I most recently switched ISPs ...
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Conditions (Score:2)
I last changed ISPs a few years ago when my last ISP tried to pull a fast one, changing their terms and conditions to introduce traffic shaping (DPI) instead of buying bandwidth. But it was not just any kind of shaping, they wnated to throttle certain traffic based on time of day, so you could not do work when YOU wanted, but when THEY wanted. They even had the nerve to prioritise their VoIP service over Skype and other such services.
Lucky there was a clause that you can leave penalty free if the ISP changes contract and you refuse to accept it, so that's what I did.
Re:Conditions (Score:3)
I last changed ISPs a few years ago when my last ISP tried to pull a fast one, changing their terms and conditions
How many ISPs do you have available??
Where I lived we had... Comcast. You might have DSL alternative, but that would require having a landline, which we didn't.
Now I live in an apartment building that has a building-wide ISP that also supplies cable TV (whatever they are called). And, again, no landline telephone built in. So if I don't like them (and I don't - they block ports and oversell!), how exactly do I switch?
The question should start with "If you had access to more than one ISP, ..."
Re:Conditions (Score:2)
Now I live in an apartment building that has a building-wide ISP that also supplies cable TV (whatever they are called). And, again, no landline telephone built in. So if I don't like them (and I don't - they block ports and oversell!), how exactly do I switch?
4G router, pretty much all mobile carriers sell them, some of which are on an 'unlimted,' 'pay-as-you-go' setup (T-Mobile comes to mind, I think at last check it was ~$50 for the device after rebates and about half that per month for the connection).
Alternate, Hacker-style solution: Yagi mast pointed at the nearest McDonald's/Starbucks/other place w/ free wifi.
Uber-hacker solution: Several yagi masts, each pointed at a different free wifi provider, aggregated into a load balancer.
Re:Conditions (Score:2)
One assumes 4G is everywhere. It isn't.
Re:Conditions (Score:2)
One assumes 4G is everywhere. It isn't.
Fair enough, but 3G coverage is fairly ubiquitous.
There's also the option of satellite internet - the worst possible option out there, especially considering the cost-to-benefit ratio, but hey, it is still technically an option.
Re:Conditions (Score:2)
I last changed ISPs a few years ago when my last ISP tried to pull a fast one, changing their terms and conditions to introduce traffic shaping (DPI) instead of buying bandwidth.
Sounds familiar, actually that sounds like most Canadian ISP's. The real problem was until recently(the last 3-4 years) there was no real option. Now that there's other ISP's being allowed onto the incumbent networks, it's changed. The second I could dump rogers for Teksavvy I did, I'm quite happy.
Rogers wants: $46.95 for 28/1 w/80GB/mo + $7.50/mo modem rental (Or buy your own from a selection of 1-2 modems)
Teksavvy wants $46.95 for 28/1 w/300GB/mo though you buy or bring your own modem.
Other ISP's do the same.
Move Often? (Score:2, Insightful)
This poll is almost meaningless without knowing how often people move.
I've moved four times within the past year (college student), but I've been at my current location for 1.5 months, so within the last year.
Re:Move Often? (Score:2)
This poll is almost meaningless without knowing how often people move.
Indeed. I've moved twice in the last 30 years, and those were the only occasions I changed ISP (dial-up -> cable -> fiber). On cable, the link was supposed to be 2Mbps but I had 3Mbps for the first couple of years because they did not configure the DOCSIS. On fiber, I initially had 10/2 Mbps which changed to 20/2 Mbps and then 100/100 Mbps, without any price increase. Actually, the price dropped on going to 100/100 because they discontinued the IPTV service.
Re:Move Often? (Score:5, Insightful)
This poll is almost meaningless without knowing how often people move.
I've moved four times within the past year (college student), but I've been at my current location for 1.5 months, so within the last year.
Friend, you didn't read the riders at the top of this page. It's a slashdot poll - they're all meaningless.
Re:Move Often? (Score:2)
This poll is almost meaningless without knowing how often people move.
Yes, that, and the poll is also skewed without excluding people who have access to exactly one ISP. In the last 10 years, I've had no landline (thus excluding DSL option), and so there was exactly one internet provider choice. It changed when I moved, but I would certainly switch ISP more often if there were alternatives to choose from.
Re:Move Often? (Score:2)
Nothing says "Slashdot" like a flamewar over the methodology of a poll.
Re:Move Often? (Score:2)
Re:Move Often? (Score:2)
This poll is almost meaningless without knowing how often people move.
Actually I feel that data is rather meaningless anyway because it has nothing to do with whether you wanted to switch ISPs or not. I've changed provider... 1... 2.. 3...4...5...6...7 times I think over the last 10+ years but I never changed ISPs just to change ISP. In the same place your options tend to be rather limited, maybe with fiber roll-out you can experience one important change but mostly it's just same old.
Re:Move Often? (Score:2)
I've moved fairly often (7 times in the past 17 years I think) but I haven't changed providers. It's always been Comcast whether it's in Northern Virginia or Colorado. Just different locations for the bill. I still have the same account name. The first ISP I had was PSINet in '95 I think. Then I switched to Comcast with the modem upload, cable download.
[John]
Re:Move Often? (Score:2)
Re:Move Often? (Score:2)
Actually, last time I changed ISP is 4 years ago. It corresponds to when I changed country.
Re:Move Often? (Score:2)
I have moved a number of times, once from one state to another, other times within the Seattle region, but kept the same ISP (Comcast) the whole time.
Re:Move Often? (Score:2)
The old flat has a rock solid 100 Mbps LAN connection included in the rent so I've used that since I moved in here. The new flat is connected to an open town network (fiber) with several IPS to chose from for actually getting on the internet (and optionally TV, phone).
You, Sir, are not in the United States of Archaica.
Missing option (Score:2)
Whenever they decide I've breached their "fair usage policy" for "unlimited" usage.
Re:Missing option (Score:2)
In my case my last switch was because the major cable internet provider here decided to throttle everybody. Without warning (and I was not a heavy bandwidth user at the time) I noticed one of my legitimate linux ISO torrents had basically no throughput. I actually did a speed test (of course it said the full speed at the time) but even downloading the iso directly off the website was at least half the speed.
After news came out on dslreports that they were throttling I left for the ADSL provider. Slower speeds but I've never had any issues; I've also never had my speeds drop below half the advertised plan speed like I frequently did with the cable provider back then.
I did'nt change, they did (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I did'nt change, they did (Score:2)
I'm on a different "kinda" side...
I've had the same DSL wire running to my house from the same provider since I bought the house in 2002.
That provider has changed names twice in that time both of which I believe were buy outs.
I've upgraded my service once in that time. (1.5 sync -> 40/20) and when i did that I was forced to drop my third-party ISP and switch to using my Telco who've been providing me the line just not the service all along.
So... I answered 3-5 because that's when I upgraded my line and switched "ISP"s.
Re:I did'nt change, they did (Score:2)
I have a tiny local ISP (they started out as the local newspaper) connected through USWest^HQwest^CenturyLink.
I recently had my data rate get realllly slow, and the ISP was at least able to point the finger successfully at CL. Unfortunately, while troubleshooting this, I was connected twice to a CenturyLink chat agent who was excellent at dodging responsibility and refusing to work on my problem. Twice I had to log off chat and get a different agent to actually resolve the problem. I was tempted to drop them for cable, but eventually they came through.
Once we left AOL . . . (Score:3)
Don't laugh, but AOL really was the first ISP to offer a local dial-up in our area. So, that's what we used. Then the local phone company started offering dial-up, so we switched to them. They got bought by someone who would get bought by Ntelos who would spun into Lumos, and in one form or another we've always had an internet connection through them. Sure, I used the T1 that my first college apartment split, but the Ntelos DSL line was still active at my parents. And once I moved to someplace where a T1 wasn't included in the rent, I was back to that same DSL. Still am with them.
Why? Cause their terms of service were "Don't screw with our network, and we don't care what you do. We will respond to police investigations, but only if we have to. Attempt to screw with our network, and we will burn your computer." or something like that. All the other ISPs had rules about no servers (seriously, hosting a Action Quake game would get you banned) and odd things about "don't download music during peak hours."
Re:Once we left AOL . . . (Score:2)
Yeah... the AOL beginnings aren't really that strange. My Mom paid for an AOL subscription. I rarely if ever used any of the AOL walled garden but would immediately background the app and use the now wide open internet connection. At some point a friend of mine got a job at a local ISP and I switched to there because it was similarly free and AOL's network was getting congested.
AOL was what it was and that wasn't too terrible a thing for a while.
Recently upgraded plan (Score:2)
Just a few weeks ago I upgraded my Cable plan with Comcast. Now I'm at 50 down, 15 up for $90 a month. It's nice having a cable company that supports DOCSIS 3.0
Out of necessity (Score:2)
Their stated rate of ~$65/month is high, but if you call about every 6 months and tell them you want to get rid of the TV bundle part, they will give you a break, usually between $40-$55/month (for TV&Int). I have Dish TV, but Comcast won't let me get rid of their basic TV half of the bundle (which I don't use), I helps them inflate their TV subscriber usage numbers.
Which ISP? (Score:3)
I have changed the one that provides my connectivity a couple of times, most recently when, when cable came to the area (I've still got a dial-up account which in theory is a back-up but in practice I never use). Of course I have used several others for connectivity temporarily, particularly when travelling with a bag full of phone connector adapters.
I have changed the one that provides email and hosting twice, once when it became naff to use CompuServe and once when I wanted more bandwidth than the then current hosting company was happy to supply at a reasonable price.
I use other internet service providers to provide other internet services, and change them as necessary, as the world changes around me.
Re:Which ISP? (Score:2)
Yeah, this was my question too.
For our home internet access, our last change was roughly 10 years ago when cable internet finally became available in our area. Goodbye dialup! But for my (non day job) website, I've been through three providers in the last ten years.
Re:Which ISP? (Score:2)
Ditto for me. I also have EarthLink's $9.95 dial-up account (10 hours per month maximum; it has GigaNews!) as a backup in case my cable modem goes down for emergencies. I rarely use it too.
scant choices-no change 10yrs (Score:3)
Time Warner Roadrunner is just about it here, other than slow and expensive wireless. Not even FIOS here. I guess there is some DSL that isn't all that attractive...
Virgin Media are ripoff merchants (Score:4, Interesting)
which is why I ditched the wire and went for the only viable option - cellular on Three. £15/mo and I get five hours of calls, 3,000 texts and limitless data. Truly limitless.
By limitless, I mean: when I first switched, I didn't know what they meant by it. After a couple months, I had to call tech support from one of their shops, because everyone in my area suddenly lost service and fell back to roaming on the Orange network (which their PAYG data plan doesn't work on). They asked me if I was a data user, to which I half-jokingly replied yes, several Gigabytes a day. I realised my slip and asked them if that was OK with them, to which they responded, "You paid for the plan - when we say all you can eat data, we mean it."
Colour me gobsmacked. Turns out that several weeks of continuous saturation had burned their cell and they had to replace the whole shebang. To get around the problem of saturation burn, they simply installed a more powerful box. Within a day of my call.
Tellin' ya, this thing is faster and more stable than what I was getting on Virgin. For *one fifth the cost*.
I will never, EVER go back to Virgin.
Re:Virgin Media are ripoff merchants (Score:2)
Re:Virgin Media are ripoff merchants (Score:2)
I agree that Virgin Media are expensive. I was rather reluctant when I last moved house to use them but I couldn't get Sky TV so my only (realistic) option for premium TV was Virgin Media. They work out significantly more expensive than Sky+BT+O2 did in my old place by something like £25/month for a similar package. To be honest though, that's the only thing I really have a serious complaint with them over.
Reliability is OK - not great but reasonable for a consumer-level contract (my experience is on the order of around 4 1+day outages per year) - overall this is below other "good" ISPs I've experienced but they refund you pro rata so I'm kind of OK with using PAYG 3G service if/when that happens as a backup. I think I've been lucky as well as I just don't seem to have hit their throttling caps yet - which was a big surprise to me as I do occasionally do some mammoth downloads - perhaps I have split these over different measurement periods or something similar by happy coincidence.
So, the switching cost in terms of hassle is just not worth it for the relatively small financial gains I'd get on internet service. I just wish they didn't price their service as if they were a monopoly, particularly on TV.
Re:Virgin Media are ripoff merchants (Score:2)
you've obviously not hit the 75GB/mo cap then... it all goes downhill from that point, from per-GB charges on your bill to throttling to 64kbit each way...
Re:Virgin Media are ripoff merchants (Score:3)
5GB peak cap [pcpro.co.uk]
Virgin finally goes public with its "traffic management policy" [pocket-lint.com]
detailed TM tables [virginmedia.com]
Before they started fucking around with traffic management, Virgin had a hard cap on their "high speed" cable. This cap was 75GB/mo. I would regularly hit that in a week. I was forever having arguments with regional head office (which is just down the road from me) about the fact that I'd ALREADY PAID for the service and now I was being DENIED it - their excuse was that it was a contested line. My counterargument was that I was paying business rates therefore they were in breach of contract because with the business contract comes a service level guarantee, something which you do NOT get with the domestic line, and that if they could not supply me with the thing I had PAID FOR they should consider giving me an uncontested lease line at the business cable rate or terminate the contract and compensate me for loss of service. Virgin don't like to lose customers like that, and they sure as hell can't afford to lay down lease lines for all their business customers, so usually I'd get full speed back and be paying through the nose for the privilege of actually GETTING WHAT I PAID FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE. They had hard caps as recently as November 2010 (when I finally fucked them off), so they've brought in traffic management since then.
One more category (Score:5, Funny)
Re:One more category (Score:2)
Re:One more category (Score:2)
One of the biggest misconceptions is that you are stuck with the only ISP in your area, which isn't true.
Lemme guess, you live in an area with multiple, wired broadband options, and are utterly clueless to how it is for those of us who don't have those options. Super low bandwidth dial-up and super high latency wireless or satellite are not alternatives to actual broadband access.
Re:One more category (Score:2)
Re:One more category (Score:5, Informative)
The USA is basically (for those in Europe) the size of all of Europe ... and Ukraine. It is also, apart from the coast lines, mostly rural. This fact is borne out in that people in dense populated areas (coastlines) get options while people in "fly over" country don't.
And while this doesn't compute for our European Cousins, it is no less a factor why some people have decent (or even great) service, and others only have the choice between bad and worse.
So, quit comparing some dinky country in Europe (or other small country) to the whole of the USA. And some of us live in "backwater" country, and like it. At least we have that choice.
Re:One more category (Score:3, Informative)
Ok, let's compare Australia then. Similar size to the US (AU is almost exactly the same size as the lower 48), and 1/15th the population. Large cities are all on the coast, and the interior is mostly rural and small towns.
And I, in my mid-size, inland (not on the coasts) Australian city have over 30 ISPs to choose from (mostly ADSL2+, a few VDSL ... no cable in these parts though).
No doubt you'll find some differences between the two countries that negate the point I'm trying to make (which you'll always be able to do, obviously no country is ~identical~ to the US). But it's not a dinky country in Europe - it has similar size and scale and the same Federal/State type of government, so it's more comparable than most.
Re:One more category (Score:3)
Troll? Really? (rolls eyes)
Re:One more category (Score:2)
Re:One more category (Score:2)
Re:One more category (Score:3)
110ms latency each direction
And remember that is just to the sattelite. To get to the internet it has to cover that distance again. So pinging something on the internet requires the signal to travel
user->sattelite
sattelite->internet
internet->sattelite
sattelite->user
So you are talking about an absoloute minimum theoretical ping time of just under half a second and that is for a point to point link which requires no medium access control measures. A point to multipoint system (which requires some form of medium access control unless traffic is very low) is likely to be even worse since the medium access control signals will take time to propogate (especially if the sattelite is a "dumb pipe" and medium access control has to happen on the groung).
Re:One more category (Score:2)
Not back when I used it.
It wasn't even great bandwidth - 5mbps, IIRC. And ping times measured in seconds. It felt only marginally faster than dial-up.
Oh, and the connection drops whenever there's a storm. Or animals poking around the dish - birds seem to like nesting behind them. Or a stiff breeze. Or a really hard stare.
Yeah, I switched from dish to *Comcast*, for fuck's sake. When Comcast manages to offer a better service than you, you know you're doing badly.
And then I switched to Verizon as soon as they offered fiber to the home in my area. And I've had no complaints since.
Phone Company Sucked, So I Switched to a Local ISP (Score:2)
I initially started with Pacific Bell Internet (PBI), a unit of Pacific Telephone. I erroneously thought that a highly-regarded telecommunications company would have excellent service. I was quite wrong! Generally, when PBI's servers or network had problems, their service representatives would blame my PC setup, even after I explained that I was a software test engineer with 25+ years of experience. The final straw was when PBI's DNS tables became corrupted, denying me access to a number of Web sites. Their service representative -- again blaming my PC -- had not been informed by their network engineers that the problem was known at least 6 hours earlier. By this time Pacific Telephone (with PBI) was bought out by Southwest Bell with NO discernible improvement in service. Indeed, their service call-center was moved to a different time zone than the equipment providing services.
Well over 10 years ago, I switched to Ventura County Internet (VCNet), a local ISP that a co-worker of mine started in his apartment and financed by maxing out his and his father's Visa cards. Later Southwest Bell merged with AT&T. In the meantime, VCNet was bought by Internet Speciaties West (ISWest).
I am still with ISWest for hosting my Web site and for their E-mail server. Both their technical and billing services are located at ISWest's headquarters about 3 miles from my house. On the phone, I now recognize some of their personnel by voice and can address them by name. Occasionally, for really strange requests, I can drop in at their offices and talk face-to-face with a technician. One thing that I really appreciate is the secure UNIX shell account I have for accessing my space on their Web server so that I can test UNIX scripts used by my Web site.
Unfortunately, the major broadband providers in the area will not wholesale their connections to ISWest or to any other ISP. Thus, two years ago, I subscribed to Time Warner Cable's broadband service (through RoadRunner) as an add-on to our existing cable TV service. I use this only to access the Internet. I do not use RoadRunner's E-mail or Web hosting, remaining with ISWest for those. I do not even use RoadRunner's DNS. If ISWest were to provide broadband to consumers (they do for commercial customers) at a comparable price, I would drop Time Warner immediately.
But... but... (Score:2)
I AM an ISP, you insensitive clod!
Re:But... but... (Score:4, Funny)
No, you are a protocol!
Useful Government Website - FOR USA Slashdotters (Score:5, Informative)
Useful utility! Enter an address, seems more thorough than DSLReports and other sources.
Cox Northern Virginia (Score:2)
Re:Cox Northern Virginia (Score:2)
Re:Cox Northern Virginia (Score:2)
I live in SW Virginia and I can say that in general the opposite is true regarding Cox. Here Cox does not face any real competition. We do have Verizon but they stopped their FIOS expansion plans just before expanding here so the only Cox competition is Verizon DSL. I've lived in various locations across the country and Cox is ridiculously expensive here. A friend is moving here from Chicago and felt the need to double check with me regarding pricing since he could not believe how much more expensive it is compared to what he was used to.
In practical usage the speed is reasonable not great but not bad either. The speed tests often look great, although I suspect they detect that you are using them and artificially increase the speed for that connection since sustained downloads from other sites are often significantly slower.
In addition to my issues with their excessive pricing, they also have flaky service. The service goes down for minutes at a time on a weekly basis and for hours at a time on an almost monthly basis. This can make working from home difficult, especially during a meeting. Recently when an outage occurred, I confirmed immediately that they were aware of it and they were. I then called back 8 hours later, since the outage was still out and they acknowledged that it was still a problem but refused to even give an ETA for when it would be fixed. I asked about a refund for the loss of the better part of a day of internet service and they indicated that I would have to talk to their billing department (which has much shorter hours) instead of automatically addressing the issue.
Bottom line: without competition, most ISPs will behave badly. I would love to see the last mile access be municipally owned and maintained with open access to any ISP to provide service. In order to fairly disseminate maintenance and upgrade costs, the ISPs would be charged a pre-established rate that is multiplied by their number of local subscribers. That way a small ISP can be on equal footing with a large ISP, since the per subscriber maintenance costs would be the same and they would then compete on pricing and service to the subscriber without the infrastructure monopoly precluding genuine competition.
Comcast to Verizon FiOS (Score:2)
Didn't switch, moved (Score:2)
Sadly they sold out to Primus Canada, a company that has without question the worst service of any telecom in Canada. I mean, not just bad, but endlessly and horribly bad; the kind of bad that seems really intentional; the kind of bad that seems designed to say "Do you really want to go through this again by phoning us?"
The last time I talked to anyone in the company it was one of the old tech support guys, who apologized for how bad things had become, and told me that yes, a lot of people - staff and customers - had been leaving since Primus' arrival.
Re:Didn't switch, moved (Score:3)
I highly recommend Teksavvy.
sonic.net FTW (Score:2)
"Within the last month" technically, but only because I was out of their coverage area for a while. They're competent, ethical, reliable, and reasonably priced. I've been a loyal customer for >15 years and I'm sticking with them as long as they keep it up.
Disclaimer: Nothing to disclaim. I'm just a happy customer.
TV made me switch (Score:2)
Ironically, I changed ISP last year because of my television provider. They sent me a letter saying they were going to drop BBC2 from their offering. As I am a huge fan of the BBC, I decided to look around for alternatives and ended up with a glass fibre provider replacing both my cable TV and ADSL internet connection. The new bandwidth is nice (100 mbps symmetrical up/down), but I'm especially happy my BBC is still there.
Missing Option (Score:2)
WiMax to 4G (Score:2)
I live just a few km outside of the capital in a region that was built only ca 5 years ago and as it is the only missing cable connection is the landline (got gas, electricity and all other utilities). So my only options for network were limited when I moved here 2 years ago so I took WiMax connection that had been here by the previous owners giving me on average 1 Mbit/s down with max possible 6 Mbit/s. Having come from DSL lines and having 10G fiber in the office it was really bad to live on 1Mb.
Then this spring the biggest mobile provider claimed they have a semi decent 4G install base and I discovered my region's covered (benefit of being ~1km of the biggest highway and ~2 km from main airport) so I got the only router that has 4G from them and took the most expensive package (which supposedly has no speed caps so 100Mb down and 50 Mb up max as per 4G specs, and has unlimited data with fair use up to 30GB, but that they claimed they won't enforce unless the usage is bothering others in the region). Costs about 35 eur / month, but when I set it up with external antennas etc I did get about 40-50Mb/s on average. About a month later they came up with a huge campaign that for 3 months you get the service for 1 eur / month and loads of people signed up (including in my region) so now the speed varies between 8-40 Mb/s with average being 20-30Mb/s. So considering I moved up from 1Mb average (with 6 max) to 20-30Mb average (and 8 minimum) I'm hugely satisfied. And the cost of the previous WiMax solution was 27 eur / month so that was ridiculous. So far the mobile provider has kept their word of not throttling as last month I used 101GB and this month I think I've already used about the same amount due to Steam Summer Sale (and I've only installed a few of the games I bought...). I don't think I've had a single month of less than 30GB :) But if they do start throttling I do have the option to upgrade the service to truly unlimited for 100 eur / month, that however will be quite the consideration as 100 eur / month for connection is a lot...
This presumes just 1 ISP (Score:2)
I currently have 2 isp's one for home & one mobile one for when stuck on the train. The latter I change a couple of months ago but the home one I've been using for almost 4 years now.
As there's fttc cabinets out I the street now I'm now waiting for those to come online & then switch that one.
When I moved... (Score:2)
I only switched ISP when I moved because my old ISP had used up their allocation of DSL ports at the exchange my new house is on. I could have waited some indeterminate amount of time for them to get a new allocation of ports, but given I work from home regularly, that wasn't an option.
And, having looked in to it, I think that's just what the person at O2 *thought* was wrong; having looked in to it more closely myself, none of the ISPs (except C&W, who don't count) have LLU on our exchange, which I suspect is the real reason: it means they're all using BT's wholesale DSL product, rather than their own equipment at the exchanges.
Cambridge's Science Park exchange is a bit ironic - it doesn't have 21CN, SDSL, or FTTC enabled on it and only one operator has LLU on it, but it is the exchange that serves the science park.
Just a boring story (Score:2)
After cable, i went for DSL because, at the time (around 2002) that was just more reliable. Then the soap started. Within 1 1/2 year, this relative small provider was bought by another, and again, and again, untill i ended at tiscali - a large one that had aten all smaller fish. So my contract stayed the same, but the name of the dsl provider kept changing and occasionally i got another new and free modem.
While i didn't complain, after all i had an affordable connection at decent speeds, the last one in the chain -and biggest- was utmost lame. Technical failures, but what was worse, administrational failures. Transferring back the monthly fee, then send a reminder, quickly followed by termination, and a 20 euro fee to reconnect. After this happenend for the 3rd time, and i'd been unrightfully cut of my internet for many days a few times, i got fed up and transfered to a reliable ISP.
And this current ISP, while always regarded as being the most reliable and helpful, has started a 'marketing campaign', effectively pushing me away.
It seems the same as with electricity companies these days: you get the best deals when switching frequently. If you are a 'sleeper' you'll get exploited, instead being viewed as valued customer.
So my answer to the poll is '1-3 years, but i should switch more often'. Got to love 'free market forces', meanwhile the -still working- dsl modems stack up here, it's getting a nice collection.
What? (Score:2)
Re:What? (Score:2)
In a lot of places yes, there actually are. Usually those options come at a price though. In my area the cost is pretty much related to speed. Those that advertise the fastest connections here have the most strigent restrictions against running servers. All things being equal those offering the most freedom would be the logical consumer choice but, being as how the most restrictive companies are winning, consumers are not very logical.
Only switched because I moved. (Score:2)
Charter to Time Warner (Score:2)
I went from Charter in Long Beach, CA to Time Warner in Costa Mesa, CA. I really miss Charter. They were a fantastic company to deal with. I was paying for 10Mb and regularly got 20-25Mb. The connection was stable. The customer service people were always really easy to deal with. The few times I called up to downgrade my service, they ended up putting me on 12 month "promotional" deals that ended up being better than what I was getting in the first place. They even left my torrent traffic alone.
Time Warner is the opposite. The customer service is typically frustrating. I'm paying for 15Mb and barely get it. They do not seem to like my VPN connection, so if I have it up the rest of my speeds are garbage. They absolutely throttle my torrents.
Switch? To what? (Score:3)
I live in Canada. Unless you live in Megacityopolis there is no choice. There are two choices maybe, and they both amount to the same thing.
Whaddaya Mean? (Score:2)
Is this a trick survey? (Score:2)
Thinking about switching? (Score:2)
AAISP (Score:2)
(In the UK) They're one of the BT DSL and fiber resellers, they're a little pricey, but completely awesome.
There's no filtering or traffic shaping of any kind, no restrictions on running servers, and they offer web-based constant quality monitoring -- by-the-minute graphs of bandwidth usage, latency and packet loss on the line. Ring them up and you're immediately speaking to a technically competent person in the UK, no answering machines, no outsourced support.
I'm on the FTTC service (VDSL). I get 76Mbps down, 16Mbps up to speedtest.net with an 8ms ping time, and it bears out pretty well in the real world too (8.5MB/s downloads from Steam, 30ms ping to Diablo 3, Rift etc). And I get 5 static IPv4 addresses and an IPv6 /48 (!)
I switched from Virgin Media a while ago. The AAISP service blows Virgin out of the water in every way, even the top tier 100Mbps option. Friends are especially impressed when we do a Skype video call and my side auto-adjusts itself to a multi-megabit HD stream (Virgin's connections have very low upload speeds).
No, this isn't astroturfing -- just a satisfied customer! :)
Not conscious (Score:2)
Few choices (Score:2)
25 years ago, I paid AOL their $3/ per hour for 14.4 dialup. When I started to work online, I was getting too many dropped connections from that service - but it was my primary account. So for another $20/month, I signed up for ATT-Worldnet with 40-ish hours a month free. If AOL failed, then I just switched providers, and didn't miss a day of online work. :)
About 20 years ago, Comcast came to my neighborhood (and yeah.. they ripped me off, but I won. another story) - they offered a bundle including @Home internet.
This was fracking amazing - speed and a flat rate. the dialup ISPs had just offered flat rates about 6 months earlier.
I was so mistrustful of the tech, and there were a lot of service failures, that for 2 years I kept all 3.
I dropped ATT first.
Then I stopped supporting AOL - though I still have that same account under the "free" system.
--and I still have a few dozen AOL software coasters
Comcast got their act together, and about 12-13 yrs ago, took over the network form @Home. More recently, they limited, outsourced - and finally dropped Usenet services. That alone was enough to make me start looking. .. and the three have sequential mac addresses. It seems either they are cooperating, and/or there's a 3rd party running that operation for all.
Verizon is laying fiber all over the place.. but all I can buy is "high speed DSL".. or a business-grade T-n line.
My municipality - I dunno if it's like this all over - restricted the cable ownership, so no other cable providers.
Satellite companies - until very recently - were still calling a deal with telco for DSL "high speed internet".
Hughes Satellite - great for my Dad in the back country.. wants nearly 3X what I'm paying Comcast - after I buy/ lease $500 worth of equipment from them.. for 1/2 the "maximum theoretical speed".
At least Comcast has started to deploy Wi-fi in public areas... though - I do notice if I scan available networks, that when I see a Comcast wi-fi node, there is usually at least one or both along with it - TimeWarner / Optimum
I tried. (Score:2)
I tried to switch from cable to DSL, but I am too far from the DSLAM and they could not get me a consistently usable connection. I tried to switch to WiMAX but although the provider advertises service in my area and their website says my house is in range, when I tried to subscribe they said my area was not covered. So for the past 8 years I have been stuck with Time Warner.
When I moved (Score:2)
I'd probably have stuck with the ISP from the old town but their territory didn't extend out.
Prior to that I'd been with the same ISP that'd been borged twice; it started out as a single-town mom&pop and ultimately became part of Earthlink.
choices (Score:2)
Choices here are Comcast for Cable, Verzion FTTH, or any DSL provider (all through Verizon DSL).
In my present house I started with Verizon DSL to provide basic internet connection for a security camera while I did work. This was about 4 months, they required no contract.
Then I switched to Verizon FIOS + TV and phone (25/25 internet). After about year plus I decided to ditch TV and phone. They wanted $55+/mo for their lowest advertised speed tier by itself, while Comcast offered a comparable tier for $29.99/mo promo, so I took it.
Now I have Comcast's "16/4" service, which is really 12/2, and my bill has been exactly $29.99 (had my own modem already, and there are no added taxes or fees).
For all intents and purposes I have basically not noticed the change in speed, so it's been good to be able to save the money each month. Since the FIOS ONT is still in place, if Comcast screws up or jacks up their rates, I can switch back to FIOS--not likely however given that they seem to have abandoned the idea of providing a basic inexpensive connection in favor of pricey "look what fiber can do" speed tiers. Their 15/5 level is reasonably, but not at $55/mo.
Earthlink wanted my soul (Score:5, Funny)
I had an account with a nice little ISP, and Earthlink bought them. Then I switch to Primnet, and Earthlink bought them. Than I switched to Mindspring, and Earthlink bought them.
Personally, I do not want to do this to another poor ISP, so I will sit where I am now, with a 2 after my less preferred user name variant, and spare the rest of you. I hope you appreciate my sacrifice.
SureWest (Score:2)
They finally ran fiber in my neighborhood. Best I could get before was about 5Mbps with Uverse. SureWest started offering 24Mbps for the same price. No brainer, but the SureWest cable boxes SUCK. The channels are far more limited, use an insane numbering system with no rhyme or reason to how HD and SD are numbered, is missing features (like next movie play times), and is buggy as hell.
I'm thinking about unbundling with a different provider for cable and keeping SureWest internet.
depends... (Score:2)
Home connection? More than 10 years ago.
Mobile? A few years ago and I'm about to switch again.
Could be an interesting poll to find out how many ISPs people have. My guess is that a lot of people would have at least two.
about 3 years ago (Score:2)
I used to be with XS4ALL which was founded in 1993 as an offshoot of the hackers club Hack-Tic as they are (one of) the best.
However, while sympathetic the price difference became such that I switched to Tele-2 about 3 years ago. Got a Wii as welcome present too lol.
RCN to Verizon (Score:2)
I only have one real choice (Score:2)
I could get Verizon DSL, satellite, 3g, or dial-up. As a gamer who plays online at times, it's a really easy choice.
Re:Don't need to (Score:2)
Re:Comcast tried to steal my money (Score:5, Interesting)
At least you can get comcast. I have verizon because comcast refuses to give us service (Baltimore, same options as you)
When my roommates and I moved into our house, we tried to get comcast (cable and internet) but everytime we tried to set it up they said there was a hold on our account. Eventually it came out that a few years back our house had been a meth lab and the people who lived there didn't pay their bill for about a year. Why they didn't have their service cut off before then is beyond me, but our house is now on some sort of black list. Even after going to a comcast service center with our lease and ids to prove that we are different people, we still can't get comcast. So verizon DSL it is. Not that I particularly want comcast, but I like having options. And not being associated with cooking meth.
Comment removed (Score:3)
Re:Comcast tried to steal my money (Score:3)
Yeah, there was something in our lease shortly after the lead paint abatement section about how "previous tenants may have been involved in illicit activity involving the manufacture and/or sale of narcotics" or something, but who really reads that stuff? Turns out that after such "activity" they have to pretty much gut the place, so it ended with us having a nice kitchen.
Re:Comcast tried to steal my money (Score:2)
And not being associated with cooking meth.
Oh look here, we got the King of England up in here. What, are you too good to cook meth or something?
On a serious note though, that is seriously messed up, I can't believe they are allowed to deny service like that. Seems like it should be against some kind of regulation.
Re:Comcast tried to steal my money (Score:2)
And service is good...once about midnight on a weekend, I came home...saw it was down (rare thing too)..called and by 1am, they had someone on the pole near my house working on it.
I dunno why so many people go with the 'consumer' connection...business one is easy to get in most cases I've seen.
Re:Comcast tried to steal my money (Score:3)
That really is quality service. Usually you have to put up a lot of singles for someone to work on the pole around 1 am.
Re:Comcast tried to steal my money (Score:2)
In my case, Comcast is the only option. If something like that happens to me, I don't even have one other option (except dial-up or satellite, but neither of those are suitable for me).
Re:Lack of choice. (Score:2)
Many of us basically have the choice between two monopolies that are each equally arrogant. Sometimes with might have two decent options. Often we only have one. If we're unlucky we're just SOL.
So I find this poll even more rediculous than normal. My own rate of ISP churn resolves to "how often do you move".
Re:Lack of choice. (Score:2)
Have only 2 choices - unless you count satelite, which doesn't work 75% of the time. I've been switching between the 2 every 1 or 2 years. Used to be more frequent, the switch offers have been less frequent. And now I'm getting resistance from both my girlfriend and our daughter because the cable company has 2 more TV channels they like. Told the phone company 6 months ago if they get add those 2 channels, we'll switch. Still not been added.
Re:Lack of choice. (Score:2)
Re:Ask my neighbors. (Score:2)
Or are you just using what is there and pocketing the savings?
Re:OMG, they killed UUNet? (Score:2)
Re:14+ years with AT&T (sort of) (Score:2)
Sonic.net is excellent. One of the few first-rate ISPs around. Definitely worth checking out.
Give them a call and see if they could do some sort of line test to confirm that you can only get 1.5Mbps on your line.
My folks have had Sonic for ages and they've been really happy. I don't live in the Bay Area any more and wish I could get Sonic in more place.
Re:3 years (Score:3)
Re:What if *I* am the ISP? (Score:2)
Put your website up here, if people are in your area, I"m sure they'd switch. (I know I would, I'm sick of AT&T)