I'm thinking of getting DSL for the home, and getting rid of AOL at last. So far, the two providers that have caught my eye are DirecTV and Earthlink. Anyone have any opinions on these or any other DSL providers in the Houston area? Thoughts on DSL service generally, or DSL v. cable modem both in terms of service and price? $50 per month seems to be the standard rate for DSL. Anyone know of any good deals? Cable modem doesn't seem to be any cheaper if you don't have cable TV and aren't interested in getting cable TV from the cable company. For anyone else searching for high-speed internet access, as well as phone, cable TV, and handhelds, www.getconnected.com seems like a good site; they offer a nice $50 rebate. If anyone knows of any other sites people have found useful in compariing internet access options, that would be great.
so none of you have DSL or cable modem? I'm surprised; DSL is rather pricey, but some of you can certainly afford it. I'm surprised everyone's willing to put up with the hassle of dial-up. I looked up PDQ.net, and for a brief moment thought they offered it at $19.99 a month. Boy, was I wrong. They start at $50, like just about everyone else.
Ok, here's the real skinny. I work in the 'industry' so I have a whole lot of experience with these things. xDSL usedp to kick the 'ol cable modem's @ss but not so anymore. DSL has gone to PPoE which slows down your computer. Cable modems have gone to PPoE, and they've capped bandwith. Basically, if you pay for any type of cable TV the best deal out there is a Cable modem. If not, a cable modem matches up fairly well with the dsl from someone like Texas.net. it still blows away SWBell and PDQ. PDQ's billing dept., btw, sucks @ss. I went more than a year without recieving a bill, while some people I know were double, or even triple billed. I'd wholeheartedly recomened staying away from PDQ and SWBell.
I have DSL, but not in Houston. I had a cable modem which I liked a lot (except for that brief period when Excite@Home shut us down for a couple of days), but when I moved, I moved into an apartment with one of those closed cable system thingies that sucks hard (why, oh why do apartment complexes so often consign their residents to substandard cable service?) and couldn't get cable modem service. So, I'm with Verizon DSL.
I had SWB DSL and EV1 when they had it, but I moved to Roadrunner because it was cheaper, easier and faster. They even gave me a deal on cable to sign up. (Knocking on wood as I type this) I have not had a single problem since I got it.
If you have a choice get the cable modem. DSL has you pay for higher speeds, while Cable is capped only by how many people share your node. Cable is a better deal.... DaDakota
Thanks, everyone. Earthlink's offering cable modem access for $42 a month (including modem rental), and I think I'm going to take it unless you guys know of something better-priced, because I haven't found anything cheaper. Jeff, how much are you paying, by the way?
If you have Warner Cable, it is $30 per month including the modem which they give you. If you don't have cable, it's $35 per month including the modem which they give you. Good deal.
Wow, Jeff, that is nice. Can I ask how and when you got it? Road Runner's website, as well as other places, tells me it's $45 per month. It seems like they've upped the price. What part of Houston are you in? I'm just inside Beltway 8 in the Bellaire area.
Hmmmm, interesting. I got mine last year as part of a deal because I ditched my DSL and my satellite at the same time. My deal was rather unique. I'm inside the loop in the Heights. I don't know why location for Time Warner would matter. As long as you are in their service area, you should be fine.
SWBell DSL here too. It is not too bad. But I would recommend Road Runner also, they are faster and more reliable. I moved into some apartments that offer cable through Charter Communications (they suck!) so I had to get DSL. DSL forces you to sign a contract to get cheap/free hardware via mail in rebate. Their tech support stinks and PPOE blows (unless you have XP, then it's ok) My DSL just pisses me off because they always (saturday night for at least 12 hours) have a router go down. WTF is that? Get some decent Network engineers and get the sh*t fixed.... Stick to the Coax (fed by fiber) it is better. In the future it can hold more bandwidth, plus I just read that cable companies will be lowering rates by 1.50-3.00 because of their new classification by the FTC.
for broadband info go to: http://www.dslreports.com you can find broadband info by zip code, provider, etc, etc... excellent forums and news. great website.
At least in my experience, it also took far less time to get my cable internet service hooked up. In the two places I've lived and had cable, I could get the cable modem up and running no later than a day after placing the order (in Plano, they come out and hook you up, but it was the day after I placed the order that they came out). For DSL, it takes significantly longer because they have to do all sorts of things to the line. It took almost three weeks to get my Verizon DSL up and running, and that was only after I yelled at them over the telephone a lot. They originally kept pushing the date back to the point where it was going to be almost six weeks from the day I placed the order. When I got Southwestern Bell DSL back in 1999, it took a month from the time I placed my order to the time it was up and running. I don't know if the case is the same in Houston, but certainly the near-instant installation of cable is a better deal, I think.
I signed up with Earthlink this morning through Getconnected.com for their $50 rebate. I'll let you guys know how it turns out once it's installed. Earthlink's $42 per month, which is the best I've found (Road Runner's $45). Reviews on DSLReports (thanks, head. ) are mostly good, in part because the cable's Time Warner's. A nice thing about Earthlink is you apparently also get unlimited dial-up. That's very handy; we'll see how it works out.
But if anyone hears of any good deals, please let me know. We're now paying for cable modem access from two different locations because of a networking project I have going on, and $80 plus a month is quite a drain.
Hey guys, so we've had Earthlink installed for about a week, and we've had connection trouble at least every other night. If the problem continues, I'm inclined to switch if I can find a better service. Those of you with Road Runner like your service, right? Anyone using other cable modem ISPs in the Houston area care to rate yours? Does it matter what provider you're with if they all use Time Warner cable lines? I signed up with Earthlink because I thought all things being equal, I might as well save $3 per month (Road Runner is $45). After all, they both run off the same cable lines. I didn't anticipate having these problems given the degree of satisfaction everyone in this thread seemed to express about their cablem modem service.
have you tweaked your settings? if this is your first time using dsl there are some basic tweaks that can REALLY help your system and actually make a difference. go here, join up, read the forums and most of all, go to TOOLS and do some tweaking and a speed test. http://www.dslreports.com this place is THE place for broadband info, imo. with a little research on that site, you can get tweaked out in less than 30 minutes. do a speed test before and after tweaking. good luck!
Hey u ever called up tech support while you were using EV1 DSL ? I have been working for the DSL Support deparment for almost the past 2 years. I am still doing support for the DSL IP Communications customers because they havent gone under, yet.
I don't think I ever had call to contact EV1 DSL support. I was only with them for a few months before they shut it down.
