As some of you know, I've been living with 56k for the last few years. My dad has recently started using the internet and has learned the pains of dialup. We're now looking into other options.

Given the location of our house, it seems we have exactly two options: Satellite or Cable.

Satellite would cost 3.5 times as much and give us a max speed roughly 5 times the speed we have now. We've ruled that out.

Cable would cost roughly 2.5 times as much as our current service, and claims to give a max download speed of 3-4 megs a second (about 60 times what we have now).

The only cable company in our area is Comcast. Reviews on the net have been mixed. Some people are really happy with it, some most definitely not.

Many agree that their customer service and/or tech support stinks (at best). Earthlink support, of course, has been outsourced. I've tried several times, and found that the few people who actually speak english know practically nothing about the software. So, whatever Comcast has, I'm pretty sure it won't be a step down.

Earthlink is nice in that it provides software that's generally easy to use, works fairly well (except when upgrades are released too early and end up breaking things...), and has a good number of extras included (spam filters, spyware blocker, scam warning, pop-up blocker, download accelerator, and firewall).

One of the nice things is that we'd be able to get a home networking package while we were at it. So, we could share the connection between the comps in the house, and might even be able to go wireless.

I'd like more info about cable service in general, and Comcast in particular. I've already checked CNet (which had very little info) and Epinions (which had 211 very mixed user reviews).

Have any of you had experience with cable internet? Anyone use or used Comcast? Anyone have any ideas of where else I can check for reviews?

Mostly, I'm looking for info about speed (How fast is it? How variable is it?), reliability (Does the connection drop? Is it prone to technical problems?), software (How good is it? What does it do? How often does it tend to crash?), and security, but any useful info would be appreciated.

Others with similar queries, feel free to add your questions, too.

Thanks.

Paul

Paul, I can only offer an extremely non-technical opinion here, so hopefully you'll get more responses to this thread than just mine...

We had cable internet (RoadRunner) for over four years when living in San Diego. Two months ago we moved up to the San Francisco Bay Area, and right now we're using the DSL (SBC Yahoo) that "came" with the rental house.

I know you didn't ask this question, but I'll answer it anyway...as far as I'm concerned, in a contest between cable modem and DSL, cable would win *hands down*. It's definitely faster and more reliable.

We had no problems with the cable modem. I don't know *how* fast it was, but I had no complaints with the speed. I also didn't find that the speed varied a lot, despite those commercials they used to have claiming that in the evening, when all your neighbors who shared the same whatchamacallit came up and connected to the internet, your high-sailing speed would suddenly disappear :p

And we almost never lost connection - off the top of my head I recall two instances in that four year period, and both times the problem was fixed within an hour or so.

I don't know anything about the software offered, but I can't ever think of a single instance where the software crashed, so that was not an issue. I do know that was when my husband installed a firewall and security software, since we would always be connected. And I remember him reporting in the early days about people trying to hack into our machines.

So as you can see, it's all pretty vague stuff I'm telling you, but I certainly don't hesitate in recommending cable internet. I don't know anything about Comcast, but I'm very sorry to hear that it gets mixed reviews, because if our move here becomes permanent, Comcast is the provider in the area...

Kathy

I am going to equally vauge. I had pretty much the same experience as Kathy. I set my parents up with a wireless network and cable internet two years ago when I moved back home after I graduated. When I moved out into my apartment, my roommate and I got DSL, and I've found that the cable internet (from COX Cable) is much faster and much more reliable than the DSL from SBC/Yahoo. The cable internet my parents have has only gone out twice in the two years we had it.

Very non-technical, I know. Sorry, I don't have any of the numbers in front of me. I am a lot more impessed with the cable internet than I am the DSL.

- Laura

Thanks, Kathy and Laura.

You may not have been technical, but there was a lot of useful info there.

"Fast" is very good to hear, and it's nice to be reassured about the speed drops. I think they can still occur, depending on how many other people in your area have the same service. We'll have to see on that score.

As for DSL, we can't get it. DSL uses phone lines, and you have to be physically close to the phone company's local relay building to be able to use it. We're just in the wrong part of town. <shrug>

Reliable is even better news. Pretty much the only thing the Comcast reviews I read agreed upon was the poor quality of customer service. As with Earthlink, though, that's not a big problem if the product is reliable enough. Who cares how bad they are if you never need them? <g>

So, thanks again. It'll probably be a few days before we figure out what we're doing, but it's good to know more.

Kathy, about the Comcast reviews -- You can read them here if you're interested. (You can also go here for the full list of reviewed cable companies.) Like I said, I just skimmed through them. I'll probably go back over them more in depth later.

Basically, Comcast averaged 3.5 stars out of a possible 5, but the top cable ISP (RoadRunner, as it happens) only got 4. (COX tied with Comcast. There were 519 reviews for RR, 211 for Comcast, and 66 for COX.) The reviews seemed to agree on speed. A couple mentioned the speed drops, but a couple others said they'd never had that problem. A fair number complained about the support. The rest was a mixed bag.

Actually, I just sorted the reviews by date, and noticed that the 6 reviews from this year are all negative. The most recent reviews agree that it's unreliable and that customer support is poor (mostly long hold times, but some complain about bad techs, too).

I don't know if they suddenly went downhill or if the only people reviewing at this point are the ones who are upset.

The next few reviews (from late 03) are all very positive.

Earlier reviews, as mentioned, are mixed. Some complain about the price. Some complain that the connection and equipment are not very reliable (which worries me a bit...).

Things seem to go up and down from there, with some very glowing reviews and some very negative reviews. Review sites are like that, I guess. Different people have different experiences, and things seem to vary from place to place and time to time. Hopefully, if we go with them, we'll luck out. Come to that, I wish they'd let me sort these reviews by location...

Anyway, if anyone else has anything to add, please do.

Paul

Okay, Paul...you're mean you're mean you're mean!!

Oh...why, you ask? Well, sorry, didn't mean to scare you but the evil sister just happens to work selling comcast internet. Go figure. You might even talk to *her* if and when you order (though she's been doing the online sales and set-up...so you could chat your order to her and then tell her what a mean sister she is and...

Oh, sorry, we were talking about cable internet. So...yeah, I'll talk to my sister and ask her your questions.

You'll owe me big time for this, Mister!!!

Sara (who is hoping that not seeing Paul in IRC today meant that he got some good quality sleep)

Cable connections, just like DSL, vary from area to area. RoadRunner in Charlotte, NC is different from RoadRunner in Columbia, SC and RoadRunner in Rochester, NY. It's even different in different areas in Charlotte itself. It all depends on the equipment in the area. Check around with your neighbors, and see if they have it, and what they think.

Earthlink highspeed goes through other providers. While they might have service in your area, they're most likely going over Comcast equipment and cable lines. Their "real" service is all the extra addons.

As far as the DSL vs. Cable debate goes, like I said, it depends on the area. I've talked to customers who have had better luck with DSL, and customers who have better luck with Cable. Since I work mostly with telcos, I get a lot of DSL calls... the ones that are always on seem to be better than the ones that are PPPoE (you have to actually connect to the internet, like dial-up, but still much faster). Then again, the same goes for cable. Yes, there are cable modems who dial-up, they're called one-way cable modems, or telco return, the upstream going over a regular 56k dial-up line. And those well and truly suck. blech.

I've had Comcast Cable Internet for a few years now and have few complaints. The speed is good and they have relatively fixed IP addresses (they change very infrequently). They also give you a number of email addresses (can't remember how many since I use only 1) and some web space if you want. I'm pretty happy with them. You can also access your email from outside the cable network.

The cable goes down every once in a while. It was quite frequent a few years back (three or four times a month), but lately, it goes down maybe once every few months for a short time (couple of hours?), usually shortly after midnight. Makes me wonder if they're planned outages for maintenance because of the times and durations.

The only times I've needed to call support, they were actually helpful. They diagnosed a dead cable modem, so I went out and got another one. Problem fixed. I have my own, but you have the option of renting one from them, too.

So, I'd say I'm happy with them. The only restriction that irks me is the one against running servers, but I can understand why since you're sharing bandwidth with the neighbors. Shh, but I actually do run my own email/web/DNS/IRC/FTP server, but is so low traffic that if they do know about it, they don't care.

If you want to run a gaming server or something with serious traffic, then DSL is the way to go. It's slower and more expensive and usually less reliable, but if you want to run a server, you get DSL.

Bottom line, Paul, I would recommend Comcast Cable to you.

We have Comcast digital internet. We used to have both digital cable and internet, but we got rid of the cable in exchange for Satellite for a variety of reasons.

As for our internet service, I can't complain about speed. Any hangups we ever seem to have in regards to speed seem to be our own system, not so much a problem with Comcast.

Also, I do use their e-mail services and have found them very very good. Great at blocking all spam, a huge amount of storage space, and you can have multiple mailboxes.

Only complaint I have about Comcast - the cost. It is really, really expensive. Basically, they penalize you if you don't have both cable and internet service. My husband has called to complain, and that has resulted in us getting deals like a six-month reduction in our rate. But overall, I feel like they are raping us. The alternative - to go non-cable internet - is obviously not an option.

Good luck, Paul. Let us know what you decide.

Lynn

I use Comcast. While it is a bit spendy, it is worth it, as much as I am online. I don't watch that much TV (Smallville is the only show I'm watching regularly this season other than the news), but I don't think I could go back to regular dial-up again. I often had to wait as long as five minutes (or more) for some web sites to load.

I've been fairly happy with Comcast for the past couple of years. It is somewhat pricy, but my work pays for part (so they can call and have me fix things in the middle of the night) I don't use the software that came packaged with the service, since the normal browsers and e-mail clients work fine without it with less overhead. I do have a router to act as a NAT firewall to protect the little LAN (only 5 machines), and it has worked well at preventing attacks so far.

I haven't had much experience with their customer support, since I haven't really needed it. They did just increase the size of mailboxes and web regions significantly - I think to 2 GB on the web/file storage areas.

Just my $0.02

Frank

Thanks, everyone! Very helpful.

I talked to Dad, and told him what I found and what you told me. He did a bit of checking on his own, too. He said he wants to go for it, and he'll make the call soon!

So, cross your virtual fingers... I may be going high-speed!

Thanks again for all your help.

Paul

I noticed several of the responses here mention Comcast cable internet as being on the expensive side. If I may ask, what do you consider expensive?

When we lived in Illinois, we had Insight Cable and I paid about $45/month for the cable modem, plus another $50-55/month for digital cable (with no movie channels). It all worked out to about $100/month for both. Considering I had been paying $15/month for dial-up service, plus another $15 for a second phone line, the $45 for the cable modem was well worth it to me. An extra $15/month for major increases in convenience and speed? No problem!

Now that we're in Indiana, though, our only high-speed option is SBC/Yahoo DSL, for which I'm paying $27/month. DSL is better than dial-up, but I do miss my cable modem, which I think was equally reliable but faster. (And I miss having digital cable tv, too!)

Comcast has now taken over cable service in our area, and the word is that they will be rewiring the town over the next few months for digital cable tv and internet. All this talk about them being really expensive is giving me pause, though.

Are we talking "expensive compared to dial-up" or "expensive compared to other cable companies"? I'm excited about getting new options, but I'm not looking forward to being ripped off ...

Kathy

Wow, Kathy, that is expensive!

We have DSL here - a 3MG link which has been excellent so far. That's CAN$29.95 per month. We're about to sign up to a satellite TV service (high-definition) with a variety of channel packages which can, if we wish, include one or two movie packages - all for CAN$55. In total, that's CAN$85 per month, which is a little over US$60.

Can't comment on cable, as we've never used it.


Wendy

I pay for both Comcast cable Internet and TV, which is why I consider it expensive. It's over $50 a month for both, but I do use them.

$27 for DSL sounds like an excellent deal compared to what I'm paying for Internet. I wish it was available in my area.

Kathy, those prices ($45 for cable modem, $50 or so for cable TV) match up with what we were paying in San Diego, except that it was just regular cable (no movie channels), not digital. Those would certainly be the prices that I would have expected.

Right now in this rental house we're paying $60 for satellite TV and the DSL. So it's considerably cheaper, but I'm not particularly happy with either service. After this year is up, no matter where we end up, I think we'll be back to cable for both. The extra money is worth it, if you can afford it.

Kathy