Your ISP - Love it? Hate it?

[Skwisgaar]

Over the past week or so, my locally-ruled yet overwhelmingly outdated teleco/ISP has been giving me the and my ~768kbps connection routinely slows down to a crawl and ruins my fraghappy frenzies on a nightly basis (some of you may have noticed that I tend to enter the room, play maybe one game, and then suddenly leave). It is an immensely small company that serves 2 small towns and a bunch of other random sections of lovely Pennsylvania landscape. But seriously... It is ruining my fragging. Ugh.

I guess it is better than handing my wallet to Comcast Cable while I bend over and let them insert their... yeah, you get the idea. Comcast's rates in my area are amongst the highest that anyone can imagine for standard home service. So, no cable for me! I guess the DSL will have to do

[CROSs]

Time Warner=6mbps!:xgrin: ALMOST got the FIOS(Fiber Optic) bundle from Verizon today, but turned it down. Didn't want to shell out for the first month of rape w/connection fee yada yada. Would have had a 15MBPS, a luxury not needed. Already have HDTV, VOIP, and Cable for data.

[AG]

Comcast bought out the cable provider where I am. Higher prices, wildly fluctuating bandwidth, frequent connectivity issues, crap support.

[IriDeck]

I've been using Bellsouth FastAccess DSL (now AT&T) for about 7 years now. I'm on their 3Mbps service, and rarely have any issues...

[Executor]

Time Warner 8mbps

[Tripredacus]

I have Verizon DSL and just got my account set up about a week ago. Its fine as it ever was, since I had DSL before then but it wasn't in my name or with my equipment. Its a 3mbps I think but i dont care really. I didn't like how they charged me for a wireless USB adapter they mailed me and I can't use tho... I want to see if I can return it for a credit or something. They charged $35 for it! Talking to their support sucks because they basically use call scripts and don't pay attention to anything I say, and I typically know more about their systems than they do lol.

The confusing part was the new "modem" they sent me actually was a 1 port "router" and didn't use PPPoE like my old one did. So what was happening was my router was blocking all traffic until I did a firmware update..... well I mean I switched out my router for one that had newer firmware and it worked... I've got 2 of the same router! So this also means I could hook up a second DSL modem and router combo using PPPoE on another floor of my house if I wanted to!

I'm just waiting for them to turn on the damn fiber in my neighborhood so I can upgrade to the 20mbps service!

Let's talk about the ridiculousness of Verizon broadband pricing (I used to work for them lol). Here is an outline:

768kbps DSL = $14.99
3mbps DSL w/o phone = $39.99
3mbps DSL w/ phone = $29.99 (or $34.99)
10mbps FiOS = $39.99 ($29.99)
20mbps FiOS = $49.99 ($39.99)
50mbps FiOS = $89.99 ($79.99)

So if you are lucky enough, you can get 7 extra megs for the same price as the DSL I have...

[IriDeck]

Jinkies, Trip.

If they don't use PPPoE, what do they use for the signal conversion? My Westell DSL modem doesn't play nicely with my Linksys wireless router, so I just put the DSL modem in IP passthrough mode (since it only has one port anyway) and use the wireless router for the PPPoE connection and DHCP.

[Tripredacus]

Jinkies, Trip.

If they don't use PPPoE, what do they use for the signal conversion? My Westell DSL modem doesn't play nicely with my Linksys wireless router, so I just put the DSL modem in IP passthrough mode (since it only has one port anyway) and use the wireless router for the PPPoE connection and DHCP.

The still technically use PPPoE, but the new modems must use a default login that grants access. I know this because you can actually get internet access without (or before) you create your Verizon account. However, once your account is created, you COULD use an old modem which is just a converter, and use PPPoE on the router.

The worst thing about calling Verizon was they wanted to know my computer's IP address, which comes from the router of course, but was static. The guy suddenly went into the "WE DO NOT ALLOW YOU TO USE A STATIC IP" even though he should know that his own modem provides a private address. I have to stop myself from saying "LOOK BUDDY, I'VE BEEN IN A HIGHER POSITION THAN YOU! YOU KNOW THAT GUY YOU CALL WHEN YOU CAN'T FIGURE SHIT OUT? I'M THAT GUY'S DUDE HE CALLS WHEN HE CAN'T FIGURE SHIT OUT!"

lol. btw I've previously worked in network operations (NOC) for ISPs and have detailed experience with routers, dhcp servers, radius servers, telco and all that other BS.

oh and I also got to use the Carnivore system back in teh day. That thing ruled. No email or traffic was safe from our prying eyes!