May 2014 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Re: [Wlug] OT: Looking for ISP

by John Stoffel

E> Since when don't they allow self-owned modems any more? How long E> ago did they tell you this? Since I recently got a new plan to save myself $40/mon with them. I was grandfathered in under the old plan. The new setup requires a DOCIS 3.0 modem to get the higher speeds. I think (can't remember...) I stayed with 30mbit down, 5 up, but I could have gone with 50mbit down. Not a big deal and not a huge difference. E> I own mine and they are not complaining at me. I think it is about E> 2 years old. I also am "renting" theirs as a part of the standard E> cost for 30/4 internet. It's on a shelf in case my own modem ever E> conks out. In my new plan, the rental fee is bundled into the setup. E> What happened here is that my older new modem almost-died around 2 E> years ago (one of the newer Motorola Surfboards). It was returning E> a lot of errors and they sent 2 techs out here to see what the E> problem might be. They didn't find anything in their lines, so they E> decided the modem was dying. They gave me their modem and left. It E> turns out it was probably the power supply that was working E> intermittantly poorly, but that's a moot point now. E> After the techs left, I bought a new modem (another Motorola SB) E> and plugged it in the day it arrived. Then I called Charter, and E> they provisioned it. I didn't ask them if I could, and the service E> tech on the phone didn't tell me I can't have it. She simply took E> the numbers I gave her and had it going in 5 minutes. Yup, that's how it worked with me last time I did this. E> I would be very annoyed if I was forced to use their modem. I think E> it's important to be able to access the logs, crummy as they are, E> it's nice to know when certain events happen. E> So when did they tell you this, John? Month or so ago. I don't care all that much since it's *very* reliable for me, and I ssh home all the time with my dynamic DNS hostname, mount stuff via SSHFS, etc. I love being able to get home at will. So I run m0n0wall on an old pcengine.ch WRAP board, so I can do my own firewall/routing with a silent box without any moving parts. Been thinking to upgrade to a newer system and possibly move to smoothwall instead. No rush... it's all stable and reliable.

May 6, 2014

Re: [Wlug] OT: Looking for ISP

by Michael Voorhis

A benefit of my Charter service has been that my home IP address has changed ONLY TWICE in the many years that I've been a subscriber. On 05/06/2014 01:50 PM, Richard Klein wrote: > I'm investigating Charter Business service, too. I'll let you know > what I find out.

May 6, 2014

Re: [Wlug] OT: Looking for ISP

by Richard Klein

I'm investigating Charter Business service, too. I'll let you know what I find out. -- Rich On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 10:20 AM, Richard Klein <rich(a)richardklein.org>wrote: > Speaking of caps, here's a useful page (Charter doesn't fare well): > http://gigaom.com/2012/10/01/data-caps-chart/ > > -- > Rich >

May 6, 2014

Re: [Wlug] OT: Looking for ISP

by E Johnson

Since when don't they allow self-owned modems any more? How long ago did they tell you this? I own mine and they are not complaining at me. I think it is about 2 years old. I also am "renting" theirs as a part of the standard cost for 30/4 internet. It's on a shelf in case my own modem ever conks out. What happened here is that my older new modem almost-died around 2 years ago (one of the newer Motorola Surfboards). It was returning a lot of errors and they sent 2 techs out here to see what the problem might be. They didn't find anything in their lines, so they decided the modem was dying. They gave me their modem and left. It turns out it was probably the power supply that was working intermittantly poorly, but that's a moot point now. After the techs left, I bought a new modem (another Motorola SB) and plugged it in the day it arrived. Then I called Charter, and they provisioned it. I didn't ask them if I could, and the service tech on the phone didn't tell me I can't have it. She simply took the numbers I gave her and had it going in 5 minutes. I would be very annoyed if I was forced to use their modem. I think it's important to be able to access the logs, crummy as they are, it's nice to know when certain events happen. So when did they tell you this, John? Thanks, Liz J On 6 May 2014 11:46, John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> wrote: > > The other gotcha with Charter now is that they won't let you use your > own cable modem any more. I know, I tried to keep my old DOCIS 2.0 > (maybe 3.0) modem when I recently re-negotiated my triple play costs > down by something like $45/mon for the next year. Well worth the > savings. > > In my experience, Charter phone has been excellent (out here in > Boylston, where my local verizon lines are buried on my street and > happened to have problems when it rained), and very reliable. Can't > complain. > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

May 6, 2014

Re: [Wlug] OT: Looking for ISP

by Brett Russ

I've been using the DOCSIS 1.0 modem I bought from Charter (Moto Surfboard SB4100) back when the internet was invented. I wonder if I'd see any benefits by upgrading to a newer model. On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 11:46 AM, John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> wrote: > > The other gotcha with Charter now is that they won't let you use your > own cable modem any more. I know, I tried to keep my old DOCIS 2.0 > (maybe 3.0) modem when I recently re-negotiated my triple play costs > down by something like $45/mon for the next year. Well worth the > savings. > > In my experience, Charter phone has been excellent (out here in > Boylston, where my local verizon lines are buried on my street and > happened to have problems when it rained), and very reliable. Can't > complain. > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

May 6, 2014

Re: [Wlug] OT: Looking for ISP

by John Stoffel

The other gotcha with Charter now is that they won't let you use your own cable modem any more. I know, I tried to keep my old DOCIS 2.0 (maybe 3.0) modem when I recently re-negotiated my triple play costs down by something like $45/mon for the next year. Well worth the savings. In my experience, Charter phone has been excellent (out here in Boylston, where my local verizon lines are buried on my street and happened to have problems when it rained), and very reliable. Can't complain.

May 6, 2014

Re: [Wlug] OT: Looking for ISP

by Richard Klein

Speaking of caps, here's a useful page (Charter doesn't fare well): http://gigaom.com/2012/10/01/data-caps-chart/ -- Rich

May 6, 2014

Re: [Wlug] OT: Looking for ISP

by Richard Klein

Verizon is offering service as fast as 3Mbps in my new neighborhood, also, so it looks like I'll go with Charter. I have an unreasoning dislike of cable companies (not that Verizon is wonderful), but I think I'll suck it up and choose Charter. I left Comcast in Clinton years ago because they had...was it 250GB/month?...data caps that I regularly ran over. I hadn't yet gotten into trouble for that, but their TOS allows them to ban you for running over their caps, and I didn't want to have to deal with that, or financially support such a company. Verizon DSL service in Clinton has been slower, and sometimes unreliable, but they have no caps (last I checked). The service in the new neighborhood promises to be even slower than what I have in Clinton, though, and that's insufferable. Thanks for the advice, everyone! And I'll have to check for buffer bloat. -- Rich On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 5:38 PM, JeffA Maillists <jeffa.maillists(a)gmail.com>wrote: > When I recently moved back to Worc, the options were: DSL or Cable > internet. > > DSL wasn't an option for me (IMHO), because the speed was predicted to > be "as high as" 3Mbps on my street, so I reluctantly went with cable > internet. The only cable provider in the city is Charter. > > It's no match for the FiOS internet I had in Marlborough, but it's > better than DSL. > > Charter's advertised speed is 30Mbps, but I occasionally see upwards of > 40Mbps. Upload is capped at 4.2Mbps. > > Jeff > On May 5, 2014 4:46 PM, "Richard Klein" <rich(a)richardklein.org> wrote: > >> I'm moving back to Worcester after 5-ish years. I used speakeasy for DSL >> when I lived near Indian Lake, but they aren't the same company anymore, >> and the new place is just off Hope Ave, by the cemeteries, Hadwen Park, and >> the Auburn line. Can anyone recommend a good ISP out that way, or a good >> website to find an ISP? >> >> -- >> Thanks! >> Rich >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wlug mailing list >> Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org >> http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > >

May 6, 2014

Re: [Wlug] OT: Looking for ISP

by Brett Russ

Yes, this is why I pay them ~$13 for "basic" TV service, which currently brings in local channels in HD accessible via a QAM tuner equipped TV. However, they've told us that soon they'll encrypt even local channels such that everyone will need to use a cable box (or possibly cable card will also work?) to watch. The extra $3 is worth it for something vs paying $10 for "nothing". Bottom line, it's a monopoly. DSL is not a real competitive threat, FiOS rollout is dead, AT&T offers home broadband via an LTE mobile access point but requires you to pay through the nose for a capped data plan (just like with a smartphone). I hear Verizon is focusing now on home broadband via LTE as well. I'm sure these won't be cheap but perhaps over time it will be competitive to Charter and push prices lower. -BR On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 11:06 PM, Michael Voorhis <mvoorhis(a)cs.wpi.edu>wrote: > Oops; "net-without-cable-TV." Or telephone. i.e., Internet ONLY. > > On 05/05/2014 11:02 PM, Michael Voorhis wrote: > > FYI; This is what your net-without-cable bill[...] > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

May 6, 2014

Re: [Wlug] OT: Looking for ISP

by Michael Voorhis

Oops; "net-without-cable-TV." Or telephone. i.e., Internet ONLY. On 05/05/2014 11:02 PM, Michael Voorhis wrote: > FYI; This is what your net-without-cable bill[...]

May 6, 2014