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Time Warner Road Runner Vs AT&T DSL in Milwaukee?

cycleback — Mon, 16 May 2011 21:10:12 -0800

Time Warner Road Runner Vs AT&T DSL in Milwaukee? I am considering switching to Time Warner Cable from AT&T DSL because of AT&T's new 150 GB cap for DSL. Before the cap I was happy with AT&T DSL though I was limited to 3 Mbps Down/512 kbps Up.

Time Warner is currently advertising a special with free installation and I am considering switching. Time Warner's site is an abomination when trying to find answers and I hope to find out about peoples experiences with Time Warner (Road Runner specifically) in Milwaukee.

A) Does Time Warner regularly offer free installation? If they don't how much does installation cost. Is self-installation an option?

B) Does Time Warner cap their internet service? Are thet likely to in the future?

C) Does Time Warner throttle or packet shape torrents, usenet, or emule?

D) How are the speeds in Milwaukee? Do people experience slow downs? What sort of average up and down speeds are people getting?

E) How is the pricing and trade-offs versus DSL?

I NEED BITS

arcolz — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 06:06:32 -0800

Trying to pick an ISP in Savannah, GA. Looking for recommendations other than AT&T. I do a lot of online gaming and netflix streaming, so I'd like something reasonably fast. After moving into a new apartment, I signed up for 6mpbs DSL from AT&T. Turns out, they could only offer 1.5mbps at my location and instead of telling me this, they canceled my service. Yet, they still shipped and asked me to pay for the modem/router. After hours and hours of phone support insanity, I finally got the modem shipped back and the charges removed, but after this debacle I've decided that I'm not going to be using AT&T as my ISP.

I know Comcast offers cable internet in my area, so that's one option. Knowing their reputation, it would be my last pick (besides AT&T, of course). Are there any other alternatives?

Would other DSL providers be using the same hardware as AT&T and presumably be limited to 1.5mbps? If so, that's a major bummer. I've been spoiled by the 6mbps DSL at my old house. Still, if the price is right I guess I could deal with some slowness.

I'm 99.9% sure that Verizon FIOS is out of the question.

Clear or some other 4G provider would probably be available. What kinds of speeds are available with this technology? Is it reliable? Are there strict download caps?

Dial-up is not an option. Way too slow and I don't want a landline.

Are there any other options I am forgetting?

Should I jump ship from AT&T DSL to Charter Internet?

entropicamericana — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:23:27 -0800

Should I jump ship from AT&T DSL to Charter Internet, and if so, what should I be aware of? I've been getting DSL through AT&T (SBC, etc.) for ten years. I've dropped my landline and current paying $35-40 for a la carte DSL. I see that I can get faster up/down speeds through Charter for about the same price, so I'm thinking of jumping ship. Should I? What do I need to know? It looks like I have to buy or rent a cable modem? If so, what do you recommend? We watch a lot of Netflix Instant, will I run into any bandwidth caps? Anything else I should be aware of?

HOW high-speed Internet?

escabeche — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:31:09 -0800

How fast do I need my Internet connection to be? Moving from a university-owned apartment with included 100Mbps coming out of the wall, now have to pick a service provider for the new place. I'm a bit bewildered by all the options. Do I need to pay extra to get 25Mbps? (Anything beyond that is too ridiculously expensive to consider.) Or can I get by with 16Mbps, 8Mpbs, or even less? My machine runs through a 54Mbps router, and doesn't download torrents or movies, or game on-line. I need to be able to use Skype and occasionally Hulu without too much hiccuping, and I would rather not have to wait an hour when my MacBook Pro wants to update software.

(Options here in Madison, WI seem to be Charter (cable company) or AT&T -- happy to hear about other local choices if there are some.)

Lowest price for: Comedy Central + ISP = ATT U-Verse, Comcast, Dish+DSL, or ???

unclezeb — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:50:13 -0800

TV + ISP filter: Which is the cheapest way to get Comedy Central and a reasonably fast internet connection in Benicia, CA (Bay Area): Comcast??? ATT U-Verse??? DishNetwork/DirectTV + DSL??? Something else??? Summary:
What is the lowest cost way to get:
Comedy Central,
the ability to record shows,
HD signal, and
an internet connection?

Options:
(a) AT&T Uverse,
(b) Comcast Cable, or
(c) DirectTV / Dish Network + AT&T DSL?

Details:
We recently moved to Benicia, CA 94510 (the East Bay Area). There are nice hills which block our over the air digital TV signals (yes, I've tried larger antennas, amps, etc - no dice). Plus, no Daily Show or Colbert Report with an antenna (been watching on Hulu, now only on Comedy Central's website, but better to have on the real TV than the computer regardless).

I currently have AT&T DSL "Pro" - fast enough speed for all we do (3.0mbs) with a phone line we don't want or use. We also have AT&T cell phones (only wireless provider that gets a signal at our house).

We want to spend as little as possible to get:
(1) A similar internet connection (currently $30/month for 3.0mbs)
(2) TV service which includes Comedy Central in HD with recording functions (i.e., Tivo, etc)

Can you provide your recommendations and price estimates for the different services out there?

DirecTV, DishNetwork or uVerse?

tippiedog — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:00:56 -0800

Dish Network, DirecTV or uVerse? We are a family of four living in suburban Austin, Texas. Our local cable service has changed hands two times in the last few years and is now owned by Suddenlink. We've had cable (with their provided DVR, a Motorola 6400 series) and internet with them for years, and have not been particularly unhappy until recently. With one of the buyouts, they removed some channels that we like (BBC America primarily) from our package and we really don't want to pay more for them.

But here's the big problem: I knew the DVR was not anywhere close to TiVo in functionality, but it did the job. In the last two weeks, however, they REPLACED the OS on the DVR (and cable box for our non-DVR TV, but that has less of an impact) and as a result, our DVR has lost some significant functionality and is practically unusable. That really pisses me off!

We're thinking of going elsewhere for TV and I would like your feedback.

NOTE: Our neighborhood was recently wired for AT&T uVerse, so that's an option, in addition to satellite.

Based on recent threads, it looks like MeFites generally prefer DirecTV over Dish, but Uverse is so new, I'm not seeing much about it on the green.

Here is some relevant info about us:

I'm not unhappy with my cable internet service; I don't see any reason to change it from Suddenlink unless there's a big bundling advantage

We have landline phone service with AT&T; we have tried Vonage and Suddenlink's VoIP but had voice quality problems (which may indicate that our internet service isn't that great; see first bullet item above)

We don't care a whit about sports on TV

We currently subscribe to basic cable + the big package of miscellaneous stuff: SciFi, Discovery, Comedy, TBS, etc., which is about what we would like to keep

We live by the DVR, so it's a must whichever way we go. Obviously, DVR usability is an issue

We get movies via NetFlix, so don't want to want to pay for premium movie channels

We watch primarily PBS, documentaries, some re-run sitcoms, etc.

We have one HDTV (with the DVR) where we do about 95% of our TV watching. We have a second, small analog TV in a study that hardly gets used for anything but gaming; we don't need a DVR for it

LegaleseFilter: How does AT&T's new DSL privacy policy compare to my current provider's?

jxpx777 — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 20:21:04 -0800

LegaleseFilter: How does AT&T's new DSL privacy policy compare to my current provider's? Obviously, lawyers or other such persons will be most helpful here. I have been contemplating ditching my current internet service provider due to poor performance and reliability. The only other real option for me is AT&T Yahoo! DSL. I was just about to pull the trigger on the switch until I heard about AT&T's updated privacy policy. In reading the two policies (Charter and AT&T), I can't really see that my current provider's policy is any more restrictive than AT&T's. But, I wanted to check with my MeFi homies to see if someone with more legal training than I have (and any would be more than I have) can outline the differences. Also, explaining if those differences are in theory or if they would actually make a difference in the real world would be helpful as well.

Current provider's policy: http://www.charter.com/privacy/InternetPrivacy.aspx
AT&T Yahoo! DSL policy that would apply to me: http://help.sbcglobal.net/article.php?item=8620