Final Fix & Last Chance
The repair guy for my broadband connection finally leaves, after replacing my rooftop transciever. Transciever? Yeah, I’ve used Sprint Fixed Wireless for over two years now.
Back in the Dark Ages (my dial-up access days), I swore to Whomever I would go with whoever brough me high speed first, so long as it wasn’t Those Bastards at US West (now known as Those Unprintables at Qwest). Cable modem speeds were good, but I was wary about going with Indicted. . . er, Adelphia Cable, just because, well, they’re a cable company. Anyway, Sprint got here first, so I signed up immediately.
The idea is great. Bypass the “last mile” to my home (owned by either TUQwest or Indicted Cable) by putting up an antenna farm on Cheyenne Mountain. Broadcast a wireless internet connection at 2.4ghz, a frequency almost entirely unaffected by weather. Put transcievers on peoples roofs, and a “modem” (really a tiny DHCP server) on their desktops. Instant broadband without the distance limitations of DSL, or the expensive upgrades the cable companies had to do on their infrastructure.
So I was a very happy surfer there for a few weeks. Until the Massively Recurring Packet Loss Problem first manifested itself. For reasons unknown, my connection gets worse and worse over time. Fifteen minutes with tech support usually does the trick, but sometimes they have to send over a real live technician to do whatever it is he does so frequently here. Then everything is fine again forever, or at least until the connection goes to hell every few weeks.
Last week my connection got spotty. By Monday, I was suffering packet loss of anywhere from 20-30%. So today they sent someone, and he got the problem down to 5%. For not quite four minutes by my watch.
Just after he left, I ran another ping to Sprint’s local server. 16% loss, and seek times I don’t want to talk about right now; it’s sad to see a grown man cry over his Coke.
I’m done. I’m finished. I’m on the outs with Sprint. I know all the by-the-book pros and cons between cable and DSL, but I’d like to hear from anyone in Colorado with real experience with Qwest or Adelphia.
Just click on the “Drinks” and let me know.
My parents live up in Monument. They started using the Adelphia cable modem service six months ago. I used the connection extensively over the Christmas holidays. No complaints: fast and stable.
I have DSL through Qwest, with FRII as my ISP. Not as fast as a wide-open cable pipe, but I get guaranteed speeds rather than it being on the whim of how many of my neighbors jump online with me.
The initial set-up was hassle because a) Qwest front-line techs didn’t have a clue about DSL or, perhaps, even the PC in front of them and b) their messy little entanglement with Microsoft’s MSN package.
Once it was all worked out, though, everything was fine and continues to be.
I’m in Seattle, but I’ve been using USWest/Qwest DSL without a hitch for 3 years now.
how techy are your neighbours?
if very.. go dsl
if not.. go cable!
very non local, but if you’re in an engineer infested part of CO, go with DSL (since wifey works at Lockheed, I’d guess y’all have a few engineers around)
Stephen,
This does not relate directly to Indicted or Qwest but I have cable modem service from Earthlink via Time Warner loop in Manhattan. I am assuming it don’t get much denser then this. However, I see consistent 1.5 – 2MBit downloads and roughly 1MBit uploads.
The cable being shared pipe and all that makes sense, however it is a faaaaat shared pipe. And after all the limiting factor is not the shared pipe but the upstream facility from the CO/Headend to the POP.
With, modem caps and now dynamic caps it is very hard for one cable modem user to hog the bandwidth. I have used DSL through Verizon and throughput wise Cable modem rocks. Even in ultra dense east side manhattan.
If you really have coin to blow, you can get both and plug into these devices that will dynamically switch your connection from one to other based on throughput. These gizmos cost $150-200.
Broadband rocks!
I’ve been happy with @Home/AT&T/ComCast. Don’t know if it’s available there, but if so, go for it.
Hi Stephen:
I had @Home/ATT/COMCAST for a couple of years (location border Denver & Aurora). It was extreamly fast ~1.1-1.5Mbps download speeds. Roughly ~250+Kbps upload speeds. And realitively cheap at ~$50/mo or so. Installation and service was very good. A few outages but I don’t remember any lasting over a day or so. And those were early in the service. The only drawback was that they would not assign any static IP addresses. Also rumor had it that if they detected that you were running a server they would disconnect you. But I was never able to verify that one way or another.
Because of the need for at static IP address, I switched to Qwest DSL Commercial version. Their personal version, MSN, didn’t provide it. I’m getting about ~385+Kbps both ways, but paying over twice as much.
If I didn’t need the static IP I would go back to cable in a heart beat.
Hope this helps.
I used to have the Sprint Broadband Direct internet access. When I first got it, it rocked. Then, as they started REALLY selling the service, bandwidth slowed to a crawl, and the above mentioned problems with the connection just going *boink*, made me look for greener pastures.
Now I’m a happy customer of Cox@Home cable. Haven’t had any bandwidth issues to speak of.
Stephen,
I am in Canon City and have had AT&T cable internet for 6 months. I was warned that in prime time it would slow down, but have seen no sign of it. It is just as fast as my full T1 at work
I had Adelphia Powerlink in Monument up until I moved out of the service area a couple months ago, and boy do I miss it now. There were a few times (maybe a few hours/month) it went down, but typical speed and reliability were excellent. Never did use their email service much, but my inbox still got a lot of junk compared to Apple’s.
The Total Advantage package is the best deal going if you’re in to TV a lot as well.
I’ve got Qwest/MSN dsl in Denver. Had it at the apt in 2000 and at the house since 2001. Have had no significant problems and I’m online nearly as much as you including online grad school courses.
Had cable access in SoCal in 98-00. It was a nightmare. No bandwidth on Sunday afternoons or other high use periods. Am not included to ever have cable access again.
i had two very different experiences with qwest. for the first five months, all hell broke loose about once a week. nothing worked. literally, nothing. the dslam wouldn’t talk to the modem, the modem wouldn’t talk to the network, the modem reconfigured the network when the techs came out to fix it, we got a very special direct line to tier three escalations and we got charged double when it was all over because they had us as two accounts for three months.
after we got those charges cancelled and the modem up and running (really this time) it has been smooth as ice. no complaints whatsoever since then (over a year). always, and i mean always, getting 640 both ways.
go figure.
I’ve had DSL in Boulder by USWest, then Qwest for 4 years now. The reliability and performance have been excellent, which is surprising considering the reputation of those involved. The worst thing that happened was when they switched me to MSN. Other ISPs are availible, I’ve just never gotten off my butt to pick a new one.
I think the fact that I’m in a new-ish neighborhood with a modern phone switch helps.
Last I heard, Sprint was not accepting new customers for MMDS wireless. Maybe they’re letting the system rot.