Review of ComcastMember review of |  about |
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 Yes you read that correctly, while I was on hold at AT&T, I got Comcast HSI ordered and fully installed. Comcast people must be drinking that high-speed lab formula they show in the commercials. I don't know what the AT&T staff is drinking. Rum, perhaps. AT&T says they might have DSL service restored next week, but it won't even be the same package I had before. They tell me I have to call back again later to fix that myself. Note that there was no storm damage or anything like that... it was solely a mistake in their order system when I canceled an unrelated POTS line. Comcast had service turned on within literally minutes. UPDATE: AT&T failed to have DSL re-activated on the promised date. I've ordered the Comcast 6Mb package, although it speed-tests today at 8Mb/1Mb. I'm guessing that is the powerboost thing that gives you short boosts of speed. UPDATE: I tried a couple of large files from various sources, after an initial burst of speed it slows to just about double my original 3Mb DSL speed, consistent with the 6Mb advertised service. They indicated it would add $53/mo plus taxes to my existing TV service, I'll update this review after I see the first bill for the real amount with taxes and fees. I purchased a D-Link DCM202 cable modem, on sale at one of the local office supply stores. I plugged in power, cable, and ethernet and registered it with Comcast and ... it just worked. Just like that, out of the box, no software stuff required. The only change I had to make was to my router, that no authentication was required. All of the wired and wireless computers work just as well as before. What struck me about this whole experience was just how flippin' simple it was to establish Comcast internet service, on the heels of spending hours on the phone trying to get the right departments at AT&T to work together to fix their error. Not everything about Comcast went smooth; their phone maze made it hard to get to the provisioning department and my call got dropped during one transfer attempt. But overall hold times averaged about four to five minutes, and I got directly to a person who could help me almost every time. My biggest concern at this point is long-term reliability. I assisted my parents as they experienced several years of grief with a cable modem in Chicago before getting them to switch to DSL. My experience is that my DSL and phone service have been much more reliable than my cable TV service. However, friends in my local area say Comcast has been very reliable for them, so I'll see how it works for me. A lot of people shimmy up the poles in my parent's neighborhood trying to steal cable TV, and those "user modifications" can cause outages for the regular folks. There might be less of that sort of stuff going on out here in the sticks. Other concerns: higher latency, but it appears to be small enough that my VPN to work still works correctly. Not sure how that lag is going to affect online gaming, although I haven't done much of that lately. Monthly cost is a big concern; there is no inexpensive Comcast internet option. This service is almost twice as expensive as the DSL I had... but I have to admit, it is also more than twice as fast. I just wish Comcast had a lower speed tier available to compete more directly against DSL offerings. I don't know much about Comcast services or if I'd use them. My email is via a third party, so I generally don't use the email account provided from my ISP. Followup comments:
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Comcast
(214)
(154)
Round Lake,Lake,IL
$55 per month
"fast to setup, fast service"
"nothing bad yet, reliability is a concern"
"AT&T did their best to push me away from DSL, Comcast did their best to win me"
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