OT: Looking for ISP
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
I live in the same general area (Malvern Rd) and your choice is either Verizon DSL or Charter Cable. I used Verizon DSL and found it to be really SLOOWWWW. The switching office is too far away for fast speeds. I use charter and I get 30 mb download. It is more reliable than Verizon. The phone trunk lines run under southbridge street and there is a severe water problem along that route. One time my phone and dsl was out for three days. -David On May 5, 2014 at 4:44 PM Richard Klein <rich@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@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
Thanks David! Do you know anything about data caps for Charter? On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 5:16 PM, dglaser@glaserresearch.net < dglaser@glaserresearch.net> wrote:
I live in the same general area (Malvern Rd) and your choice is either Verizon DSL or Charter Cable. I used Verizon DSL and found it to be really SLOOWWWW. The switching office is too far away for fast speeds. I use charter and I get 30 mb download. It is more reliable than Verizon. The phone trunk lines run under southbridge street and there is a severe water problem along that route. One time my phone and dsl was out for three days. -David
On May 5, 2014 at 4:44 PM Richard Klein <rich@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@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
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Don't forget to fix bufferbloat. A lot of complaints people have with ISPs is probably due to high latencies under load caused by bufferbloat. You can fix bufferbloat by running either CeroWrt or a "Barrier Breaker" development release of OpenWrt. Check here to see if you have bufferbloat and how to fix it: http://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/cerowrt/wiki/Quick_Test_for_Bufferbloat On Mon, May 05, 2014 at 05:16:34PM -0400, dglaser@glaserresearch.net wrote:
I live in the same general area (Malvern Rd) and your choice is either Verizon DSL or Charter Cable. I used Verizon DSL and found it to be really SLOOWWWW. The switching office is too far away for fast speeds. I use charter and I get 30 mb download. It is more reliable than Verizon. The phone trunk lines run under southbridge street and there is a severe water problem along that route. One time my phone and dsl was out for three days. -David
On May 5, 2014 at 4:44 PM Richard Klein <rich@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?
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@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
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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@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@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
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Speaking of caps, here's a useful page (Charter doesn't fare well): http://gigaom.com/2012/10/01/data-caps-chart/ -- Rich
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@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
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.
Michael> A benefit of my Charter service has been that my home IP Michael> address has changed ONLY TWICE in the many years that I've Michael> been a subscriber. Mine is pretty stable too, but since I use dynamic DNS, I don't have to remember the IP, just the name. :-)
Richard> I'm investigating Charter Business service, too. I'll let you know what I find out. My church in Upton is moving from Verizon DSL to Charter Business internet because we can't get a fast enough speed with DSL for the VoiP solution we're going to move to. Should be just fine. John
Charter Business quoted me $215/month for 100Gbps down/7 Gbps up or $130 for 80/5. That's with a static IP; you save $15 if you opt for a dynamic IP. That allows you to run servers (explicitly disallowed under the residential TOS), and I assume has no caps, but I don't know for sure, yet. It's really tempting, but I think I'd better stick with the cheaper residential service until I get used to the bills in the new place. -- Rich On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 1:50 PM, Richard Klein <rich@richardklein.org> wrote:
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@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
And for all that, it costs me less to get Verizon phone + DSL than to get phone alone. It's really tempting to drop the landline, but I have my reasons... On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 8:10 AM, Richard Klein <rich@richardklein.org> wrote:
Charter Business quoted me $215/month for 100Gbps down/7 Gbps up or $130 for 80/5. That's with a static IP; you save $15 if you opt for a dynamic IP. That allows you to run servers (explicitly disallowed under the residential TOS), and I assume has no caps, but I don't know for sure, yet. It's really tempting, but I think I'd better stick with the cheaper residential service until I get used to the bills in the new place.
-- Rich
On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 1:50 PM, Richard Klein <rich@richardklein.org>wrote:
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@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
Charter is probably the only viable option. Depending on what you need (TV or not? Phone or not? Or just internet), you can probably get a promotion with a price that will remain fixed for 1-2 years. Whether or not you need a "package" or only internet, ask the customer service (sales) Rep to find you a promotion. I'm paying 54 now for only internet, which can run 30 mb down and I think 5 up. This is up from a one-year promo for which I was paying 44. When I check the download speeds, it usually comes down at around 35 mb. Internet analysis test (the Netalyzer at USC Berkley I think) is very comprehensive and has been giving good reports. Once Charter got some line issues fixed in the neighborhood about 2 years ago, the Netalyzer tests come out very good. The only complaint that Netalyzer notices is that the buffer is somewhat too big, but usually things work okay, even in packet-sensitive applications such as Skype. But maybe that is my router or something. Maybe the modem (which I own). Welcome back to Woo. Liz J On 5 May 2014 16:44, Richard Klein <rich@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
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Update: after visiting the Charter website, I find that their current deal is 39.99 for internet only. Internet only is the service I use. "They say" this is for New Customers Only but I am here to say It Ain't Necessarily So. I was a little tweaked when I discovered this rate, because I am a light internet user (don't download movies, don't stream, don't fileshare, etc), and I was required to pay 54.99 after the last promo deal of 44.99 (they offered ME this) expired recently. I did pay their new price for 2 months this year (for April/May service). However, after finding out that NEW customers for 30/4 internet pay only 39.99, I called to ask for a better deal. I asked for their latest Promo (which is a code word for "I know you can do better than this"). After over 1 hour of phone calls, several non-silent holds (hearing ads & the kooky Charter theme song), one billing rep, one sales rep and another billing rep because Charter dropped my (internet) call, my rate is now 39.99 for 30 down, 4 up, for 12 months after which they tell me it will revert to 54.99. This discount happened because I was quiet, respectful, peaceful, able to clearly and calmly explain my position and customer history, and expressed appreciation for each of these these reps for doing their jobs, without being effusive. Being on Musical and Advertisement Hold several times during these calls was rather annoying, but the phone reps were attentive and nice, and did what need doen. Bottom Line: $54.99 reduced now to 39.99 puts $15 in my pocket here, which is enough for one large Tech Pizza with 2 toppings per month, delivered here still hot, plus an extravagent tip for the delivery guy. So Rich, if you get a nice promo for a year for whatever you need & then the bill goes up, Do Call Back Negotiate. This is not the first time I have obtained a promo from Charter after my last promo expired. A final note: I haven't been able to contact Charter by their usual number for around a year or more, but the corporate office number also works and the menu will direct you to whatever department is needed, including Billing, which is where I started on my latest & greatest journey with them this eve. 314 965 0555. Anchovies & Black Olives, & Good Luck to Rich. 88s over & out, Liz J On 5 May 2014 17:48, E Johnson <iris.gates@gmail.com> wrote:
Charter is probably the only viable option.
Depending on what you need (TV or not? Phone or not? Or just internet), you can probably get a promotion with a price that will remain fixed for 1-2 years. Whether or not you need a "package" or only internet, ask the customer service (sales) Rep to find you a promotion.
I'm paying 54 now for only internet, which can run 30 mb down and I think 5 up. This is up from a one-year promo for which I was paying 44. When I check the download speeds, it usually comes down at around 35 mb.
Internet analysis test (the Netalyzer at USC Berkley I think) is very comprehensive and has been giving good reports. Once Charter got some line issues fixed in the neighborhood about 2 years ago, the Netalyzer tests come out very good. The only complaint that Netalyzer notices is that the buffer is somewhat too big, but usually things work okay, even in packet-sensitive applications such as Skype. But maybe that is my router or something. Maybe the modem (which I own).
Welcome back to Woo.
Liz J
On 5 May 2014 16:44, Richard Klein <rich@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
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FYI; This is what your net-without-cable bill will eventually look like assuming you've got your own cable-modem. http://imladris.wpi.edu/~mvoorhis/20140505-2259-CharterBill.jpg If anyone can successfully delete the "Internet Plus Upgrade" please do let us all know. I've tried. You will be subject to endless junkmail and robo-calls telling you how wonderful your life will be if you upgrade to the Charter "Triple Play." Sign up for the triple play and you will be young, again. -MCV. On 05/05/2014 08:05 PM, E Johnson wrote:
Bottom Line: $54.99 reduced now to 39.99 puts $15 in my pocket here, which is enough for one large Tech Pizza with 2 toppings per month, delivered here still hot, plus an extravagent tip for the delivery guy.
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@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[...]
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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.
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@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.
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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@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.
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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.
participants (8)
-
Brett Russ -
Chuck Anderson -
dglaser＠glaserresearch.net -
E Johnson -
JeffA Maillists -
John Stoffel -
Michael Voorhis -
Richard Klein