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Switched from SBC DSL. Went with self install kit which arrived in 3 days. The installer program locked me out because of a proxy installed unbeknownst to me. Had to call tech support to change the configuration in the browser. Seems this is a common problem. Tech support talked me through the problem in 5 minutes. Otherwise, straight forward installation; was online in 3 minutes including home network connection (swapped out the DSL MODEM with Cable MODEM and router settings. Connection via a router was very simple. Speed is 3000/250+. Download is about 2.5 X faster than DSL and saved $20 monthly. IP is dynamic. Monthly cost: $24 X 3 months, the $42/month Equipment: Siemens SS6101 SpeedStream cable MODEM ($19.00 on eBay), SMC router, 2 Belkin 54G WAP, desktop and laptop running WINXP. Very satisfied !!! member for 21.8 years, 111 visits, last login: 11.4 years ago lodged 19.5 years ago
When i first ordered AT&T about 6months ago... 3days later a tech came out and said that he can't drill in to the side of my house cuz of the siding. Next day another tech came out and figured out a different place to hook it up at. That same day, we ordered Digital Cable also. So after the tech guy hooked up the internet and tested it out and said that everything was running great, right after he left the digitial cable tech guys came and after they hooked that up they left. I went to use the internet and for some reason it wasnt working. Next day a tech came out again and told me that the digitial cable guys hooked something up wrong because thats what was causing it. So then after that everything was running great and I have both computers hooked up and running. Before he left, he told me that he would give me a month free and no charge for the installation. So that was cool. A few specs: Speed: 1800k download and 256k upload. My download speeds average about 200 to 235kb/sec all the time and my upload speeds average about 25 to 30kb/sec Price: $45.95/month IP: Dynamic IP but for some reason my IP address very rarly changes. I think the last time it changed was about 8months ago. Location: Burien, WA 06/14/03: So far everything has been fast and my pings have been low for me. Except, for about 2months ago my speed and ping really sucked, but that was my falt that i did something to my computer. haha! The web mail server it very slow sometimes, its much better if you set it up using Outlook Express. Other than that everything is running good. 09/20/2003: Still running great! Except for about 3 weeks ago Comcast had 2days of down time in my area. Other than that, the connection is always on and there has only been 1 down time in the past 11months that we've had ATT/Comcast. 10/04/2003: Everything is still going good. I am just waiting for that speed increase to come here to Seattle. Right now i still average about the same speeds ever since they raised the download cap to 1.8Mbps. My average speed tests are about 1750/220. 01/04/04: Well, I still haven't got the speed increase yet. I have been rebooting my modem everyday since they said it was supposed to be upgraded since 01/02/04. I will update this review again a once i get any down times or speed increase. 04/18/04: Got the speed increase about 2months ago, I just forgot to update this. Everything is running fast and smooth. My average speed test is about 3200 down and 248 up. I am thinking about changing ISP's to Qwest/MSN. My dad gets about 1500 down and 640 up for about the same price of what I am paying. If Comcast is not going to raise the upstream speed within the next year, then I might swich to Qwest/MSN. 09/24/04: Well i finally swiched over to Qwest about 3 weeks ago. My speed tests shows about 1249down and 879 up (the upload kicks ass compaired to Comcast). I am not getting anymore lag spikes when playing games with Comcast, that was getting so bad. I get a little higher ping with Qwest but no more lag spikes  member for 21.4 years, 558 visits, last login: 17.3 years ago updated 19.5 years ago
Hey alls...seems I have been pitching tent on wayyyy too many BB providers. This is a Comcast review, whom I use whenever I am at school. I am currently on their $20 a month promo for 6 months, and i was given a free webcam (waiting), free Barnes and Noble Giftcard (waiting), and free cable modem (declined, I already got one...not worth rebates, but the offer is there if you want it), all thru comcastoffers.com-----highly recommend u order service thru here. A word of warning, they dont say it on the website, which is shady, but you gotta be at least a limited basic customer to get all of the above promos. I consider it blatant false advertising, since I originally got the entire above deal without having to be cable customer, but $13.60 extra isnt bad, now I can surf and learn how to cook by watching food network =P. Thats only channel i seem to get utility out of! Been using their service since November of 2002, when they were still ATTBI. Easily reactivated service when I moved to a new duplex. The 1.8/256 speeds couldnt be touched by PacBell DSL back then. Now service is 3.3/256, my area (Berkeley) was one of the last to receive the upgrade (sometime I January of 04 I think). Speeds are consistant throughout the time of day (although it feels less snappier then it did 6 months..hmmm) The 256 pipe is kinda stiffling if you are a heavy downloader (I gotta cap it to 20 u/l or else browsing halts). I dont use their email much, but when I did, it seemed to do exactly what it was supposed to do. I used to download as much as 120 gigs a month in earlier half of this year, and always afraid of the dreaded letter telling me I download too much...nothing yet. Honestly, I dont think Comcast will even say a word to students, cause PacBell is eating up business like well...no ones business around here =P Whenever connection goes down (maybe about once every 3 months at worst), they send a tech dude usually within 3 days, and they handle it. Not much complaints there. However, everytime my promos end, I seem to gotta jump thru hoops to get the new one. Retentions will usually give u a good price over and over again if you call them to cancel due to "price." However, the first time I did it, I had to actually transfer the acctover to my name from my roomies. The best way to get a new customer promo has to be to cut off service (everyone else here uses DSL so I can leech on that while I turn cable back on), and then to just turn it back on. I get new promos even though i didnt wait 60 or more days to turn it back on, which is pretty cool =) Considering paying $10 more (confirmed with CSR on first try, i CAN pay just $10 more on top of my promo) to get 4.0/384...but honestly, it prob isnt worth it just for that much more upload. I can spend it on nominal computer upgrades, or FOOD =O Bottom Line Summary 3.3/256 for $20 a month for 6 months free webcam/cablemodem/barnes and noble $50 giftcard own modem (RCA one from the ATTBI days) reliable for the most part...very prompt repair when needed (~3days) Impossible to get current promos from CSRs, (surf DSLR or search thru google for best ones=P) #1 pro - easy to keep cheap rates by calling to "cancel" or actually cancelling, and then reordering. member for 23.6 years, 1679 visits, last login: 5 years ago lodged 19.5 years ago
I think Comcast out in the Philadelphia area is great. The service is very fast and keeps getting faster. The tech support leaves much to be desired. In the past 3 years there were 2 outages that lasted just for a day. Over all they are a great company, the techs are very courteous and as long as there isn't a complicated problem, you should do just fine with Comcast High Speed Internet. I did the install myself and just had to make a simple phone call for it to be turned on. Another good thing is they don't give you a static IP, but as long as your PC or router is connected you should be able to hold on to the IP for quite some time. update: I just upgraded to the 4.0/384 service. I was a little worried at 1st because I was receiving speeds close to what I had on the slower service. But after a couple days it stayed consistant with the service speeds offered. update again: I just upgraded to the 8/768 package because of voip - I still think they rock! member for 22.1 years, 2754 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago updated 19.5 years ago
Aug. 22, 2003: I'm satisfied with my connection and would say that 90% of the time it has been good. One thing that I can say bad is before the transition when they were AT&T the tech support was really bad and very unhelpful. Sept. 21, 2004: UPDATE: I called on 9/12/04 to disconnect my service for awhile and talked to two customer service reps. They were very polite and professional. I told them that I wanted to disconnect the service. Being that I am a non-cable tv subsriber, (I have Directv) I have to pay $56 a month and thats with my own modem. They asked me why I was disconnecting the service and I told them "I can't afford it right now and will look into other ISP options." Then she offered me a discount for the next 6 months for $38 dollars. That's still $10 more than what I can get DSL for out here in Pittsburg, but for the speed they offer I think it's worth it. Besides the DSL speeds offered here in Pittsburg are very slow (384/128kbps) and the only broadband options we have out here is DSL or cable modems. So I accepted the discounted offer and spoke to another rep who was just going to confrim with me. I was very pleased with how nice the reps were compared to before with AT&T when talking to the tech support they always made you feel like it was "something on my end why my connection was acting up." I must say that right now I'm very pleased with the service because it's very fast, I get low pings in games and I very rarely have any problems. I just wish that I can pay this price ($38) or lower all the time. Way to go Comcast for providing improved Cable services out here in Pittsburg. member for 21.7 years, 333 visits, last login: 19 years ago updated 19.5 years ago
September 2004 Update Redux: Ugh! Just yesterday I received a bill for two months' worth of service, with no explanation. The amount of the bill was nearly $200! To Comcast's credit, the customer service rep who helped me out was very apologetic about our having been sent an incorrect bill. She indicated that a new bill would be sent for the balance remaining on the month I cancelled, prorated to the correct number of days, for $12.00. I thanked her but I am still mad that it happened. Something I just realized (of course after updating this review the first time today) is that Comcast is no longer forwarding my e-mail to my Astound Broadband account. Oh well, I won't miss the spam! A perfectly good run was spoiled by this billing error. Maybe I'm a bit demanding, but can't a large organization like Comcast get its billing straight? gp ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- September 2004 Update: Once again I bid adieu to a broadband ISP, in this case, Comcast! I ditched my Comcast service and am now a customer of Astound Broadband. I will be reviewing Astound's service once I have had them long enough to write a decent review. To Comcast's credit, leaving Comcast wasn't difficult at all. I simply called their customer service number and stated I was switching providers. When asked why I told them that I wanted to pay lower prices for my broadband and cable. Comcast gave me a disconnect date of 08/19/2004 (a Thursday). Much to my surprise, the signal wasn't cut off at 12:01 AM on 08/20 as I had expected. I got a freebie out of Comcast! Imagine! I set up e-mail forwarding on all of my family's Comcast accounts right before cancellation, so all of our Comcast-bound e-mail (including the spam, unfortunately) is now being automatically forwarded to our new Astound Broadband accounts. So at least switching the e-mail hasn't been a hassle. It's just too bad that Comcast doesn't filter the spam before it forwards your e-mail. The only other cancellation experience negative is that a Comcast truck hasn't been by to my house to remove their old cable drop from the light pole to the dwelling. The Astound Broadband installers left the drop disconnected and it is simply hanging from the cable and on to the ground in my backyard. I'll have to call Comcast again to get them to take it off. Note to former ATTBI subscribers: Evidently the equipment rental records were not transferred over, since during the cancellation call I was told by the representative that I didn't have any Comcast equipment - never mind that I have been using an old ATTBI-issued 3Com Sharkfin cable modem and was paying the monthly rental fees on it. Hey Comcast, do you want the Sharkfin modem back? If not, can I keep it as a freebie? All in all, I have to give AT&T Broadband/Comcast a grade of B for the quality of service I got the two years I was their customer. In my area of California (94519) they have not been a bad ISP at all. Cheers! (Check out the review of Astound some time in October!) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- February 19, 2004 update: Comcast, to its immense credit, has been a great service provider ever since they completed the switchover from ATT Broadband in 2002. I've had Comcast HSI for my Internet service for just over a year now, and except for the connection drops a year ago (see below) the service has been top-notch. Even the webmail service is excellent - it is fast and very useful in screening e-mail messages for spam, something I routinely do from work before I download the messages I do want into my inbox at home. Note to Comcast: The spam handling features (Comcast uses BrightMail to screen e-mails for spam) aren't too bad, but I still get a significant amount of spam in my inbox each day, on the order of 20-30 individual pieces a day. I do my part by using the webmail service to report the individual pieces of spam, but whether that does any good or not I don't personally know. Comcast has been upgrading their network to support 3 Mbps download speeds for the standard service tier, up from what had been 1.8 Mbps about six months ago. The difference is phenomenal, but any additional points I'd give Comcast for the upgrade are majorly mitigated by their infamous invisible download caps. I haven't hit the caps yet (crossing fingers) but considering how my brother is now hooked on X-Box Live and I have the habit of listening to online radio I figure it is only a matter of time until I do. I'll be sure to report here on DSL Reports if I can get any kind of an actual cap amount out of Comcast. On the whole, Comcast isn't a bad service here in my zip (94519). I am still looking at options, namely Astound Broadband. However, for the time being Comcast rates a 4/5. The reason why they don't rate a 5/5 is their continued refusal to specify a hard number for their download caps - after all, what good is it to have broadband when it is metered? On all other counts though Comcast rocks. Rock-solid connection and low pings to any server I want to game on. Not too shabby at all. (Previous reviews below). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------- January 17, 2003 update: Lately I have had a few connection drops of unknown origin. Time of the day hasn't been a factor: The drops have happened at all hours of the day, for no discernible reason. For this I have to kick the Connection Reliability factor down to a 4, from what had been a solid 5 ever since I first signed up for ATT HSD. I've had some e-mail server problems too. Lately I've been experiencing long logon times and slow message retrieval. I imagine those of us that had mail accounts on the attbi.com domain who are now being transferred over to the comcast.net domain are going to go through some headaches in regard to e-mail service. Download speed has been raised to 1.8Mbps from 1.5. I read that the reason ATTBI did this was to placate users who were complaining they were not receiving the full 1.5Mbps (this is due to packet datagram overhead). Whatever the reason, I am enjoying it. 1.8Mbps translates to about 230KBps downloads, which is great for those long file downloads. Ping times are still excellent. Finally, I had kept my ATT HSD (Internet) account separate from my cable TV bill since the accounts are paid by different people (I pay the Internet service and my relatives pay the cable TV), but now Comcast wants to put them on a single bill. I don't really mind, but their letter asking me to sign a consent form to transfer one service account to the other isn't very clear as to the reasons why this change is even necessary. ATTBI/Comcast now gets a 3.75/5 in my book. gp ----------------------------------------- One-year update: Yes folks, I've now had ATT Broadband cable internet (in both @Home and ATTBI flavors) for a year! I am still quite pleased with the service, if not some of its ancillary features. On the plus side: The uptick to 256Kbps upload. Big plus. It makes for much smoother video conferencing. Also makes my VPN much more responsive. The download is still 1500 unless you upgrade to the top tier, however I don't think that 3Mbps down is worth ATTBI's cost. Another huge plus: Low ping times to any server you can name. I routinely get out of ATTBI's network and on to the rest of the Internet with ping times of 50ms or less, generally in less than 7-8 hops. On the negative side: ATTBI is now owned by Comcast. It's not even called ATT Comcast; Comcast dropped the ATT part (or so I read in Newsweek). I am now shopping around for a new ISP, and am actually considering returning to DSL. I have had no problems with the service, but I have read way too many negative comments about Comcast as a company to want to stay as their customer. In addition, there are now rumors being bandied about that Comcast wants to implement usage metering; this alone will cause me to leave as I download many CD-ROM ISO images as well as use a VPN. (This is for Concord/Walnut Creek readers' benefit: Astound Broadband can't give me a straight answer as to if my residence is in their Concord service territory, so unfortunately for me they aren't an option.) Another major negative is ATTBI's webmail. It is horrifically slow. Its SMTP/POP3 service isn't half bad, but its webmail is terrible. It's something I generally avoid using because of how unresponsive it is. Overall, ATTBI gets a 4.25/5 in my book. It isn't a perfect service; however I am more than satisfied with it. Read on to my two previous reviews and you will understand why. Current terms: 1500/256 speeds, DHCP, no contract, pay as you go or set up automatic billing. 45.95/month with modem rental, 42.95 without. ATTBI does offer tiered service levels, but 1500/256 is plenty for most users IMHO. gp ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------- Six-month customer update: ATTBI no longer directly debits my credit card for the monthly fee. Instead, I receive a notice in my inbox stating that my "online statement" is "ready for viewing". I then have to go into the My Account link at AT&T Broadband's support page to pay the bill using a secure site - same as if I were paying any other online merchant. Somewhat inconvenient, but I actually prefer this method. That way I know when my bill was paid, how much I paid, and which account I used to pay it. Instead of automatic credit card drafts, I am going to be paying using my checking account's debit card. From a service standpoint, ATTBI is still top notch. I have noticed that the speed test results have dipped into the 900 kbps down / 90 kbps up range, but this happens fairly infrequently. Most of the time I still hit 1400kbps down / 110kbps up. ATTBI also appears to have resolved their overburdened DNS server problems - I am using their DNS servers instead of another ISP's and they are actually quite responsive. Interestingly, I am still using the IP I was assigned after the switchover, with the same subnet mask. ATTBI is DHCP with 4-day leases, but my IP still hasn't changed - even after six months. I haven't had to use their technical support in some time, but from what I read in the ATTBI forum it still has a long way to go before it will stop being a sore point. So overall, I still give ATTBI a 4/5. Not bad for an ISP that has been operating for only 5 months (I say I am a six-month customer since I was on @Home for just under a month before they cut off service to AT&T Broadband Cable in early December 2001). From looking at the GBU charts, Comcast - soon to be ATTBI's owner - is still a horrible cable ISP. I am praying to the Almighty Cable Broadband Gods that ATTBI and Comcast will remain separate entities once the parent cable companies have merged. Why? Because if Comcast gets its tentacles all over ATTBI, the service will definitely begin to go downhill. (Comcast defenders, I don't want to hear it - the GBU charts and the Comcast forum speak for themselves.) When that happens is when I will leave ATTBI. Until then, I am extremely satisfied with the service, and wholeheartedly recommend it if you are in ATTBI's territory. (Original and first update reviews are below.) ------------------------------------------------------- Update: My connection is still running smoothly, and the ping times have decreased significantly - from an average of 80-100ms to 30-40ms to get out of ATTBI's network. I have noticed on my billing statements that ATTBI has been crediting my fee by over half, resulting in a monthly service price of $21 a month! I haven't signed up for any specials or anything, so why this is being done is a complete mystery to me. Not that I'm complaining! I was going to return my AT&T-issue 3Com Sharkfin cable modem and buy a CM on Ebay, but since the monthly price is so low right now, I won't go through the trouble just yet. (Original Review is below). ------------------------------------------------------------------- Full disclosure: I post rather heavily on the AT&T Broadband forum. Not all of my posts there are positive ones. So draw your own conclusions. After the @Home cut off, my service was out for two days. I received my automated phone call from AT&T about 12 hours after that service was knocked out, which said that it would be a week to 10 days for full service restoration. This was the only information I ever really got from ATTBI about when their service would be active, so that's why the "Pre-sales Information" rating is a 3. I also think that AT&T also gave themselves a nice wide cushion in case they couldn't get to everyone in time, which of course they didn't. In fairness, AT&T did one hell of a job getting over half a million subscribers switched to a portion of their ITS network (the 12.0.0.0 IP block ATT owns) in a very short time. Reconfiguring head ends, fiber switches, and AS routers to bring in such a massive amount of subscribers can't have been a pleasant experience when it had to be done in such a short period of time. Kudos to AT&T for a tremendous and very successful effort. For this ATTBI gets a 4 in the Install Coordination category. Kudos also to AT&T for having some of their technicians post helpful information on the DSLR ATTBI forum. During the confusion brought on by the switchover, a lot of these posts - especially the ones about how to provision your own ATTBI service using the SAS servers - were invaluable. It's too bad that their chat and telephone tech support representatives aren't of the same quality. Don't bother calling for tech support, instead try and research the information on your own to save yourself some major frustration. My recommendation: Read the ATTBI FAQ here at DSLR. The quality of the service itself has not been bad at all. I admit to becoming very spoiled during the few days I had @Home, as my download speed during long downloads consistenly hit 5Mbps. Now, thanks to ATTBI's cap, I get about 1.45Mbps. Not bad, but horrible in comparison to what I had with @Home. AT&T also does not have enough DNS servers for all of their subscribers. DNS lookups can take a very long time - on the order of several seconds in some cases. I now use the DNS servers from my prior ISP, Telocity. Telocity's DNS servers are simply much more responsive, even if it takes about 5-7 more hops to reach them. Other ATTBI subscribers use Speakeasy's DNS servers, for much the same reason - ATTBI's DNS is slow and overworked. Eventually I will install my own Linux box, and use that for my DNS lookups. Another ATTBI negative is the upstream limit. 128Kbps isn't enough to do video conferencing (which I do a lot of) with. 256Kbps would be better. One thing that I know I am not happy with is that AT&T Broadband - and presumably, ATTBI as well - will soon be a part of Comcast. From what I have read in the Comcast forum, they are a company to be avoided. Unfortunately, AT&T Broadband didn't see things that way. I hope that the quality of the service does not change once the two companies merge. Connection reliability has simply been awesome. I have had ONE outage, soon after the switchover. It lasted for just over an hour. Ever since then, the connection has been rock-solid. Not a single connection drop, and steady download rates. I must be lucky and be connected to an undersubscribed head end. No matter. ATTBI gets an enthusiastic 5 for reliability. Compared to Telocity, ATTBI's reliability is incredible. Service terms: 1500Kbps down, 128 Kbps up; DHCP (Static IP is not available, however my IP hasn't changed in two months); $46/month with a leased modem, $36/month with your own. Those are the terms that AT&T offers right now, and I don't foresee them changing. After two months with ATTBI, I'd rate them a 4 overall. The caps, terrible telephonic tech support, and the slow DNS servers take away from the service. But if you are looking for a good cable ISP and don't mind getting your hands dirty doing your own support and home networking, ATTBI is an excellent choice. member for 23 years, 2262 visits, last login: 6.3 years ago updated 19.5 years ago
There were some bumps because we live in the sticks and the road names are not always clear. Other than that, however, its been fine. Bought the modem in the store and self-installed at home. Tech support is not so great, but hold time is not so bad and they will escalate you if you ask. Service time, if necessary, is quick. Speed is good, no major routing hiccups. All in all, a good value. Wondering if it will do VoIP now . . . . member for 24.3 years, 30 visits, last login: 14.1 years ago lodged 19.6 years ago
Almost 4 years with Comcast now. Never had any trouble. Waiting for another speed increase. New homepage is a little busy for me, but I'll get used to it. Service is rock solid. Haven't had any issues with security. Knock on wood. member for 20 years, 436 visits, last login: 18.9 years ago lodged 19.6 years ago
I've been with Comcast (and its predecessor companies) in Vancouver, Washington for about eight years. During that time, there've been ups and downs. However, I am very satisfies with their service over the past eighteen months. Did have a nagging problem, but it was remedied and now I surf FAST!!! Ron All e-mail is scanned by Norton AntiVirus with the very latest definitions to ensure that you will never receive any viruses from me. (review was emailed from domain comcast.net) lodged 19.6 years ago
Looking for a replacement for Elink DSL. Their customer service has gone to hell big time. Decided to try cable, since the house was wired for it even though we don't use it. (We use DirecTV). Called 1-800-comcast......waited over 20 minutes for someone to answer. Finally...explained my situation..no cable..whatcha' got?....she said $10 install and $ 20 month for 6 months. I said OK, the install date was set 37!! days (yes that's 5+ weeks) in the future. Tech came today. GREAT GUY !!. Changed out all the old fittings, new ground block outside, fixed the cable at the pole....and a friendly guy too.....rare. So far speeds at 2799/240 which is pretty close to advertised. Had to play the usual game of cloning the PC MAC in order to use a router. Without the router it was very difficult to "surf" as ZoneAlarm was getting hit constantly... So far...so good..... More to follow..... member for 22.1 years, 4635 visits, last login: 6.4 years ago lodged 19.6 years ago
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