Good high speed internet options (DSL or Cable)

[NewJeffCT]

We're getting a bit sick of AT&T's DSL service - we're paying for 1.5MBps but we often get performance of below 786kbps, or less than half of what we're paying for. We can't upgrade beyond 1.5 because it's not yet available in our area...

Any other good options out there that are reasonably priced? Cable modems seem to be quite a bit more than DSL service and I've heard horror stories about Comcast (the local cable provider here...) We have DISH Network, anyhow, so switching to cable would mean also dropping Dish Network.

[Maraya1969]

1. I use a verison air card and I love it. It's expensive though and I just

got a piece of mail from EMBARK that said they would provide high speed, (I assume it is through the telephone)for only $19.95/month. I don't know if it is worth it to save the money.

[NewJeffCT]

2. thanks, but

I just checked & Verizon is not available in our area.

[grannylib]

3. We get it through our local phone company, but the upgrade is not

available out here in the boonies; we get "DSL Lite" but I shouldn't complain; it's a damn sight better than dial-up

[Connonym]

4. The IT guy from work told me that cable is much faster; however, DSL is more reliable

in terms of not losing connection and stuff. I'm pretty happy with the RoadRunner that I have currently, it's noticeably faster than the DSL I had before but I *do* have issues with losing connection to my work network and that can be pretty frustrating.

[madinmaryland]

5. Is the phone service still SNET/SBC up there?

Does SBC offer anything?

I had Cablevision of CT when I was still up there with their broadband cable. I had broadband though Comcast, but changed over to DSL last fall after service issues with Comcast. DSL is slower, but if it takes a minute longer to send a picture over email, that's no big deal to me. We don't download videos or movies though.

[NewJeffCT]

7. SBC/SNET is now AT&T

so, that is what we have in regards to DSL.

[madinmaryland]

8. Funny how all the baby bells are consolidating into one large

conglomerate ala AT&T pre-1984.

:grr:

[NewJeffCT]

9. it's a big circle

pretty soon, we may have one huge bank and one huge airline as well.

[madinmaryland]

13. Unfortunately it probably will not come "full" circle, as I don't

see any politician willing to be daring enough and break up the monopolies as Teddy Roosevelt did in the early 1900's.

:shrug:

[NewJeffCT]

14. I know, since a lot of those companies control the media now

but, if we can control the White House for 8 years, we can hopefully even up the federal judgeships and Supreme Court a bit and undo some of them that way. If we can get 12-16 years in the White House, then we definitely can do it.

[KatyMan]

6. When we lived in the States

I always thought that cable was much faster, and found DSL slow and unreliable. Coulda been the respective providers, though.

[NMDemDist2]

10. we had cable internet and our Dish. we never switched the TV

:shrug:

[Jamastiene]

11. I use Road Runner Lite and it's been great so far.

I'm not sure if you have a Time Warner Cable nearby, but I've been happy with mine Road Runner Lite so far.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. I tried DSL for the first time when I moved to Minneapolis

because the cable outlet was far away from the room I intended to use as my home office.

However, I found it slow after having had cable in Portland, AND Qwest used MSN as its required e-mail provider. After MSN arbitrarily lost or blocked (without telling me) a couple of messages from clients, I knew that I had to switch.

I invested in an Airport set-up, got a cable modem (I already had installed cable TV) and I was in business.

Every once in a while, the Airport router stops working, but I just reboot it, and everything is fine. I very rarely have problems with the cable connection itself--and it's Comcast.

[Greyskye]

15. I have Comcast

in Northern California. I'm a little out in the sticks, and Comcast is the only broadband option currently available for me.

That said, I've been fairly happy with them. Only real problems I had occurred when my cable modem (which I owned, as opposed to leased from Comcast) gradually became obsolete due to evolving tech standards and protocols. Connections started getting slower and slower, and it kept getting more and more difficult to acquire an IP address. Finally got a technician out who eventually realized that it was the age of my cable modem that was causing the problems. One new $60 modem later, all was good on the net again.

Every couple months we lose access for about a day. Other then those experiences, we don't have much to complain about.\\

And you don't need to drop Dish - we have them as well. Comcast digital TV really does suck in comparison.