Best cable, internet, phone providers

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
can you get DSL without a local phone line already established?

and if you already have a well established mobile phone number is a local phone even really needed, given the expense to have some guy come out a "install" it for you.

The phones lines are already in the building, what they do with them is up to you. SBC hooked up DSL despite the fact that we do not have a local phone line. Verizon may be different.

And your point about mobile phones is right on. With the do not call list, free nights (7 PM) and weekends, I don't use more minutes because if you want to reach me during peak hours, I won't be at home anyway. You're better off trying me at the office (or this message board).

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:

besides i refuse to ever get cable internet because i don't want to pay the bastards anymore money then i have to.. real competition needs to be put in place for cable services. in the detroit area when competition came about the prices suddenly got lower.

oh yeah i use Earthlink DSL… and use the lowest usage local verizon service

We have hated Comcast (and all cable providers) because of their defacto monopoly and the customer service implications thereof.

But….we haven't found a better alternative to Comcast Cable as our ISP. We would love to go DSL but the DSL reports for our neighbourhood (Forest Glen) show that it's slower than cable modem. We'd love to use our DirecTV satellite but that's prone to outages due to weather. And, to be honest, our Comcast has only gone down a couple of times in the past three years. I have to admit that it's incredibly reliable. It's $50/month (and thankfully our empolyer covers that!).

Originally posted by xcanuck:
It's $50/month (and thankfully our empolyer covers that!).

meaning its free, so stop complaining.

Originally posted by xcanuck:
We'd love to use our DirecTV satellite but that's prone to outages due to weather.

in the 4 years i've had directv i'm able to count the amount of times it went down due to weather on one hand … it's really not that bad …

and directv is fan-fucking-tastic, great channels, NO local ads (no more of those screaming local car dealers), and the option to get all the sports packages (i don't know if i could live without NFL sunday ticket)

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
i just move from (sucks) cox hell to comcastland and i got:

-cable internet
-digital cable
-hbo
-showtime
-dvr

for $99 per month for the first year. not a bad deal. plus, cox doesn't have on demand

whats it go up to after that… in PG county thats about what I way without cable internet. Comcast really soaks their PG County customers, while briefly living in Howard County all that was provided a much lower cost point.

besides i refuse to ever get cable internet because i don't want to pay the bastards anymore money then i have to.. real competition needs to be put in place for cable services. in the detroit area when competition came about the prices suddenly got lower.

oh yeah i use Earthlink DSL… and use the lowest usage local verizon service

i think its something insane like $140. we'll get rid of showtime for $15 and maybe the dvr. my girlfriend is really in love with the dvr though (not that i don't think its great). at the old place, it was $135 for cox without showtime, dvr, or ondemand, so either way i'm stoked

so mine would be about the same if I added in a cable modem $140 a month…

comcast is such a great company to deal with… after complaining about a lousy picture on the local channels for months… i finally had a "supervisor" come out and tell me that the lousy picture was system wide and they couldn't do anything about it because thats how they got it… and their hands were tied by regulation… talk about pasing the buck. why more people aren't up in arms about their bs is beyond me…

well, they came and installed it the first saturday after i called and came out the day after i called about the on demand not working. maybe its just that maryland sucks and virginia is superior IN EVERY SINGLE WAY

kidding about that last part, but i will say they are far better than cox, especially because i now have sundance and ifc

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
so mine would be about the same if I added in a cable modem $140 a month…

comcast is such a great company to deal with… after complaining about a lousy picture on the local channels for months… i finally had a "supervisor" come out and tell me that the lousy picture was system wide and they couldn't do anything about it because thats how they got it… and their hands were tied by regulation… talk about pasing the buck. why more people aren't up in arms about their bs is beyond me…

same exact problem i had…i had the shittiest reception on my "digital" receiver. when the tech came out to check it, he said all the wires in the building would need to be replaced (we lived on the 9th floor at the time which meant getting access to every apartment below us to replace the wires!!) and even then he wasn't sure if it would work.

comcast gobbled up so many little cable companies to become this behemoth but doesn't seem to care about updating the lines they bought so that the reception is decent. furthermore, the three times i had to go to their office in dc (located in the ghetto, btw, in case you haven't had the pleasure of a visit), i received some of the worst customer service in my life. i will never, ever buy cable or anything else from those assholes, even if it's the only option. i'd rather live without tv. sadly, i moved from connecticut over to glover park partly because starpower is an option here.

you got a good deal from comcast if it's $99 for the first year. I have pretty much the same as you, except no dvr (have tivo instead), but have digital in 2 rooms and pay $140. I had reduced internet for 6 months at $19.99. And I, too, live in VA…

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
comcast is such a great company to deal with… after complaining about a lousy picture on the local channels for months… i finally had a "supervisor" come out and tell me that the lousy picture was system wide and they couldn't do anything about it because thats how they got it…

Yep. We did the same thing. Got the same answers. Last time they came out they did something that enables us to watch the digital channels. For some reason, we weren't getting them originally. They were just scrambled. I'm not sure if that was originally a mistake or if this guy was doing us a favor. Anyway, even though we don't have a digital tv, we can now watch the local digital channels. They're usually letterboxed, but MUCH better picture quality.

Originally posted by Bombay Chutney:
Yep. We did the same thing. Got the same answers. Last time they came out they did something that enables us to watch the digital channels. For some reason, we weren't getting them originally. They were just scrambled. I'm not sure if that was originally a mistake or if this guy was doing us a favor. Anyway, even though we don't have a digital tv, we can now watch the local digital channels. They're usually letterboxed, but MUCH better picture quality.

If a guy driving a Crown Vic comes to your door with a paper in his hand, pretend you aren't home.

http://www.geocities.com/flutocracy/cablemodem.htm

I have another home tech question. Since I've only really got two rooms, are there wireless home speaker options for my stereo, rather than having speakers wired through the walls? The wired home option is an expensive proposition….

THANKS

They are around but I have no idea of the sound quality or if there are any other tech, receiver and sound issues that you might have to consider. I'm sure that Smackie and a few others will be able to give you much better info regarding those things. Would like to know about that myself.

For what it's worth, Comcast internet has been great for me. Pricey as Hell but well worth it for my lifestyle. Don't have cable tv though. It's one or the other for me and tv just isn't that much a part of my life, unlike the internet.

Anyone use Cavalier? Family and friends love it. (phone/LDD/cable modem/DSL)

Originally posted by Bags:
are there wireless home speaker options for my stereo?

There are a few options, but I haven't had the best of luck with them in apt buildings (too much interference). My folks use them in a home, and they provide much better quality sound.

Two things that you should think about - frequency and power source. The higher the frequency the better the sound (due to less interference) so go with at least 900 MHZ and try to get speakers that plug into the wall. I know it seems counterintuitive to get wireless speakers and then have to plug them in, but the wireless part is convenient for not running wires from the stereo. Battery operated speakers are nice because you can put them anywhere, but you will go through batteries quickly and the sound quality worsens as the batteries get weaker. If you decice to get battery powered speakers, recharageable batteries are a MUST. For what it's worth, my folks use RCA wireless speakers that plug in and are happy with them.

You should be able to find wireless speakers at Best Buy (or comparable stores) for $100 to $200 dollars.

Is broadband different from DSL? Is one more expensive, more reliable, much faster than the other?

Comcast has offers for "high speed internet" and never mentions DSL. It's got a broadband FAQ on the page, though. Promo price of $35/month and regular price of $58/month.

Originally posted by Bags:
Is broadband different from DSL? Is one more expensive, more reliable, much faster than the other?

Comcast has offers for "high speed internet" and never mentions DSL. It's got a broadband FAQ on the page, though. Promo price of $35/month and regular price of $58/month.

Sometimes, you're too cute and you don't even know it.

"Broadband" means high-speed transmission, and in this case it refers to the speed with which data travels in an internet connection, or high speed interent. In this instance they are one and the same.

Cable Modem Connections and DSL Connections are common residential examples of Residential broadband. Cable modem travels over cable wires and DSL travels over phone lines, that's the simple difference.

Comcast being a cable company, cannot offer DSL connection because they don't use phone lines. DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line which is your private phone line connection to the internet. Instead they offer shared acces through your cable line.

To answer your next question, the performance difference (ie, speed) between DSL and cable is a little complicated.

It can best be described by the following:

DSL is a guaranteed speed if you live within a certain distance from the switch (phone company office). So if you live within, lets say for example 1 Mile, you can get 1.5 MB guaranteed download speeds for around $30. Verizon's web site will tell you if DSL is available in you location.

Cable modem is a shared connection, which means many people share the same cable connection to the internet. It's faster (10 MB), but it's only faster when everybody else is not using it. Actual speeds for download vary depending on many factors (how many people are downloading how big of files).

i didn't read every single post in the thread, but has anyone found any sections of northern va/dc/etc. where verizion FiOS is available?

screw dsl/cable.

Originally posted by distance:
[QB] i didn't read every single post in the thread, but has anyone found any sections of northern va/dc/etc. where verizion FiOS is available?[QB]

VERIZON PRESS RELEASE MAY 16, 2005

WHEATON, Md. â?? Verizon customers in several more Montgomery County communities now can experience super high-speed Internet access as the company begins to offer its Verizon FiOSsm (FYEâ??-ose) Internet Service to homes here.

Verizon is rolling out the industryâ??s premier consumer broadband services to many Montgomery County customers, giving them access to three tiers of service with downstream (download) speeds of up to 5, 15 and 30 Mbps (megabits per second). (exchanges listed below)

While FiOS Internet Service is not immediately available to all customers in all locations, the service is now available to many Verizon residential customers in the 240 area code with prefixes 292 and 694; and in the 301 area code with prefixes 214, 227, 229, 236, 260, 263, 295, 299, 319, 320, 365, 380, 384, 388, 421, 469, 476, 493, 530, 564, 570, 571, 581, 592, 593, 622, 625, 649, 680, 681, 754, 765, 767, 774, 803, 879, 896, 897, 905, 924, 929, 933, 940, 942, 946, 949, 962, 983, 989.