How to investigate an ISP

October 14, 2008 12:50 PM

How do I get information on the reliability and competence of an ISP?

I have not changed ISP in a decade, but I think it's time. I currently have Speakeasy DSL. Speakeasy's customer service and reliablity is great. But it's DSL, so it's slow and expensive, and I'd like to switch.

My town restricts me to three vendors: Comcast, RCN and someone called Galaxy Internet Services. (This is Brookline, MA.) I'm pretty sure Comcast and RCN are incompetent, but I'm not sure about Galaxy. I have searched for reviews of them, but without very much success.

I don't need any software from them, or anything else except a digital dialtone. I need to run a mail server, a web server, an ldap server and my own DNS, though I could remove the DNS. I'm paying about $100/month for DSL and phone now, and would like that to decrease. I could do away with the phone service if doing away with it is cheap. I could pay a per-minute phone charge if that is cheaper.

Has anyone had experience with them? I'm particularly interested in fiber optic service, and not in wireless or in DSL service.

Thanks.

posted by vilcxjo_BLANKA to Technology (5 answers total)

Broadband Reports. Check the Reviews section.
posted by eschatfische at 1:00 PM on October 14, 2008

Best answer: Specifically. Looks like they're not a big player, and there's not much out there. My suspicion is that they're just reselling Verizon; if Verizon doesn't have service where you are, they may not be able to provide service.
posted by eschatfische at 1:06 PM on October 14, 2008

Response by poster: Yeah, I saw Broadband Reports. But they only have things about Galaxy DSL, not Galaxy fiber. Galaxy serves Brookline with community wireless, though there is some doubt about how good the service actually is.

Thanks.
posted by vilcxjo_BLANKA at 3:50 PM on October 14, 2008

Best answer: Ahh, you want to get off DSL entirely.

Unless I'm horribly, horribly mistaken, Galaxy doesn't do fiber -- they're just a reseller of Verizon FIOS. They'd just be a middleman. Have you checked the Verizon FIOS site to see if they have service in your area? If they don't, and Galaxy does, I'd eat my hat.

You won't get actual fiber from anyone but Verizon and a handful of municipal charters these days. It's no small matter to do a fiber run -- even AT&T is sitting out on residential fiber -- and that excludes everyone but the big boys.
posted by eschatfische at 5:04 PM on October 14, 2008

Response by poster: FWIW, I couldn't decide, so my wife decided she would make the decision without me. She ordered cable TV and internet from RCN, and then told me I had to figure out how to deal with the servers on my own. So, I found hosting for everything I needed at here. It was cheap and very easy. I had to do some messing around to get postini to filter spam for me, but it all worked out well.

And now I have cable TV and faster internet, though I haven't actually figured how to ssh into my network. Presumably that is possible, but I don't know how yet.

Thanks.
posted by vilcxjo_BLANKA at 12:11 PM on November 18, 2008