Review by bsoft 
UPDATED: 10 days ago
member for 5.6 years, 150 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Boulder,Boulder,CO
 $30 per month
 "Speed, price, latency"
 "Price, reliability"
 "Not Better than Qwest"
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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My previous review was largely positive. My how things have changed.
First, some history. I'm in a relatively new condo complex, and the options here are Comcast (DOCSIS 3.0) or Qwest (ADSL2+).
For the last 18 months, I've been fighting random connection dropouts with Comcast.
These dropouts last 5-10 seconds. Not too bad if you're downloading files, killer for using SSH or (worse yet) playing online games. 10 seconds of disconnect in a WoW arena means a loss, pretty much every time.
This has happened to me so many times that I now refer to losses caused by connectivity issues as "being Comcasted".
The frequency of these issues is inconsistent. Sometimes it happens once or twice a week (which is acceptable), sometimes it happens 10+ times in one day. I had a friend over yesterday and we lost 10 games because of this problem before giving up for the night.
Signal levels are great (44dBmV up, around 0dBmV down). I have had numerous tech visits. All of my cable, splitters (two 2-way splitters), and connectors from the box on the side of the condo building to my modem have been replaced.
I have used multiple routers and multiple cable modems. I thought that the problem might be "modem drift" (dynamic channel changes), but it's not - my DOCSIS 3.0 modem drops out without changing channel.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing that Comcast can do about my problem. Customer support reps can confirm the problem, which affects my voice service as well.
I called about the problem again, last night, for the 10th or 15th time (I've lost track). Comcast offered to send another technician. Frankly, that sucks. At that point I didn't want more technician visits, I wanted the problem fixed.
After the call, my friend and I drove to the Qwest store and got a DSL modem. The modem was free, I get 12Mbps DSL for $47/mo for the next 12 months ($55/mo thereafter, which is comparable to Comcast without TV/phone).
Will the Qwest DSL be slower than the 22/5 I have right now? Yes, by quite a bit. It's also going to have inferior latency unless I can be put on fastpath.
But you know what? If it doesn't cut out randomly for 5 seconds at a time, it will be worth it. I'm tired of being told that my line is fine and that everything is working. I want an Internet connection that delivers packets 100% of the time. No one would put up with an electrical grid that randomly stops working for 5-10 seconds at a time every so often (and sometimes several times in the same day).
FYI, the problems seem to occur more frequently on Friday and Saturday nights, which is (incidentally) when we play WoW arenas.
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