[Tfug] Dilemma: Qwest or Comcast?

[euvitudo]

On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 10:38 AM, Matt Jacob <m at mattjacob.com> wrote:
> Earl wrote:
>  > 2>  From the experience of friends, don't use MSN as a ISP.  It just sucks a bunch.
>
>  How does the whole ISP thing work with DSL? I've read about this before,
>  but I'm still confused. To me, ISP means someone who provides your
>  internet service, but with DSL, it seems like your ISP just provides
>  email and web hosting and you get the actual service from the company
>  that owns the lines. If that's the case, I don't need an ISP, because I
>  manage my own email and web hosting.

I have Qwest.  It seems silly they require an ISP.  It appears it is only
to keep the ISPs from banding together to complain about
non-accessibility (though I'm not sure why they don't complain about
Comcast--maybe they do?).  Or maybe it's to give customers an option
other than MSN (if they didn't, I wouldn't be a Qwest customer).

I've heard rumors that you can get DSL without an ISP, but haven't tried it
myself.  If you are successful with this, I'd surely like to know.  It would
save me $20 per month.

>  If I have to get *some* ISP, what's the cheapest way to go so that I'm
>  not paying for stuff I'm not going to use?

When I moved to Tucson I decided to use The River as the ISP (they were
the cheapest of the Qwest ISPs), which has been OK.  They've been able
to resolve my issues (though they have a quirky configuration they
require you to have--but I just ignore it; when I have issues, I don't tell
them about my config, and have always been able to work it out).  One
thing I needed was a static IP, which they gave me without an extra charge.

Unfortunately TheRiver is now owned by Nationwide internet.  The transition
wasn't very smooth, but the connection has been relatively stable for the past
several months.

They charge $20 per month, regardless of the bandwidth you purchase
from Qwest.

Anyway, that's my $0.02.

Cheers,

Phil