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Review by jbwhite99  Posted: 113 days ago member for 4.6 years, 93 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Morrisville,Wake,NC
$52 per month
"Reliable and consistent; best choice in market"
"Upload speed of 48kB/Sec"
"Best choice out of few in a major market"
| Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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I've had RR for most of the last 8 years; while download speed has gone from 3MB to 7MB with Powerboost (really just a gimmick), the upload speed of 384kb/sec has not changed. I will say that it is pretty reliable to get 384kb up most of the time.
Service seems to be fairly reliable, but expensive (with $5 price increase recently). RR must proviide the modem; I had Cox for 2yrs (out west) - could provide your own modem for $5-$15 discount. RR gives you 3 accounts with your account, but has turned off newsgroups (handy to post questions about Excel, etc). RR also has its own DNS - which means that they post ads if you get a typo.
Net is that I wish TW would spend money on upgrading infrastructure and lowering costs instead of on advertising (flyers in the mail to spend more $$ with them) or marketing (naming everything they can in the state after them) - I'd rather the overhead go into faster bandwidth. 384kb up doesn't cut it - had to hang up on Vonage and use Cell Phone when running screen shows from home.
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Review by bucktheiguan  UPDATED: 117 days ago member for 117 days, 0 visits, last login: 117 days ago
Avon Lake,Lorain,OH
$39 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Fairly reliable connection"
"Price, tech support, customer service"
"OK when it's the only game in town"
| Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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For $39.95 I'm getting 1.5 Mpbs download and 468 kbps upload speeds. It's OK for my needs, but I think it's overpriced compared to services offered in other places. I think the big problem for my area is that there's no competition from Verizon or AT&T (we have Century Tel).
As for tech support, my experience with them is not good. I'm a systems administrator, so when I'm calling a tech support number I'm beyond "turn off the computer then turn it back on" phase. So when I called once and politely asked the rep to put me in touch with someone who is not reading off of checklist what did the person do? She continued reading off of the checklist. I was not happy.
(For the record, our system used to be Comcast and when I called their tech support once, the guy was able to walk me through troubleshooting the problem -- and even knew his way around Linux, which is what I was using at the time. I was very impressed with their service.)
If Roadrunner is your only choice for broadband then it's your only choice. But if you have options in your area (FiOS, Uverse), check them out first and compare prices and service before going with Roadrunner.
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Review by jumpingrat  UPDATED: 120 days ago member for 7.5 years, 272 visits, last login: 10 days ago
Sherman Oaks,Los Angeles,CA
$110 per month (12 month contract)
"Still a fast connection. Very little down time. Not much to complain about"
"Expensive, even bundled"
"Powerboost is nice for small files, the real down speed is about 700 kbps which to br fair is what they advertise."
| Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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I started with Adelphia. Adelphia was awful, so when Time Warner bought them out it took a while for them to get the mess Adelphia left behind straightened up. This took about a year, Their Roadrunner service is now very consistant and performes as advertised. Their cap is 6000/1000 (rounded off numbers) which is good but not great considering that DSL in this area is close to matching that speed, and for far less money. The supposed bog down during peak hours has never really shown itself in my area. All in all I cant complain about service, speeds or downtimes. However at twice DSL price they should step it up a notch.
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Review by KidPanama  UPDATED: 124 days ago member for 6.6 years, 31 visits, last login: 110 days ago
Rego Park,Queens,NY
Contract price not specified.
"It's a convienient alternative to Verizon DSL and other private ISPs."
"Frequent service drops, slow speeds, and poor upload speeds."
"It's"
| Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings below consensus)
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First things first, I have lived in 4 of the 5 boroughs of NYC, meaning that I have dealt with Time Warner in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and now Queens. Based on my experiences of dealing with the company in the past, I can honestly say that customer service isn't their strong point. I have lived in the Rego Park area for just over a year, and like I had before, I opted for Time Warner's Triple Play package that includes Cable, Phone, and Road Runner internet services. The prices were a bit higher than what I paid for Cablevision's package in the Bronx, but you really have no choice if you live in an area that is only serviced by Time Warner's services.
As far as Road Runner is concerned, I think I speak for the vast majority of Road Runner users when I say that you will never achieve the advertised speeds of 10000 Kbps down/ 512Kbps up for Road Runner standard or 15000 Kbps/ 768 Kbps for Road Runner Turbo. To be fair, it's nearly impossible to achieve exact advertised speeds with any ISP, but the problem with Road Runner is that they overload their nodes frequently, meaning that they oversell their service and that you will average 25%-30% of the speed that you are paying for. This is an everyday occurrence, which is a serious issue. When using their service during peak times I average anywhere from 1500Kbps to 3500 Kbps, this is unacceptable. Time Warner now offers Boost which is supposed to boost your connection speeds when the extra bandwidth is available, meaning it only works late at night or early in the morning when people are either sleeping or working. This is a serious problem for me, as I use a wifi router to browse the net with my computer and play online on Xbox Live (usually not at the same time), and Road Runner's poor latency affects online gaming in a big way.
To remedy the aforementioned problems, I upgraded to Road Runner Turbo two weeks ago, and guess what? It makes absolutely no difference. Sure I can get good download speeds off peak (upload speeds are generally unaffected), but I could do the same with Road Runner standard. When I check my speeds during peak hours like between the hours of 5pm-10pm, I usually average between 2500-4000Kbps, which is FAR below the 15000Kbps that I pay for. This is a problem that Time Warner needs to remedy, but they're in no rush since they have effectively monopolized Manhattan, Queens, and half of Brooklyn. Hopefully the eventual competition of FiOS will help them get their act together, but I won't hold my breath. Time Warner is renowned for playing this game of placing blame on their customers, instead of admitting that their services have plenty of room for improvement, meaning that you're wasting your time by complaining to customer service. The fact of the matter, is that you don't get what you pay for, and it's an issue that should really be addressed and taken into consideration.
Next of my gripes, is the FREQUENT disconnects in service. As if the inconsistencies in download speeds weren't bad enough, Time Warner has the dubious honor of being the most unreliable ISP in the Tri-state area. No exaggeration, I usually experience 1-3 disconnects a day, and they range in duration anywhere from 1 minute to 10 minutes. What am I paying all this money for again (over $250 a month for the triple play package)? I usually refrain from comparing providers, but when Cablevision was my service provider in the Bronx from 2004-2008, the service was exceptional. They offered everything that Time Warner offers and them some, at better prices. When I used Cablevision's Optimum Online service, the speeds were always blazing fast with low latency and no disconnects. The same was true even during peak hours. Oh, and let's not forget that Optimum Online's standard service is 15000Kbps down/ 2000 Kbps up, which is much faster than even Road Runner Turbo that I have now. During peak hours, with Optimum Online, I used to average somewhere in the 10000Kbps range. In my 4 years as a Cablevision subscriber, I must have experienced a disconnect maybe 2 or 3 times, as opposed to the 2-3 disconnects daily that I have to endure on Road Runner.Unfortunately for all of us, Cablevision does not service Manhattan or Queens, so it is Time Warner or bust.
The bottom line is that Road Runner is good when it works, but the frequent disconnects and inconsistent speeds are a cause for concerns for people who play games online and download large files. If Time Warner is your provider, go for it, because there are no other options. As for me, I hear RCN is also available in my area, and once I find out if the internet connections are more reliable and consistent, I may consider switching. For now, I will stay with Time Warner and Road Runner while I patiently await the arrival of Verizon FiOS in Rego Park. I just thought that I would give everyone else a heads up.
As if things couldn't get worse, somehow they did, which is to be expected from a company like Time Warner. I have "upgraded" to their Turbo service a month ago, and not only did it make no difference in speed whatsoever, but the speeds have now been more inconsistent than ever. I know I am not alone, but that's not the point. My advice to everyone is to avoid Time Warner and their shoddy Road Runner service like the plague if you can. I will be calling RCN tomorrow to see if they can service my area, so that I can drop Time Warner like a bad habit. For reference, I pay for speeds of 15000Kbps down and 768 up from their Road Runner Turbo service, yet this is the type of speed I get from their service recently:
[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG]»www.speedtest.net/result/5260125···G][/URL]
Skip it at all costs, or you're throwing money down the drain.
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Review by jsuboh  UPDATED: 127 days ago member for 7.4 years, 2124 visits, last login: 4 days ago
Delano,Kern,CA
$54 per month
about 3 days
"Fast, Reliable, and Consistent"
"Higher Cost"
"Still better than DSL for my Neighborhood (updated)"
| Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings above consensus)
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I moved to a new neighborhood in Delano, CA and the only option was RoadRunner through Brighthouse. Prior to moving I had PacBell DSL (SBC > ATT) in my older neighborhood which was fine. However unlike DSL, I get really close to my provision speed of 7Mbps. Overall, great service only went down once when a car hit a pole a 1/4 mile away. UPDATE: I updated to the Turbo plan for $10.00 more and all I can say is "WoW". Normal downloads are 14Mbps, uploads are 2Mbps - when testing I have been averaging 27Mbps (turbo) with my best at 29.5Mbps download. Has not gone down since 18 months ago - I least I haven't noticed.
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Review by Danglerb  Posted: 127 days ago member for 2.5 years, 17 visits, last login: 127 days ago
Orange,Orange,CA
$44 per month
"fast"
"frequent glitches, dns issues, unexplained outages"
"hate it, use it"
| Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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My only high speed type of connection for many years, now on about 4th or 5th generation of cable modem. When it works, its fast and transparent. At least once a week, often late at night it doesn't work. All the modems have had glitch issues with all the routers I have used where communications either stops or becomes insanely slow and some magic sequence of trial and error turning on/off power and resetting devices is required to fix it.
Road Runner has been the target of DOS attacks, so maybe once a day or sometimes more frequently DNS gets slow or stops working. RR says they have increased speeds as a form of compensation.
Bottom line, I would love to switch, but haven't found anything clearly better.
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Review by Madcap  UPDATED: 127 days ago member for 5.4 years, 443 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Kenosha,Kenosha,WI
$68 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
"They installed the equipment quickly. Replacements were not difficult to get."
"Pushed the Turbo pack to wrong modem, hidden phone chare ..."
"If it's all the cable you can get (I don't do dsl/adsl) it's your only choice."
| Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings below consensus)
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First, the "Battle of the Modems". My dad originally signed up for two isp lines to be run into the house, one for him on his own Ethernet card and modem. After closely examining our bill we made a list of needed cuts and less urgent needed cuts. The biggest change obviously was killing his second line, returning the modem, and having the new firmware pushed to my modem. Twice we've swapped modems with them and it's a no go.
Second, I've run into a TON of timeouts on IRC and while browsing the web. I can't be my router, it's under a year old and was a beast in it's day since I got it (»www.dlink.com/products/?pid=643) and it worked perfectly before. Tomorrow I believe I'm going shopping, finding a Sally's, maybe finding the local library, finding the YMCA, and the DMV. So I'm going to bug bomb. For all you out there, I power cycled the router for a 35 "steamboat" count and 25 "steamboats" on the routers. So it can't be that.
My last option is to exchange modems. Support has been rude, as have the employees inside Time Warner.
Update:
Despite attitudes I've gotten a newer Scientific Atlanta modem which I hate. I've had to redo my wireless network twice to get all computers working. It took them pushing the correct package to the modem 3 times to get me on Turbo. I don't see "Speed Boost" but I do see downloads reported at 1.2 MB/s and it's doubled my upstream speed. I believe the cost of the plan and modem rental (I was not allowed to supply my own) is $68. Remove the faulty charges and I save $30 a month with the new arrangement. They refused flat out to run a new fresh line from the tap so soon I'll be hunting the main entry and splitting the cable there to see if my signal or speed can be improved.
Overall, again, it's working as needed if not desired. They only tried once to give me the router speech but I cut it short. With Turbo I can live but never surpass expectations. II guess until something comes along I'll just use this to power everything.
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Review by GypsyRN  UPDATED: 128 days ago member for 9.3 years, 3968 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Dayton,Montgomery,OH
$168 per month
"Like a Timex, Just keeps on ticking,very,very sweet."
"the price....I would like to see it much less expensive!!!"
"Great Bang for the Buck! Still the best bang for the buck several years"
| Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings above consensus)
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I had RR cable installed some months ago. I recently upgraded to the Xtreme package.. 2460/460 speed usually....
The installation was great,I had my router setup and my computers networked before the installer tech got out the door! Using a Linksys BEFSR41 4 port router,with their Toshiba modem. My service has been interrupted once for less then 30min since I have had RR cable. I have no complaints with the speed,the reliablility and stability of my service. It is definately,hands down,much better then mindspring dsl was...thank god. I live in (Belmont) East Dayton.
It has been awhile since I updated my review on RR cable by Time Warner at my residence.......so far it has run flawlessly...
2004-09-24 22:55:48 Speed test @ dslreports.linkline.com 2810/342 kbps
2004-08-12 10:04:28 Speed test @ dslreports.linkline.com 2759/364 kbps
as you can see the speed is nothing to complain about. I haven't had a moments down time that I'm aware of. I run a 3 computer network,2 desktops and a laptop via a BEFSX41 Linksys Firewall/Router and the Toshiba PCX1100U cable modem.
I still think this service is the best "Bang for the Buck" around. I have yet to have to use tech support,as I problem solve any issues that have come up so far.
Thought I woutld give a quick and dirty update to RR/TIme Warner....
I just had the digital phone service from TWC installed the otherday,good clean job,took about 25min or so,the service man was very nice,seemed knowledgeable....that was nice!....
I also was swapped out with a new WebStar Modem to replace the Toshiba that I had originally been given to use...Everything looked up just peachy,with my BEFSX41. I have 2 desktops XP Pro and Win2K-Pro,one laptop with XP Pro all networked. The speeds definately have increased in this area also.
2005-01-21 06:20:58 Speed test @ ec 4419/349 kbps
2005-01-19 20:20:29 Speed test @ ec 2668/312 kbps slow all day for some reason
2005-01-18 14:40:39 Speed test @ ec 4406/347 kbps
The phone service bundled with my cable tv,RR and Phone save me some money. I get 1/2 off the phone service for 3 mons and a drop in 10.00 for my RR cable....not too bad really. The phone service so far has been great,clear,no background noise..snaps nor pops or fuzzy sounds can be heard and it works for all the jacks in the house!!...
Well it has been a bit over 6mos i think since i have updated my review.......so far so good,no complaints. Everything has been running true to form,not a missed beat yet!!.......best bang for the buck is RR by TWC........I since have dropped the voice mail with the digital phone service,purchased a digital recorder and phone from panasonic,a 5.4 gigahertz phone.
The price I put on the service is a the total monthy for the digital TV,Internet,and Phone service combined.
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Well hard to believe a year has passed since I last updated this! TIme flys when you are having fun...
Since,then I have added my wireless network for my laptop that consists of a Linksys WRT54G wireless router plugged into my BEFSX41 as a hotspot. I can get 560-580Kb/s d/l speed.
The price has gone up for all the services,so what else is new! I haven't had problem one with the service from TWC since installation. The only glitch was that my next door neighbor went to satellite from TWC,they shut off my service accidentally instead. I was with out service for 2 days till they came out and fixed it,that is when they found out they d/c mine,not his service. I did get a 15.00 credit.
I wasn't overally happy with the faux paux but all is well in the valley now.
I just would like to see more competition in this area.....I think Clarke Howard says the ideal is to have 3 competitors in one area to really drive prices downard and service upward.
Time flys when you are having fun! It has been a whole year since I updated my review of TWC,Internet,Voip and TV....
I have had nodda! like ZERO problems with my service. Roadrunner has been fast and reliable like it's name sake..I have had no outages or problems with service,other then the occassional release and renew my DHCP. Talk about flawless service. VOip has been very good also,I haven't had a problem with that either,and notthing that I can complain of with my cable tv service.
I could and would say it would be nice to have TWC impose a price reduction instead of the small incemental increases in rates, perhaps a new kid in town to add to the competition would do such a thing.
I have to say honestly the service has been flawless for all my services...a 10 out of 10 on the scale! So,after one year since the last update I have no complaints to make about my service..........it is pricey but damn,you got to love it for its reliabliy.
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Update time again! how time flies when you are having fun!!!!!
No big issues since I had my service installed. I did cut back from the RR Trubo, it was nice but I can get by without that extra $$$$$ Timewarner, as good as they are, still has a problem with pricing, it gets rather expensive at times. I still beats Dish, I am glad I dumped Dish and went back to TW. Far more reliable.
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I ditched the "turbo" just to cut some costs. The package is still pretty pricey bundled. I like the digital phone service, works just fine.The cable speed is good for what I do and really, I have had zero problems with the service since the last update. I get cinimax and show time on cable and have the dvr. The dvr is nice, i use it all the time to catch the "deadliest catch",."ice road truckers", "axe men" and "burn notice". When Dexter is on I do catch that series!
Followup comments:  thefoxbox go fox box go Premium join:2004-10-14 Irving, TX | wow you pay the most out of any roadrunner customer on here. sucks to be you. | |
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Review by BudBob  Posted: 129 days ago member for 6.9 years, 1993 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Mckinney,Collin,TX
$70 per month
"They have better up-time than anybody has (been on this net 20 years)"
"Poor peering at big iron routers"
"They pretty much suck but better than most"
| Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings below consensus)
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I trace route at 20mbs, real world = 3mbs. I'm really getting sick of price increases and the same speed. When @home ran this network I could talk to the network tech and solve a problem in less than an hour and be back at 10mbs (early 90s'), now it takes an act of god if you don't speak a foreign language, and the odds of getting it fixed are slim to nil.
DNS is terrible, over loaded servers that crash on a weekly basis. the real problem lyies with Level 3. Level 3 has to be the worst peering agent on the net, every time I experience a slow down it usually ends being level 3 gateway router at Dallas main dropping my ICMP pings. that usually happens when the router gets to a certain threshold. what ever it is, trouble has already happened or I would be sending out the ping. We usually considered a router or switch maxed at 80% so there was some headroom for a spike.
There was a plan to get FIOS up here but the guy that was running that retired, so I doubt I'll ever see it here.
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Review by mbohlmann  UPDATED: 129 days ago member for 5.6 years, 507 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Granada Hills,Los Angeles,CA
$54 per month
"Service availability has been good for the last nine years"
"Value is marginal; trend towards more restrictions is bad."
"Has been good but future looks increasingly bleaker"
| Connection Reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)
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TWC Roadrunner broadband has consistently met its advertised download-and-upload bandwidth. Since I got the RR service in 1999, availability has been, effectively, continuous. I use DU Meter to monitor both the bandwidth and the data transferred and I am very sensitive to service quality. So far, I have not seen any traffic shaping, or other significant interference, even in peak, prime-time periods.
What I really want is a fast, dumb and cheap pipe to the Internet, without any expensive services, equipment or tricky agreements.
TWC RR does not quite provide this kind of service at present and it seems to be trending ever farther away from this ideal. Also, I am becoming rather concerned about the traffic caps that TWC is rolling out and, therefore, I expect to switch to Verizon FiOS in the near future (fiber is going into the ground all around the neighborhood).
Looking at my current DU Meter log, it shows that since April, 2006, my monthly traffic on this particular computer has varied from a low of 34.30GB to a high of 313.72GB, with an average of 157.09GB. Other computers in house probably have similar, variable, usage.
This means that usage caps are a real threat to a predictable service billing. Since I now also use internet radio and internet TV elsewhere in the house, I expect my traffic consumption to increase in the future. Furthermore, VoIP and other IP-based applications are likely to proliferate in the future. I also expect future applications to need a more symmetrical download/upload balance than TWC RR currently provides. I do understand the technological limitations behind the asymmetrical service imposed by the modulation techniques currently used. In the future, a cheap, fast, reliable and more symmetrical internet service will become ever more important. FiOS seems to be closer match to this need than TWC RR does.
It infuriates me that TWC charges me the same for my 10/1 turbo service as it charges others for 15/2 service. This is not good. However, TWC has generally been quite good at providing the physical cable connection and responding to any connectivity problems.
All utility services in our neighborhood are underground and TWC provides an RG500 coax distribution vault right on my property, at the top of my driveway, just for my house. From the vault to the house they provide an underground RG11 coax. TWC is currently upgrading the local cable in our area from 750MHz to 1GHz, which hopefully will improve both RR and TV bandwidth and quality. I have not heard anything about DOCSIS 3.0 possibility in our area.
Over the years I have always subscribed to the fastest Roadrunner service offered and have provided my own routers, switches and in-house cabling (two RG6/CAT5 faceplates in each room, with a distribution panel in the garage). I do not want to rent any equipment or fancy value-added services from TWC, I just want the fastest, cheapest, plainest internet connection. TWC RR, on the other hand, seems to be going in the opposite direction with usage caps, deep-packet inspection, DNS tricks, and more interference.
Generally speaking, I have been fairly well satisfied with TWC RR service over the years, but the future looks increasingly bleaker. Fortunately, FiOS is very near.
Edit 7/21/2009:
TWC has deteriorated significantly since my September, 2008, review in both service provision and consumer sensitivity. TWC's current strategy ensures that I will drop them as soon as FiOS is available.
Initially, early in 2009, I was delighted when my Turbo HSI service was increased from 10/1 to 15/2 plus Powerboost. The HSI service performed consistently at 15/2 speeds for about two months and then suddenly dropped back to 10/1. When I called TWC to enquire about the speed reduction, they told me that they had made a mistake by giving me 15/2 as they only do that where FiOS is competitively available. I feel that there are probably better ways for TWC to encourage customer loyalty than this policy.
The 10/1 HSI service also started to deteriorate in about May, 2009. Today, I no longer get consistent 10/1 speeds. The download speed suffers a greater percentage drop than the upload speed. TWC did roll a technician truck to my residence and I showed the tech my network troubleshooting results indicating severe congestion in a Chatsworth router. The tech promised to give my testing documentation to the network people, but so far the service has only gotten worse. The tech also probably felt that he had to do something to justify his service call, so he swapped out my perfectly good Arris modem for an older RCA DCM305. Unfortunately, the RCA modem requires an almost daily POPO (power off, power on) to restore sync.
To some extent Verizon contributed to this mess by suddenly postponing FiOS contruction on our street from January, 2009, to August, 2010, thus confusing TWC and precipitating this round of consumer abuse.
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