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Review by bitnology 
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 6.9 years, 71 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
 San Bruno,San Mateo,CA
 Contract price not specified.
 about 1 days
 "Amazing local service and support"
 "cost."
 "Currently the best bet for speed in San Bruno"
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You'll read some old and bad reviews from the past here which is too bad because overall, apart from the hiccups of the past, San Bruno Cable offer great service and support. The local installation and service just couldn't be any better. They seem to have learned from the (big) mistakes made in the past and really do give the impression that they care and have pride in providing great service.
Speed is great, and has only improved over the last couple of years. 24 hour tech support is provided by a non-local third party service, but again, they are much better a couple of years back.
I've given 5 to the connection reliability which reflects the experience of the last couple of years, but before that definitely the score would have been lower. I did recently have an intermittent problem that turned out to be a faulty cable modem which they replaced free of charge.
If you want speed in San Bruno, this is really your only choice. If you want lower cost and don't need the speed go for DSL (but for sure the installation experience of San Bruno Cable can't be beaten).
They do have a discount if you also get TV and / or Telephone service with them.
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Review by mperkel
UPDATED: 3.2 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 44 visits, last login: 82 days ago
San Bruno,San Mateo,CA
$100 per month
about 5 days
"None at this point"
"Extremely Slow and Unreliable"
"It used to be great but they merged and now it sucks"
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My original review:
Best connection ever and I've had plenty. I'm buying the 500k upload speed. The download speed is unmetered so you get whatever is available and that's usually about a 6 mb rate. I downloaded the set of three Redhat Fedora CDs in 30 minutes. I got a static IP which is important to me because I'm running a secondary name server from home. I'm REALLY impressed. And - they installed it very quick and it just works.
If you are lucky enough to live in the coverage area - you definitely want this service. Only drawback to me is I'd like to have port 139 unblocked. But to most people this is protection from hackers. But - I set up a tunnel around it for my needs.
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UPDATE: As you can see above I used to really like this service. But that changed about a month ago (today 02-21-05 ) and they merged with someone and it REALLY SUCKS now. I have high ping times to the first router 400 ms and 20 percent packet loss. I cal tech support and I'm getting bullshit responses. I'm really close to changing services here. And it's really too bad because as you can see - I used to love this service.
UPDATE: 03-02-05 - Still sucks - getting worse. I can't even make a phone call using VoIP without getting cut off. Was down fr an hour tonight. High and erratick ping times and random packet loss. Was on hold waiting for customer service for over 30 minutes and hung up.
I will come back and update this if they fix the problem before I dump them.
UPDATE: 03-08-05 - Still sucks - but the slow ping times and packet loss are gone. Now it's just plain slow. They has me go to their speed test page at:
»speedtest.snbr.cablerocket.net/
And I tried it 4 times and getting 600-700k download and 350k upload. And I have bought the 500k upload package. Support tech claims that I'm capped at 1.5mb and says you never really get the max and that 600k is acceptable. The woman was totally clueless and was just paroting what management programmed her to parrot. Management is supposed to call me back.
Talked to management on the phone. They say they have everyone capped back because their cable head device is under capacity and that when it hits 100% it crashes and everyone goes down. (Which is consistent with last weeks service). They say that in two weeks the new one will be installed and that they are going to remove all the caps. I'll be back in 2 weeks to tell you if it happened.
UPDATE: 04-25-2006 After many months they upgraded the equipment. Everything seems to be fine as of October 2005.
UPDATE: 08-14-2006 - Problems are back. About every other day I find that my connection is not working and I have to power cycle the modem to reestablish my connection. This takes my VoIP phone system offline and disrupts my automatic backup of my web servers. The service has never been right since parasun took over.
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Review by zxcvb5312
UPDATED: 3.5 years ago
member for 5.6 years, 2 visits, last login: 3.5 years ago
San Bruno,San Mateo,CA
$30 per month
"Good downstream, techs try their best, network stability is good (for now)"
"Abysmally low default bandwidth limits, relatively low upstream"
"Used to be very good, but slowly and steadily went downhill."
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UPDATE (5/12/06): If you have SanBrunoCable as your ISP and you don't know what your transfer limit is, CALL THE TECH SUPPORT IMMEDIATELY AND ASK. I cannot stress this enough.
Calling the main office was fruitless as even after looking up my account on their computers they did not know what "service plan" my house was signed up for and referred me to tech support. If you have never even heard of the service plans (like me; I've been a customer for many years and this was the first time I ever heard of their limits or service plans) you're probably on the default 'residential' plan that has a transfer limit of 5 GB. Yes, 5 GB. I can go through that in a week and that is stretching things out. Doubtlessly there are people who can go through that in a half day without effort. I knew without a doubt I was way past 5 GB of bandwidth used so I asked how much I was at so far. "27 GB," was the answer. The tech commented, "That's a lot." Indeed it is. A customer for many years and this is all I get unless I upgrade to another plan. According to the AUP, the maximum allowed transfer is 60 GB, and this is if you have the "Professional" plan. Not to mention I had to call and ask what plan I was on and what transfer limit I had. In fact, I did not know about the transfer limit before another poster on this website mentioned it, and then got the specifics over the phone with the cable company and tech support itself.
»www.sanbruno.sanbrunocable.com/p···tableUse
Go to "8.0 Bandwidth/Network Traffic and Other Limitations." Particularly worrying is the part that says "Users exceeding the Bandwidth/Network Traffic amounts specified for their Service Package may be charged $10.00 for each Gigabyte used in excess of their specified amount." Looks like I will be seeing a very, very large bill at the end of this month.
I do not know when the "traffic limiter" kicks in, or even if the following anecdote was a product of it (but according to a description by another poster I believe it was), but if it does, you'll know it unless all you do is surf websites. It does nothing to standard website browsing but to anything else (online games, voice chat programs like ventrilo, etc) you will feel it. 10,000 ping to a Ventrilo server that normally pings 150-200 (and no, it was not the server as only my connection had the problem). Massive lag in practically any online game (likewise, only my connection had the problem). I called tech support (I did not know about the limiter at this time) and the tech I talked to went through hoops for the next half-hour in an attect to rectify the situation. No good. I appreciate his efforts. All of the above paragraph happened about a month ago.
Another gripe is the default upstream, which is about 300kbps. A number of other ISPs have a lower-end upstream limit of their cheap plans of at least 384kbps going to a ceiling of 512kbps, and some have more than that. For San Bruno Cable, 300kbps *is* the ceiling. For those of you who do not use their upstream that often you probably don't care about this but for those of us who do, you will care.
I will call the main office sometime on Monday and hope that I can somehow reduce the fees. I'm not expecting anything good. Thankfully, DSL has recently become available in my area (finally!) and if nothing changes for the better in regards to San Bruno Cable, I am definitely jumping ship. I've stuck with San Bruno Cable through quite a lot where others would have undoubtably switched elsewhere but the addition of these bandwidth limits is my limit. I advise anyone who reads this to check on the availability of other cable/dsl/etc ISPs as well.
Now for part about the good of this ISP: the tech support cares, or if they do not, they are effective in giving the air that they do care. I mentioned earlier the tech who attempted to help me with my problems. In fact, he opened a support ticket that was later followed up by another member of the tech support group without me asking (the problem had mystically solved itself prior to the call though).
Another upside to San Bruno Cable is the downstream. I am easily able to acquire speed tests of 4.5-5.0+ mb. Unfortunately, the new bandwidth transfer limits severely affect this fact's place as a plus. In fact, it very well could be a minus since the faster you download, the faster you'll hit your transfer limit. I feel bad for the person(s) who consistantly speed test in excess of 8000down/1000up as he/she/they have most likely hit their transfer limits for the month long ago.
One more plus to San Bruno Cable is the stability of the network, at least nowadays. I will admit that it has not gone down randomly for quite a while. If you've been with the ISP a year and some ago, you knew how it was. You can probably still see some comments about it somewhere on this site. If you weren't with the ISP then, it can be summed up in a word: Horrible. But I will say again, the network is stable, and has been stable, for quite a while.
VERY, VERY OLD REVIEW (08/14/04): I have had it since the beginning, the first service company they got suck, then home was great now with sprint is great, very fast easy to configure, no dumb homepage to be used, pick your own. uses DOCSIS modem mine is first one like 6-7 years ago still runs great
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Review by idcrisis
Posted: 3.6 years ago
member for 4.7 years, 47 visits, last login: 1.4 years ago
San Bruno,San Mateo,CA
Contract price not specified.
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So are there still problems with the speed and/or up time?
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Review by Just me
Posted: 4.2 years ago
member for 4.2 years, 55 visits, last login: 248 days ago
San Bruno,San Mateo,CA
Contract price not specified.
"very high pings and way to many hops"
"Bad service and pat answers"
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When it comes to Internet Cable Service San Bruno Cable is just another cable company that wants your money and delivers very poor service, With a pocket loss of 20% and a ping over 100 it is not a company that you would use for online games and if you wanted to just surf the web you would be better off using SBC DSL for $ 14.95 per month. It seens that San Bruno Cable's provider is Sprint and they will bounce you around from one network to another up to 20 times. when you call San Bruno Cable they just tell you how good they are doing and when you talk to the system engineer and start to ask him questions he seems to be stuck on answers because he cant do anything, he can only ask Sprint and it willl take months for them to get back to him or you. When you ask about high pings you get the same old stuff "well sometimes alot of people get on at the same time and your ping will go up " geez only 2,500 people in San Bruno have internet service with all the upgrades they did you would think they can do alot better or atleast come up with a better answer. They say they have "Lightning Speed" internet service mabye they should look up the speed of light, DONT ADVERTISE WHAT YOU DONT HAVE. Just another unhappy customer.
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Review by dansfbay
Posted: 4.4 years ago
member for 4.4 years, 1 visits, last login: 4.1 years ago
San Bruno,San Mateo,CA
$29 per month
about 3 days
"Faster than ADSL, always on connection"
"can drop to 128Kbps down stream, and fluctuates constantly"
"better alternative to ADSL, company has monopoly on service."
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I have been a subscriber now for 2 years. I have been sticking by San Bruno cable out of necessity. I am too far from the nearest central office to go back to DSL. Please read the email correspondence i have had with the director of the call center. I am STILL haveing major issues with them and am not getting any results.
Director Mon 3/28/2005 11:37 AM
I have been a subscriber of both your cable and internet services for well over a year now. My payments are seldom late and rarely will I call in a trouble ticket. I am very aware of the change over that is occurring within the internet division and I am sure that this is a major head ache. For roughly about 2 ½ months now, my internet connection has either been poor – mediocre to non existent. I have been very forgiving as I am aware as to how difficult this transition is. However last night was the worst I have ever seen it. During startup windows establishes your pc’s IP address to get you ready for the internet (this is my understanding). I believe this process is called DHCP. I spoke to one of your technicians regarding my static IP address and he mentioned that my connection is being routed through multiple locations something about “tunneling pseudo interface”.
Last night the DHCP was having so much difficulty, that starting applications after windows starts was impossible until the DHCP was completed. I tested this theory by merely turning off my modem. There is nothing physically wrong my either my modem or my windows environment. There have been no changes on my end. This is unacceptable. I don’t mind having a bad cable signal at my TV (which is also and existing problem), but I need to access files on a daily basis through PC Anywhere and when my connection drop rate is 2-3 times a day it turns into a major inconvenience. I pay for this convenience and I wouldn’t trade it for any other service.
Today I spoke to a customer service rep and although I initially was frustrated and cancelled my subscription, it was in haste. The operator showed no empathy and while that may be too far for them to reach, I feel (as I am sure other subscribers feel) that an exception needs to be made. Cable subscribers see your service as a utility (whether it is or not), and therefore to some it is essential that this service is running at its optimal conditions. If the service is failing (network wide) than customer support needs to take action to ease their customers doubts in the quality of service that is being provided. To date, this “action to ease” came in the form of an email. This is not personal and not acceptable. If you want to reach the people that pay to keep these services running please show us you care. Tell the operators to be more empathetic, they are being paid to give us answers and to assure us, not to demean or belittle or concerns. Our concerns are valid and not unfounded.
My understanding is that these issues with the network are to be resolved in mid April. I don’t expect the process to speed up, I’m sure it will be finished when it can be. I do feel however that billing compensation is a fair gesture in this particular case. I have been a loyal customer and may continue to be so if this is handled with nobility.
Thank you for taking the time to read this email.
Daniel *** of San Bruno, California
Reply: Mon 3/28/2005 8:41 PM
Hi there, Daniel,
This is Matt from SanBruno Cable, Supervisor of the Call Center, and just wanted to take the opportunity to reply back to this very thoughtful letter sent to me by Tenzin, our Cable Director.
We definitely appreciate the respect you have shown and wanted to let you know that I will personally be calling you at your earliest convenience, tomorrow. My hours are from 10:00 - 18:00 PST for this week until Thursday. We have your email address and shall sync that up with a phone number from your account info in order to make this happen. If you think we may have outdated information phone number-wise please reply back to this email, or call the number(s) after my signature, with any other number(s) we may not possess.
I would also like to take some space in this missive to apologize for your troubles, but will not waste your time in making any excuses for the service as it is now. It is not up to expectations and for that we are sorry. Your own knowledge of the facts that we are seriously trying to fix any and all issues that have arisen and will arise, is most appreciated. To that end, I would like to give you my direct line so that if ever after our completed work fails - heaven forbid - please do not hesitate to let us know. We do try to keep on top of outages and the like, but sometimes, it is indeed the customer responding to a failure that alerts us to its presence!
Thank you again for your understanding, and of course: your loyalty, as we hope to make things much improved by the allotted time left us in our ETA for said 'fixes'.
I look forward to being the one to hand you some great news once we do progress from our state of affairs as they are now.
Regards,
~Matt B~
Supervisor, SanBruno Cable Call Center
Direct Line = 1.888.207.0203x1103 } 24/7 Tech Line = 1.888.207.0204
3 months later Wed 6/8/2005 9:51 PM
Hey Matt,
I received your voice mail a couple of weeks ago, checking in on my service and wanted to say thanks for concerning yourself. I have yet to here from Tenzin with the exception of the email he sent all of his subscribers apologizing for the delay with the hardware. I am in a predicament; the cable internet service has been fluctuating lately and tonight my download shrunk to 220Kbps. The worst I have seen it in the last week was 152Kbps. The real quandary is that I have no choices for broadband; I am too far from the nearest DSL central office to justify signing up and as you know, Comcast will not be coming to San Bruno anytime soon. This puts me in a position to “remain loyal” almost against my will. So you can imagine that 1 person asking for a little compensation feels like a waste of time. This email is wasting my time, the internet already wastes my time, and I don’t need it to be slow too. Tenzin could have very easily compensated his subscribers a free month. I mean what are we talking here 500,000 maybe 600,000 AT MOST. I don’t want to leave; it seems if I did the only thing that would result would be 1 really bitter customer leaving. Currently I work at UCSF Parnassus and on a daily basis I deal with picket lines, protests, public out cries and just people being plain pissed off, one thing I have learned working around this environment is that annoying and pestering as it may seem these public out cries or rallies can get results from time to time.
Daniel ****
of San Bruno, California
I would like to start a petition to get San Bruno Cable Internet subscribers a refund for March or April. If anyone is interested please reply to this post or email me at danielsfbay@hotmail.com
This is a serious matter that needs to be addressed. I can only address it with a large voice and mine alone is obviously a waste of time. Please show your support for better customer service by replying.
Thank you.
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Review by nagendra8
Posted: 4.9 years ago
member for 4.9 years, 0 visits, last login: 4.9 years ago
San Bruno,San Mateo,CA
$49 per month
"no DSL, cable internet only"
"too pricy"
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Why would you use the city council forced internet service provider? I want internet only, I don't want cable. So I call them up, only to find out that if you have Cable with them, you get internet for $29.95 and otherwise for $49.95. Which means, that you have to get cable to get internet. Why pay even $29.95 when you can get SBCYahoo for $26.95 ?
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 Review by njrichie
Posted: 6 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 2322 visits, last login: 6 days ago
San Bruno,San Mateo,CA
$31 per month
about 3 days
"Fast Speed, Good Tech Support, Great Value"
"Might be a problem with DHCP addresses."
"Fast, Better Priced than SBC, Works Well"
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I was able to help my friend over the phone order, set up and test this service. The time between ordering and service was three days. The tech arrived and had to rewire the cable line so that the cable modem ran off its own split. He lives in an large apartment complex with many apartments and I was concerned of signal loss. But he was able to get a good signal to his cable modem. He purchased the cable modem directly from San Bruno Cable at a cost of $50. This was a new Motorola SB4200, a very good deal! The service worked well, right out of the box and he is getting over 5MB down and about 900kb up. The only problem was that certain web sites he was unable to reach with this service. After writing to tech support (They only have one person who does tech support) and checking his pc, we were able to determine that the problem was with San Bruno Cable. After sending tech support the IP address and MAC address of the modem, he was able to fix it by assigning a Static IP address to his modem as opposed to a Dynamic one that he was orginally assigned. This did fix the problem but it took a few emails back and forth to finally convince them that it was their side. This was the only problem with San Bruno Cable. My friend is getting faster speeds for less than Im paying!
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Review by tanor
Posted: 7.1 years ago
member for 7.1 years, 0 visits, last login: 7.1 years ago
San Bruno,San Mateo,CA
Contract price not specified.
"They are the best"
"I love this service"
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I just love this service! Keep up the great work!
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San Bruno Municipal Cable
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