Looking for a new ISP

I'm on the hunt for a new ISP. I've been with Earthlink for years. DSL did the trick for a long time, but quite frankly the speeds feel like dial up these days. I get about 1.5mbps on a good day. Add on top of that that the -physical- lines are always down due to trees and bad weather and whatnot. I've looked for new ISPs from time to time over the years, but I guess I just don't know where to look. The only ones I hear about are the major ones like comcast, Fios, time warner, AT&T, and so on. But after reading articles like this:
www.rawstory.com...

I'm not exactly keen on going with any of them. Fios offers a 50/20 plan for like $70 dollars a month. Which sounds great, but then again, I watch a ton of Hulu and Netflix, and I do a lot of -legit- torrenting. I download Linux distros, open source film projects, independent films/series and so on. I don't want to get throttled or capped. Going by their word, they don't cap or throttle, but I'm still kind of leery. It'd suck going through the switch just to be throttled because of my usage.

What does everyone here use? What do you recommend?

FIOS if you can afford it. Definitely cool, i have it and never get throttled.

Nice. Have speeds been as advertised and consistent? Notice any problems getting sluggish certain times of the day or anything like that? How was your experience with the install guy? I won't let them in my house, and I'd rather install the "box" on the house myself. Any idea how that'd go over with them?

reply to post by Morgenstern89

Nice. Have speeds been as advertised and consistent?

Yup, and no throttling either. We had to constantly be uploading and downloading databases that would be as big as 100 gigs sometimes and never had a problem.

Notice any problems getting sluggish certain times of the day or anything like that?

Nope

How was your experience with the install guy?

He was alright.

I won't let them in my house, and I'd rather install the "box" on the house myself. Any idea how that'd go over with them?

They might let you do it but i recommend you let them do it, splicing and cutting fiber optic cables is not as simple as regular wires.
First i would recommend checking to see if you can get it in your area, they advertise a lot but its not offered in very many areas.

reply to post by Morgenstern89


When i worked Infotech Consulting, Time Warner was the only way to go. You could usually get a Business line with a couple static IPs and extra support beyond the consumer level with iron clad speed agreements for $65/month and up.

Look into the business data solutions opposed to consumer options. You may be surprised.
I'm not saying that Time Warner is the way to go now.
I am, however, suggesting, looking into the business solutions with each provider you're considering.

Further, business contracts get treated differently than consumer level home contracts, even if you're paying similar cost to consumer/home.

Note: the business solution sites are often totally separate from the riff-raff of consumer/home level internet.
You may need search for business comcast, business, time Warner, business, whatever to find the right portal with the information you want..
Pretend you're a home based business. Better speeds and better support home level internet.
I think business internet alone with Concast can be got now for like $60.

Check the business solution side with all the providers before settling.

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely look into the business options.

A bit of a related question, too. My ISP is Earthlink. I have their DSL service. Yet when I do a reverse IP search it shows my ISP as Frontier, and in the past, Verizon, before Frontier took over phone service in the area. If I were, for example, subscribed to Earthlink Cable internet service, would they just be using the lines for Comcast or Frontier the way they are with the DSL service? Are they just some kind of middle man? How does that work?

reply to post by Morgenstern89


It all depends on who owns what infrastructure. With a cable solution, you get different routing and switching than you would going through a Telco.
Eventually, however, you're always going to get routed through someone else's equipment somewhere along the line.

Don't know how many times on having connectivity loss with a client I was in one of those situations where I'm yelling at the ISP, where the disconnect problem was in equipment/infrastructure owned by some other company.
It gets tricky and complicated.
Your Isp is essentially just a gateway out into the world of everyone else's infrastructure. ISP leases bandwidth from bigger fish, and routes you through that section of backbone.

Benefit to a cable solution too is you can ditch the land line, and go with a less expensive VOIP solution like Vonage, or whatever is offered in your area, or, just have zero home phone altogether, using cell phone only.

fun thing about some VOIP solutions, you can have all calls forwarded to ring simultaneously on your home phone as well as your cell phone, or X number of rings on the home line then fail over to cell.

reply to post by Morgenstern89


AT&T High speed DSL. Great speeds, plus you get their fastest DSL speed (normally $48/month) for $30/month for a year when you sign up. It's what I have, and I couldn't be happier. I did buy the wireless router separate though, for added options/security

reply to post by Razor84


From an information technology professional standpoint, DSL solutions are rather weak compared to cable solutions, plus, with DSL, you're still tied to the the old Telcos.

With a cable solution, you can cut those strings to the telephone company, get VOIP and/or go straight cell phone.

Bandwidth pipe is usually fatter, and much more reliable than DSL, and that's consumer level cable solutions.
Business level packages come with additional reliability and flexibility in bandwidth options for business scaling and growth solutions, usually at quite similar prices to consumer/home packages, but with better, more professional level support options.

Spend over a decade supporting corporate infrastructure, WANs, VPN connections to and from remote temporary sites, and permanent satellite offices on a metropolitan and national scale, and you'll quickly realize the differences between cable and DSL with cable coming out on top as preferred medium on all counts when cost concerns/budgets frame those as the two 'best' options.

I would make sure to get rid of any bloatware you have on your machine if you haven't, and also use something like ccleaner(free); to remove bad registries; and delete start up programs that stay active sucking up all your RAM; speaking of RAM make sure to install the highest amount your processor can handle without overclocking it. Also go into whatever browser you use settings; and find where is says delete files, cookies etc. on exit. If your browser handles add ons; there's one called Click&Clean which is a short cut to delete history etc. it also has some nice features to automate cleaning etc.

You'd be surprised how much of the problem isn't someone's ISP but all the resource hogging junk. Before I moved to DSL I had my Dial up and computer tweaked to where I could stream anything instantly. With DSL I can stream HD with zero issues; on even my 6 year old wireless laptop, with it's out of the box RAM. It's just a matter of streamlining your machine; whenever you install something it wants to be added everywhere, that's what starts slowing everything down.

No bloatware on any of my PCs. All have been built by me, or wiped by me and had a clean install. There is definitely an infrastructure problem when it comes to my DSL service. The physical lines near my house are in really bad shape, so there's nothing more I can do on my end with a DSL provider.

The Fios guy came by today and it looks like they will be able to install the box in my garage. I'll be able to get rid of my dedicated DSL phone line, cutting out a good chunk of the bill. I'm going to be stuck with my current provider until April 16 though. Can't believe it's going to take that long for them to get around to installing it.