[Tfug] Providers?

[Nathan Hruby]

Cox and Comcast (aka: xfinity) have different, non-overlapping markets.
IIRC, Cox handles Tucson proper (and maybe south-ish) while Comcast serves
the outside metro, at least to the north.

I live on the northwest side and have xfinity.  Service has been OK, most
outages I have been related to the construction on Cortaro Farms cutting
wires so I belive very localized to my specific neighborhood.  Before
moving closer to the construction I had 0 outages for the 8 months before
moving.  After moving to to the current house and we started having
outages, the comcast line techs and service folks were a tad slow, but very
professional and very thorough.  They replaced our direct bury line from
from demarc to plant since it was old, rechecked every connection in the
house, including the attic, and replaced the cable modem.  None of that was
the direct problem, but they wanted to do that work to remove the extra
entropy, just in case.  Thumbs up for that.  The outages haven't been a
large problem since I also have a 4G MiFi from work to cover this sort of
problem.

I do rent the modem, mainly because I've moved around a lot in the past and
it's always a crapshoot if an old modem will work reliably with new
provider.  Given the lifespan of an average cable modem the average cost of
ownership tends to be about the same, anyway.  I also think the ability to
just have the modem replaced whenever it's busted is a bonus.

I have the large data package since I telecommute and it's plenty fast in
terms of upload speed and latency.  The upload cap is still asymmetrical,
but to date I've not been able to saturate the upload and cause any of my
ssh connections to lag (vpn + ssh + voip call + G+ hangout + downloading
patches == still works).  I think on windows, if you install their crappy
software, you get some kind of caching / boost thing.  I don't have a
windows machine so wouldn't know how well this works.

We also have cable + extended cable + hd + hbo + dvr.  We don't watch a lot
of TV, but there are several shows we do enjoy (SNL, some cable news,
several HBO shows).  The DVR is stupid and I hate the UI, but it does
work.  Picture quality and video uptime is pretty good.

Cable cast is ~$120/month for all that, and calling every yearish tends to
allow them to re-bundle your service to a package that costs a buck or two
less.  FWIW we've been paying about that price for cable service for 15
years and the amount of service we get for the money seems to steadily
increase.

We use Vonage for phone service, and have done so for many years.  It works
as reliably as it ever has.  We're on the original $24.95/month plan which
is still a bargain since it allows my wife to call her sister in Ireland
whenever for free.

HTH,

-n


On Sat, Nov 17, 2012 at 9:55 AM, Bexley Hall <bexley401 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Looking for suggestions/advice/horror stories re: local
> provider (home) options.  We're currently with QWest but
> contemplating kicking them out (inet *and* phone) and
> looking for another option.
>
> We're not big "consumers" so that makes the decision a
> bit harder.
>
> E.g., we watch little to *no* TV (and, what we do is available
> OTA).  We make (and receive) few phone calls -- NONE of them
> long distance.  And, our internet needs could almost be
> handled successfully with a (56K) dialup line (though dialup
> services IME are notoriously flakey).
>
> I guess that means Cox/Comcast?  (Q:  do both providers serve
> *all* of Tucson or do they have different service areas?)
>
> So, what's the quality of their service (phone + inet)?  And,
> what sort of equipment requirements (we're not keen on renting
> something that *should* be part of the service!)?
>
> Any other options that we should consider?
>
> Thx!
> --don
>
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>



-- 
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nathan hruby <nhruby at gmail.com>
metaphysically wrinkle-free
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