ZOOOOOMMMM !! Now >> THIS << is broadband !!

[WalkinTarget]

Yanno, back in the day, Verizon wasn't all that bad ! I was one of the first in the neighborhood to get DSL, waaaay back in '99 (when KP was in diapers !!) when it was GTE (ask your parents about the Baby Bells and whatnot) and it was technically 'broadband' for the US.
It was comparable to cable modems via Comcast at the time, and every two years I had my DSL speeds doubled, so life was good and I was happy.

Now move ahead about 8 years since my last speed doubling (3mb DL was the best I ever got) and I've watched the local Comcast monopoly continue to double their speeds, all the way up to 50mb !!! Good God .. I was jealous, but HATED Comcast with a passion .... until ... they decided to stick it one last time to Verizon.

We received a flyer offering an internet only plan via Comcast for $20/mo. for 1 year, and it then raises to $35/mo. Note this is the SAME Comcast who doesn't offer anything other than a bundle, but now they offer 'naked' cable modem plans and for $5 MORE (and 5x faster) than my DSL modem stuck at 3mb for $30/mo.

In the interests of giving Verizon a chance to redeem themselves, I logged in to see what plans I could upgrade to, only to find out that Verizon does not offer 'naked' DSL (as of May of this year) and I need to buy a bundle.

FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU !!!!!!!!

Verizon has now become Comcast, and Comcast has become ... well .... they ... uhmmm, screw it, at least I can just buy internet access, but I still don't like their business practices (and I hate their tech support with a passion).

Everybody likes pics, so here's my contribution to the moar pics peeps:

Verizon DSL - 3mb:



Seriously ???? C'mon mannnn ....

Oh, but wait, a swap of the DSL to the shiny new SB 6121 nets me this:



Oh my ... 12mb huh ??? Looks like its a bit better than that (keep in mind it will drop in the evening when everyone is using it). So, WT is happy now, the kids are happy, wife happy .. its all good !! And I am $10 heavier in the wallet for the next 12 months. I won't ever say good things about Comcast, but I WILL admit that for once in a decade they did something nice, and to Verizon, I bid you adieu ... it was fun while it lasted, but your time is now up.

[goldenfooler]

Wow thats a change.

[WalkinTarget]

I briefly tried to talk the wife into upgrading to the 25mb plan which jumps up to $30/mo. intro plan for a year, which God only knows what that tops out at, speed-wise. After one year, I think it is $45/mo. ?? Not sure (they never wanna show you the regular price, only the intro).

Anyhoo, its good enough for me, and I won't lag out of games when anyone else in the house goes to watch a video now.

[Apache Warrior]

Jealous.
Congrats.
Apache

[K PhaNTOM]

You know what's interesting? When comcast upgraded my speed, they basically just reset the Modem and there it was, blazing fast 60Mbs. Which really makes me wonder, how fast will my internet be if they remove restrictions? As in, if they can go from 10 to 60Mbs with the click of a mouse, how fast could that cable be? It isn't even fiber. I'm paying a bit much for it, but to me, it is completely worth it. Although, 25Mbs for 35 bucks is quite tempting. They don't do that in my area. I'm paying 4 times as much for 2.5 times the speed. Not complaining, but noticing.

Really, WT, I'm happy for you. Nothing bugs me more than slow internet. I'm the only one in my house that uses the internet and I enjoy the full speed at all times.

Also, OMG PICS!!!

[WalkinTarget]

One thing I will say about me personally .. I am loyal almost to a fault, and I never even gave a thought to ditching Verizon, but I had just signed up for Netflix a month ago, and while I was pleasantly surprised at the small amount of buffering I had, my overall broadband ISP connex has not at all kept up with my PC hardware upgrading ... not even close.

The only concern I have is what happens after this 1 year period expires. Again, I go back to my previous experiences with Comcast and almost expect to have them hit me with the 'bundle or nothing' deal. Nothing surprises me in today's corporate monopolistic environment.

In the meantime, I can now stream and download to my heart's content. I may even update this thread next year to see what happens then ...

[K PhaNTOM]

My plan is for $99 on their website. They told me to add basic cable for 15 bucks and it would be 125 bill including the ~$9 tax. I said NO! I don't want a bundle, I don't want your cable! So they said without the bundle it's 130 bucks. I said fine, the hell with your bundles. I don't watch TV, my family has satellite and has no need for cable.

[WalkinTarget]

KP, the cable company provisions your modem to tell it what speed it can run at. They need its hardware MAC address and its serial number to input that data. When I initially got a bum used cable modem from Amazon Marketplace last week, it wouldn't complete the auto-negotiation process to Comcast.
I ran to Best Buy today and bought a Surfboard 6121 (Docsis 3.0) and called them with those above numbers. They enter them into their system tied to your account and then send the modem a config file to limit its speed.

A Docsis 2.0 tops out at about 30mb/sec, whereas the Docsis 3.0 can go all the way up to 160mb/sec.

I read a few years back that some enterprising individuals were telnetting into their cable modems and changing the config file, basically uncapping their cable modem. It then was no longer constrained to the provisioned 12 or 25 plans, it would zoom up to 100 or whatever the line supported.
Needless to say, the cable modem co. soon found that one out and put the kibosh on the kid's account.

[Dead...Again]

I currently have AT&T 6Mb DSL. Decided to check on Comcast. In my area, it would be $30 for the first 6 months for 20Mb, $45 for the next 6 months, then $63! WTF!

[Trooper110]

Hey WT, I don't know if you have the same sub-contractor in York that I do, but I've had some great experiences when I've had to have them come out. Comcast isn't always the best on the phone, but once you drum in to their heads (if you get a bad rep) what the issue / question is I've had some pretty good experiences.

[WalkinTarget]

Hey WT, I don't know if you have the same sub-contractor in York that I do, but I've had some great experiences when I've had to have them come out. Comcast isn't always the best on the phone, but once you drum in to their heads (if you get a bad rep) what the issue / question is I've had some pretty good experiences.

My first contact was when I tried to use the used cable modem I bought off Amazon Marketplace - an SB 6120. I did a live chat with 'Dani Mae' at Comcast and she at one point misinterpreted a reply I gave her - I was being honest, she assumed I was being sarcastic - and it went downhill from there.

My buddy is self employed and does all small biz work, and he's run into several Comcast on-site installers that didn't have even basic network knowledge, and in one case they had 2 installers PLUS a supervisor on-site, until they all threw in the towel and asked for his help. He had things working in 15 minutes for them.

I'm satisfied so far - I have a LOT of PCs, tablets, Ipod Touches, networked appliances and whatnot all connected and running much better with the additional bandwidth. Streaming Netflix thru a wireless BD player that's on the other end of the house from the router is an impressive feat, if I do say so.

[goldenfooler]

The installers in my area are sub contracted out. The people who come in from Comcast itself were good.