broadband recommendations, Arlington

[pri.blu at iadonisi.to (Paul Iadonisi)]

  I switched from AT&T Cable Modem to Speakeasy DSL in November of last
year and I couldn't be happier with them.  The dumbing down of MediaOne
is almost complete, from what I can tell.  All that's left is putting
everybody behind NAT (which effectively eliminates ALL server
functionality) and charging for ever system you have connected to your
own private lan behind your own NAT device.
  Add to that, and their customer service could be handled better by
kindergarten dropouts.
  On Friday of last week, I was, for some reason, cut off from Speakeasy
(both DSL and dialup).  So I called and came to find out that I had
forgotten to update my payment information -- my credit card expired and
the old one got rejected.  The payment was already two weeks late.  All
that was required was to update the expiration date.  Well, the person
on the other end of the phone was friendly, extremely clueful, and
immediately helpful.  The time it took for me to be back online is best
measured in seconds.
  They let you run servers (no -- encourage -- they believe it is your
*right*).  They encourage the use of Linux and other Free Software (they
use it themselves).  And you get fixed IPs, I think for all levels of
their service.
  They're not that cheap, though.  Considering the customer service and
their attitude toward servers and Linux and other stuff, I consider it
worth it.  You'll pay about twice the price of cable for the same
bandwidth.  But I've also found it incredibly stable, both in terms of
interruptions (none) and bandwidth -- every time I check, I'm getting
the full speed of my connection.
  As a shameless plug, if you signup, use the following url and I get a
discount on my next bill :-)

http://www.speakeasy.net/refer/156098

On Tue, 2002-06-04 at 22:30, srl wrote:
> My family recently bought a house in Arlington Heights. We've been
> Mediaone customers for 3-4 years in Watertown but have noticed a
> great degradation in quality of service since ATT acquired them.
> We're debating whether to continue with ATT cablemodem service in
> Arlington or to get DSL.
> 
> Thoughts? Anyone have suggestions on DSL providers? I'm looking for
> a> uptime b> clueful customer support c> friendliness to running
> small services from my machine d> fair pricing. I hear good things
> about Speakeasy, but I've also heard that they've gotten worse as
> they get larger.  I'd also like to get some idea of how long I can
> expect to wait on a DSL or cable install.
> 

-- 
-Paul Iadonisi
 Senior System Administrator
 Red Hat Certified Engineer / Local Linux Lobbyist
 Ever see a penguin fly?  --  Try Linux.
 GPL all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets