Friday, October 10, 2008

Who uses what connectivity?

I use Road Runner but get dropped right after storms until the lines dry out. For $50 a month, just not worth it.

What are you guys using?

9 comments:

fungi said...

i use road runner and have never been dropped. did have a few issues with ip address resetting at wierd times. not sure if the problem was with them or with my box. speaking of my comp, that's why i haven't been round much. caught a bug and had to refomat. but it's not playing nice and is still down. the mrs. is being nice to me and letting me use hers.

kkdither said...

Yahoo DSL. It is ok. Plenty fast enough. I can get an interrupt in service with a storm, but it is an immediate fix. Just ticks me off that the wireless needs to be reset then. Haven't been shut out yet.... Oh no!!! shouldn't have said that!

fungi, didn't you get your flu shot this year? Those viruses can be killers! Not fun.

OrbsCorbs said...

Road Runner Turbo. I've had plenty of problems with Road Runner in the past, but I never heard of issues with the lines drying out. (What, they don't expect it to rain?) Time Warner Cable service personnel vary WIDELY and WILDLY in their capabilities, and a lot of them are contractors hired on so TWC doesn't have to pay benefits. I have had service people "correct" a problem, only to have the next service person say that the "correction" is causing the problem.

About once a year my connection starts dropping out for no apparent reason. This usually results in the swapping out of modems (last time, 5 of them - I even bought one of my own, but, of course, it wasn't the problem) and service personnel coming here for days on end unable to fix anything or answer my questions. Last time my service was screwed up for 6 six weeks, then suddenly rectified itself. I demanded and got a refund from TWC for those 6 weeks. I know the problem is on their end because this happened to me at both my old apartment and at my new one, but they refuse to listen to me and keep sending people out. (The service people also assume that you are a dummy and lecture you on how to use your computer, even when you've proven that you know more than them. One time I just walked away from the guy and went and sat in another room. I said, "Come get me when you want help." Five minutes later, he was asking for my advice. Then there was the a@@hole who changed all the settings on my computer so that it took me a week to straighten things out again, but that's another rant.)

There is no consistency in TWC's approach to service, and when you have an ongoing problem, you have to start from the very beginning all over again with each and every technician that you deal with. Also, once a technician has decided on what the problem is, they stop listening to you, especially if what you have to say proves that their "solution" is wrong.

When Road Runner works, it's great. When it doesn't, it's an utter catastrophe because their service personnel are without a clue. I suspect that "lines drying out" is code for "we don't know wtf the problem is." One of their people told me that the cable wiring in my current apartment building is the culprit and I would never have decent service until that was replaced. That was in March and my connection has been screaming along ever since. In fact, each service person will tell you something completely different from the previous service personnel, but it's OK, TWC is making millions of dollars daily.

Lizardmom said...

we are using Wisconsin Internet wireless DSL, usually no problems but if we do have a problem, they answer the phones right away and can usually fix the problem quick at their end

Why Not? said...

I use Telia DSL works great never a problem, but may be a little difficult for you other there to get a hold of.. =)

SER said...

I have road runner and only had one problem. Don’t’ exactly know what happened, but I had to turn everything off, unplug the modem and restart everything, that was once in about 3 years or so. Other then that it works great for me.

OrbsCorbs said...

SER, I am SO envious. Yeah, that's the first thing they tell you to do when you call tech support. Never works for me. Last time, they kept telling me that my modem was "flapping." Seriously, that's a technical term. I'd say, "No, nothing's flapping. It's just sitting there, lights blinking."

Anonymous said...

Do you know about the internal cable modem HTML interface?
Info here

You may also have problems if your IP address has a 0 in it (like 24.167.231.0 subnet mask 255.255.240.0) a lot of firewalls will block those, even though it is a valid classless IP address.
Classless Inter-Domain Routing info

drewzepmeister said...

I use DSL through TDS Metrocom. It's fast(at times). I do have some issues with it. Sometimes,I can't get connected to the 'net right away. From what the TDS tech guys says,that I live in a basement apartment,that connections would be difficult.(I have the same issues with my cell phone).