Verizon DSL vs Comcast Cable

[Don Levey]

Ben  wrote:

> RCN = bad. RCN was the only provider in my area for a while, and I
> don't 
> have a good thing to say about them. They transparent proxy all the
> webpages you visit, the don't allow inbound port 80 (which is common
> these days, but I still hate it, it's why I went to Speakeasy), for a
> long time, they routed our all our connections through San Franciso
> (I sat on hold for a 
> long time complaining about that one), and for unknown reasons, out
> latency between the 4th and 5th hops outside our apartment would
> skyrocket (2s+). 
> 
I use RCN.  I've not had most of the problems you mention.  They block 
inbound port 80 for their dynamic IPs.  They claim to permit it for
static.  They also (tacitly) permit me to run my own mail server, and
smart-host through them for outbound.  There have been some interesting
DNS issues a while back, but I don't know if it was chiefly their 
problem, that of the cable modem, or my Linksys router/firewall.

> Don't use RCN. I don't know if they have improved, but I would not
> give 
> them a second chance.
> 
I have Comcast in my area.  Those who I know who use them wish they
didn't.  Since they have outright dislike for them, that outweighs
my vaguely negative feeling for RCN and I stick with them.


> My SO uses Comcast, and its simple getting a Linksys router up on the
> connection, so Linux shouldn't be hard either. They do have intresting
> proxy issues though, but I haven't investigated.
> 
> 				~Ben

I've not had any problem with my home network (Linux, Win) at RCN, FWIW.
 -Don