Ok, I got a letter in the mail today from MSN saying that all DSL internet service would be cancled as of Dec. 12th. No reason why, just saying to find a new service provider. So now, I need to go find someone new. Great. Does anyone have any experence with SBC Yahoo? If so, what do you think of them?


:mad:

My recommendation: Speakeasy DSL (http://www.speakeasy.net/). They have a terrific rating (http://www.dslreports.com/reviews/93) on DSLReports.com and I've been completely satisfied with their service and support.

If you have ANY choices other than SBC Yahoo.... research them first, I have SBC and I'm stuck, no other providers available and I'm sooo not thrilled with the service or support!

Do you have digital cable in your area?

Originally posted by Bill Catherall
Do you have digital cable in your area?

Yeah, but we have Sat. TV, and I would rather stay with DSL than move to cable.

I don't think you have to sub to the cable to get the internet service but I could be wrong. I know another Padder that has satelite/dish and has cable internet...

Originally posted by MammaSilva
I don't think you have to sub to the cable to get the internet service but I could be wrong. I know another Padder that has satelite/dish and has cable internet...

Most cable companies that offer Internet service charge more for customers who do not also subscribe to cable TV service. If you already have or are getting cable TV, it's not bad, but I would not want to have to pay what amounts to a penalty for having DirecTV instead.

DirecTV also offers a high-speed Internet service called DirecWay (http://www.direcway.com/default.asp?CurrentPath=direcway/for_home/home.htm). I'm not too familiar with it but it may be an option for you.

Originally posted by Andrew
Most cable companies that offer Internet service charge more for customers who do not also subscribe to cable TV service. If you already have or are getting cable TV, it's not bad, but I would not want to have to pay what amounts to a penalty for having DirecTV instead.

DirecTV also offers a high-speed Internet service called DirecWay (http://www.direcway.com/default.asp?CurrentPath=direcway/for_home/home.htm). I'm not too familiar with it but it may be an option for you.

Even if I was given the choice between cable and DSL for the same price, I would go with DSL, if only because of the dedicated line to the server. Also, we looked into directway, but it is a 400+ setup fee, $50 a month, and would require us to get 2 DirectTV service plans (because of the wiring of my house).


Andrew, I really am starting to like Speakeasy. The 1.5 up/ 256 down with Static IP for only 55 a month looks really nice :D

Originally posted by DisneyFan25863
Andrew, I really am starting to like Speakeasy. The 1.5 up/ 256 down with Static IP for only 55 a month looks really nice :D

The best they could offer me when I signed up last year was 608/128 at $50. A couple of days ago I got an email from their customer service dept. saying they were upgrading their PoP hardware and that my line would be upgraded to 1.5/384 in February... with no change in my monthly rate.

Their online tech support is very good. Of course, when you actually need support it usually means you can't get to the online forms, so their live techs are also very good. They are actually willing to talk to me on a professional level once I make it clear that I know what I'm doing.

You might also look at DSLExtreme (http://www.dslextreme.com). I've been using their service for about a year now and have been very happy with them, both when it comes to reliability of the service as well as their support on the rare occasions when it was needed.

To give an example of their support, they even gave me a complimentary dial-up account for the week or so between when we moved into our new house and when we could get PacBell to get the DSL service hooked up for us. I was rather impressed that they were thoughtful enough to offer that.

Pricewise, they are slightly cheaper than Speakeasy (although it looks like they could flipflop with specific features) and their rating is very slightly higher on DSLReports (http://www.dslreports.com/reviews/1434).

-Jeff

Hmm, they look pretty nice also...

Basically, for $50/month with both companies I get the same features. I'll have to go check some reviews....and stuff :|

We have cable modem and DISH network, and it sounds like we're paying about as much per month for the cable modem as DSL would cost, but with better speed (in my neighborhood at least.)

I hate supporting the cable company, though, I admit it.

Adrienne

Originally posted by adriennek
We have cable modem and DISH network, and it sounds like we're paying about as much per month for the cable modem as DSL would cost, but with better speed (in my neighborhood at least.)



Yeah, but, with cable, you share bandwidth with the area you live in. With DSL, you have your own line (no sharing). So if the network is busy, cable slows to a crawl, but DSL still crusies along. And it seems that every other house out here has broadband (due to the fact that many of the homes here came prewired with ethernet, so many people share broadband), and I would not like to be online during the weekend crush :geek: :)

Originally posted by adriennek
We have cable modem and DISH network, and it sounds like we're paying about as much per month for the cable modem as DSL would cost, but with better speed (in my neighborhood at least.)

How's your DISH coverage? I have one receiver/line that's pretty bad and keeps scrambling my picture. I've got to get them to come out to look at it.

I hate SBC DSL. Any time something goes wrong (which sometimes is twice a week, but then sometimes it's not for a month), they tell me it's Microsoft's fault, and then miraculously it gets better a day or two later without my having to contact Microsoft.

Originally posted by Dlandmom
How's your DISH coverage? I have one receiver/line that's pretty bad and keeps scrambling my picture. I've got to get them to come out to look at it.

It's pretty good-- did you install your dish yourself or have it installed?

The best place on our house to get reception is in the backyard, by our dining room. The closest place to a "ground" whatever, is on the opposite side of the house, by the garage... Worst possible place for the dish to be. (The installation directions say to put the dish as close to the ground as possible.)

We put it in ourselves by the dining room, of course. Our next door neighbor's dish was professionally installed and they put it in by their garage door. Their coverage can't compare to ours. I can't imagine that they get any coverage at all because of the location and angle of their dish.

Adrienne

Originally posted by adriennek
(The installation directions say to put the dish as close to the ground as possible.) You can install a second ground. You use a grounding rod (copper coated steal I believe) and pound it 6 feet into the ground, then connect your ground wire to it. Check your local code to make sure you can do this though. Sometimes it's required to connect the two house grounds together to make sure you don't have a voltage potential between them. Some building codes require at least 2 paths to ground, so if you don't already have this, it might actually be a good thing. (I am not an electrician.)

The reason for the ground requirement is that electricity will take the shortest path to ground. If lightning hits your dish and the shortest path happens to be along the coax through your receiver, too bad.

A copper rod in the ground, as Bill suggests, will work, or you can run the ground wire from the dish to a cold water pipe, or even to the ground screw in an outdoor electrical outlet. Just make sure the ground wire run is shorter than the coax run.

I'm not sure what Doc did. I know he said that he's not that worried about lightning hitting the dish. I can guarantee you that he did not hammer anything 6 feet into the ground: our house is sitting on a giant bed of granite. Just installing sprinkers and the retaining wall was a chore. (Fortunately it was a professional who got to break his diamond tipped jack-hammer tip on the granite trench for the wall. Doc got to install the sprinklers himself...)

Adrienne

Just remember, you have to be going at least 88 miles an hour in order for the flux capacitor to operate efficiently!

:)

-Demigod
(Save the Clock Tower! Save The Clock Tower! Hey kid, can ya spare a hundred for the Clock Tower?)

Well, we canceled our DSL and went with RoadRunner. So far, I am VERY, VERY happy with the results (2.3 MB per sec down, 315 KB per sec up). We also dumped DirecTV and went with Time Warner Cable (I'm loving iControl Tech TV and HDTV broadcasts!)



Thanks All,
Sean

So Time Warner Cable is broadcasting HDTV? Do they use their own HDTV tuner or do they require you to have your own?

Originally posted by Bill Catherall
So Time Warner Cable is broadcasting HDTV? Do they use their own HDTV tuner or do they require you to have your own?



You rent one for 5 bucks extra a month. The programming is free :)




It really is a bargin considering that DirecTV wanted us to buy a $700 reciever, plus pay $15 extra a month :)


I don't know if you can get it up north, though...

Sounds like a good deal! We've got Comcast here. No HDTV via cable. You have to either use an antenna or a dish. But I don't have an HD ready TV anyway.

Originally posted by Bill Catherall
Sounds like a good deal! We've got Comcast here. No HDTV via cable. You have to either use an antenna or a dish. But I don't have an HD ready TV anyway.

We've got Comcast. When we got our HDTV ready TV (with no internal antenna thingy) Comcast came out and gave us a new reciever.

To compare DSL and Cable as being similar is just ridiculous though. We had PacBell DSL for 2 years. STeady service - except when we had a problem - then it was no service to really bad service for a good month then ended when our telephone service completely shut down - then they were finally able to figure out what was wrong. :rolleyes: :mad: :confused:

But anyway - when we used various bandwidth testers with our DSL - we'd reliably get around 530 mbps... With cable it's up 2300!!! We also used Adelphia for internet cable before moving and had similar speeds.

Cable access is around $50 a month.

PacBell is offering a deal right now I think - but you have to commit for a year.

Cable is no committment...at least our isn't.

You know what? I had to make a call to Comcast yesterday for some technical issue and one of the menu options included "if you are an HDTV subscriber..." So perhaps it might be available in my area after-all. When the time to buy an HDTV draws nearer I'll have to look more into it.

(No money + little kids who break expensive things = no HDTV)