Foo - My DSL service sucks!!

I've been using AT&T for 2 years. I have to call tech support every few months to resolve a problem. Tonight my modem went down and AT&T said they'd be glad to sell me a new modem for $75 (this will be modem number 3 -- no thank you). :eek: :crash: Right now my 3MB speed is running at ~ 374k. So I'm thinking about switching to clear.com. I've seen their kiosks all over town, their ads, and I get emails from them.
So, does anyone else use them? Are they any good?

My only other option is Comcast. That's spelled $$$$$$$.

I've been using AT&T for 2 years. I have to call tech support every few months to resolve a problem. Tonight my modem went down and AT&T said they'd be glad to sell me a new modem for $75 (this will be modem number 3 -- no thank you). :eek: :crash: Right now my 3MB speed is running at ~ 374k. So I'm thinking about switching to clear.com. I've seen their kiosks all over town, their ads, and I get emails from them.
So, does anyone else use them? Are they any good?

My only other option is Comcast. That's spelled $$$$$$$.

I've got Clear with the big modem (as opposed to the little laptop dongle dealie). I was lucky enough to have a rep drop in with a unit and plug it in for a spin. I came from 20+ M comcast speeds, so it's a little slow comparatively, but it works and is half the price of comcast, so I was sold. Not everyone's lucky enough to have the signal strength I have at my shop, however.

I get 5 lights on the modem and speeds around 1.5 M down/0.5 up. It's only been a couple weeks, so not much to say about reliability, except is was running well through two stormy days so far.

Oh, biggest downside so far is No SMTP server! Which was a pain in the butt for a moment, but I've set up a forwarder that forwards to my gmail. Oh, and the funny part is that when I called them about that, all three people I talked to were developmentally disabled or just pretended not to know what I was talking about cuz they didn't want to admit how lame that was that they didn't have an SMTP server.

I've not heard of Clear, but I can sympathize about ATT. Had them for a few months at the Elite Pro level, then moved 6 doors down. They can only offer Basic. Ordered cable internet's 20Mbps level (seeing 16 of that using an N-spec router!), and saving $10 per month over ATT.

Just to be sure you know, no residential ISP ever achieves anywhere near the rated bandwidth of the connection. A business T-1 rated at 1.5 Mbps is often faster than a residential cable connection rated for 20 Mbps.

My basic Qwest service (1.5 downstream/0.768 upstream) usually averages around 100 kbps download speeds, but sometimes it drops to almost nothing, and on rare occasions when downloading from a relatively nearby server I get a little over 300 kbps. It's not just AT&T.

No1mad, Clear is a WiMax venture owned primarily by Intel and Sprint. I think it's primarily only available on the West coast at the moment, but they plan to grow quite a bit in the next couple of years.

I use AT&T as well. My issue is really with how hard it is to reach technical support, but both of the times I've had probs, they've sent out a tech and its been the line outside, not me.

ISPs pretty much suck.

I use ATT. 5.58 Mbps down, 979 kbps up.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/628071370.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
http://www.pingtest.net/result/3899190.png (http://www.pingtest.net)

I had PacBell/SBC/AT&T/nom-de-plume-du-jour DSL for something like 9 years. Very reliable.

That's the thing about ISPs. You can have the best experience in the world, and someone a few miles away will have nothing but trouble.

I pay for a 1.5MB home DSL service.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/628128634.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

...and a buddy that runs my local ISP's tech. :innocent:

I got rid of ATT last year and switch for Time Warner Cable.... So much better service and speed I can't complain..... look for yourself!
http://www.speedtest.net/result/621397457.png (http://www.speedtest.net) :D

Yeah, I ran a speedtest.net cycle also. It told me I was getting 1.3 Mb/s on a 1.5 Mb/s connection. Which makes me really puzzled as to why bikeforums was taking several minutes to load.

Thanks for the replies.
I ran AT&T's speed test this morning and it says I'm back up to 2.92MB on my 3MB connection. I ran speedtest.net and it says I'm at 3.05MB. :twitchy:
I guess my modem healed itself during the night. :lol: Stupid AT&T tech support. :notamused:

I'm still thinking about clear.com. Maybe they'll let me give it a test run for a few days before committing. :innocent:

I have had AT&T for about 5 years now first DSL now VDSL and never had any problems here. In fact after Wilma hit us a couple of years ago the AT&T home phone and DSL were the only things still working. Cell phones were overloaded and dropping calls or not connecting and cable was out for over two weeks.

you guy are running slow....3Mbps is dial to me now....LoL

Comcast is not cheap, but mostly effective...

http://www.speedtest.net/result/628581598.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

My 1.5 down quote for Clear was before I got my modem in a good spot. Getting around 4 down on the regular now.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/628603092.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Yeah, I ran a speedtest.net cycle also. It told me I was getting 1.3 Mb/s on a 1.5 Mb/s connection. Which makes me really puzzled as to why bikeforums was taking several minutes to load.
you guy are running slow....3Mbps is dial to me now....LoLDamn punk kids, get the hell off my lawn!

So, the common theme here is that AT&T sucks. This isn't new news folks. AT&T has always sucked.

Couch

I'd like to have WiMax in zip code of 32825 (Orlando), but I don't know when I'll get it. I'm currently with Bright House (Road Runner) with 6.82/0.48. I'm paying $47.95 a month with no TV service (I have Channel Master CM-4221 but pulls in 15 miles from TV transmitters, which is quite overkill for my antenna) or phone service (although I do have CallCentric with Pay-As-You-Go service). With Comcast in Tallahassee, I have to have TV service for $57 a month; otherwise, it's ~$62+ a month with just the Internet. Still, Orlando is a better deal for me.

Oh, and I can't afford $75 for a DSL modem.

I used to have AT&T, but finally I gave up on them due to crappy customer service. The only other option in my town is Comcast, so I decided to give them a call based on a special I had seen in the mail for Triple Play (cable, internet, phone). I was surprised to be told by a friendly rep that they had a special running for $100/month that was: 16Mbps internet, HD Cable with DVR and HBO, and 2 line VOIP phone service. It's promotional pricing for a year, then it goes up to a LOT...so I'll be cancelling or renewing to a different promotional program at that point. So far, the internet ROCKS, the TV is fantastic, and the two issues I've had in the past 4 months have been taken care of very quickly.

Just to be sure you know, no residential ISP ever achieves anywhere near the rated bandwidth of the connection. A business T-1 rated at 1.5 Mbps is often faster than a residential cable connection rated for 20 Mbps.

My basic Qwest service (1.5 downstream/0.768 upstream) usually averages around 100 kbps download speeds, but sometimes it drops to almost nothing, and on rare occasions when downloading from a relatively nearby server I get a little over 300 kbps. It's not just AT&T.

No1mad, Clear is a WiMax venture owned primarily by Intel and Sprint. I think it's primarily only available on the West coast at the moment, but they plan to grow quite a bit in the next couple of years.

Wow sucks to be where you are. I have dsl that smokes the dl speed on a t1. (obviously doesn't come close on the upload) All of my providers available offer fairly reliable speed. Shaw (cable) can consistently feed around 7meg down no problem.

The latency side is a bit different but that hasn't been discussed yet :)

http://www.speedtest.net/result/628736780.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Almost unfair to test a business line. My upload is slower than usual, looks like time for a support call

The latency side is a bit different but that hasn't been discussed yet :)

I get 3x the pings with Clear vs. Comcast. But Clear's pings are about what Comcast pings were about 3 years ago, so livable.

your DSL may suck, but clearly not as bad as the BF servers are sucking at the moment. Holy DB Errors batman!

For I'm using ooma for my home phone service because ATT was charging me up the a$$ for home phone service.....With ooma it only one time charge for the device and switching fee...and service has been really good.

I highly recommend the ooma too!

As for the comment on speed between business and residential...I'm always hitting 24MBps to 30MBps and uploading at about 1.4 to 1.7 MBps

http://www.speedtest.net/result/628809783.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Just to be sure you know, no residential ISP ever achieves anywhere near the rated bandwidth of the connection. A business T-1 rated at 1.5 Mbps is often faster than a residential cable connection rated for 20 Mbps.

My basic Qwest service (1.5 downstream/0.768 upstream) usually averages around 100 kbps download speeds, but sometimes it drops to almost nothing, and on rare occasions when downloading from a relatively nearby server I get a little over 300 kbps. It's not just AT&T.

No1mad, Clear is a WiMax venture owned primarily by Intel and Sprint. I think it's primarily only available on the West coast at the moment, but they plan to grow quite a bit in the next couple of years.You should investigate that speed. You may have a hardware problem. I have Qwest 1.5 MHz DSL, and usually see in the neighborhood of 1 MHz, and sometimes a bit higher.

MHz = megahertz (frequency)
Mbps = Megabits per second - (data transfer per second)

Just thought I'd point out.