really? did you have someone go out there and check to see if the lines were okay? lol that sounds to horrible to be true. EDGE is slow. EDGE is 2g. Comcast murders that, and if it doesn't, something is wrong heh. Clearwire is okay but it's WI-MAX, I've seen it get about 12 mbps and be able to handle Netflix, however it is not good for gaming. Latency isn't horrible but 120ms is bad in my opinion. Sprint who owns part of Clearwire uses the same 4g signal for their phones lol. If you're in a good coverage zone, go for it. If not Verizon 4g which uses 700 mhz spectrum instead of 3.5+ ghz (This means Verizon's signal is stronger)
Phonoscope is for businesses only. The fiber lines around Houston aren't updated all over the city yet... that's the main reason why FIOS isn't available in Houston fully.
I hope Sugar Land wins the Google Fiber project. http://www.sugarlandtx.gov/sugarland/thinkgig/index.asp
Necro thread! But the topic is the same. Let me explain. I'm not in the Houston area, but I'm in a very old house with crappy dead end phone lines all over the place. I'm convinced this is a big problem for our DSL, and the ISPs agree. We were with AT&T for a while, but they kept upping their prices, so I canned them and now we go with a local little company in the SF Bay Area, Sonic. Speeds are very inconsistent, and after a ton of hassle on the phone with customer service, everyone is convinced that the old phone lines in our house are causing the trouble. (I'm not *totally* convinced, but whatever.) If I go with a cable internet option, am I going to be any happier? Anyone like their cable internet?
Comcast can be a pain to deal with, but deliver consistent performance once they are up and running. I switched from DSL about 4 years ago and have not looked back Spoiler
Cable internet is typically much faster than any DSL/ADSL/VDSL offering and uses coaxial wiring. If they wire your house with brand new coax cables, it should be way better than the existing copper wiring you have. I'd do it.
Thanks, guys. We have a relatively new cable TV line running into the house, and we used to run cable TV with Comcast, so it could be pretty simple. I hated working with them as a business, but we really need better internet service.
Do you just use them for internet? If so, what is the pricing? My Uverse internet is getting worse and worse with all of the new construction inside the loop. I can rarely watch Netflix any longer without lagging.
AT&T and Netflix have been negotiating a peering and it's assumed they will get it done. That may solve your problem, maybe not.
I was with ATT for over eight years and even though I pay almost double for double the speed now with Comcast I will not go back to DSL over cable. I have no technical issues with either but the speed is a drastic difference. Also, buy your own modem if you can and get a quality router. Most people use their proprietary equipment and it just doesn't hold up in my opinion.
Agreed. Most people who have issues with Comcast don't actually have anything wrong with their wiring, it's typically those crappy modems Comcast gives out. Especially the one with the built-in wifi. Plus you save yourself about $7 a month by using your own modem/router.
I have Uverse and I've generally been happy with the service. I'm on their Power tier and am getting pretty consistent speeds (50/5) and I like the tv service better than what I had with Time Warner (Round Rock). Waiting for Gigapower to hit my area (which should be in the next month or 2). If the TW/Comcast deal goes through, I'll consider a jump if only for CSNH.
Cable internet is typically (much) better. I have heard of some pretty bad stories for regional cable carriers however. As far as your phone lines, that is easy enough to fix. Run a piece of cat5e from wherever you want your modem to your phone box. If you do not use a home phone, just disconnect all the internal wiring from the phone box and re-terminate the cat5e you ran. There are plenty of diagrams on the webs to show you how to wire it up.
Thanks, Space Ghost: I hear you on running the cat5e. It's a longer story than I can relay here due to this being an incredibly old house. Since we don't use the landline anymore anyway (and since the reason we kept it, for earthquakes, is no longer valid*), I just pulled the trigger and COMCAST is coming to bend me ov-- er professionally install cable internet in a couple of days. SO, Clutchbuddies: what wireless router and cable modem recommendations hath ye? * = we used to keep the landline b/c the analog nature of a dial phone can stay functional in a power outage, but now all the phone company facilities that actually connect your call to anyone will be down, so the reason, as I understand it, is totally gone now. But the earthquake, it is a coming nonetheless.
I am not sure about the modem as I don't deal with cable. I would recommend this router: ASUS RT-N66U: 129.00 on Amazon. Its dual band (2.4/5Ghz) and it its one of the more powerful routers on the market to reach those corners in the house. Its chalked full of other networking features also. Others might recommend the AC version which runs about $50.00 more, however AC is completely overkill and you would very unlikely use its full functionality anytime soon.
I second this. Probably the best router available on the market period. I've owned it for about 2 years now, no issues with it whatsoever. And I also agree regarding AC, this N66U is the one to get.
