is pulled from my blog... I'll work on something original later)

This question had a very different meaning to me yesterday morning… I like my ISP (Internet Service Provider)… Okay, wait a second, let me clarify a this for this statement. I like the internet service my ISP provides to me… Fast, Stable, very little limitation on what I do on line… but their customer service stinks. And on top of that my ISP had subtly invited to me to what I thought would be a general discussion on my opinion of them. Which was absolutely not what was on their agenda. I was targeted as one of the top 3% of users. They wanted our opinion on the idea of imposing a limit on the amount of usage. I am quite offended that they chose to single me out (along with seven others) to pose the question “what if there was a limit and what if we charged you a dollar figure to increase your usage to an unlimited amount?”… Granted that internet usage has increased, and that it is a small percentage of users who will be impacted by this overall high end usage of the internet in general. Does this mean that we the top 3% should pay for the architecture that more than 90% of it’s users will use??? Sound like a government business to me… actually it’s a bit backwards cause government lets the “bottom feeders” pay for the “top of the hill”… sorry for the bad analogy. My point is though that it one more nail in the coffin of my ISP.

They blame their need to upgrade the infrastructure on a minority… instead of trying to be the best of the best… lets penalize the abusers but make them pay for the abusiveness of their actions. ramble ramble ramble… sorry I needed to get this off my chest I realize this off topic to my blog’s purpose, but I was just disturbed about this and had to vent to somebody and I haven’t posted lately…

I am working on a post to assist with some of the general ideas in regards to the router. Entitled “Why do I need a router?” for those of you who miss-understand my focus… it is supposed to be technology or some what technically, and I will do my best to take the time to explain the techie stuff to those who don’t understand. These routers are very robust units, but there is some background and a little theory to understand them so we can effectively configure them to take maximize you internet usage… if my ISP doesn’t shut me down for abusive online behavior.

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Comment by Bret Spector on April 29, 2009 at 7:46pm: Wow. I wouldn't even imagine what I would do if my ISP suddenly decided that I needed a bandwith or Space cap...I would die. Or I could switch to another ISP...I think the dying thing would be muy bueno though...

Comment by Steve on March 15, 2009 at 7:33pm: Wow, I didn't expect everyone to share the ISP experiences... I was frustrated with the local phone company. I took steps to distance myself from them. They charged me for service I didn't use and then over credited me. When I finally canceled the account they gave me money I never payed them???
The phone company have further screwed with the service, and now I have almost everything I wanted... speed and reliability... custom service is about the same as the phone company... I'll learn to live with the cap :(

Comment by Fstocking on March 15, 2009 at 3:38pm: AT&T about 5.5mbs average, not much variation in speed. Upload speed is usually a dismal 425-480K. The connection hasn't been down in a year the power supply for the modem failed after about 4 months but they sent another within about 3 days.

Comment by Joe Hunter on March 14, 2009 at 8:40pm: I left Verizon DSL some time ago for a Optimum Online (bundled with TV and phone). The whole bundle costs me less than what I was paying for DSL and phone alone before. Verizon charged the full rate for a second phone line with "no" additional features; Optimum charges less than half that for one with all the same features as the first one. Verizon still keeps trying to get me back to try their FIOS system even when they didn't have TV and used Dish Network for that part. Optimum has no contract; Verizon wants one or two years depending on who you talk to.

I get better speeds on the basic Optimum than what Verizon promises to be their upper limit for basic service. A higher speed service on each still puts Optimum way ahead of Verizon.

One of the big things is that there is none of the traditional nickel-and-dimeing for features that are included with the basic Optimum Phone service like with Verizon.

Verizon does bring fiber right to the outside of your house, while Optimum's fiber may end a few blocks away, but I think they are supposed to be adding local fiber lines now as well.

Comment by Pedro Remedios on March 14, 2009 at 2:02pm: My ISP in Portugal is OK I guess. Apart from the wireless connection going down somewhat frequently... I'm paying 45 Euros. 200 Gig limit downloads.

Comment by Daan on March 14, 2009 at 9:32am: Here in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, I've got an 80Mbit cable line, paying 80 Euros a month. There is no data limit at all.

The ISP I'm using used to be called "Chello", but they've changed their name to "UPC". Their service only got better and better. And customer support is great!

Comment by Bridgid Persephone Newman-Henson on March 14, 2009 at 8:49am: I have a Clearwire wireless broadband account and I get 100 Mb/s when the net isn't busy, but no access to newsgroups and the contract says they can cancel your account if you use p2p. Fortunately I've never gotten started using p2p so I don't miss it.
If I lived somewhere I could get a wired internet connection I would probably use that instead so I could get my newsgroups again, but I live on an industrial street in a live work space that used to be a break room for the original business (a truck tire shop)so there isn't even a phone line to my third floor unit (I prefer my cell phone anyway) and they don't even have cable down my street!

Comment by Zachary Royer on March 14, 2009 at 8:14am: Comcast Communications residential cable. For the most part I am happy with it. I ususally get about 7 mbps, sometimes less. It's hard to tell what is causing an internet slow down. Is it the computer, the router, the modem, the ISP, heck even the ethernet cable can slow it down. But it is fast enough for me most of the time. It never cuts out, and they have had 100% uptime since I've been with them (about 5 years). Unlike SusCom, which would hit problems every now and then. It sucks to be offline for a day. I'm actually kind of happy about the 250GB cap. I probably use about 50 GB per month, and anyone using more than 250GB is going to impact the speed of other users. When they first enacted the 250GB cap, our family was thinking about switching to Verizon DSL, but we never did. The main reason I wouldn't want to switch is I would lose my email address, which has probably around 100 various accounts assigned to it. Customer support is (like) talking to a robot on the phone, there are at least 5 menus before you talk to a person, but the online live chat is great. I usually get with someone within 5 minutes online. Pricing is less than perfect. I think it's around $50, but I'm happy with the service, and I'm not the one paying ;). We've thought about switching to DSL, but as I said, I don't want to lose my E-Mail address. They aren't too strict on their acceptable use policy in my opinion. The thing I don't like is that you aren't allowed any HTTP, FTP, Telnet, SSH, SMTP, POP3, DNS, (etc) servers for public use. (i.e. you can run a personal FTP server to access your files when you go away, but not host public downloads.) I run an FTP server for that reason. It's not that bad though, since there are plenty of other sites that will provide those for you. I don't have any experience with their internet user surveillance, other than they will terminate your service if you download illegally on BitTorrent if you don't use encryption (uncle got a letter). I haven't used P2P for years, but that is probably monitored too. I watch all my TV on licensed sites and listen to / download music from YouTube, so I don't have to worry about it. In fact, I blocked BitTorrent and P2P as best I could (BT is a sneaky little devil) on my firewall in case someone connects to my unsecured network and tries to download anything. I check the client list often as well as the usage log (IP and port connections), so if anyone connects that shouldn't I can just block their MAC. Although, I'm lucky if I can get a signal on my patio, let alone the rest of the block. Bottom line is I am happy with Comcast so far (I have basic TV from them as well).

Comment by Lee (Robzilla) Naramore on March 14, 2009 at 7:12am: At this time I only have access to a dialup connectin. My ISP is *cough* High Forest Net Solutions ( www.hifo.net ) They claim to offer 56k dialup. Speed test online show only a 39kbps to 43kbps connection speeds. I'm waiting for the WiMAX that President Obama is wanting to implement in all 50 states.

Comment by Ben Clement on March 14, 2009 at 6:47am: Here in Antwerp i got a 25 Mbitt cable line. Paying €60 euro (112 Canadian). There is a 60 gigabyte limit per month. If you get a cheaper subscription you would pay for a 1 Mbit with a 1 gig limit... a month.... €20 Euros +/- 37 Canadian. In the Netherlands where i lived for quite some time i could get a a 2 Mbit line with no monthly limit... I mean in Belgium they are years behind... a 1 gig limit... that is like 2 hours of heavy surfing ;0) I do love the speed but the costs are ridicules...

I would be happy to pay what i am doing now for unlimited volumes... (p.s. there is a €1 a Gig charge if you go over your limit...)