Broadband ISP in Las Vegas

August 21, 2009 7:53 AM

What's the best broadband ISP to subscribe to in Las Vegas?

I'm going to be living in Las Vegas, Nevada soon. Has anyone got any recommendations for a broadband ISP to connect my home with? I'm not sure where I'll be living, but most likely west or northwest (near Summerlin).

I use the internet heavily for web development, gaming, multimedia, etc. I need high bandwidth, for upload as well as download, and reliability. Several computers will be sharing the connection. If you could suggest what upload/download speed I can expect, that would be helpful! Price is flexible, but can easily spend $100/month.

posted by Eastgate to computers & internet (5 comments total)

If you put your future zip into Broadbandreports.com here, you can see reviews for that area.
posted by sharkfu at 8:13 AM on August 21

My friend in Summerlin has Cox cable modem and it doesn't suck any more than any other internet via cable in the country. My mom lives in Green Valley Ranch and has DSL from the phone company, Embarq. Momma has the basic speeds. Those are pretty much the two residential pipes in town.
posted by birdherder at 8:58 AM on August 21

Cox works well. Once I replaced my crappy router I stopped having monthly dropouts. Since then I have pretty much zero downtime and good speeds. Look on their homepage for the advertised speeds - they seem to be within the acceptable range of what I get.

ClearWire also works well. Although for the last couple of days I've been having weird issues early in the morning. Otherwise speeds and reliability are good. Haven't tried voip or games over it, but should be okay.

Cricket can be good in the right place. But it's probably too slow for your needs.

I have no experience with Embarq, but heard lots of friends complain about them when they were still Sprint.

Just go with Cox, it'll be fine.
posted by krisak at 10:36 AM on August 21

Thanks guys. Had a look at the plans available, and I'm thinking of going with Cox Premier. Are there any other competitors offering cable or DSL? Also, I heard that Cox have done some blocking/shaping of users who download torrents. Is this true?

krisak: Yes, I think wireless would be too slow for me, at least for home use.
posted by Eastgate at 12:57 PM on August 21

Embarq is your option for DSL. Good luck and god help you if you go that route, although they may have improved in the last year.

Everyone here just uses Cox Preferred. I can't imagine the Premiere being worth the extra money. But as with anything, tastes and needs vary.

So far I haven't had any issues with shaping/blocking and I've been running some torrents 24x7 for more than a month. I've saturated my upload on occasion - but I generally keep it throttled so I may be under whatever radar they have (if any).
posted by krisak at 1:18 PM on August 21