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Review by MCSE1900 
member for 10.3 years, 0 visits, last login: 10.3 years ago
lodged 10.3 years ago
 Natick,Middlesex,MA
 $59 per month about 6 days "Speed, reliable connection and great routing" "email support" "Unbelievable Value for the "Megamodem" service!"
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I just found out that RCN offered its' "Megamodem" service in my area so I dropped ATTBI like a wet toilet seat and signed up! RCN offers 3 mbps download speed and 800 kbps uploads, and after 2 weeks of solid testing, they have lived up to their promise.
They have not oversold my area, and told me there are no more than 50 people per node (versus ATTBI's admittance that there were 156 on my current node). When doing a simple traceroute from my computer to ATTBI's own web page, www.attbi.com, it took 14 hops, nevermind getting outside their own network! I've had nothing but constant routing issues with ATTBI, and they don't accept traceroutes from outside their network for troubleshooting purposes (such as from www.traceroute.org). Goodbye and good riddance.
The only thing I really don't like is that RCN doesn't offer any DNS modification, so if my IP address changes while I'm away and I want to access my servers at home, I'm out of luck. Of course for $10 more per month, I can have a fixed IP address.
Overall, RCN's "Megamodem" service is simply unbelievable!
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Review by cavemann
member for 10.3 years, 460 visits, last login: 5 years ago
lodged 10.3 years ago
- Elmhurst,Queens,NY
- $49 per month
- about 14 days
- "Nice Upload speed (90KB/s"
- "No outbound SMTP"
- "Over-restrictive Terms of Use"
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Got tired of getting repeatedly sodomized by time warner for cable tv so switched to dish for tv, and rcn for cable modem and phone. Only once my service is setup did i discover that oh yeah, by the way, you cant connect to any other mail server. I call them up, relating to them that I need to be able to connect to my jobs internet mail server, which they tell me I cant do, I must use their mailserver, but i can use it with my work email address. This wont work, since my job has the mailserver configured that unless you do auth-smtp, if you try to send mail from the internet, through the server as myjob.com domain name for the sender, it gets bitbucketed, since obviously someone is trying to fake the sender. RCN does offer a solution however, for a "small monthly charge of $20" they'll give you a static IP address and let you SMTP out. F*CK that....i'm switching back to TW for cable modem and phone service
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 Review by kapitol
member for 12.2 years, 389 visits, last login: 7.5 years ago
updated 10.4 years ago
- Gaithersburg,Montgomery,MD
- $49 per month
- about 10 days
- "Excellent Pre-install, all the way to install. Blazing speeds and ping times!!"
- "Dynamic IP"
- "Excellent Value for Money, blows away an other broadband ISP I've seen."
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RCN Cable Internet is the real deal. I have dealt with several ISP's mostly DSL, and have never experienced this level of speed. I recently moved back into the Maryland area, and noticed that RCN and Comcast@home was available. I did not want DSL anymore, and wanted to try cable. I heard some good things about both, and did some more research and decided I'd try RCN.
Pre-Sales: Was outstanding, they took my call gave me an install date and time, and the guy was early. Had no problem wiring my house, and the modem was up and synced right away.
Speeds are unreal: This was during peak hours at 6 PM
1492(down)/458(up)
(at least 23 times faster than a 56k modem)
I also liked that the upload isn't capped like it is with Comcast. I get better upload than I did when I have 512/512 DSL!
If anyone is considering RCN for Cable Modem access, I recommend it highly!
Update:
Well, those of you who frequent the rcn forum know how bad rcn is in the Maryland area. As a matter of fact, it seems to be the same way all the way down the east coast. It has going from a real solid Cable connection, to a laggy mess every night from 7 PM on. When you call in to complain or ask what's up they tell you its a known problem and we are working on it. I've submitted countless traces etc to show them exactly what router it is. I think they really don't care. I have a trouble ticket open from September. How is that resolving the problem? I think they are training their tech support people to say that, and just ignoring their crappy network and rounting.
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 Review by Luca Brasi
member for 10.8 years, 3748 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 10.4 years ago
- Chicago,Cook,IL
- $36 per month
- "36 bux for 1.5/256kbps, im happy with it...better than being with AT&T or Ameritech,"
- "Took 3 weeks for them to come and install . Speed not blazing, i wish i had 3mbps+ DL and at least 500kbps UL!"
- "$36 for 1.5/256, the only ISP here offering that.."
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UPDATE:
I want to add that I no longer have this ISP. Everything below is OLD. Thanks.
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Just incase your wondering, i have my own modem thats why i pay 36 bux. I called to order RCN, they said they would be at my house in 3 weeks. After agonizing days with 56k, they showed up, installed it quickly and i was online in a matter of minutes! The speed used to be 800/240kbps, but they raised the cap here in Chicago (and surrounding areas) to 1.5mbps/256kbps. And (so far) the price hasn't been raised to go along with the new caps. The pinges and uptime were HORRIBLE for a good while after they had the new speeds, but they fixed it after a couple of days i guess, because now i get good pinges and havent had an outage since. And the stall problem with downloads is gone after they had the new speeds. Around where i live its either i pay $40 bux for AT&T or $36 for RCN (same speed) or $50 Ameritech DSL (i think for 1.5/128). Extra 4 bux in my pocket compared to AT&T, and 14 bux compared to Ameritech.
I don't know about newservers and whatnot, since i could care less about it.
The tech support is OK.
- Luca Brasi 
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Review by PaTyoJoN
member for 11.4 years, 5 visits, last login: 7.4 years ago
lodged 10.4 years ago
- Chester,Morris,NJ
- $40 per month
- "None"
- "Downloads sometimes decent but usually very slow, Upload speeds are run by 56k and max out at a connection of 33000kbps"
- "RCN is a joke, they dont care about there customers at all, NEVER GET IT"
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RCN is the biggest joke of a company that I have ever heard of. I have had RCN for Internet for the past three years and at least once a week i have called and complained about my internet service. Have they fixed it? No. Have they even attempted to fix it? No. So what do they do? They basically blame the other phone company and try to put the blame on possibly your computer or anything else. Even if it is so obviously an issure on there side they still try to bs you into blaming your own hardware. The upload is less than 56k, but at TIMES the download can be pretty good. I get home from school at around 3 and can go on the computer from then to anywhere around 8 before it barely loads a webpage. I get ping times up in the high 200s and they are constantly spiking. I have complained about this but once again they do not even attemtp to fix it. So why do i keep this service? I am kicking myself in the butt every day for paying this joke of a company any money at all but the next best thing is 56K. I figure, I have the money and at least being able to download songs and SOMETIMES having a decent connection is better than 56k. The sad part is half the times the 56k would be faster and much easier than this ONE WAY cable modem. RCN basically has a monopoly over my street and part of my town because we can not get any other cable service or DSL service because we are out of range from the CO. For this i partially blame my town for poor planning and not worrying about it, but how difficult could it be to update Chester with the rest of the world? Ok i am done ranting and raving and i hope that no one else in the world ever has to put up with something like this. When i have an important paper to write and not much time to do it I love attempting to log onto the internet to realize that its either not working or going slower than I had ever though possible. Good Luck and NEVER get rcn.
-matt
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Review by jhiggins1123
member for 10.9 years, 53 visits, last login: 3.4 years ago
lodged 10.4 years ago
- Plymouth,Luzerne,PA
- Contract price not specified.
 AllTel
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For those of you in the Lehigh Valley talking about the UBR's being overloaded: YOUR FULL OF IT. all of your reviews say that there are only 5 UBRS for the Valley. There are in fact 15. I know because I work for them.
And for all of those who think Tech Support reps are useless. What about you customers that cant find something as simple as the MAC address when we tell you where it is?
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Review by zanchicago
member for 10.5 years, 0 visits, last login: 10.5 years ago
lodged 10.5 years ago
- Chicago,Cook,IL
- $45 per month
- "Decent speed"
- "Hideous hold times, inept customer and technical support"
- "I'm searching for alternatives"
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I've been with RCN for about a year and a half, and in that time I've had payments returned to me ("no such customer") even when attached to my pre-printed bill stub, had my email account deactivated twice ("email not associated with any account"), had about five service interruptions, been on hold trying to report these problems for a grand total of about four hours, and been hung up on (after 30 minutes on hold).
There's a reason why I finally asked them to reset my password to "[your service is really awful and you are so gone once I have an alternative]". (Paraphrased, natch.)
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Review by bediff
member for 10.7 years, 3 visits, last login: 10.5 years ago
lodged 10.5 years ago
- Redwood City,San Mateo,CA
- $80 per month
- about 60 days
- "Consolidated phone-tv-Net billing"
- "Incompetent phone support - web site sucks."
- "Putting up with it now, but those"
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RCN cancelled my first installation visit without notifying me, causing me to loose a work day - totally unprofessional behaviour. Not only that, I had already cancelled my DSL, so I was without NET access for like a whole month! - These people are not into customer service.
The phone support sucks. To get anything done, I have to call multiple times so I can get a tech who knows what he's doing. I complained to the install tech when he was here and he confirmed my experience. Keep calling he said. Dang, hope you don't need much help 'cuz they sux at it. After 80 days, I still have problem with my long distance calls. Their web site sux and provides just the basic of information and not much else. Electronics/web request/change? I think they are still using typewriters at HQ.
The only reason I am with RCN is the consolidated phone-tv-NET billing, but the competitors' $29.99 broadband access are looking mighty attractive now.
Net access performance is "acceptable."
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Review by twisty7867
member for 10.5 years, 3 visits, last login: 10.4 years ago
lodged 10.5 years ago
- New York,New York,NY
- $55 per month
- about 10 days
- "timely install. decent uplink speed."
- "port 80 blocking, technician hosed my TCP settings"
- "probably great for non-power users"
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In the midst of planning a move to a new apartment, I was disappointed to find that Time Warner didn't offer RoadRunner service there (this is downtown Manhattan, for christ's sake!). However, the building management mentioned that RCN was also available in the building, and given the long lead times on DSL installs, and the fact that I do a lot of work through telecommuting and don't own a modem, I needed to get up and running fast. So, with some trepidation I signed up fror the Resilink Mercury package - digital cable, HBO, and cable modem. The total price was $99.98 - $94.99 for the Resilink package plus $4.99 for an extra IP.
The technician arrived on time, although my wife reports that the install took forever - ~90 minutes.
My initial reaction was one of total disappointment - my VPN connection to my office did not work, I could not connect to my PC via telnet or FTP, the download speed is capped at EXACTLY one megabit (literally 1,048,... bps in several tests), and the digital cable SUCKS. The guide is annoying and slow, not nearly as informative as the one on Time Warner, and to top it all off, it's plastered with ads!! WTF is that? There are enough ads on TV without one popping up every time you open a window on the cable box. The equipment was a dirty, used RCA modem.
The upload speed is decent, however, consistently running 700-800kpbs.
A few days later, I finally found the source of my TCP problems - in the course of the install the technician had changed my IP security settings. They were quickly fixed and I was back on the VPN and back in business with FTP and telnet. Port 80 is still blocked, of course, but the service will be usable until my Speakeasy 1.5/768 DSL is installed.
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 Review by St0ney
member for 12.2 years, 2612 visits, last login: 94 days ago
lodged 10.7 years ago
- uranus
- $39 per month
- (6 month contract)
- about 7 days
- "Uploads are fast at around 750; cheap for non cable TV subscribers"
- "Sometimes, though very rarely, i get conection slowdowns."
- "Low price, Fast Uploads."
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My first order was for RCN Bronze Resilink 1/25/02. Package is for cable modem and telephone service for $76/month. Sales rep said it would take 2 1/2 weeks, mainly because it takes Verizon ten business days to release my telephone line. He asks me to pick a time between 1 and 5 for February 13. So I say 4 pm and he says OK. February 13 comes by and the installation guy comes at 2:30 but I was not home because it was supposed to be at 4. Turns out that I am supposed to wait from 1 to 5; but thats not what the sales rep told me. It was totally their fault that the appointment was missed. Well, I was not gonna wait another 2 1/2 weeks, as they told me when I called back. I cancelled my order, but I still needed broadband. So reluctantly I called RCN again on 2/14/02 to order cable modem only. I finally lucked out; it would only cost me 39.95 a month, 6 month contract, no installation fee, free modem.
This was all good because I was non-cable tv subscriber. That's $20 less than if I got Road Runner. Install date set one week later on 2/21/02. This time I was told to wait from 12 to 4. Installation guys came at 3. Installed new line to my house and new cable inside to my computer. Took 1 hour 50 minutes. Set up my modem and was online. My modem is a RCA digital cable modem.
Did a speed test here and got 600 down/700 up. Did some tweaking and tested again; got 1300/750. This was around 6 pm. I am getting consistent speeds all the time although my pings while playing games fluctuate from 20ms to 50ms on fastest servers I play at and when I host a game other people's pings fluctuate too.
NOw I am cancelling because my Six month contract is almost up aND will increase to 50 a month. Overall it was good.
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