# who is your ISP



## pez2002 (Dec 13, 2002)

mine is verizon and it works great plus the price is right $31.99 a month cheaper then the $65 with comcast


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## cdru (Dec 4, 2003)

I'm with Verizon as well. Decent relaible speeds, great price (relative to what Comcast offers), and great news servers.


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## TerryC (Jul 18, 2002)

Bellsouth FastAccessDSL. I love it but I hear pretty bad things about it sometimes. I guess it's where you are that decides how reliable and efficient your service is.


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## mini1 (Jan 25, 2004)

I have Road Runner. Can't get DSL because no one will sell it to me as a stand alone service, they all say I must have Verizon as my analog phone provider. I subscribe to an overbuilder who is much, much less per month, soon switching to Vonage for the lowest rate in the country. Road runner is reliable, and is stepping up to the 6Mbps download speed next month, from its current 3Mbps. Costs $40.95/month. Price hasn't increased in about 4 years, but I would expect it too with the new higher speed level.


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## pez2002 (Dec 13, 2002)

how is aol for broadband does that work ?


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## Phil T (Mar 25, 2002)

I just got Qwest DSL (the 256K version) for $26.99 per month. I must say that it is great compaired to dial-up.


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## AllieVi (Apr 10, 2002)

I'm on Comcast and can't complain about anything (except the approx. $60/mo price). It's been very reliable with only a couple outages that I'm aware of in the year or so that I've had it.

In another post I mentioned that Verizon is bringing fiber optic cable to the neighborhood, so I expect to change in the coming months.


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

I'm with Cox cable. Great service, very good speed, which was increased recently with no increase in speed. I pay less than $35 a month. I don't know exactly what I pay, because its bundled in with my digital TV and phone service.


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

I have EarthLink Dialup which is $22/month ($20/mo if purchased a year in advance). I got it because it was the only provider that had web browser accelerator software with a local number. Now others have it including Netscape dialup which is only $10 a month which includes the browser accelerator software in which I will probably switch to them since they are half the price and I do not have to pay a year in advance to get a discount. 

I do not have high speed internet available to me but have been thinking of getting SkyWay one way satellite internet since its only around $30 and only about $100 for the hardware. One can setup the hardware themselves. I am curious if you can run it of a wireless router since it uses the phone line to transmit the data back.


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

I have T6 Wireless Broadband.

Fantastic reliability and the terrestrial wireless Canopy system rocks.

http://www.t6b.com


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

> $20/mo if purchased a year in advance


Or if you are a member of the AARP or a Sam's Club Member you can get it for $19.99 also. My aunt turned 55 3 years ago and joined the AARP. For the past few years when I had dial up the account was under her name, billed to her credit card so I could get the discount and I'd pay her every month.

I have Road Runner from Time Warner, currently under a one year promotion, 1 year for $30 a month, after that it goes up to $45 (or $40 if I had some sort of cable TV service). Great connection, I love the speed and could never go back to dial up. I'm in an obscure area that doesn't qualify for Earthlink Broadband via Time Warners lines for $42 a month. I live 20 miles from my CO so DSL from Verizon isn't an option, there are no wireless providers around here, and I'll be damned if I ever go to DirecWay, pay $70 a month for service and have limits to how much I can download. So Road Runner is my only choice, which is fine with me.


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## Andy-1 (Sep 23, 2004)

I have High Speed with a cable modem and I have AOL too not because I want it but the family seems to like it, I don't care for it much though.


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## chaddux (Oct 10, 2004)

I have SBC Yahoo DSL Express package (the 1.5Mbps version). Price is $28.95/month including all taxes and fees. I dropped my cable internet with Cox when I switched to DISH. They were going to make me pay over $60/month to keep the cable internet. Despite being cheaper, my DSL connection is almost three times faster than the cable connection. And I was subscribed to the fastest speed offered by Cox. I still hate that company so much.

I'm still amazed that people are willing to pay $24/month for AOHell.


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

I have Charter Communications 3meg Service. $52.00 month.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Comcast Cable internet at home ($21 per month for 3 months then $42 per month). I moved my Starband modem to the office and still use it there ($49 per month). Service from the two is surprisingly similar speed wise. Although cable is a bit faster it isn't enough to worry about.


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## eichenberg (Apr 3, 2003)

Sprint Broadband Satelite @ 39.95 a month


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## JcT21 (Nov 30, 2004)

currently have isp.com @ 8.95 month unlimited w/ 5 emials. not a bad deal for national dial up. 

im thinking about switching to direcway satelite high speed. anyone have any thoughts about their service? good or bad?


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

JcT21 said:


> currently have isp.com @ 8.95 month unlimited w/ 5 emials. not a bad deal for national dial up.
> 
> im thinking about switching to direcway satelite high speed. anyone have any thoughts about their service? good or bad?


Expensive!


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

I wouldn't mind getting something like StarBand or DirectWay if its only $50 a month and I can get the hardware cheap. Maybe I can get a used StarBand system somehow. I have my StarBand certification so I can install it myself. I cannot find the file though where I stored my certification number.


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## cdru (Dec 4, 2003)

The speed is nice if you do large pages, but the delay will annoy you to high heaven.


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## mini1 (Jan 25, 2004)

pez2002 said:


> how is aol for broadband does that work ?


My Time Warner offered AOL for broadband. It was about $20 more a month then either Road Runner or Earthlink broadband. Connection speed was exactly the same, used the same modem as either service. From what I hear, no one subscribed to it. they lowered the price $5, still no one. Then they just discontinued it. Now they offer both Earthlink and Road Runner at the same price, for the same speed. They also have Road Runner premium. Tops out at 6Mbps right now, will be increasing to 8-10 soon. Cost $80.95 month with digital cable and digital phone, $84.95 with just one digital service, or $89.96 alone. Then you can bump up to Road Runner Pro-light, which has exactly the same speed and price as Road Runner premium, but the tech support is top noch and you get a better modem.
Does anyone have Road Runner premium or Pro-light anywhere in the country? I would like know how good they actually are.


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

I'm on Comcast and have had good luck with it over the last 4-5 years. I rarely have any service problems and the one time I had a serious problem, they even sent a service tech. out the next day (Sunday) to get me back up and running. The CSR I dealt with was very professional.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Interesting!

But, I suspect most of these low end pricings are for consumer accounts. 

I derive a healthy income from internet broadcast services. While I considered a T-1 line those prices are still too high (about $375/mo as of last April) compared to having Comcast cable modem commercial account. Cost is $139.90 and includes:
4Mbs speed download
756Kbs upload
same day response repair.
Private account rep with direct to his desk phone #
Small site web hosting with domain name
10 e-mail accounts, 50 mb server storage
Speed is flat and does not vary with node traffic

For on the road, I have GPRS from T-Mobile 29.95 and keep a dialup AOL account at $4.95 as backup.


Complaints- AE often changes and they never communicate that to me.
I have a credit balance of $182 on my personal account which I cancelled when I opened the business account and I can never get them to pay that to my current account.
Service is very reliable. It goes down maybe 3 times last year for just an hour or so. 

T-mobile GPRS- Has whole states, like North and South Carolina where it does not work. Also, south eastern PA only works 20% of the time. I have to use my aol dialup in those areas. For me, aol seems reliable but slow on uploads, especially


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

I have SBC/Ameritech on their 6M/600Kbps (actual 5M/500Kbps) $44.95 special that they ran early last year. Overall it's stable, but they have had multiday backbone performance problems. One plus note, on www.dslreports.com there's a SBC Direct forum where you can get to a non-level 1 tech to work on problems.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

> Maybe I can get a used StarBand system somehow. I have my StarBand certification so I can install it myself.


If I come across a used system I will let you know. I have a used dish sitting around, but no modem.


> The speed is nice if you do large pages, but the delay will annoy you to high heaven.


Not really unless you are a real time gamer, in which case it would be useless.


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## AllieVi (Apr 10, 2002)

DonLandis said:


> Interesting!


Don,

Thanks for sharing all the details of pricing and capabilities.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

JcT21 said:


> currently have isp.com @ 8.95 month unlimited w/ 5 emials. not a bad deal for national dial up.
> 
> im thinking about switching to direcway satelite high speed. anyone have any thoughts about their service? good or bad?


If you can get anything else, I would. DirecWay would be my absolute last choice. The only way I'd take Dway over dial up is if I lived somewhere that had no local access numbers. I looked into DirecWay last fall and I didn't like what I found.

-$70 a month
-$100 activation fee
-$600 in hardware costs
-15 month contract

And then the killer, Dway has a fair access policy in place of 169 MB over a span of four hours if you exceed you'll be bumped down to dial up speed. When I first got Road Runner, I downloaded XP SP2, 266MB in about 10 minutes, last month I downloaded Fedora Core 3 Linux, image 1 is 617MB, I had it in under 35 minutes. I could never go along with the FAP of DirecWay.


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## waydwolf (Feb 2, 2003)

Cox Cable with 4Mbps down by 512Kbps up. And Sprint PCS if you want to be complete. As soon as I get a new laptop I'm adding a Sprint wireless card to my account and then I'll be complete no matter where I go. I do wish the cable companies would partner with the wireless providers to give a complete package but until they do this works.

Cost is negligble compared to satisfaction with it. A DSL package with these speeds would be more than twice as much.


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## Raymond Simonian (Nov 22, 2002)

I had Verizon for a few days and dropped it. I had a six year old computer that had a very slow processor. I called Verizon about a phone problem and was talked into DSL. I told Verizon that I did not think it would be an advantage to AOL dial up because I had a slow processor. I did not have an ethernet card. I decided, against better judgment, to give it a thirty day trial. After downloading the software my cursor would barely move. There techs referred me to microsoft and then to Gateway techs. They had me try to increase my available resources by inactivating programs and cookies. I wasted about eight hours over two days. The first modem wouldn't even light up. I sent it back. The next modem didn't work with the USB port. I installed an ethernet card. I finally had it working for about thee hours on the third night but it wasn't any faster than AOL. The next day the modem didn't work and they said there was something wrong with the ethernet installation. 

I ended up purchasing a Dell Dimension 8400 and now have Optonline through Cablevision. I have had it for about two months. I called their tech support once because everthing slowed down. I was first told to disable my firewall which refused to do. Then he told me to disconnect their modem for a minute and plug it back in. That worked. I have been happy so far but tech. support is very important. I must say that AOL had very good tech. support. When I went through that fiasco with Verizon they were the only ones who new what they were doing. I am very happy with the speed and have been downloading mp3s.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

pez2002 said:


> how is aol for broadband does that work ?


 ARRGGHHH!!!

*NO AOL!*

They are EVIL.

Note: Compuserve is AOL.

Stay away from Juno, Netzero, and the like, too.

Rule of thumb: If the ISP requires you to install their software, go somewhere else.

Examples of what I mean: MSN & Earthlink LIKE you to install their CRAP, but you do not have to.


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## chaddux (Oct 10, 2004)

chaddux said:


> I have SBC Yahoo DSL Express package (the 1.5Mbps version). Price is $28.95/month including all taxes and fees. I dropped my cable internet with Cox when I switched to DISH. They were going to make me pay over $60/month to keep the cable internet. Despite being cheaper, my DSL connection is almost three times faster than the cable connection. And I was subscribed to the fastest speed offered by Cox. I still hate that company so much.
> 
> I'm still amazed that people are willing to pay $24/month for AOHell.


I just called SBC with a billing question and was offered an upgrade to my DSL service. I moved from the Express package (up to 1.5Mbps) to the Pro Package (up to 3Mbps) for an extra $3/month. Normally, an extra $10/month but it's price-locked for a year at the lower rate. Woohoo!


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

"_I'm adding a Sprint wireless card to my account and then I'll be complete no matter where I go."_

Who told you you'd be complete anywhere? I'm not familiar with Sprint service but T-Mobile GPRS is good in many cities and along Interstates except North and South Carolinas where GPRS is just now being installed. Yet there are many more places it doesn't work at all. I had heard that Verizon will be turning on it's broadband wireless service later this year. I look forward to seeing how that works and costs.
Can you tell me what advantage Sprint wireless has? I'm always game for something that works better than what I now have.

WIFI- update- OK, I have some time to kill this afternoon in White Plains, NY and we stopped in a Barnes and Nobile book Store. I had heard about it's "FREE" wifi. Armed with my IPAQ I went in and slected wifi and it discovered their "free" access site- Here's the truth/reality-
Barnes & Noble is free to all SBC subscribers, or free to surf their own web site only.
They sell full internet wifi access for $3.96 per 2 hour block.

To date, in my travels, I have found very few, very few wifi free access sites. Everything is subscription by the hour for what seems like a very expensive game plan.

The 5 or so that I have discovered that I was able to use, were protected later-on when I went back. At CES, I found one wifi connection behind the Intel booth that was free but the next day it required a key so I suspect it was in error. Part of my PDA T-mobile service allows T-Zones. Other than the place where I bought the phone, I have not found any of these T-zones at my disposal. IMO, wifi for travel is not a very economical internet service to depend on. Get a GPRS and suffer with near dialup speeds if you are fortunate to be in a GPRS covered area. 
The only good news is it will get better with time.


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

Perhaps thats the future, only websites with products to sell (or lots of ads) will be available for free wirelessly. That would be an interesting market.


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## homeskillet (Feb 3, 2004)

I have SBC Yahoo! DSL.. The package I have is 1.5 up and 356 down (I actually get about 1.8 up) and I've been really happy with it. I've experienced Cox Cable in Wichita for awhile and I'm not knocking Time Warner, but they seem to have a problem in my neighborhood with outages here in Kansas City (Lenexa, KS). With SBC I'm paying $26.96/month.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

sigh.... I work for a ISP in Sacramento. However, due to some regulation that protects my so-called "small phone company", I can't get DSL through work. So, I get it through the phone company. But, I can't knock 3088/484 according to the speed test.


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## navy8ball (Mar 23, 2002)

i use www.gbronline.com at 9.95 a month fee. i have had no problems with it and never been kicked off even after 2 hours of using it. not bad for a dial up.if anyone signs up for it reference my (navy8ball) and i get a kickback. thanks


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## goodcableguy (Feb 19, 2004)

Quest DSL for a year now and had only one problem to date. My calls to support were handled very promptly and with respect including a call back to check if every thing was OK.


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