Apartment DSL Provider (AT&T vs Comcast)

[thestalkmore]

I'm moving into my new apartment in about a week and am being told that I have to choose between bad and worse when it comes to internet providers. First and foremost, is it true that I have to go with one of these two, or is it just a sales pitch? If I have to, which one should I go with then? I know all the stories about how horrible Comcast is, but AT&T's fastest package (6mb/s) is ridiculously slow after coming from 10mb/s at home and 50+mb/s in the dorms. I'm inclined to bite the bullet and go with the slower speeds to not have to deal with Comcast's bullshit, but am looking for alternatives. Any help would be appreciated.

[terranova]

ATT was about 74/month when we had it. About 120 for comcast(cable + internet(49.99/mo). DSL is slower than comcast, but comcast can be irritating with their customer service.

All an all if you wanna save money go with DSL. It maybe slower, but it's not dailup slow.

[Robert]

comcast customer service is terrible but their connection is decently fast and in about 1.5 years of having them I had maybe an hour and thirty minutes of cumulative downtime (that I knew about) and I was on my PC -a lot- (over half of that time was 'maintenance' related in my area, the other was stormy weather)

[Koga]

There are usually local companies you can go with as well depending on the city. Their marketing budget is probably next to nil and so you won't hear about them very often.

[Quixotic]

Although it is very true that Comcast's customer service is total bullshit, my connection is pretty rock solid and I've only had to deal with them maybe once or twice a year.

[Robert]

I forgot to add that they warned me and then 2 months later shut my service off for 1 year (suspended) for bandwith overuse but the FCC recently told them they can't do that anymore and they undid it/stopped doing it, just food for thought

edit: was torrenting >B|

[Meian]

I've always liked Comcast but recently we're trying AT&T Optic Fiber (or something like that) where it isn't shared like Cable. I can't really tell which is better to tell you the truth

[thestalkmore]

I am worried about Comcast being BW nazi's, as I do do a lot of downloading and torrenting.

[Mansin]

Comcast are gigantic faggots. This year alone I've had six problems with my phone, and it took them two trips to fix it four of those times. The cable has been okay, but they've given me a broken remote twice now. Usually one side of the buttons doesn't work.
Like Robert said, the internet is pretty decent, and there isn't a lot of downtime, but if you're looking to bundle any sort of packages I'd honestly compromise speed and go with someone else.

[terranova]

I am worried about Comcast being BW nazi's, as I do do a lot of downloading and torrenting.

They have a huge limit I think. 250GB or something.

I want to get this out there that Comcast voice is not a good idea because if the cable lines go down, your phone is useless. So stick with standard phone service. What if something happens in your home and the power goes out? Can't call anybody(one of the beauties of a phone is it runs on a difference source of power ).

[Correction]

http://www.dslreports.com/search

Enter your ZIP code and it'll immediately tell you if your only choices are AT&T and ComCast.

More likely than not you're being led on. Those would only be your sole choices in the case of an 'all in one' bundle that includes phone/cable/internet.

Which usually doesn't save you any money or headaches, just triples the amount you'd otherwise pay them for bad service.

http://www.dslreports.com/psearch?f=...+ISP+by+US+ZIP

There too

[Akucaen]

Comcast just got the bitchslap from the FCC. Shitty as the actual service may be, the FCC ruled they can't block/filter traffic.

Something to keep in mind.

[Maguspk]

6 MB/s is not slow, what are you honestly doing that 6 MB/s is just "too slow"?

[Souj]

Comcast just got the bitchslap from the FCC. Shitty as the actual service may be, the FCC ruled they can't block/filter traffic.

Something to keep in mind.

yeah, but they can still ban you for going over their invisible download limit.

as for something bad about comcast aside from that, dunno if it's just bad luck, but in the last 3years, Ive gone through 5 of their modems. dunno if it was just bad luck or their modems suck for longevity.

[Correction]

6 MB/s is not slow, what are you honestly doing that 6 MB/s is just "too slow"?

I'm pretty sure it was TSM who admitted to downloading in excess of 20G of data per day.

To which I'm sure I shook my head and asserted there's no way he's consuming content that fast. Either he's selling it (i.e. 360 pirate) or is a compulsive collector of movies he'll never watch :D

[terranova]

Comcast issues cheap crappy motorola modems down in the south.. I went through 2 before I went out bought one from Bestbuy. I have. . .trouble with their service every now and then. About 3 months ago they placed in some filters on the lines to block out the noise created by the phone frequency. What these idiots didn't realize though is by doing so, they knocked everyone offline. I waited three days to get my internet fixed and it was fixed by a guy who wasn't even assigned to work on my line. They wouldn't send anyone out to fix mine, so I had ask the guy working on my neighbors. Three times I've wanted to break away from them and every time, they would give us a deal so that we'd stay with them. Now we have a reduced cable bill(used to be 150). The first deal was cable+internet for 19 bucks for 3 months. lol The fact that we've been with them since they broke away from Excite in the late 90s might have something to do with it too.

[Pendas]

yeah, but they can still ban you for going over their invisible download limit.

as for something bad about comcast aside from that, dunno if it's just bad luck, but in the last 3years, Ive gone through 5 of their modems. dunno if it was just bad luck or their modems suck for longevity.

Its not just you, I went through 3 Modems in 2 years with Comcast, and every time I called it was a 1 hour+ Process of people telling me to plug, unplug, restart and mail in the modem for repairs. I had a comcast center nearby so I just exchanged my modem for a new one and it would work perfectly. I've used both ATT and Comcast and have to say I prefer ATT over Comcast. No mater who you go with you will have problems along the line, and ATT has great service and free home repair if you get their fastest service, so definatly worth it over comcast imo. ATT also offers a DSL + Router combo that will save you about $70 if you want to connect more computers, free of charge.

[LinktheDeme]

I'm pretty sure it was TSM who admitted to downloading in excess of 20G of data per day.

To which I'm sure I shook my head and asserted there's no way he's consuming content that fast. Either he's selling it (i.e. 360 pirate) or is a compulsive collector of movies he'll never watch :D

or hes that guy that got arrested for downloading child porn cause he randomly downloads 20 porno movies at a time

[thestalkmore]

I'm pretty sure it was TSM who admitted to downloading in excess of 20G of data per day.

To which I'm sure I shook my head and asserted there's no way he's consuming content that fast. Either he's selling it (i.e. 360 pirate) or is a compulsive collector of movies he'll never watch :D

This, mostly, though I never said I tend to download 20gigs/day. I'll do it every once in a while, but it isn't habitual. I like to have a large wealth of content on my backup drives to entertain guests/myself with, so I tend to be a big packrat and dl a lot of stuff I don't need. It isn't that I have a need for an insane amount of bandwidth, but I don't want to be limited should I choose to use a bunch.

@Magus: I just came off of a university connection and I've always had fantastic 10mb/s service from Charter at home. It's a downgrade no matter who I go with and I'm splitting bw between 3 roommates.